Inside-Out London

I have just finished watching the Inside Out: London programme on iPlayer.

I think the programme, in 10 minutes, highlighted one thing which I think can't be dismissed: most people taking up cycling in recent years do need some further training.

I am disappointed they didn't mention two resources that are readily available to all cyclists: Cyclecraft and BikeAbility.

One huge failing of the presenter, Adrian Simpson, was to ignore the fact that four police officers were able to stop one cyclist running a red light, but could not be arsed to stop the 3.5 ton lorry driver who also ran the red light at the same time as the cyclist!

You can see that at 5' 54" into the video.

Of course the presenters have mostly concentrate on the bad cyclists in their footage. They have been somewhat fair in mentioning that the vast majority of cyclists do not behave this way, and are pretty safe.

I also think it would have helped if they had shown the traffic situation from the point of view of a law-abiding cyclist rather than footage of 'critical mass'.

A more balanced view, especially if the presenter had been a real commuter himself, would have been more appropriate.