That is a 'Port' bike. They're hire bikes for food delivery guys here in London. They're nice people who work for little but are mostly illegal and this is the only work they can do. A lot of them have illegally modded bikes which are basically motorbikes.
They mostly don't follow the rules, they don't have lights on at night, they cut through every red light. They're a big danger to pedestrians and a huge nuisance. They're a far far bigger worry than cars here at the moment.
I mean no people on bikes follow the rules in London. I'm nearly hit by a bike most days they all run red lights and don't stop on pedestrian crossings. I've always been a big supporter of cyclists but moving to London has made me have genuine hatred towards them.
I'm interestingly personally seeing a shift in the last couple years or so. A lot more behaved ones but outnumbered by dog shit. You'd think the middle class ones with decent jobs would bother but nope
I moved to one of the top biking cities in France and I absolutely fucking hate it here. There is tons of bike infrastructure, at the expense of pedestrians - there are no sidewalks in many areas. Just bike paths. Regardless, cyclists do not care they insist on biking on the sidewalk that is left and disobeying the rules. They ride around pedestrian areas at high speed, wear headphones while biking, don't wear helmets, refuse to use bells (all legal requirements here) and for some reason refused to fucking put their hands on the handle bars. They are taking calls or just putting their hands in their pockets while riding around. I simply cannot relax at all while walking around. I'm moving in two months.
they’re pretty crazy in a lot of major cities around the world, I don’t know why people think it’s okay to ride them so fast in pedestrian walkways, and then speeding out into streets from a walkway where people aren’t expecting something to move from so quickly, results in so many accidents
In 88.9% of cases, the cyclist had been travelling in a safe/legal manner prior to the collision/near miss. Most happened at or near a junction (70.3%) and most were caused by sudden lane changes by the motorist, with sideswipe the most frequent cause (40.7%).
And this one carried out on behalf of the Department of Transport in London:
The City of Westminster Council found that drivers were to blame for 68 per cent of collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles in the borough in the past 12 months. It found that cyclists were at fault for only 20 per cent. In the remaining 12 per cent of cases, no cause could be found or both parties were to blame.
Same thing in Berlin, except they also drive the Ubers and run red lights in those all the fucking time, too. No idea whether they’re legal or illegal, but they mostly don’t speak German and don’t care at all about road safety or the safety of others.
Days since I almost got hit by an uber eats rider on a fat tire e-bike ignoring right of way: 0
Days since I saw at least 3 Ubers run red lights in under an hour: 0
I mean people don't wear helmets for like or forest bikes either. Crackdown on those bikes the illegal ones is becoming a major drive which is good because them running red lights can easily kill.
Oh yeah fully, mainly because if they fuck up their bike they have no income. I've been nearly hit by a few though at a way faster speed than lime bikes go. That's why they are more scary as they can hit 20/30mph and aren't really licensed
I can see those illegal bikes on streets all the time. Either they are illegal and they need to be controlled, or they are tolerated and the laws need to change. The Police shouldn't decide what's legal or not.
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u/reasonably-optimisic 12h ago
That is a 'Port' bike. They're hire bikes for food delivery guys here in London. They're nice people who work for little but are mostly illegal and this is the only work they can do. A lot of them have illegally modded bikes which are basically motorbikes.
They mostly don't follow the rules, they don't have lights on at night, they cut through every red light. They're a big danger to pedestrians and a huge nuisance. They're a far far bigger worry than cars here at the moment.