Do London’s New Cycleways Actually Protect Cyclists?

Do London cycleways actually protect cyclists?
MASSIVE thank you to Cowboy Bikes for sending me their Cowboy Cruiser Ebike for this video! I’ve really loved cycling with him around town this past month, and the section of the vid where I talk about all the stuff I like about the bike actually went on for like 3 minutes, but I had to cut it for pacing, so you’ll probably hear me talk about HOW it rides and/or the amazing, built-in anti-theft GPS in my next cycling video 🙂

They sent me the following lil blurb for those of you interested in getting one for yourself:
You can use code: EVANEDINGER250
for a €250 discount off any new Cruiser, Cruiser ST, Classic Cowboy e-bike
Cannot be used in conjunction with other discount codes, or on Circular models
Valid indefinitely

Thank you so much for watching! Hope you enjoyed it! It’s currently 4AM as I’m typing this. Bit late. I know. But I think you could tell why. Lotta work went into this one. I’ll try to sort more cams/better audio for the next one, but yeah. Thanks x

Also big big thanks to my friends for joining me on this fun day 🙂
Heather: https://instagram.com/heather.s.stewart
dodie: https://youtube.com/doddleoddle
Luke: https://youtube.com/luke
Dan: https://youtube.com/danieljlayton

If you’re new to my channel and videos, hi! I’m Evan Edinger, and I make weekly “comedy” videos every Sunday evening. As an American living in London I love noticing the funny differences between the cultures and one of my most popular video series is my British VS American one. I’m also known for making terrible puns so sorry in advance. Hope to see you around, and I’ll see you next Sunday! 🙂

If you want to know HOW I make my videos including gear, lighting, all the tiddly bits that connect it all together, (with cheaper alternatives and kit I used to use), I’ve listed each item, what it’s great at, and why I use it on the gear section of my website here:
https://www.evanedinger.com/blog/my-gear

Otherwise: here’s a quick list of some of my kit without descriptions from the above link:

Camera: Sony A7siii
https://geni.us/Evana7siii

Main Lens: Sony 24mm f/1.4 G-Master
https://geni.us/Evan24

Secondary Lens: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G-Master
https://geni.us/Evan1635

Main Light: Aputure 120d mkii
https://geni.us/Evan120d

Shotgun Microphone: Sennheiser MKH-416
https://geni.us/Evan416

Really useful SSD: SanDisk Extreme Portable 2TB
https://geni.us/EvanPortSSD

The background music I use is all from Epidemic Sound! I highly recommend it: https://geni.us/EvanEpidemicSound

Store: (LUTs, Presets, & Prints) ► http://evanedinger.com/store
Patreon: http://patreon.com/EvanEdinger
Second Channel: http://www.youtube.com/EvanEdingerTravel
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EvanEdinger
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/EvanEdinger
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EvanEdinger
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/aH5jSEC
Twitch:(4 days a week!) ► http://twitch.tv/EvanEdinger

