“For every car that cuts in to a cycle path there is a bicycle sailing through a red light.”
If you read the above quote out of context, you’d probably assume it was uttered by Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman, a Telegraph columnist, or some eejit off GB News.
You probably wouldn’t have guessed it was attributed to the co-founder of an ultra-low emissions cargo bike courier company in Oxford, however.
But, in an interview with the Oxford Mail this week, Velocity Cycle Couriers’ director Jake Swinhoe claimed that the current pitiful state of the city’s roads – which he says are currently contested between “warring factions” of cyclists and drivers – could be at least partly improved by people on bikes endeavouring “to be visible, and not fly through red lights, and be courteous to motorists”.
Velocity Cycle Couriers, Oxford
“There will come a day when motorists and cyclists amble along together, happily sharing the roadways with a friendly smile and a wave to acknowledge each other as fellow travellers with equal rights,” Swinhoe told the newspaper.
“Sadly the streets of Oxford paint a far more divided picture with warring factions shaking angry fists and hurling expletives at each other.
“For every car that cuts in to a cycle path there is a bicycle sailing through a red light. For every truck that pulls out without thinking once, thinking twice, then thinking bike, there is a cyclist with no lights at night and no helmet.
“Cargo bikes are becoming more and more common on our streets and the debate goes on about unlicensed, uninsured, and irresponsible riders who don’t pay road tax and think they own the roads, but is this the case from the point of view of a professional commercial cycle courier company?”
> Camera to fine rule-breaking drivers as safety measure introduced after cyclist's death still being ignored
Velocity Cycle Couriers was established in 2022 – the same year cyclist Dr Ling Felce was killed at Oxford’s notorious Plain roundabout by an unlicensed, uninsured driver of a 32-tonne tipper truck, who was under the influence of cocaine at the time – and currently works with 80 local businesses with the aim of cutting emissions and air pollution in the city.
“Our riders will be out in all weather – rain, snow, frost and high winds – but are trained to obey the rules of the road and always consider other road users,” Swinhoe continued, arguing that there are “good and bad road users”.
“If an absent-minded tourist steps into the road with their face in a mobile phone we try to swerve past, give a jaunty ring on the bell and a cheery ‘hello’, even though this can be testing.
“Velocity have been on the streets of Oxford for more than two-and-a-half years and have learned a great deal about how to get around our city and how to best get along with fellow road users.
> “Is the focus road safety?” Volunteer speed watchers accused of “spreading nonsense” after claiming “several cyclists clocked over 30mph” on 20mph street, while dismissing drivers’ speeds as “on average 25-35mph”
“In that time there have been two accidents involving cargo bikes – one where a delivery van reversed into our bike and an amicable resolution of buying us a new mudguard was agreed, the other had a car shunt a stationary cargo bike, causing some damage and then speeding off before our rider knew what happened.
“Luckily this has meant us not having to trouble the extremely expensive insurance policies we have for our bikes and riders or cause any damage to other road users, pedestrians, or brick walls.
“I personally am a bike rider and a motorist – I am conscious that a car or van does a lot more damage to a bike rider than a bike to a car so try to give cyclists a safe distance and a stress-free ride when I am on four wheels.
“Though equally when on a bike I endeavour to be visible, and not fly through red lights, and be courteous to motorists.”
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when on a bike I endeavour to be visible, and not fly through red lights, and be courteous to motorists
That's it! I should have been more courteous and more visible
https://upride.cc/incident/lc64tge_bmw_closepass/
https://upride.cc/incident/yn67mvj_sainsburys44tonner_closepass/
To recap: Jake Swinhoe is an Uncle Tom 'I'm a cyclist myself' con-artist and tosser
Yesterday a van driver close passed me into oncoming traffic and then even before they'd completed the manoeuvre yanked on their breaks coming to a complete stop so they could turn right whilst I squeezed up on their left . All this while I had a red flashing light and a bright orange jersey.
Was I
1. Polite and courteous and thanked them for nearly wiping me out.
Or
2. Called them a #*#*£&@ idiot and submit my cam footage to the Police
Had a family visit to Oxford last week and mindful of the warnings issued by Mr Hitchens we were extremely apprehensive about walking in the city, especially to an evening meal in Jericho.
In fact no problems at all, cyclists kept to the roads and we didn't see any RLJs.
Maybe it was an exceptional week.
£6m active travel scheme scrapped
£6m and they can't get it right? Stone the crows, love a duck, gor blimey guv. What a turn up for the books, totally unpredictable.
It's time that councils acknowledged the fact that if you are going to build proper Active Travel infrastructure, it is going to have to inconvenience drivers: which is only justice because if it wasn't for the drivers we wouldn't need the infrastructure.
The council went to the expense of drawing up an LCWIP which was then funded by ATE. It's not an easy process and would have only been funded if the government appointed experts thought it a good proposal. The council then decide that, despite having no qualifications of note, scrap the scheme on the spurious grounds that they don't think it's safe. WTF do experts know?
Im not sure on that, Ive seen a glut of council proposed schemes recently that all apparently had the ATE seal of approval, and certainly their funding commitment, but are not much better than stuff we were getting 10 years ago.
