Forum Topic

Shocking increase in excessive speeding by drivers

This really is disturbing: there's been a big increase in dangerous driving during the lockdown as some people recklessly take advantage of reduced traffic levels - and driving too fast is already the most common reason for a fatal crash in London.From the SW15 newspage: "Met road safety chief Detective Superintendent Andy Cox said on Twitter almost 250 people were stopped for speeding yesterday (Wednesday, April 27).Examples last week include 61mph in a 20mph zone, 79mph in a 30mph zone and 126mph in a 60mph zone, he said.And police caught 28 drivers going over 100mph on roads in the capital, he added.https://new.putneysw15.com/#!home|page/shared:common:ldrstrans036

Richard Carter ● 2139d28 Comments

"I have never seen a unicycle speeding!"Very rare thing to sight. If you go too fast on a unicycle … well, remember the Oozlum Bird?

David Ainsworth ● 2138d

On a lighter note - I have never seen a unicycle speeding!

Ed Robinson ● 2138d

Ask the police to check their "roving speed camera" and find out.

Simon Knight ● 2138d

Charming. So you were doing 19 then?

Jonathan Callaway ● 2138d

Don't be stupid you silly little person. Without photo evidence I can retract any statement.

Simon Knight ● 2138d

35 in a 20 zone?  Lucky you weren’t clocked by one of those roving speed cameras. Still, the written confession should swing it. 3 points and min £100 fine I believe. Name your charity.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2138d

Was driving down Priory Lane this morning trying to keep to the frankly ridiculous 20mph limit. Had cyclists shooting passed. Accelerated to keep just behind one of them to track his speed...35mph!My elderly mum has never once been anywhere near being hit by a car but always complains about near misses with cyclists.So before people complain about cars speeding perhaps they should get their own houses in order first. Perchance the more courteous of you (Richard) might want to remonstrate with the less civil cyclists the next time they jump red lights and explain that their behaviour is tarnishing your good name. Yes?

Simon Knight ● 2138d

I have to be honest, when I'm driving I find both pedestrians and cyclists irritating; however, when I'm walking cars and cyclists annoy me. I don't cycle these days because I find it to dangerous jousting with cars ... 

Michael Ixer ● 2139d

Richard, I think you might have missed your wife’s thread on being nice to one another and coming together during this time of the Coronavirus.  You changed the title of this thread to “Whiners Go Away” presumably to provoke a reaction and insult me. 

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Richard, if cyclists aren’t above criticism what are your suggestions for stopping/reducing the number of cyclists cycling on the pavement and before you mention it tediously again, I get it cars are more dangerous than bikes.  

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Martine, you're flogging the proverbial dead horse here. "It doesn’t mean cyclists are above criticism," you say, but nobody has said any such thing. Explaining this is getting rather tedious.

Richard Carter ● 2139d

Richard, everybody knows cars are more dangerous than bikes.  Don’t patronisingly lecture us over and over about this.  If I hadn’t been quick witted enough to get out of the way of the fast reversing Range Rover in Chelverton Rd, I would be dead no doubt about it.   However you raised the point about excessive speeds by cars during lockdown, and I replied by saying that during lockdown, there was more pavement cycling too. We get it, Richard, cars are more dangerous than bikes, but it doesn’t mean cyclists are above criticism.  

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Richard reading the article in the link it looks like these are London wide stats.It would be interesting to have a postcode breakdown especially now that Richmond borough is virtually all 20mph now (except department of Transport routes I assume and of course motorcyclists and cyclists).

Ed Robinson ● 2139d

And it's worth reiterating what I write in the original post, that almost 250 people were stopped for speeding on April 27; examples last week included 61mph in a 20mph zone, 79mph in a 30mph zone and 126mph in a 60mph zone.  And police caught 28 drivers going over 100mph on roads in the capital.Annoying and occasionally dangerous though some cyclists are, and I deplore this, they don't begin to reach this point on the danger scale.

Richard Carter ● 2139d

Barbara, the point I was trying to make earlier is not that all cyclists are saints but that the real danger on the roads is from bad driving and mad motorcyclists.  Compare the potential for damage from tons of metal vs one man on a bike.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2139d

They are reckless drivers on bikes.

Barbara Stevens ● 2139d

Richard, I agree about excessive driving speeds and bad drivers and have said I have seen/experienced 2 incidents lately.  However as someone who likes walking and tries to walk wherever I can, I am fed up with pavement cyclists.  It isn’t just an increase in excessive driving speeds since lockdown started, it is an increase in cyclists on the pavement.  Just been out and it didn’t take long  to see pavement cyclists. If you are going to comment on bad driving, then I want to point out it isn’t just motorists whose behaviour has deteriorated since lockdown, it’s cyclists too. re The Guardian, it seems to me you mention it all the time, or certainly feels like it, so you shouldn’t be surprised that it is mentioned in reply to you.  

