Wandsworth Borough Council’s recent clampdown on ‘speeding’ cyclists in Tooting Bec Common has been praised by some local residents, who claim the park’s shared paths have been turned into a “motorway”, with some even calling for a ban on cyclists in the park altogether.

However, other park users have pointed out that the 12mph speed limit being enforced by the council’s parks police is not clearly signposted, and that most of the tensions between pedestrians and cyclists stem from illegal e-motorbike users “going really fast”.

Last week, it was reported that Wandsworth’s in-house parks police force has been using speed guns to catch cyclists travelling at over 12mph in Tooting Bec Common and issue them with £50 fines, following “complaints from dog walkers that people had been going too quickly”.

According to London Centric, resident Ed Owen was riding to work on his Brompton earlier this month when he was pulled over by the park’s police, who told him that their speed camera had clocked him cycling at 16mph.

Owen was handed a £50 fine, which was later rescinded after he raised concerns with the local authority over the relatively low limit, which can also to apply to other areas such as Finsbury Park and Wandsworth Common, and the fact that, unlike motorists, not all cyclists are equipped with speedometers.

“It struck me that this was a very confrontational way to do this. Maybe they should cycle around and show people what 12mph looks like,” he told the London Centric.

> Speed gun deployed to fine cyclists riding faster than 12mph in London park

This apparent crackdown on ‘speeding’ cyclists, which comes after London’s Royal Parks launched its own campaign urging people on bikes to adhere to the parks’ speed limit, follows an open letter by the Friends of Tooting Common group, calling for both “increased police enforcement” and the imposition of “physical barriers or other effective constraints”.

The group told the council’s cabinet member for the environment Paul White that residents had reported a “particular problem with delivery riders” and warned the local authority that unless increased speed checks were carried out barriers built to slow down cyclists, a “serious accident or fatality is waiting to happen”.

“We are, of course, not anti-cycling. There are strong environmental and health reasons to encourage cycling, and many of our members are cyclists,” the group said.

“Among other things we are concerned that a cyclist could well be seriously injured in a collision with a speeding cyclist. Traffic calming measures do not deter considerate cyclists – on the contrary.”

Cyclists in Richmond Park with London skyline
Cyclists in Richmond Park with London skyline (Image Credit: Simon MacMichael)

That warning was echoed this morning in the Daily Mail, who have spoken to some of the park’s users about the perceived ‘threat’ posed by people on bikes.

“You can honestly think you’re going to be killed when cyclists come past you at high speed with no warning,” one pedestrian told the Mail.

“About 20 delivery drivers passed in the space of ten minutes earlier, they’re going really fast and not looking where they’re going. They’ll ring their bells if you’re lucky, but it’s clear they expect you to get out of the way.

“It’s not a shared path, it’s more like a motorway. There’s nowhere that the cyclists won’t go and I try to avoid them because my dog is terrified of bikes.

“They’ve even screamed at me things like ‘f*** off you c***’. To me – an old lady! It’s foul. Their rudeness is extraordinary. The whole situation is increasingly terrifying.”

Meanwhile, another walker claimed that she had seen toddlers knocked by cyclists on “racing bikes” over the summer, when the park was at its busiest.

“Oh, God, it’s awful. They just get so close whizzing past you and they are such big vehicles swinging between people,” she said.

“I think we’ve got to stop the bikes coming down here. As much as it’s a shame, maybe only kids should be allowed to use it, because the adults are using it as a cut through. There’s now a petition which aims to stop them going down here.”

> Cyclists told to slow down in London parks as new cycling code of conduct launched – after 86% of Londoners said 20mph speed limits should apply to bikes

Others pointed out that only some of the park’s paths are earmarked to be shared by pedestrians and cyclists, something they claim is often ignored by people on bikes.

“The thing that bothers me is that this is meant to be the only path that cyclists are allowed on but they go everywhere,” dogwalker Sarah Pyper said.

“Either police the fact that you get fast cyclists on all the other paths or just allow cyclops to go on all of them and get them to look out for pedestrians. The thing is bikes don’t have speedometers so how are they going to know?”

However, one local, Alistair Macintosh, told the Mail that the “problem doesn’t tend to cyclists on normal push bikes”.

“It’s more the delivery drivers on the e-bikes going really fast,” he said. “The big, fat-tyred things that look like mini motorbikes – they’re the ones that zoom along.

“There are also regular problems with kids on Lime bikes. But, you know, they’re young and fearless and they think they’re going to live forever.”

Macintosh also argued that, instead of an increased police presence in the park, the signage should simply be clearer.

“I hadn’t realised that there is actually a speed limit on this path for bikes until all the local residents got up in arms, but there’s nothing you can see here in this spot that shows it’s 12mph,” he said.

> Telegraph publishes “dossier of collision data” involving “rogue cyclists” in London parks, as Royal Parks continues campaign for new laws to prosecute ‘speeding’ cyclists

“The commuters just seem to regard it as a cycle track rather than shared use space,” David Thomas added. “They get really close to you and it can be scary, you hear about collisions. I knew someone who broke something after being hit by an e-bike.

“I’m a cyclist too and it’s a tricky one, because I think cyclists should be able to use them through routes, because it’s a green space, and it’s lovely to cycle through. But then, it’s a shared path, people shouldn’t feel unsafe.”

When approached by road.cc, a spokesperson for Wandsworth Borough Council told road.cc that “too many park users told us they feel unsafe around speeding delivery riders, illegally modified e-bikes, and dangerous or inconsiderate cyclists”, adding that the clampdown “is about responding to residents’ concerns and keeping our parks, commons and open spaces safe for everyone”.

“Our Parks Police are taking action to protect many people, including considerate cyclists, who use our parks responsibly,” the spokesperson said.

“Officers follow an educational-first approach, offering information and advice about the importance of slowing down and using designated cycling routes, and only as a last resort will they issue Fixed Penalty Notices for dangerous speeding and unauthorised cycling.”