London may not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of cycling unless you’re thinking of cities you’re too scared to cycle in I myself tried commuting about 9 years ago by riding a Boris bike to work only to find I nearly lost both my legs at the old Street roundabout when two black cabs decided to try and squeeze me out now a big scare like that could put anyone off cycling in the big city especially considering a lot of the roads in London are like the old Street roundabout there’s not really a separate area for cyclists and for cars however a lot has changed in the Big Smoke in the last 10 years over the last decade London has tried its best to add more features to make the city more friendly to cyclists including making some cycle ways these cycle super highways they used to be called though the Dutch are probably laughing at the mere institution that that is comparable to what they have in Amsterdam in London just in the last few weeks there’s been six people killed London is a dangerous place I cycle as though everybody is out to kill me last year well over 3,000 serious injuries how far do you cycle to work the authorities in London put in painted lanes for cyclists but it only led to more deaths cycling Revolution this is what the routs will look like cycle friendly bikes make up 24% of rush hour traffic segregated cycle Lane segregate cyclist is it up to drivers to protect cyclists if you hear a bell watch out on safer cycling from the Streets of London you know it’s it’s risky frankly first new completely segregated cycle Lane some new bike specific infrastructure this makes a huge difference more of the cycle Lane the time has absolutely come Lane will separate bikes cyclists unfortunately are running Riot Cy campaign for real cycl and we’ve been putting them in City Hall says it has quadruple the cycle Network since 2016 and those cycle L just stopped the most dangerous Junctions for cyclist 11 serious injuries in the last 5 years that Cy is went w 70% of drivers close pass so in order to test whether cycling in London is finally safe today my friends and I are really going to test the city out we’re going to be cycling from Canon to/ Canary WARF in the East to chisik in the west so let’s introduce you to the gang my name is Dan I’m doie hi I’m Heather hi I’m Luke I’ve cycled a little bit in London just a bit yeah I’ve cycled in London a few times once when the roads were closed for a bike race because there’s no way in h I’m cycling on an open road the moike summer of London I love the moike summer the moike summer yes I remember the moike summer we go they first introduced this kind of like rental bike that you can drop anywhere that GPS system to keep track of its bikes with no bike racks it was before it was regulated so these things were just everywhere bikes everywhere 50p an hour so cheap it was so cheap they’re dead now aren’t they you see their corpses lying in the street have you cycled in any other parts of Europe yeah we cycled in Anam together uh um yes I think I’ve cycled in France before Amsterdam I have cycled in other parts of Europe with you Evan probably somewhere else many places no why would I travel to do more exercise cycled in Copenhagen where you CH it was a backpedal break and he just couldn’t get the handle of it I have to learn how to break and then something happened which startled him and it threw you off your bike I’m bleeding it’s bath I bought peeds I’m going to put them in my CHS why haven’t you cycled more often in London cuz it’s London we cycled in London together once we went over a roundabout and nearly died we nearly got run over by an Uber driver and I haven’t done it since I barely drive him it’s so awful to drive on these roads I can’t imagine cycling I’m scared of any parts where there are buses when we go through Kensington and Chelsey they they don’t like bikes oh at all they resent the notion of you having a bike you can never tell when one’s coming behind you and I’m so scared it’s just going to like run me over the whole thing scares me I am scared about all of it I don’t currently have a helmet and that’s something I should probably correct that does make me a bit nervous don’t crash if I do have a helmet very important make sure you always ride with a helmet no matter what do you have a helmet d and without further Ado we hit the road oh God Evan is this what we’re going on wait what all right everyone ready all right here we go thank you sorry we went the wrong way things started off on a shaky foot as I got a bit confused navigating around Canary W you see we had to share the road with some cars here and in this part of the city there are definitely some oneway roads this is a oneway street so it’s the next one actually left here what are we doing where are we going down the steps that makes no sense we’re offroading after having to climbed down a set of stairs with our bikes minus some points there yeah this thing is taking a beating it’s a line bike we finally made it to a nicer cycling path as part of the temp’s path along the river but not before Heather found a nice little present in her lime bike basket oh my god oh no oh there’s a condom in the basket of this bike what there’s a condom in the basket of this bike I didn’t notice that can I see it oh Dan you want to look in her basket now that’s a different type of helmet but the next 10 minutes honestly weren’t too bad as the streets were quiet and even though they didn’t necessarily have separate cycle Lanes they felt safe due to the layout being more of a street than a road so cars here that did pass us went a lot [Music] slower but then here’s where things finally picked up with one right turn we finally made it