Cyclists: is it time for tougher laws?

It's early morning and, in central London, "the sun rises sleepily" over Regent's Park's lake and lawns, said Esther Addley in The Guardian. But on the road that encircles the park, the atmosphere is anything but lazy. 

With cars banned until 7am, scores of cyclists are pedalling furiously around the Outer Circle. Many are en route to work, others are members of cycle clubs doing timed laps in groups. 

To some, this scene is a positive sign that growing numbers are keeping fit and minimising pollution by getting on bikes. But the recent inquest into the death of Hilda Griffiths, 81, who was fatally injured by a bike in Regent's Park in 2022, has cast these cyclists into a "political and media storm". 

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The cyclist, a banker, was going well over the 20mph speed limit for cars when Griffiths stepped into his path, but was not prosecuted because speed limits do not apply to bikes. Her son has called for a change in the law and, last week, MPs voted for harsher penalties for careless cyclists who cause death or serious injury. 

Rogue road-use

It's about time, said Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. For too long, cyclists have been acting with impunity on British roads: jumping red lights at speed, going the wrong way down one-way streets, using roads as racetracks. Any motorist who behaved in such a way would fall foul of the police; cyclists, with no numberplates with which to track them, get away with it. 

Long jail terms for those who kill seems like just the start of what is needed to curb rogue cyclists, said Mary Dejevsky in The Independent – especially given the growing menace of ebikes, which tend to be much heavier, and to be ridden faster.

Exaggerated threat

The idea that cyclists are killers is overblown, said Peter Walker in The Guardian. Responsible for less than 1% of the pedestrian deaths on British roads, they are far more likely to be killed than to kill. 

But still, a minority do think the rules of the road don't apply to them, said The Times, and the current two-year jail term for cyclists who kill, under an act dating from 1861, is insufficient as a punishment or deterrent. Cycling is a clean, efficient mode of transport, especially in cities. Its recent boom in popularity should be encouraged; the best way of doing that is to make sure it is safe, for everyone.