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news
Patricia Hodge (West End Theatre)“Cyclists see themselves as the centre of the universe,” says actress Patricia Hodge in rant questioning why police “never” stop red light-jumping cyclists
After Dame Joan Collins last year called on London mayor Sadiq Khan to “do something” about cyclists “before the city is ruined”, Patricia Hodge has become the latest high-profile actress to launch a scathing rant about people cycling in the capital, claiming she gets “invariably screamed at” when she admonishes cyclists for “riding their bikes at speed”.
In a recent interview with Candis magazine, the Rumpole of the Bailey and Miranda star also questioned why cyclists jumping red lights or riding with no lights are rarely stopped by the police.
“I can’t tell you how many continue to ride their bikes at speed, with mothers having to swiftly move their buggies out of the way,” the 77-year-old, who lives in west London, near Hammersmith Bridge, said.
“These people see themselves as the centre of the universe and I think that’s very bad for society. I feel I have the right to say something. But when I do, I’m invariably screamed at.
“I always make sure, though, to point out that the only reason they’re angry is because they know I’m right.”
She continued: “And have you ever seen a policeman pulling a cyclist over because they don’t have any lights or because they’ve jumped the traffic lights?”
Hodge also told the magazine of one recent near-collision with an especially “rude” and “dangerous” cyclist in the capital.
“I was crossing Portland Place in London recently, waiting on the central reservation for the lights to turn green,” she added.
“As I stepped off, a cyclist, a man in his 30s, went through the red lights and almost collided with me. But instead of apologising, he flicked me a rude sign.
“I just pointed at the green light for pedestrians and he called me the worst word in the English language. And when you get older, I think you have an obligation to speak out when things aren’t right.
“I won’t let anything go anymore. It worries me that manners are going out the window.”
As noted above, the Jemima Shore Investigates actress’ anti-cycling rant – reported widely in the national press today – bears a striking resemblance to a similar diatribe posted on social media last year by Dame Joan Collins, after she was allegedly struck by a “masked cyclist with no lights” on the pavement in London on her way to dinner with Christopher Biggins.
In an Instagram post, Collins said she was dropped off by a black cab driver and forced to walk to the restaurant Rules after discovering that Maiden Lane in Covent Garden was closed to traffic.
“However, that didn’t stop a masked cyclist with no lights and weaving on the pavement from crashing into me, almost knocking me over,” she wrote.
The actress then turned her attention to London mayor Sadiq Khan and called on the Labour politician to deal with what she believes to be the danger posed by cyclists, as well as the apparent inability to be dropped off at her destination by motor vehicle.
“How much longer must we live with closed roads and cyclists who consider themselves above the law?” she continued.
“Why don’t you do something, Sadiq Khan, before this beautiful city of London is ruined?”
In response to Collins’ post, a spokesperson for Khan said: “The mayor is committed to making London as safe as possible for both cyclists and pedestrians.
“Walking and cycling have boomed in the last couple of years and the mayor has built hundreds of kilometres of new or upgraded cycle routes since the pandemic, and completed work to make some of the capital’s most dangerous and intimidating junctions safer.
“The mayor encourages everyone using London’s roads to do so safely to help make London the best city in the world to walk and cycle.”
Between 2016 and 2021, 2,472 pedestrians were injured in collisions involving cyclists in the UK, accounting for just over two per cent of the total reported pedestrian casualties (122,961) in that period.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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68 comments
next up, Patricia joins Cycling Mikey on patrol around Regent's Park
It's hard to tell whether the 'these people' she mentions are all cyclists, or the cyclists who go too fast, through red lights and without lights. I suspect it's a bit of both - starting with the anti-social cyclists, but then assuming all cyclists have a sense of entitlement in common.
As has been stated, the police do sometimes pull over cyclists for offences, and the risks from a speeding cyclist is less than those from motorists, but I'd be quite happy to see more enforcement of the speeding courier/delivery cyclists, which I suspect are at the front of her mind when she complains.
Just because cars are more dangerous doesn't mean we should accept antisocial and dangerous driving from cyclists, especially those who are getting paid for deliveries etc. There's also a limit to how effective it is to request not all cyclists are tarred with the same brush. If we want to improve pedestrian/driver/cyclist relations then we have to do our bit to reduce bad behaviour from cyclists.
I'm not quite clear, Fiona, how, apart from telling off cyclists who run red lights (which I do virtually every day (telling them off, not doing it myself)) how I can do my bit to reduce bad behaviour from cyclists?
Have you tried any of the following - they might make us all look better?
- politely asking them to be more thoughtful of other road users as we all have to "look out for each other"
- blocking them by cycling "in the middle of the road"
- "snitching" on them to the police
- complaining about them on internet forums
- just getting a car and not cycling (is this right?)
Oh Patricia. The ignominy of walking to the restaurant after being dropped off by black cab. Heartbreaking stuff. Unfortunately, London was ruined a long time ago. By cars.
Well, she is of course entitled to her opinion and we.....checks his notes....are likewise entitled to not care one bit about her opinions. As you were.
