Cycling campaigners in London have called on transport authorities to address the design issues which encourage some cyclists to jump red lights, after an ITV News reporter “caught” 200 people on bikes riding through red in the space of an hour at a single traffic light this week.
Earlier this week, ITV News’ Rags Martel stood beside a traffic light located on a cycle lane on Victoria Embankment, opposite Blackfriars station in central London, between 8.20am and 9.20am.
Martel, who in June posted a video report on his YouTube channel entitled ‘Council builds £2 million roundabout for bikes in industrial estate… that no one uses’, counted 293 cyclists using the bike lane during rush hour.
Of those 293 cyclists, he claimed 200 rode through a red light, saying in his report: “The lights are red, but no-one is stopping.”
During the report, Martel also spoke to a number of motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and road safety campaigners about their views on red light-jumping cyclists, who have become the focal point of debates surrounding cycling in the capital in recent years.
Cyclists in London at traffic lights in cycle lane (credit: Simon MacMichael)
Last year, the Metropolitan Police revealed that 11 cyclists a day were stopped and fined for riding through red lights in London in 2023. And so far in 2025, 284 cyclists in the City of London’s square mile have been fined for failing to stop at a red light – a number, Martel notes, not far removed from the one he counted on Tuesday morning at a single traffic light.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” one motorist told the reporter this week. “More needs to be done about it, because if they get hit by one of us and we hurt them seriously, obviously there’s a big issue there. It winds me up on a daily basis, to be honest.”
A pedestrian also told Martel that she’d “love it if cyclists respected” the rules.
“I have a buggy, so for me to be able to cross and look either side, I always miss one,” she said. “So it is really dangerous. The lights are there for a reason, so we can all cross and not bump into each other, it feels pretty simple.”
Meanwhile, one cyclist, when asked whether people on bikes should obey the law more, replied: “Definitely, it’s dangerous. Most people have headphones on, they’re not looking where they’re going, it’s infuriating.”
Another cyclist, however, was stopped by Martel after riding through the red, and told the reporter that he was “sorry about that one” and that he believes he should obey the law.
Speaking to Martel, road safety campaigner Gerard Griffiths argued that the number of cyclists failing to stop at red lights “comes across as entitlement”.
Griffiths’ mother Hilda died in 2022, two months after she was struck by cyclist Brian Fitzgerald in Regent’s Park, sustaining several broken bones and bleeding on the brain. A coroner’s request last May confirmed that no charges will be brought against Fitzgerald, who was travelling at between 25 and 29mph at the time of the collision, “due to insufficient evidence”.
“It comes across as entitlement,” Griffiths told ITV when asked about red light-jumping cyclists. “If that was the case with motor vehicles, there’d be carnage. And the more people who cycle, the more chances of accidents and collisions, and tragic ones, like in the case of my mum.
“There’s a reason why cars and motorbikes and lorries stop at red lights – because they have to. They know there are consequences if they go through them. Bikes or people that cycle just don’t seem to have that same sort of attitude.”
Cyclists at traffic lights, London (credit: Simon MacMichael)
However, the London Cycling Campaign’s Simon Munk told the reporter that some of London’s cycle lanes are currently operating over their capacity, and that the issues concerning traffic lights and the flow of cycle traffic need to be addressed to ensure fewer people on bikes feel compelled to ride through reds.
Munk also noted that pedestrians are statistically more likely to ignore traffic signals than cyclists, while Martel pointed out in his report that cyclists are far less likely to kill than be killed on Britain’s roads, with fewer than one per cent of pedestrian deaths stemming from collisions with people on bikes.
“It’s not good, and we shouldn’t be jumping red lights,” Munk said. “But what we know is that cyclists are jumping red lights and misbehaving illegally and dangerously in roughly the same proportion as pedestrians.
“In fact, pedestrians are slightly worse behaved, and drivers are about as equally badly behaved as cyclists [at traffic lights].
“This is annoying, and it’s really deeply hostile to pedestrians. These people shouldn’t be doing it, but it’s not actually statistically very dangerous.
“I think it’s important to understand that we shouldn’t be accepting cyclists jumping red lights, but we should be working out why. We should be working out what the problem is and fixing it.”
One of those problems, the London Cycling Campaign pointed out, is the design flaws inherent in some traffic lights.
Blackfriars Bridge (credit: Transport for London)
Focusing on the traffic light that formed the basis of ITV’s report, the campaign called on London’s transport authorities to “design out the issues causing” cyclists to jump the red light.
“Blackfriars Bridge has too-low capacity and badly-phased lights in quick succession,” the group said on social media.
“Let’s do better for everyone without wagging fingers.”
Of course, issues with cyclists and red lights aren’t confined to London. Last week, we reported that a 75-year-old criticised what he believes was the “wrong-headed” decision to fine him almost £300 for allegedly crossing a stop line at a red light, insisting that he was simply making sure he was in a “safe place” and “following best practice for cyclists at traffic lights”.
John Frank was cycling from Farnham, Surrey, on his way to Godalming when he was stopped by a police officer after filtering past a queue of traffic on the Borough shopping street.
After making his way to the front of the queue, Frank then turned right on to South Street, where the officer pulled him over and issued him with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £50 for venturing beyond the white stop line at the lights.
Surrey Police said that the cyclist “had cut up through the middle” of traffic on the road before stopping beyond the line, and then proceeded to “start off prior to the lights changing to green”.
But the pensioner has since pointed out that his actions did not endanger or inconvenience any pedestrian or other road user, claiming that, during the period in which he was being spoken to by the officer, three motorists jumped the same red light.