In 60 minuti ho visto 172 ciclisti correre davanti a questi semafori: è solo questione di tempo prima che uccidano qualcuno

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*By Emily Retter, 09 Oct 2025 – 01:00PM BST*

Between 7.30am and 8.30am on a Thursday, The Telegraph counted these cyclists among 172 who jumped a red light on King William Street. This equals a rate of nearly three a minute.

If each was fined the £50 fixed penalty notice (FPN), which can be issued for the offence of failing to stop for a red light on a bicycle (and technically, an amber, too), then £8,600 would be raised. That figure would be even higher if those riding on pavements, two-to-a-bike without holding the handlebars – all of which we observe, and are offences, too – were fined as well.

If you were to double that figure to account for the two hours of the morning commuter rush, and double it again for the same evening commuter period, you would muster £34,400 each weekday for those times alone. That is £8,703,200 during a regular work year. Not to mention, there are three additional sets of lights positioned around Bank Junction.

According to a new survey commissioned by e-bike provider Lime, more than half of London’s cyclists run red lights. In 2024, 1.3 million bike journeys were recorded per day in the capital, which makes for a lot of red-light jumping. Furthermore, 82 per cent admitted they recognised it is dangerous. The survey included general e-bike and regular bike users, and not just Lime customers.

Last month, it was reported that the City of London Police are so concerned by the proliferation of offenders, they are exploring the introduction of tougher penalties. These include community protection warnings and notices, which treat the behaviour as anti-social, and could result in court appearances and criminal convictions for repeat offenders.

The measures were discussed at a meeting of City of London Corporation’s Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee, following Tube strikes earlier this month. Those strikes saw further mayhem as usually infrequent cyclists swarmed the roads. The London Ambulance Service reported a 33 per cent rise in collisions involving cyclists during that time.

At Bank Junction, so many cyclists jump each red light – some at high speed without any hesitation – that you start to believe the practice is as much a commuting ritual as AirPods and clutched coffee cups. The dangers of red-light jumping, however, put it in a league of its own.

“A cyclist ran over my foot when I was crossing here, he rode straight through and yelled at me to ‘get out the way,’” says Sarah Beale, 39, a personal assistant who commutes from Chelmsford. “You have to cross with your wits about you,” she adds, looking like her head might swivel off as she glances both ways on repeat. “It’s scary. I was crossing at a green man, what did I do wrong? It’s often the people on rented bikes going through the lights.”

Are they ignorant of the rules of the road? “I think it’s that they don’t care.” Beale got away with bruising. “It’s not just a London thing, but it’s busier here. We get a fine as a motorist if we go through a red light. It might stop them if the fine was more.”

Just minutes later, I meet a second casualty. John Rowland, 42, a political consultant from Weybridge, Surrey, also has a story to tell as he waits to cross.

“I was hit by a cyclist who ran a red light when I was crossing at a green man near Buckingham Palace,” he says, removing his headphones. “It hurt. I mean, I was lucky. I was bruised and bashed on my leg. He was going at quite a pace. He came flying off his bike down the road. He got up and was really p—– off. It was a shock to him as well.” Fines should be enforced, he says vehemently.

The second The Telegraph stands by the lights and watches them turn red, readying to count, a cyclist shoots through. It is a Lime e-bike. Two more cyclists follow within the first minute. During that first 15 minutes, we see 13 whizz through.

The majority are clearly commuters in gym wear or office clothes. Around half wear helmets, and some are on collapsible bicycles designed for train journeys. Among them are a handful of what look to be illegal e-bikes – non-rentals that appear to travel faster than the legally permitted 15.5mph (above this, the power should cut out and riders must rely on pedalling). However, the overwhelming majority would not strike you as lawbreakers.

At times, up to nine cyclists stream through as amber turns to red. One young woman barely looks about her as she wobbles off nonchalantly through the red. Another, in high-heeled boots, stops and starts haphazardly.

