Time Out slammed on social media for ‘How not to be a dick’ when cycling article

Listings magazine Time Out has been slammed on social media after posting a tweet yesterday linking to an article on its website headed How not to be a dick when you’re cycling around London - but has defended it as "a bit of fun."

The article was originally published online on 29 July 2019 and appeared in the print magazine the same week ahead of Prudential RideLondon the following weekend.

The seven pieces of ‘advice’ included “Walking your bike across the line at a traffic light still counts as jumping it” (it doesn’t) and “Bikes have no place on the Underground” (at rush hour, apparently … when anything other than a folding bike is banned, anyway).”

Riding on the pavement was also flagged up as a no-no (official guidance is not to fine riders for doing so if they are riding for reasons of safety with consideration of others), and people were warned to “beware of Boris bike riders” – only lost tourists use them, apparently.

Other advice included using deodorant after a ride and being considerate of flatmates when parking a bike in a hallway – both sensible – plus the observation that “doing a spin class doesn’t make you a cyclist,” which given the comments on some of our recent stories about Peloton is a sentiment shared by many who get around on two wheels.

Other pieces that appeared in the same edition of the magazine included 11 brilliant bike rides from London, 9 types of cyclist you’ll find in London (including MAMILs, Hippy bike parents, Modern Shoreditch twats and those Boris bike tourists again) and London’s best bike shops.

But despite the articles being published more than five months ago, a tweet yesterday linking the How not to be a dick when you’re cycling around London piece, with the words “GET OFF THE PAVEMENT” and with an angry face emoji, including the broadcaster, Jeremy Vine.

That's it, @TimeOutLondon, you carry on giving drivers permission to cut cyclists up and abuse them for taking a tiny piece of road — while they kill five people a day. https://t.co/VFyWDTFocM

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) January 4, 2020

Vine also pointed out to the article’s writer that walking your bike across a junction is not, in fact, illegal.

Oh and make up the Highway Code too while you're at it @CharlieAllenby pic.twitter.com/QSvj4xvXXO

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) January 4, 2020

Others replying to the tweet included writer and commentator Ned Boulting, the barrister Martin Porter QC, and Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder, Donnachadh McCarthy, all of whom cycle in London regularly.

Oh and make up the Highway Code too while you're at it @CharlieAllenby pic.twitter.com/QSvj4xvXXO

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) January 4, 2020

Tiresome and unhelpful.

— Martin Porter QC (@MartinPorter6) January 4, 2020

Cyclophobic clickbait.

— Donnachadh McCarthy (@DonnachadhMc) January 5, 2020

Time out, for its part, said it was “sorry to cause offence to fellow cyclists” and that the article “was just meant to be a bit of fun.

Sorry to cause offence to any fellow cyclists. This was one of many pieces written for our cycling issue, of which 90% were incredibly practical, informative or celebratory. This one was just meant as a bit of fun.

Back in our box we go. pic.twitter.com/wmRFrtAl0K

— Time Out London (@TimeOutLondon) January 4, 2020