‘How to beat the rush? Use the bike lane’: Motorists, including driving instructor and cab driver flood cycle path — and refuse to give way to cyclists; Free Lime bikes to poll stations; Joy Division album or Giro d’Italia stages? + more on the live blog

In what seems to be taking over the road.cc series of ‘things parked in the bike lane’ as well as the ‘Why don’t cyclists use the bike lane’, here’s a new series brought to you by your beloved: ‘Drivers on the bike lane’.

Any previous episodes you might have missed? Don’t worry, I’ve got a good recap for you. Let’s start with one of the quintessential classics: That one time a driver was going down at a blisteringly high speed through a cycle lane in Coventry, although this time there wasn’t even an excuse of traffic on the main road. Maybe they were doing a reckon of the tarmac before going out on a ride themselves, or maybe some people just want they don’t have…

> Jeremy Vine's lucky escape as bike run over by reversing driver who turned onto cycle lane

Or how about the time when a motorist decided to use the lack of bollards and poor layout of the cycle path and the main road to their advantage to go for a drive through the bike lane?

Now all this seems like fun and jokes, but the potential for things to go wrong, when someone in a multiple-ton metal cage spills on to infrastructure that in theory is supposed to be segregated and protected, is quite high, as was the case in Leeds in March, when a clearly confused driver somehow made their way onto a busy part of the city centre reserved for cyclists and pedestrians, causing a crowd to quickly scarper, before turning onto and driving down the adjacent bike lane, where they narrowly avoided colliding with at least two surprised cyclists.

> Near Miss of the Day 894: Police take action after confused motorist drives onto bike lane and narrowly misses cyclists and pedestrians in city centre square

And just a few days later, things escalated into a spat when a motorist reversed into a cyclist while sitting in a protected cycle lane in Leicester, before accusing the startled cyclist of attempting to damage his car. The outcome? A driver education course for the motorist. The cyclist thought that they “got off lightly” — I’m sure many would agree.

Enough for the recap. Moving on to the situation in Shadwell, London. road.cc reader John is the person who shared this video with us, where drivers — yes, many of them — found the C3 Cycleway along Cable Street quite a fine way to avoid all the traffic jam yesterday.

The guilty parties included an assortment of motorists, from cabbies to professional van drivers, and even driving instructors. “As you can see not only were the drivers in the bike lane, some were even refusing to give way,” wrote John. In fact, they were just refusing to give way, but actively revving the engine and trying to intimidate cyclists into backing down and letting them through, as can be seen in the video.

I don’t think I’m a big fan of this series and wouldn’t mind if this was the last episode I see in a while, or more like, ever — thank you very much.

With a first summit finish of the Vuelta a España Femenina on the cards today, there was a possibility of a the GC being blown open, and we were not disappointed, with SDWorx's Dutch superstar Demi Vollering shaking off her competition to take not only the first win at the Spanish Grand Tour, but her first win of the season as well.

The final 2.9 kilometres of the race took the peloton up the Fuerte del Rapitán into Jaca, with an average gradient of 8.9 per cent. Vollering started controlling the pace from early on, with Lidl-Trek's Elisa Longo Borghini and Fenix-Deceuninck's Yara Kastelijn the only ones who could keep up with her. But the pair were forced to give in by the final kilometre, leaving Vollering alone to soar up the mountain top and into the lead of the general classification, leading Longo Borghini by 31 seconds.

What a way for Demi Vollering to get her first win of the season 👏 #LaVueltaFemenina pic.twitter.com/lc4aTrBBmJ

— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) May 2, 2024

She said: "Last year, I had this beautiful jersey already, but I was wearing the UCI [Women’s WorldTour] jersey, so I had so many wins last year, but never in this pretty jersey. It was my goal for this season to win before the Dutch championships again, so I’m really happy that now I have a nice finish photo in this jersey. This red jersey is a really pretty one, and I hope I can keep it to the very end."

"I just started to pace and felt really, really good. I tried to keep going because I felt Elisa was struggling a little bit in my wheel. I was like, ‘OK, then I just try to give it my very all to the very end, and I hope I can get already some time on her’. That worked out, so that’s really nice, and hopefully a few more nice days coming for our team."