I don't agree with the hyperbole but in my own experience the advent of electric hire bikes (Lime etc.) has led to more near misses with the person on the bike riding faster than is safe for the circumstances while I have been crossing the road on foot.
Whilst the use of hire bikes is self identification as a casual, typically incompetent, cycle user, we must welcome and encourage everyone willing to put the dangerous and unsustainable motor vehicles aside.
It's how we unpick the last century of automotive bias in practice.
Whilst I agree with you, it seems a bit unfair to paint all hire bike customers as being filthy casuals. I can imagine enthusiasts getting a train somewhere without their bike and wanting to hire one just to get from A to B.
The folding bike has that covered by being able to accompany the user on the train and be unfolded for use at the train destination.
Everyone is welcome however they reach their responsible transport choice..
Folding bikes are all well and good, but not so convenient if you don't want to be lugging one around at your destination if there isn't suitable parking.
Indeed - suitable cycle parking for the win!
Folding bikes are also generally (much) more complex, expensive and less robust for a given level of bike.
Yet again - do all the people in NL who travel to the station by bike (a LOT in some places) use folding bikes? Certainly not! It seems to be people arriving on their own bike, parking there (another opportunity for the UK railways, if they could up their game massively) and if they need transport at the other end either using a rental one (available at many stations, very convenient to pick up) or having a second bike that lives there, if a regular commuter.
Technically, all bikes can be folded - you pay extra for the ones you can unfold and then ride.
Brompton folding cycles are office friendly and can easily sit underneath a desk to avoid the parking problem.
Other folding bikes are available and similar to park.
It's essential to have secure parking for non folding bikes, obviously.
I was thinking of more touristy destinations rather than an office. Some museums/galleries/restaurants may have a safe space to store a folding bike, but you'd need to check beforehand.
Edit that was meant for lonpfrb
I'd suggest the UK's arrangement of hire bikes is more symptom (of inadequate on-street public transport provision and cities clogged with traffic) than ultimate solution. FWIW the ones that seem to work best in the UK are "area monopoly" ones with fixed stations. (Monopolies may be bad but since it seems cycle schemes cost money - they're not completely funded by the users - this may be reasonable here).
In NL there is the national O V fiets system facilitating multi-modal trips. So at most railways stations you can rent a bike for "last mile" journeys using you rail card.
As always with any provision of cycles the question is "and where will they cycle? And who do you expect will cycle there (if the answer was 'the roads')."
There are all kinds of crimes being committed all the time in London. Patricia whoever-it-is isn't with the police all the time so just because she hasn't seen any enforcement of a particular offence in her own travels bears no relation to the actual amount of enforcement that occurs across London.
ULEZ, and its expansion into outer London, and LTNs for that matter are about making sure that people don't die of walking to school, as Ella Kissi-Debrah did. How many road and road-related deaths will it take for these people to realise that their sense of self-entitlement is actually killing others?
Joan Collins is still alive ?
She didn't actually say she crossed when the lights were green (althoguh she might have done).
I just walled to the local shop three minutes away for milk and saw a driver go through a red light which was red for some time before he decided to ignore it.
Patricia *Who*?
... and does she have a new book/TV show/play/ailing career?
That was her audition for whingeing boomer
Well whoever it was who rode through a red light and was very rude to an elderly lady should be ashamed of themselves.
If its any comfort to Patricia Hodge there were indeed some cyclists ticketed recently in Surrey for riding through a red signal.
However, when was the last time you saw a celebrity using their platform to highlight people killed and injured every single day by drivers?
When was the last time I saw/heard a celebrity bemoan the fact that at least one pedestrian dies every day under a motorist's wheels? That's easy - never.
In all fairness, that is probably a completely accurate statement - she can't tell us.
cyclists are dangerous latest :
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/hormonal-pregnant-woman-who...
OMG
Does that, then posts online video laughing about it, but no immediate custodial sentence (suspended, so that's something) and NO DRIVING BAN?
Bring back the Jerry Springer Show, where these tawdry disputes can be argued out in the safety of aTV studio.
This article does remind me of a bugbear of mine: Why are sentences suspended for such short periods? After a murderous outburst like this I'd expect to have to be on my best behaviour for a good ten years to avoid jail-time.
She should hear what drivers say to me if I admonish them for dangerous close passing.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment that there are a minority of drivers out there who routinely close pass and /or drive dangerously around cyclists and verbally or physically abused those with the temerity to complain about their mistreatment, I am also sure that two wrongs don't make a right. I am all for calling out dangerous cycling just as I call out dangerous driving. Both need to be made socially unacceptable.
Yes, and dangerous is dangerous. There are definitely some "problem areas" (electric motorbikes, some takeaway delivery riders, criminals who can't afford a moped / car and yes, the odd aggressive "entitled MAMIL").
But usually what people are talking about is "perceived danger" - people don't have a good grasp of the actual risks. Plus there is an (important) quantitative difference I'd say. I doubt anyone would think to say:
"I am all for calling out dangerous five-year-olds running about without looking just as I call out wingers the size and speed of the late Jonah Lomu dangerously running about without looking"
Both dangerous. Not to the same degree.
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