to our first real psycho away this was CS3 which runs from barking out in zone 4 all the way to Lancaster gate in zone 1 any comfortable ride in the city probably involves making your way as fast as possible to one of the cycleways as the difference between cycling on one of these and a normal Road in London is night and day but you might be curious as to why it’s called CS3 well the cycle ways in London used to be called cycle super highways cycle super highways cycle super highways cycle Super Highway cycle Super Highway cycle super highways so CS3 was the cycle Super Highway 3 but the issue with calling them a super highway is the connotations of the word Highway itself even though the original intent of the word meant fast and direct route on the same road the word Highway often makes people think of Highways for cars in other words speedy and unsafe for beginners and pedestrians like every cyclist on the path is going to be powering through on the cycle super highway on an ebike at 40 km an hour so the term was changed to cycle way to properly make them feel more inclusive and accessible we’ve made it to one of the cycle waves here we are this is CS3 nice and did they work from the second we got on CS3 that was some of the most fun and comfortable cycling we had all day this is like idea most of the cycle way was completely separate from the road with a curb protecting us from vehicular traffic and the path was well paved and even had separate lights for cyclists with little bikes on them it’s the little things you know oh here we go but then through sheer coincidence and something I didn’t even know as a thing there seemed to be quite a crowd going Stark raving mad near the psycho way around the Tower of London Jack layed I’ve seen so many Willies in the past 5 minutes yeah it turns out the day of our cycle was the same day as the annual naked cycle I don’t know what would drive a person to want to get his bit stuck to a hot bicycle saddle but we didn’t stick around long to ask any questions the UK is a really weird place wo thank you yipp woo beautiful okay well this feels very safe we’re completely separate to the class I do really like how it’s uh it just feels normal yeah this is l the vehicle in sight what do you think of this guy so far I’m coming it it’s pretty good yeah mad hi you enj this ride F yeah I feel they safe yeah I was like I was like I’m actually I know now the whole way B nervous now I’m like I is this a cycle [Music] tunnel wow look at her go [Music] we’re about to the nicest part of this entire cycle which is through St James Park Green Park Hide Park before we get to the major boss battle in Kensington and Chelsea oh don’t say that so we hopped back on our bikes and back onto CS3 one of the nice bits about CS3 is that it does quickly carry around so many iconic and beautiful London sites we already passed the Tower of London but we also passed the London Eye and big Ben as well as Buckingham Palace so if you’re a tourist watching this video and are wondering how safe the cyclopaths are well I’d say hop on CS3 for about an hour and you can see so much so quickly and so fun and so safe do note though speaking of tourists that even though these areas have lovely protected cycle Lanes they are rather touristy and we all know no offense tourists are usually the dumbest people in the city and you may find that no amount of dinging of your bell will get them to get out of the cycle Lane it doesn’t help that it was also the same day of a big protest so probably not something to worry about during a weekday commute and now I do think it’s important to note that so far our journey had gone so much better than I’d ever expected even though I knew that the true fear and Terror were looming on the horizon for the latter half of the trip it felt nice to appreciate just how safe and smooth it had all been so far for me a big reason why everything felt so smooth was that I’d been riding the cowboy Cruiser just look at this beautiful bike as he is a cowboy I have named him Arthur Morgan cuz he’s just too good for this world it’s got integrated lighting for late night rides a carbon belt drive rather than a chain for much lower maintenance no grease here and a slick and streamlined look that at first glance could pass as a normal bike with a detachable battery for easier charging speaking of charging my phone snaps right into place on the top of the handlebars where the uped app tells me my speed and gives me turn-by-turn directions while wirelessly charging my phone it truly feels like the bike of the future I do have to give a special shout out to my manager Robert who when I mentioned I’d love to get a cowboy for this video actually already knew a guy so we got in touch they generously sent me this bike for free and from my experience with the bike after cycling about 30 km in one go I had a bit over half of my battery left and depending on conditions the battery is supposed to last anywhere from 40 to 80 km so more than enough for my needs which no joke is pretty much taking this instead of the tube from now on Cowboy have no idea what I’m going to be putting in this video If I say positives or negatives which is quite nice it’s just a really nice bike so if you’re interested in learning more about it I’ll leave a link for it in the description otherwise as we have hit the halfway point on our journey this is where things get a little bit spicy if you’ve seen Jay Foreman’s excellent video on cycling in London you know that one burough in London really doesn’t like cyclists and that’s right where we’re heading through so we finally made it to the hard part of the journey we’re now in Kensington and Chelsea where bikes are actually purposely