London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman has said that reckless behaviour on the capital’s roads — whether by red-light-jumping cyclists, dangerous drivers, or people “generally behaving like idiots” — remains a key challenge for road safety, while warning that online culture war narratives are often exaggerated and bear little resemblance to how people actually behave.

“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Norman said. “Some people are idiots and some behaviour is against the law. Some cyclists don’t stop at red lights, some cut through crossings, and some car drivers drive too fast, uninsured, and use their mobile phones. Of course there are challenges to tackle, but this ‘us vs them’ mentality is often exaggerated online, creating an unhappy and unhelpful narrative.”

In an interview with Zag Daily, Norman insisted that most Londoners do not define themselves simply as “cyclists” or “motorists” — and said that everyday life on London’s streets is far more cooperative than the online rows suggest.

“If you spend all of your time on social media, you’ll certainly think this attitude is prominent. But when you spend time with people on the ground, you’ll see that most people don’t define themselves as a motorist or a cyclist. Nobody driving a car wants to hurt anybody, and those who cycle also drive,” he said.

He also took aim at the idea of a so-called “war on motorists”, warning that toxic rhetoric from politicians and campaigners risks inflaming tensions. “Most Londoners recognise they need to look after one another whatever mode of transport they use — and the antagonism you see below the headlines doesn’t manifest in quite the same way in real life,” he added.

Norman’s comments come at a time when cycling in London is on the rise — and fast approaching a critical point. In the City of London, cyclists already outnumber cars during rush hour, while on key routes like Clerkenwell Road, Blackfriars Bridge, and the Embankment, tens of thousands of daily cycle journeys outstrip motor traffic.

Transport for London data shows that Londoners now make 1.33 million cycling journeys every day — up five per cent on last year and up 26 per cent since 2019 — with four and a half per cent of all journeys in the capital made by bicycle.

“From a London-wide perspective, we are clearly now at a tipping point,” Simon Munk of the London Cycling Campaign said. “Cycling is now a fairly mainstream mode of transport.”

Cyclist next to an LTN planter, Hackney, London
Cyclist next to an LTN planter (Image Credit: Adwitiya Pal)

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The growth has been driven by a combination of new infrastructure, expanded e-bike hire schemes, congestion charges, and the ultra-low emission zone — alongside the post-pandemic shift in travel patterns.

Despite that, road safety remains a pressing concern. Latest TfL figures show a marginal fall in road casualties — from 3,710 in 2023 to 3,696 in 2024 — with 110 fatalities recorded last year. More than 80 per cent of those killed or seriously injured were pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists.

While Norman welcomed the faster rate of injury reduction in London compared to the rest of the country, he warned that challenges such as SUVs, dangerous driving, and illegal e-scooters continue to put vulnerable road users at risk.

“Larger and heavier vehicles are putting pedestrians and cyclists at greater risk, yet there’s a national trend towards bigger SUVs,” he said. “Modified vehicles and unsafe batteries are posing great risk to high-pressure workers like delivery riders. There’s an awful lot more that needs to happen.”

Norman confirmed that £87 million will be spent this year on active travel safety as part of a wider £150 million programme, but admitted London was “running to stand still” in the face of growing pressures.

He also reaffirmed London’s commitment to its Vision Zero goal of eliminating deaths and serious injuries by 2041.

“It’s an ambitious goal, but there should not be a target other than zero,” he said. “Other cities around the world are proving this. Oslo and Helsinki have got to zero. London is a much larger global city and faces different challenges — whether we’ll get there by 2041, I’m not sure. But zero is still the right target and I’m confident we will achieve it.”

London cyclists
London cyclists (Image Credit: Ayad Hendy via Unsplash)

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Norman’s stance reflects a rather recent pushback against culture war narratives on active travel — including warnings from England’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty, who said that media-fuelled stereotypes of “middle-aged men in Lycra” were harming public health efforts earlier this month.

Whitty said: “The culture wars will always try and paint the person who’s in favour of active transport as middle-class, entitled, speeding like a bad person. What they don’t see is a woman in a wheelchair who actually benefits even more from the activity we’re talking about.”

Labour’s new government has also sought to distance itself from the divisive rhetoric of the previous Conservative administration. In October, then transport secretary Louise Haigh pledged to “take back streets” for all road users and accused the Tories of pursuing “poisonous culture wars.”

The London Cycling Campaign itself has warned politicians not to stoke fear or drag cycling into phoney political battles — a stance echoed by Norman when he spoke out against the “exaggerated” online rows that often dominate the debate.

At the same time, Norman has faced criticism over controversial decisions like the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, where he warned that allowing thousands of cyclists through would be “extremely unpleasant” — prompting campaigners to attack the lack of quality alternative routes.

But Norman insisted the real-life reality is far more cooperative than social media suggests: “Most Londoners recognise they need to look after one another whatever mode of transport they use, and the antagonism you see below the headlines doesn’t manifest in quite the same way in real life.”