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

London listings mag under fire on Twitter over article - but says it was 'meant to be a bit of fun'...
by Simon_MacMichael
Sun, Jan 05, 2020 18:08
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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.

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

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.

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.

Time Out
anti-cycling
Simon MacMichael

Simon has been news editor at road.cc since 2009, reporting on 10 editions and counting of pro cycling’s biggest races such as the Tour de France, stories on issues including infrastructure and campaigning, and interviewing some of the biggest names in cycling. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, his background has proved invaluable in reporting on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, and the bike industry. He splits his time between London and Cambridge, and loves taking his miniature schnauzer Elodie on adventures in the basket of her Elephant Bike.

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