Others go through, and then are forced to pause in the centre of the junction as double-decker buses turn. I witness some near head-on collisions between cyclists. On one occasion, a man cycles through a red, goes round the corner and almost crashes into a reversing police car.

On a number of occasions, even a green crossing man does not stop them winding around pedestrians. Strangely, everyone seems so accustomed to it I don’t witness one altercation. Pedestrians shrug. “Nightmare,” one mutters in my direction. Another, a cyclist himself, assures us he does it too but “elsewhere”, not here. That “would be dangerous”, he adds as he crosses the road, texting on his phone. His road safety proficiency on foot is almost as concerning as his cycling logic.

The City of London Police’s cycling response team regularly targets the issue on patrol. In July, it announced nearly 300 cyclists had received FPNs for going through red lights so far in 2025. Speaking to The Telegraph, Sgt Stu Ford, who leads the team, says that figure increased substantially during the last week of September when they issued 104 FPNs as part of a targeted effort, the majority for red-light jumping. “That doesn’t surprise me,” he says when we reveal how many jumpers we have counted.

Officers use their discretion when issuing fines. Capacity is not there to stop every single red-light jumper, but it is clear the police’s patience is wearing thin. “I find it hard to believe in this day and age that people don’t realise they have to stop at a red light,” says Ford. “Their answer a lot of the time is, ‘Oh, well, yeah, sorry’, or, ‘Oh, well, I thought it would be OK’. Cyclists need to understand the red light is for them as well.”

He is not convinced a £50 fine is enough of a deterrent. “It’s been £50 for quite some time. You have to ask if that’s [high] enough. Maybe not.”

Ford would like to issue prolific repeat offenders with community protection notices which, if breached, would become a criminal matter. “We want people to take it seriously. It’s not about the money it’s making… What we want is for people to stop at those red lights,” he says.

At Bank Junction many do, but a shocking number do not. The pedestrians who scatter out of the way of a cyclist who jumps a red light with, inexplicably, a bicycle tyre strapped to his unwieldy rucksack, are thankfully braced to check both ways, and check again. And then once more.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68cebbff0e8313102b548d20/collision_matrix.svg

Weird to obsess over the cyclists who MIGHT kill soneone, rather than the drivers do who kill hundreds of pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers every year.

Wouldn’t expect anything else from the Telegraph though, shameless rage bait.

The vast vast majority of all road fatalities and serious injuries are caused by motor vehicles. Cyclists are more likely to be victims. Check chart 9 in this Government road safety analysis: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2024/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2024

Cyclists caused (or were just the ‘other vehicle’) in 2 fatalities. There were over 1600 fatalities total. Maybe we should talk about addressing behaviours on the road that actually kill and main people?

But the Telegraph don’t want a serious conversation about road safety they want a target to _other_.

If you’d be interested in consuming some actual serious journalism about cyclists and road safety I wholeheartedly recommend this recent GCN video where they visit a junction in London that has seen 29 serious injuries/deaths in recent years: https://youtu.be/d1BhyZSrZU8?si=Xnjx1w2gtZRqj5N6

In the meantime, in those 60 minutes a car has killed and/or injured someone somewhere, definitely. 

what do we do about it, issue a cycling licence? numberplates?

Either everyone follows the rules of the road or nobody does.

Comments about which method of transport is safer are focused on the wrong thing.

This is what the telegraph pays its journalists for?

Or is this someones hobby?

Either way 60 minutes doing this is a waste of time

If i see a bike not respecting the law i generally slow walk across their path and make them respect it

The “but what about cars” lot out as usual.

Cars aren’t the ones I need to watch out for when using a pedestrian crossing as they’ve been sat at a red light for a few seconds before the green man shows, it’s the unpredictable erratic cyclists who may or may not decide to heed the light or simply jump to the pavement that are the problem.

Those of you who dismount first are great though, much love ❤️