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Martine, I've lost count of the number of times on this forum that I've condemned pavement cycling - and running red lights, ignoring stop signs, cycling the wrong way on one-way streets, and all the other wrong things that too many foolish cyclists do. Tired cliches (reading the Guardian!!) like yours are simply wrong, and if you read what I write - to quote you - perhaps you might notice.

Richard Carter ● 2139d

I cycled all the way to Kew Green and back, via Barnes and Mortlake on the roads then the towpath to Kew. Very pleasant indeed but the towpath is slightly too narrow so I had to pick the moment to go past the occasional pair of walkers side by side. I came back a different way and found myself briefly on the South Circular. Very busy and more than a few drivers going too fast, so rather unrelaxing. I saw no examples of badly behaved cyclists though I don’t doubt they exist. With so little car traffic at the height of the lockdown you saw more people walking in the road and quite a few parents taking their kids out on bikes who sometimes used the pavement. But I didn’t see any of that today. The anti-cyclists will always have a moan about bike riders not stopping at red lights, using the pavement etc (I don’t like them either) but bad drivers and especially the crazed motorcyclists who really are a threat to one’s hearing never mind physical safety are the real danger on our roads.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2139d

Richard, proud to be a whiner if it means it upsets you.  Your reply was the usual predictable response.  There has been a big increase in pavement cycling.  I hear from someone I know who lives in central London that it is the same there, lot of cyclists on the pavement, and they are complaining to their M.P. about it, but I doubt anything will get done. If you got off your bike or in fact stopped spending so much time reading The Guardian and went out for a walk, perhaps you might notice.

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Perhaps I should set up a separate "We hate cyclists" thread so the anticyclist brigade can whine away to their hearts' content.Then we could discuss here the serious danger from reckless drivers, which is what I started the thread about.

Richard Carter ● 2139d

Re: Cyclists.  At the start of lockdown, I was walking down Chelverton Rd to go to Sainsburys.  Cycling towards me on the pavement was a male cyclist, whose bike was covered in bags full of groceries.  He expected me to get out of the way to make room for him. Because of the size of the bags either side of the bike, there was little choice but for me to do so, as he was pretty much taking up the whole width of the pavement. About a week later, same thing happened.  This time it was a female cyclist.  I refused to move out the way and so she had to move into the road. 

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Jonathan if you haven't been on your bike for a while I think your be in for a shock. Will there be room for you as there are so many cyclists. Yesterday people were riding two abreast and one man was even holding another bike while going all round Barnes High Street.

Barbara Stevens ● 2139d

I was walking along Clifford Avenue, East Sheen, this week and there had been a collision between 2 cars.  The cars were badly damaged but I think the drivers were ok.  The police were in attendance when I went by. Myself, I very nearly got knocked down in Chelverton Rd by a reversing driver.  Nearest I’ve ever been to being killed.  The car was, I thought, waiting to go through the lights onto the High Street.  I foolishly went round the back of the car and the boy racer driver started up, without checking his mirror and reversed at speed.  He was, I think, trying to prank his mate who wanted to get in the passenger side.  Don’t know how I got out the way safely, it really shook me up. re: cyclists.  I think pavement cycling has increased hugely.  I want to walk on the pavement and not have to look around me for the cyclists coming along behind me.

Martine Guy ● 2139d

Will it be too much to expect drivers to pay more attention to cyclists and treat them with more respect?  After all a collision can leave a cyclist in hospital while the motorist gets a dented bumper at most. I will be out on my bike shortly.  I am hoping for a pleasant ride along quiet streets and I may even venture on to the Thames towpath where no jogger needs reminding that pedestrians have priority.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2139d

Also reckless cyclists who suddenly decide to stop without giving any warning. Tiny little children with parents who would not normally be on the main road. Putney High Street I'm sure there isn't a day goes by without cyclist going on past the lights.

Barbara Stevens ● 2139d

I have seen a few cars driving at speed on the A3 and Roehampton Lane and it was terrifying.  Not only speeding but swerving between a few cars. Not good.  As my husband commented, worse than Beirut!

Ivonne Holliday ● 2139d

I am a tad worried now that there are many more cars back on the road, and yet the new cyclists are still there too, including very young ones.

David Ainsworth ● 2139d