Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

MP knocked off bike by driver making “illegal U-turn” across protected cycle lane in central London

Lilian Greenwood was left with “bumps and bruises” and a broken Brompton after incident yesterday evening

An MP has taken to Twitter to share photos of her ripped tights and crushed bike after she was knocked off it by a driver making what she described as “an illegal u-turn” across a protected cycle lane in central London yesterday evening.

Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, was riding her Brompton from the Palace of Westminster to St Pancras International railway station to catch a train home to her constituency when the incident happened.

Posting to the social network, she said she felt “very lucky to have walked away with a sore knee, bumps, bruises and torn tights” following the collision, which left the rear wheel of her Brompton buckled.

“I’m a pretty careful cyclist,” she wrote at the start of her thread. “This evening I was cycling home, paying attention because it was busy on the roads with pedestrians, cyclists and cars. I was wearing hi-vis and my helmet. The traffic light was on green. Didn’t stop a driver making an illegal turn and hitting me.”

The driver stopped at the scene, and Greenwood said that she hoped her experience “isn’t going to stop me riding a bike but it has frightened me,” and asked for tips on getting riding again following her crash, which several Twitter users, including FT journalist Robert Wright, were happy to share.

The collision happened in Bloomsbury  at the corner of Gordon Square and Tavistock Place, the latter being a key cycling route through the area and benefiting from a protected cycle lane for a number of years now. 

Greenwood told road.cc that she was riding on that lane when she was struck, and that she was “pretty sure” that the driver “turned left into me even though it’s no left turn for vehicles.”

Among those who wished her well was London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman, and in her response to him, Greenwood highlighted that even when trying to follow what should be the safest cycling route from A to B, referencing Jon Stone’s excellent London Cycle Routes series on YouTube, the safety of people on bikes ultimately depends on the actions of motorists.

She also revealed that by pure coincidence, she is visiting a women’s cycling project today in her constituency, which she has represented since 2010.

Since entering Parliament, Greenwood has served as Shadow Transport Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, as well as chairing the House of Commons Transport Select Committee from 2017-20. She is also an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking.

She is not the first MP to have been struck by a driver while riding a bike.

In December 2014 Anne Milton, at the time the Conservative MP for Guildford, credited her “strong, sturdy bike” for protecting her when she was knocked off it by a van driver on her way to the Surrey town’s railway station.

> MP credits her "strong, solid bike" with protecting her in van collision

She said that the driver claimed not to have seen her as they both moved away from a junction, despite her being “lit up like Christmas.”

Her bike landed on top of her and protected her from injury when a wheel of the van then ran over it, with the incident leaving her “shaken” but uninjured.

Less fortunate was fellow Conservative MP Theresa Villiers, who in January 2012, when she was Transport Minister, broke her collarbone when she fell from her bike while commuting to Westminster. No other vehicles were involved in that crash, according to a statement at the time from the Department for Transport.

> Transport Minister Theresa Villiers breaks collarbone in fall from bike

More recently, in November 2021, Grant Shapps, who at the time was Secretary of State for Transport, was hospitalised after crashing his bike. Few details of the incident were released, but again no driver appears to have been involved.

> Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hospitalised after cycling crash

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

16 comments

Avatar
Judge dreadful | 1 year ago
10 likes

I got chopped by a black cab pulling an off script 'Uey' when I was riding on the CSH along the embankment, crossing from left to right to head up towards old street a while ago. The fucker gave me a tonne of ear ache, until bike plod arrived and then he suddenly went quiet.

Avatar
Velo-drone | 1 year ago
0 likes

Drivers making illegal u-turns?  Shurely schome mishtake?  That would never happen, especially in London!

https://gopro.com/v/MJG6zz7o4Ew90

Avatar
Awavey replied to Velo-drone | 1 year ago
3 likes

well I did wonder if she needed to ask where her party leader was driving last night

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
5 likes

Not trying to victim blame in any way but in case anyone else makes this journey from Westminster to St Pancras/King's Cross you can follow the EW superhighway over to Blackfriars and then the NS superhighway as far as Mount Pleasant where a backstreets quietway will take you all the way to the station. It's maybe 3 miles compared to 2.5 the direct way through Bloomsbury but the quality of the surface and the absence of traffic generally makes it faster.

Avatar
JoanneH replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
2 likes

Hmm, I normally come up through the parks and then north of Oxford Street and then Tavistock when cycling to Euston/KX - and essentially the same way on the way back. But the traffic lights around there drive me nuts, it's stop-start the whole way from Hyde Park to Tottenham Court Row unless you're really lucky. Maybe next time I'll try the longer route.