Arguably worse stuff because it still seems to think painting a line on a road or putting a sign on a path is good infra, and I thought we'd broken that mould.
it has left me wondering what ATEs remit actually is, like do they actually oversee what eventually happens with these schemes or where the money goes?
Can you ask Jake Swinhoe who is in the wrong:
me cycling on my side of the road or a driver on the wrong side driving straight at me and refusing to return to his side of the road.
I received verbals not only from said driver but also workmen, whose vehicles were blocking the other side of the road from me.
Can you ask Jake Swinhoe who is in the wrong
He'll say: 'can't we all just get along?'
I had similar recently - driver coming towards me on wrong side of road (with a grass verge separating the two carriageways) having contravened a keep left sign, because a delivery van was blocking his carriageway.
Another freeze on fuel duty. Damn this war on motorists!
Yup, now let's see if there's anything (useful) for active travel or that's "we just can't afford...". But we can afford electric car subsidies of course. Harm minimisation (a bit) yes, but just think how much more not driving a journey benefits...
Oh you starry eyed dreamer ....
So not to affect the working people.....increases in the bus fare cap to £3.
Rail fares are going up 4.6% too. I guess nobody gets the train to work any more.
"Tough Decisions"
As a bus driver and a life long cyclist, I believe that Mr Swinhoe is either a victim blaiming idiot not comprehending the fundamentals of the road safety or just a cynical business owner trying to create a kind of "we aren't like other cyclists" PR very calculated publicity aimed at the the mindless car dependent mob and local authorities. Probably both.
Mr Swinhoe and his DRIVERS should consider wearing helmets themselves just in case they get hit by a larger vehicle like an HGV or a bus. In any case, there will be always one helmet too many.
Flimsy plastic helmets are well known for being able to protect cyclists from being crushed by ten+ tonne lorries. Fact.
Rubbish! There are hundreds of "helmet saved my life" stories from people who've been run over by trucks.*
*May contain elements of sarcasm.
I just watched a police car stopping a cyclist and fining her, only 1-2 hour ago! Might be the first time ever I have seen that? I guess it was for a red light.
I had the police calling me with their car's loudspeaker once, also for a red light, made me stop before the crossing, then they just drove away...
LANGUAGE MATTERS
A police car stopped someone and fined them?
Was it self-driving/autonomous?
Or was it a police OFFICER that stopped and fined them?
http://rc-rg.com
"wow, that car did that all by itself?"
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3331869633536303/
Near Far Away
When I saw the goat photo it sure looked to me as though the goat was being lifted up in a hand!
So predictable are the average comments from the mob. Here we have a guy, saying that not all cyclists are great, not all motorists are great, but it takes two to tango and all parties need to do better; with a desire for us all to use the road in harmony. The mob then attacks, rather than commending and working towards the same goal. I rode from North to South London this morning. Lots of red-light running cyclists, lots of d**khead driving. Its not about cars and bikes, its about c**ts. Don't be one.
I understood most of the comments as not saying that all cyclists are perfect but simply that cyclists and motorists are not equivalent (as the Highway Code recognises, IIRC).
As an example, I wrote below and asked rhetorically just how many HGV drivers - or car drivers, for that matter - have been KSI by a red light jumping cyclist who was wearing no helmet?
If a motorist behaves badly, the other people are likely to be KSI.
If a cyclist behaves badly, they themself are likely to be KSI.
And so predictable are the usual comments from the knob.
Just in case you are not, as many suspect, a PBU and really are that stupid, Mr Swinhoe is not just issuing a plea for us all to use the roads in harmony, he is directly comparing behaviours which when performed by motorists often end in death or serious life-changing injuries and which when performed by cyclists usually end with nothing but annoyance from observers (no approval of said behaviours implied). It's whataboutery at its very motornormative worst.
Just because pretty much everyone disagrees with you that doesn't mean they are a mob, it just means that everyone disagrees with you.
In a luke-warm defence of Velocity Cycle Couriers’ director Jake Swinhoe's comments, his business is based in Oxford, and it is October. Every year, the streets of Oxford are filled with new undergrads, doing incredibly stupid things on bicycles. By mid-November, most of them have either wised-up, or been scared off the roads. His helmet zealotry, however, is utterly nonsensical.
Velocity Cycle Couriers’ director Jake Swinhoe is a tosser! There's a job just waiting for him in the police- then he could ignore incidents like these, just as the other officers do
https://upride.cc/incident/a15tjv_bmwm4_redlightpass/
https://upride.cc/incident/jo55chb_kiasportage_redlightpass/
For every truck driver who endangers other people's lives, there's a cyclist whose choice of head gear has no impact on anyone else whatsoever.
For every cyclist riding along legally and minding their own business there are at least half a dozen drivers messing with their mobile phones
I've read Jake Swinhoe's comments several times, and I'm still not sure what point he's making, unless it's that all road users make mistakes, but he seems to skip over the point that drivers (not cars) kill people every day, but cyclists rarely do.
It's great to hear that Velocity are doing well, but that doesn't seem to be the focus of what he's saying. Surely it would have been better to extol the virtues of zero emission transport rather than attacking other zero emission transport users for their mistakes?*
*For the avoidance of doubt, not wearing a helmet is not a mistake.
I think it's 'we're great - use our cargobike delivery service'.
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