hit by the Bentley owners okay sorry by the Mercedes owners and so we’re going to cycle straight shot hopefully pass through Hammersmith that roundabout and then we make it to get some celebratory points at the old crown and maybe it was foreshadowing of the worst times to come but I kid you not the second we crossed into the border of the burah crisis struck so this is it’s not the widest cycle and I Mook this thing me and Luke Mook this thing CU we were talking for um a traffic light and there were a bunch of people stopped and parked so we just stopped leisurely but of course you guys were all still cycling behind so that is the traffic light with the three lights that are there it’s obviously not we were distracted not paying attention and I was looking at the random person in but what was the major issue it wasn’t Luke’s F and it wasn’t DOD F what’s actually the culprit these lime bikes but up until this point things were honestly pretty perf perfect like if I had ended the video there I would have happily told you that cycl in London felt safe amazing and fun and my experience was so much better than mine 10 years ago but it was finally time to cycle through actual Kensington and Chelsea down Kensington High Street we went from a curb protected cycan to White Lines with bicycle symbols to just nothing but a full-on Motorway where we finally lost our first Rider to the stresses of the road not a big fan of this no more nice cyclopaths huh I don’t know where they are now they’re quite far ahead I think I can see them oh there oh go are you okay D yeah going to go straight line on my no okay oh this isn’t nice is it this is hell this is the worst part as soon as he witnessed just how ruthless the cars were on these unprotected roads Dan bailed out to get the bus through this evil burra this is so much better why didn’t I do this the whole time oh this is what these cars are silly oh my God this is the worst this is the worst we just lost Dan as soon as we hit Kensington he just went no I’m not he saw a bus behind him we were getting cut off by two yet again black CS not good he was the only one of us to be fair that didn’t have a helmet on and I don’t know if you’ve seen Gordon Ramsay’s recent post about his cycling accident but let’s just say you should always be wearing a helmet when on the road especially if you’re in the burough of Kensington and Chelsey this burough decided to do away with logic and just throw cyclists and motorists in the same lanes and pretend that cyclists didn’t exist all of a sudden we were in the left turn only lane for motorists all right Evan it’s it’s cuz it’s a turn on left go go go so now we had to pull over again and cross more traffic in the Dual carriageway because now we’re expected to be in the middle of the motorway can we just walk across this we have 6 seconds go for it until we pass to the next area in which we’re finally able to go back to the left unless of course there’s a bus in the way in which we have to Veer around the bus hopefully avoid traffic again and all in all it just felt incredibly scary all right all right oh my God this is this is the best thing we’ve been having a very bad day what did she say off the papers and I said sorry we’ve been having a bad day I think it was not because you’re on a bike it’s because you’re a paa and also just getting cut off yet again by another taxi ignoring rule H3 and Rule 76 of the highway code is just a standard at this point for this burah all right we’re clear follow oh 12 minutes to go that woman was so grumpy and she has no idea what we went through just she has no idea that we took a brief detour in the basement all right I’m right with you well that wasn’t necessary was it oh that was illegal by the way oh we’re we’ve got balled things get out of my road here give me the thinging of Justice okay so this is a really weird bit I think you might want to follow a weird left right right left oh yeah I [Music] see I don’t like this at all I don’t want to do this it’s just awful that was awful I felt like any moment I’m going to die stop on her and then he she around start out disgusting I hate this but I love cycling the other bit so after some spicy maneuvering to get out of the square about we finally saw the answer to all of our prayers oh my God an actual psycho away again oh my God it’s protected fully protected with a large curb we had made it to cycleway 9 the newest of the cycleways in London now this is a psychopath now this is what I’m talking about happy bicycle dinging [Music] sounds and just like that the nightmare section was over and it was yet again a comfortable and fun little ride over the rainbow crosswalks on chisik high road to end our journey in turnam green where we met up with Dan again and hugged each other since we all got out of this journey unscathed woo we made it now this is a psychopath right but after such a full day we were exhausted so we decided to treat ourselves to a well-deserved pint of cider and some fish and chips at the local pub for a job well done well done guys well done huh job well done yes [Music] whoa so congratulations to everybody for surviving that cycle yeah uh obviously it was very lovely in the beginning lovely in the middle had a little bit of Crash a little bit of a crash and then Dan what happened 34s way through there well look what happened is um the Royal B of Kendon and Chelsea decided that they really hate bikes you you actually bailed before it got worse so much worse basically I could tell from the second we got that I already know that area already and the second we got there I was like okay it’s Saturday it’s busy there are other chaotic bike riders around and then it was when we would we