The general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association has launched a furious rant at the “white, middle-class cycling lobby” over a proposal for cyclists to be automatically prioritised at traffic lights.
This week saw renewed discussion about cyclists in London, a policy director at hire bike operator Lime suggesting that traffic lights could be adjusted to give those on bicycles priority in a move to enhance safety and reduce red-light jumping.
> Lime bike boss proposes adjusting traffic lights “to reward safe cyclists”
However, Steve McNamara, the boss of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association called the idea “farcical” and accused it of coming from the “white, middle-class cycling lobby” whose “whole obsession is removing vehicle traffic from the roads”.
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The taxi association boss told the Press Association that hire bike users are “incentivised” to take “dangerous risks”, such as jumping red lights, but did not agree with Lime policy director Hal Stevenson’s suggestion to simply give cyclists priority at lights.
McNamara’s rant also included talk of London being “incredibly congested” with traffic “slower than it’s ever been”, although he appeared to disagree in his analysis that this does not require more measures to incentivise cycling.
“Has it not occurred to them that some people either can’t or don’t want to cycle? It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them,” he said.
On Wednesday, the policy director of popular hire bike operator Lime welcomed Transport for London’s announcement that it would give buses priority at all 3,500 relevant signals across London by 2030. Stevenson accepted “faster, more reliable buses will make travel easier for Londoners”, but suggested those on bicycles should be given priority at lights too, copying technology from other leading cycling cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
“‘Green wave’ technology, which rewards cyclists travelling at a safe, consistent speed with a sequence of green lights, has improved safety and rider behaviour while reducing journey times at relatively low cost,” he said.
“Cycling now accounts for up to one in five trips in central London, with cycle traffic at peak times exceeding cars. Despite this, signal timings remain set around motor traffic speeds, which can lead to frequent stopping and less smooth journeys for people on bikes.”
Last year, Dublin City Council approved plans to introduce the initiative in the city’s College Green bus corridor.
“Of course, none of this needs to come at the expense of bus priority,” Stevenson added. “Cycling already helps extend the reach of public transport and we know a significant number of Lime riders use bikes to connect with buses and the Tube. But trialling cyclist-friendly signal timings away from core bus routes, in areas with high cycle use and lower car traffic, would complement TfL’s plans and help London’s transport ecosystem work even better for everyone.”
The discussion around cyclists and traffic lights often centres solely on enforcement. City of London police force — which polices the Square Mile, not the entire city — founded a dedicated Cycle Response Unit, the majority of the officers’ work concerning ticketing cyclists for jumping red lights and seizing illegal e-bikes.
In August 2024, City of London Police claimed 1,200 cyclists fined in a year was a “great result” for the new cycling unit. However, last month it was announced that cyclists the force catches running red lights will soon be offered an alternative to the £50 fixed penalty notice: watching a safety film about a cyclist who was badly injured in a collision with a bus after running a red light.
19 thoughts on “Taxi association boss blames “white, middle-class cycling lobby” for “farcical” idea to prioritise cyclists at traffic lights”
We should just copy Paris and have cyclists be allowed to treat red traffic lights as give-way/proceed only if safe.
Just found this article which has quotes that I can relate to: https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/france/paris/cyclists-in-paris-can-ignore-the-red-traffic-light-bc0lcff2z6h
Rather than people guessing and relying on traffic politics, we should be copying the successful strategies used elsewhere.
Well, I think we need to get something like this first if we’re talking traffic lights:
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/cycling-past-red-lights-its-legal-in-the-netherlands/
… and send our traffic engineers to learn this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=knbVWXzL4-4
Actually … it’s a much the people higher up who need to accept change, the ones who are designing the schemes. And those commissioning them. And in fact ultimately those setting council budgets and signing off on traffic laws.
Good one, Mr.McNamara. Anyone who’s stood, as I have, and watched a black friend trying to hail a black cab late at night (seriously, it’s an eye opener), looked at the figures on BME representation amongst black cab drivers (about 15% when BME people make up 46% of London’s population), looked at the principle demographic of those who use black cabs (white upper middle class – who else can afford their ridiculous fares?) or listened to the casual racism spouted by many black cab drivers (“used to be a nice area this, mate, ruined now of course, we all know why but we’re not allowed to say”) can see just how ludicrous your attempt to play the race card against cyclists is.
Must be a London/black cab thing. The vast majority of taxi drivers round Bristol aren’t white and they very rarely rant about politics (maybe a bit of ranting about traffic and Bristol being anti-car).
Definitely a black cab thing, most Uber and minicab drivers are BME.
Strange of the LTDA to attack the “white middle-class” when they are probably 90% of his industry’s business considering how concentrated it is between Zone 1 businessmen & foreign tourists
Just another ignorant knuckle dragger. Not worth bothering about tbh.
The UK has at least some cyclist priority traffic lights. Cambridge has had them for 10 years or so. I find them great.
We’ve got a couple of them here in Bristol but they’re not that old.
Bristol cycle priority lights: I have been amusing myself with the set on the Triangle. A good portion of drivers (usually the ones sitting in the ASL box) pull away directly behind me, while the main light is still red.
I’ve seen that happen too. Luckily, their reaction times means that I can at least get nicely ahead of them.
Do you mean cyclist early release lights, wear a separate light for cyclists lets them go at junctions before cars are allowed to move? We have a lot of them in London and they are great, but the proposal about is for something different, for traffic lights to be phased so that they are more often green for approaching cyclists with no stopping necessary.
Wear = where, voice recognition software…road.cc, can we have the edit function back please!
Dunno about the ones in Bristol but I have had a couple of loud-pedal-happy drivers follow me at some in Edinburgh.
As discussed time back, it’s definitely a minority of times. But the design of lights maybe contributes. These are the motor traffic lights on the main lakes of the road and the green cyclist symbol is at the bottom with the normal green.
I guess that probably applies to some drivers and directional green lights also. But that’s less trouble for me on a bike.
Seems like Lime’s Hal Stevenson is confused about the two, or else road.cc’s reporting of his comments is a little sloppy (surely not…?)
A month or 2 back I cycled east to west on the the Tavistock place cycle route. towards Tottenham court road. At every single junction, of which there are a lot on that route, the light for me turned red forcing me to wait for up to 2 minutes. It likely more than doubled my journey time on that section. More than a bit ridiculous. Clearly vehicle traffic was being prioritsed and it was no wonder that a few cyclists were jumping the lights. A “green wave” along routes like this is badly needed.
“However, Steve McNamara, the boss of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association called the idea “farcical” and accused it of coming from the “white, middle-class cycling lobby” whose “whole obsession is removing vehicle traffic from the roads”.”
Bicycles are vehicles, numbnuts.
So many studies show that the best way to increase diversity in cycling, both with getting females and different ethnic groups on bikes, is to implement well thought out cycling infrastructure. Its all pretty obvious stuff and anyone who has been cycling in London for 10 years+ will have seen the change. Certainly on my journeys, on what became Quietway 1 (C10 now) the difference was very noticable. Even more so on the C4 route.
A clear case of MacNamara’s Bollocks.