CyclingMikey says cyclists breaking rules are "annoying", but not focusing on drivers to improve road safety the "wrong way round"

CyclingMikey — real name Mike van Erp — the camera cyclist who has reported thousands of motorists for their rule-breaking driving and mobile phone use, uploading footage to social media platforms and YouTube, has urged those who criticise cyclists' behaviour on the roads to instead focus on the "real menace on our public highways".

The road safety campaigner has penned a column for the Evening Standard, a follow-up piece to the newspaper's in-depth look at camera cyclists such as himself and broadcaster Jeremy Vine last week, as well as responding to a self-professed "anti-cyclist" opinion piece by the paper's head of design which was also published last week, in which the writer claimed all cyclists should be registered and required to pass a driving test equivalent, with points and penalties for "pedalling irresponsibly" as those using bicycles need to work on their "reputation as law-abiding and safe road users before prodding at drivers".

Addressing the comments, Van Erp said he "agreed" that "there are lots of bad cyclists about" and that they can be "annoying" however, he argued, focusing on cyclist behaviour to improve road safety is "looking at it the wrong way round".

> "People need to see justice being done": CyclingMikey says camera cyclists suffer online abuse because some motorists "feel they have the right to drive how they want"

"It annoys us all, including many of my cycling and driving friends. Is it unsafe? Perhaps a little, but if you were to make all cyclists instantly perfect with a wave of your magic wand, would you affect road deaths and injuries? The answer is not measurably. Any effect would be lost in the never-ending flood of motor vehicle collisions, deaths and injuries that society largely ignores," he wrote.

"Bad cycling can of course be far more serious in the occasional and very rare instance, and that's why I'm happy that the police do deal with and prosecute bad cycling. There are two main reasons why I want to focus on bad driving.

"Two separate studies, one in America and one in Denmark, have found that we humans as cyclists are more law-abiding than drivers. This is a surprising result, but that surprise is explained away by motor-normativity, in which our society excuses and ignores risks associated with driving far more than it excuses other similar bad behaviours that are roundly condemned.

"Secondly, there's physics. When you're in a two-tonne steel cage, a car with 100+bhp, seatbelts, airbags and crumple zones, we all are vulnerable to risk compensation. We act to keep our own personal risk at a similar level. When you're in a car, this means far greater danger to those outside the car, especially pedestrians and cyclists. It means driving faster and braking later than you would on a bicycle, on which we'd all be much more cautious.

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"This is not a war on drivers, it's a war on dangerous and selfish road behaviours that put us all at risk. Most bad driving is reported by other drivers with dashcams. Were you to wave that same magic wand and make all drivers instantly perfect, you would eliminate almost all of the 1,800 deaths and 27,000 serious injuries every year in the UK. That is why we must focus on the real menace on our public highways – those drivers who are in the problem group, breaking laws without a thought of anyone else."

That problem group, he explained, might involve what leading traffic police DCS Andy Cox described as high-risk traffic offenders, those with a history of dangerous driving, regular drink or drug driving, and those who continue to drive dangerously despite intervention or prosecution.

Addressing his own action against dangerous driving, namely the filming and reporting of rule-breaking motorists, Van Erp said he first began sharing footage on social media as a means of "showing the world how badly some drivers behave", in the hope it would "open many people's eyes".

> "Cyclists with cameras are grassing snitches... motorists with dash-cams are responsible citizens": BBC radio discussion looks at third-party reporting

The comments come following a similar opinion piece by the newspaper's head of design Ped Millichamp, in which he professed to being an "anti-cyclist cyclist" who commutes across London but is turned off by cyclists who don't "stay in your lane" and are "dobbing in other road users".

✍ Ped Millichamp: Fair play for the snitchy cyclist who reported a driver for using their phone at the wheel. My advice though: stay in your lane, mate

Read more: https://t.co/CRkKnw6wOB pic.twitter.com/DAcNbZbD20

— The Standard (@EveningStandard) March 19, 2024

"Focus on improving the reputation of your fellow pedallers," he suggested. "Dobbing in other road users just contributes to the already high animosity between the two-wheeled Mamils and four-wheeled petrolheads. Instead, let's clean up our act and not pedal through red lights or think it's OK to be dressed in black with no lights at night. And don't get me started on e-bikers or delivery bikers on pavements.

"So. Cyclists, check yourself. Work on our reputation as law-abiding and safe road users before prodding at drivers. All it does is exacerbate the already tense relationship."