Peloton’s CEO Barry McCarthy has stepped down from his role at the American fitness company, as the beleaguered brand announced yet more job cuts and a plan to cut back its retail presence, amid the mounting losses that have besieged the company during its prolonged post-pandemic slump.

> Peloton cuts 15% of workforce “to bring spending in line with revenue” – as CEO steps down despite “optimism” beleaguered brand is “on the right path”

In episode 76 of the road.cc Podcast, we're talking about... another podcast! Well, we'd like to think it goes a bit deeper than that, because our discussion with Lauren O'Brien - representing 'the cyclist' in a recent debate title 'Should cyclists stay in their lane?' with researcher and journalist James Woudhuysen - delves into how cycling is generally portrayed in the non-cycling media.

> Is cycling treated fairly in the media? BBC AntiSocial goes cycling discussed with 'the cyclist'

The polls are open, with the elections taking place today for councils and mayors in England and police and crime commissioners in England and Wales — but most of the spotlight has been taken by battle between incumbent London mayor Sadiq Khan’s bid for an unprecedented third term, and the Conservative candidate Susan Hall looking to derail that triumph.

And as has been the case these past few years, cycling policies have played a key role in shaping the run up to the election, with Hall using the propped-up culture war theme after she lashed out at cycle lanes that she claimed were “virtue signalling” and cause “havoc” and gridlock for motorists in March.

> Campaigners urge politicians to stop dragging cyclists into “phoney culture wars” – after Tory mayoral candidate claims “virtue signalling” bike lanes are causing “havoc”

Longtime road.cc contributor and London resident Simon MacMichael also shared his thoughts and views about the election in a column yesterday, saying that “a vote for Susan Hall is a vote against cycling” (more on that later).

But in the meantime, this video showing a light change at Ludgate Hall from yesterday has gone viral on social media. Shared by Peter Murray OBE, it shows 130 cyclists make the cross as the light goes from red to green — compared with just five drivers making the crossing at the same time.

Ludgate Hill this morning. One light change. C.130 cyclists. 5 cars. We need even greater reallocation of road space. New Mayor take note! @willnorman pic.twitter.com/msYEmfN3NF

— Peter Murray OBE (@PGSMurray) May 1, 2024

With the laying down of more cycling infrastructure, we’ve seen such videos of cyclists outnumbering motorists in the past — remember that video from the C9 cycleway, with two cyclists for every driver just one week after it was made permanent?

> "Build it and they'll come": Double the number of cyclists than cars on Cycleway C9 than cars as cyclists celebrate one week of it being made permanent by blowing candles

In fact, in March last year, a report to the transportation committee of the City of London Corporation confirmed that bikes had become the “single largest vehicular mode counted during peak times on City streets”, well and truly outnumbering cars.

Captioning the video, Murray wrote: “We need even greater reallocation of road space. New Mayor take note!” Reporter for Politico also quoted the tweet saying: “What a clip – unimaginable when I first started cycling in London. No special occasion, just people getting to work”.

And this video highlights the point that building safe, protected cycle track enables so many more people to feel and be safe on their commute/ride.#LondonLovesCycling pic.twitter.com/74i2Ljq65r

— Healthy Streets Scorecard (@HSscorecard) May 1, 2024

Cyclist and Twitter user Real Gaz also commented, saying how great it was to see such a diverse mix of hire, folding, and cargo bikes alongside more conventional cycles, and that this should be the aim and ambition for the newly elected mayor.

This does seem unprecedented, doesn’t it? A massive jump, and perhaps, also a massive discrepancy showing how many cyclists exist in the British capital who would benefit from better cycling policies. Will this also be reflected in the election? We’ll have to wait and see…

I'm not going to lie this post has given me my best laugh of the day so far. 

Cycling fans will see this album cover and be like: Damn that was a good Giro pic.twitter.com/P95pW1Att6

— killow (@killow_) May 1, 2024

As a lifelong fan of the album and the band (both Joy Division and New Order), I absolutely cannot unsee this now...

“Damn, the Stelvio followed by 100 km of valley” (stage 16 this year, true story) pic.twitter.com/6COb0ljHVl

— Alessandro Rigolon (@AleRigolon) May 1, 2024

Yesterday’s opinion piece from Simon titled “Why a vote for Susan Hall is a vote against cycling” has drawn a diverse range of reaction from our readers and non-readers alike, many agreeing, and as usual, many disagreeing.