were cycling down and I saw already we’ve been like getting around that Junction and then suddenly some uh Courier or other just like a guy in a motorbike like fully looked at me could see me coming and then going I’m going to go anyway and he pulled right in front of me yeah we got cut off by a minivan as well and then obviously I was behind you on the bus so I could see I saw the bit where like you you were the wrong lane yes yeah and I was like that that is kind of the summation of it so then we had to get out of that cuz I was like we’re supposed to be in the left lane but now the left lane which is always the cyle lane is no longer the cycle Lane yeah because it’s the right lane so you have to be in the middle to be able to get back to and what’s really frustrating about it all is like the I I then got off the bus in Hammer space grabbed a bike and jobed on like I was like almost immediately the cycle so it’s frustrating that you had to basically get off of a bike and then get on a bus to carry on cycling because of Kensington look I mean if I had a part of it is I didn’t have a helmet and I that’s my thing but even if I had a helmet I feel like that is it’s nonsense that for like literally High Street Kensington yeah they’re like no we don’t want any bites yeah just how much but also like how much fun were we having it was awful we literally kept having to get off the road at the square about we have so much oh yeah that was lovely all the way like all the way from Canary Feast has arrived hell yeah what was the highlight of the cycle for you ooh going around I would say there was a bit where we were cycling in a tunnel and we were all ringing our bells that was so fun I felt like I was in like post being a wolf FL or whatever I think that um the bit around the tower seeing how but that’s another example of it right because that’s a massive Junction as well but it was so specific for where we were going that it was like oh how fun and also safe I definitely really loved there was a bit where the trees were kind of coming over the uh bike lane and so it’s literally like we were just cycling through the trees which were like dappled ins like so I love that that was so nice I really liked going through uh like High Park and then all along past the palace and all that kind of stuff because um thanks to the Palestinian protest it was all closed off I think I was just surprised with how nice the East London beginning bit was was Canary Warf was bad but as soon as we got on that psychopath it was just easy until hide Park and especially when we were like going through like the war bit so like there was even a bit where it was just on the pavement and separate did you have fun though yeah yeah I’m like massively frustrated when I get back on the the bike at Hammersmith and it’s just like lovely Chic leafy like West London bam why can’t they just do that one rad like what is and it’s rich people it’s rich people in Tories like I I don’t want to push too bad Tories but it is like and but it’s like when not I keep thinking about like when we were riding and when we were doing the bells and like even the the nudists everyone’s having fun hi Park we’re all cycling everyone’s having a nice there was so many cyclists on the road he a bunch of nudist trying to cycle through Kensington and Chelsea thank you very much for coming it’s been very fun well done we did it back to the studio mind injuries so all in all do I find cycling in London safe yet answer the title actually yeah from the cycleways that I’ve cycled on now most of them really do feel safe you feel protected and outside of Kon and Chelsea I honestly had a great time and it’s not like I only cycled for this video I’ve literally recycled every single day since the day that I got my bike and that is totaling I think at this point I just passed 100 km I’ve been grocery shopping on my bike I cycled to Greenwich and back including this annoying bit in which the lifts in the Greenwich foot tunnel are always broken so I had to carry my freaking bike up the stairs but I did that and I had a blast and I even just yesterday cycled all the way to wo to see punch trunk and back and that involved being on the wo Ferry I took a ferry across and every single one of these Journeys was really safe feeling and also cheaper than taking the tube because you know it’s a bike it’s free and it was also faster than taking the tube and I think the most important difference here was that I had way more fun it was so much more fun for me to travel to these places because I was choosing to do it it was almost similar to like a video game like I’m choosing things I’m I’m seeing things pass rather than saying ah I have to travel to get there oh I have to take the train it’s I get to I get to travel I’m like oh that’s exciting I I can bike there and so yeah I I genuinely feel like from my experience cycl in London is is pretty safe I love it I feel more connected to like cyclists on the road and if you’ve been like a subscrib to my channel for a while you’ll know I do have a weird neuroticism about me where I cannot seem to just like something you know if I like something I go all out I got the 8year streak on Dual lingo I got my own place so dove into interior design and here I am being like yeah I’m a cyclist now I love it so like maybe there’s going to be some more cyclist content on this channel if you have any suggestions please uh hit me up but otherwise a genuine question if you have ever cycled in London after seeing this video would you cycle again do you feel like maybe it has gotten better I’d love to hear your thoughts otherwise thank you so much for watching and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day