Avatar
slownomad replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
4 likes

@Rendel Harris but, as the report points out, the site where this happened is itself a main cycle route with segregation. It's heavily used, morning and evening, especially by riders going to and from King's Cross/St Pancras. It's my usual route, and I would have no concerns normally - there are even cyclist phases on some of the lights.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to slownomad | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes, it's not a bad route by any means and one I use myself if I have things to do in Bloomsbury; the advantage of the one I mentioned above for going to King's X/St Pancras is that there are far fewer traffic lights and junctions (none at all along the embankment), so for me it's quicker and safer overall. Obviously any route is vulnerable to eejits who can't or won't read road signs...

Avatar
Awavey | 1 year ago
1 like

If its Gordon Square that leads to Tavistock Square, with a no left turn, then that's segregated infra she was using, but that crossroads allows traffic to head towards the left direction from the perspective of
anyone waiting at the traffic lights, as they approach from Bedford way and head straight on.

So cyclist pays for a driver making a mistake but really its infra that looks a mess there that creates the potential for the mistake to have those consequences.

As for tips for getting riding again, as blunt as it sounds you have just got to get back on the saddle, you'll be nervous as hell and ultra sensitive in similar situations around cars for a while, but it fades like the bruises eventually.

Avatar
andystow | 1 year ago
0 likes

Here's the location. It looks like a place to move really slowly and carefully if one were to somehow find onself driving a car there.

Interestingly, can see at least two Bromptons on the street view.

Avatar
Awavey replied to andystow | 1 year ago
0 likes

but thats Tavistock Square into Tavistock Place, when the article specifically says the collision happened at the corner of Gordon Square and Tavistock Place. and the driver would have already passed one similar, no left turn junction to get there.

Avatar
andystow replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
0 likes
Awavey wrote:

but thats Tavistock Square into Tavistock Place, when the article specifically says the collision happened at the corner of Gordon Square and Tavistock Place. and the driver would have already passed one similar, no left turn junction to get there.

Oops, my bad unless the article was updated. It's very confusing there, and I actually can't see that Gordon Square and Tavistock Place actually intercept on Google Maps.

 

Avatar
OnYerBike | 1 year ago
1 like

Not sure where you got "U-turn" from. Tweet just says "illegal turn" and the quote you have from her says "turned left into me even though it’s no left turn for vehicles."

Avatar
mattw | 1 year ago
2 likes

Been chatting about this with LG.

She has no ideas about how to get my MP Mr Anderson onto a bike, but says that Brompton-by-rail is happening:

https://twitter.com/LilianGreenwood/status/1624039277695836165

Bugger. No embedment.

 

 

Avatar
Pifko replied to mattw | 1 year ago
3 likes

Commiserations for having 30p Lee as your representative. Hope you're doing ok.

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to Pifko | 1 year ago
5 likes

I've made it my mission to have him called Six Bob Knob. 30p Lee is too cuddly for someone so obnoxious.

Avatar
mattw replied to Pifko | 1 year ago
1 like

He was an excellent and attentive Labour (then Tory) Councillor, according to friends in his ward, and seems to treat the Consituency like a big ward with added presentational tabloid - everyone learnt that from the LibDems, and no concern for the Londonerati lobby going apoplectic.

I've always had courteous, though sometimes govt straight bat, replies, around subjects such as nurses' pay increases during Covid (they tried to cap it at 1% rather than follow the Review Body recommendation; I argued follow the recommendation), and my suggestion of the reasons why BoJo should be thrown into the place of gnashing and grinding of teeth.

He doesn't give a fig about abuse from dinner party or Corbynite socialists. He has done a fair bit of foot-in-mouth, but equally some of the stuff is tribal and made up, and he understands poverty perhaps better than any of them ever will. He has quietly done more interesting small things like donating his increased pay since 2019 to local charities, which I applaud, and the food bank cookery lessons well before it hit the headlines.

Will I vote for him? No, because of Caroline Henry and because I think the Tories need a period in opposition as they are currently all washed-up. Will he win next time? Probably.

I'm not that optimistic about getting LA on a Brommie-Rail commute, but at some stage I'll try.

Around here it is Tories at County promoting active travel and better bike infra, whilst the ex-Lib Dems now Ashfield Independents running District are weaponising it as a wedge issue. They are *damned* effective at local politics, reducing the local Labour lot from 22 sears to 2 seats out of 33 between 2015 and 2019). 

They put out this vid yesterday, and it is the third attacking dedicated bike infra since December.

https://www.facebook.com/ashfieldindependents/videos/1585293861983606/?l...

 

Latest Comments