The Tory mayoral candidate has already drawn criticism from the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), after she had made comments against cycling lanes that she thought were “virtue signalling”, even questioned why these “damn ridiculous” cycle lanes had been built, blaming them for causing “gridlocks” and “havoc”.

Her campaign has been focused heavily on opposing the current mayor's Ulez scheme, something she claims she would scrap on her first day in office, if elected. The Conservative Party candidate, looking to become the first Tory figure to hold the role since Boris Johnson and in turn prevent mayor Sadiq Khan achieving a third term, has also previously been outspoken about her desire to remove “unnecessary 20mph zones, reverse low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and end the “war on motorists”.

> Campaigners urge politicians to stop dragging cyclists into “phoney culture wars” – after Tory mayoral candidate claims “virtue signalling” bike lanes are causing “havoc”

In a response to this, LCC urged the mayoral candidates to stop trying to make Londoners “fearful” of cycling and to avoid dragging people who ride bikes into “phoney culture wars”.

“The blunt fearmongering is a bit like asking Londoners to fear ice cream, a night out or birdsong – and about as likely to work as that,” said the campaign’s chief executive Tom Fyans.

Now with context to all that, Simon, writing in the column, said:

“Under Khan and his active travel commissioner, Will Norman, London’s cycling infrastructure has continued to expand although perhaps not at the pace campaigners would want to see – partly due to the funding crisis at Transport for London brought about by COVID-19, although notable achievements include the completion of Cycleway 4 from Tower Bridge to Greenwich and Cycleway 9 from Olympia to Kew Bridge, and which is currently being expanded to Brentford.

That latter route would of course benefit from a protected stretch running along Kensington High Street to link with Cycleway 9 at Hyde Park, thereby creating a safe cycling route across the capital from east to west – but the Conservative-run Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has refused to allow such permanent infrastructure on the road, and a temporary cycle lane installed in late 2020 was ripped out after a matter of weeks.

And other policies aside – this piece is after all focused on active travel – that’s a hint of what Londoners will get should Hall win tomorrow’s election.

Cycle lanes torn out. LTNs removed. 20mph speed limits on main roads dispensed with. The ULEZ expansion scrapped.

Some, to be sure, would find cause for celebration in all of that – but for most inhabitants of the city, it would be very much to their detriment.

And here’s all the reaction to that…

Rendel Harris: “A vote for Susan Hall is a vote against sanity. The most mediocre, unsuitable and downright thick person ever to run for a significant position for a major political party in living memory, and that's against some pretty tough competition. The fact that she hates cyclists is just the icing on the compost heap.”

hawkinspeter: “The Tories remind me of a death cult. They're just looking for more and more ways to get people killed.”

alexuk: “Wow, pathetic name calling, basless acusations [sic]. All of your lives benefit from cars being able to move freely. Eliminating ULEZ in the outer london boroughs doesn't make her a villan [sic] or anti-cyclist. Enjoy your knife crime, garbage air, increased prices, terrible traffic and rampant anti-Semitism from your beloved labour party.”

And now, onto Instagram and Twitter:

@petay_ldn: “It’s a Hobsons choice because can’t can’t stay given the outrageous levels of theft and robbery in London on his watch.”

@rmushet: “Don't vote for her because she's a Tory... And from an outsider looking in, Khan's crime figures have risen but not at the levels other cities have. All of that may have a little correlation between the gutting of police forces by a certain ex-Home Secretary that couldn't outlast a piece of veg as PM? Oh yeah, and there's the fact that the Met aren't fit for purpose either - too busy sending crime scene images on WhatsApp, beating up their partners and getting suspended…”

@ViaTowerBridge: “Seems like her policies are only for the good of motorists.”

@KingsleyCGFC: “I would say a vote for any Tory is a vote against cycling.”

@jasonsteven: “Absolute bullshit from road cc lying thieving khant is the worst mayor going and you should not getting involved in politics.. remove post”

@BowTiedTurismo: “What an odd endorsement of Susan Hall”

Now, isn't social media a wonderful place...