War on Britain's Roads

Cycling in Britain has never been more popular

but no-one is completely safe.

Three months after his Olympic win,

Bradley Wiggins was involved in a collision with a white van.

Another statistic from Britain's roads.

Now, thanks to the helmet camera...

Whoa!

..we can see the unfolding conflict from a whole new perspective.

From accidents...

Whoa!

..to near death experiences...

From everyday incidents that get out of hand...

..to taxi drivers who confront cyclists.

Don't touch my friggin' cab, right?!

Don't touch my cab for no reason!

You, you, pull over!

Pull over!

From police chasing down rogue road users...

Get down on the floor! Get on the floor!

..to cyclists policing the streets themselves...

..as 34 million vehicles

and 13 million bikes all try to share the same crowded space...

Argh!

Get in the fast lane!

The battle between two wheels and four...

-Texting.

-Oi!

..has never been so intense.

BRAKES SQUEAL

I could have died that night, you know.

It still haunts me.

BRAKES SQUEAL

You twat!

The last three years has seen a million more cyclists

take to Britain's roads.

A growing number have taken to filming their daily commute.

Powering yourself under your own momentum is an amazing feeling.

I ride fast and I enjoy to ride fast.

You look down at the speedometer and you can see

you're doing 30 miles an hour -

you're keeping up with the other traffic.

It kind of feels like I'm saying "I deserve to be here,

"I can go as fast as anyone else."

And it feels great when you're cycling past traffic.

Just seeing everyone stuck in their metal box just trying to get home

and you can just cycle past.

Oi! What you doing?!

The relationship between drivers and cyclists can be pretty difficult.

I think some people's mindset is that they just hate cyclists.

They sort of feel like they have to get in front of you

and they'll do that by any means.

Hey, you wanker!

I think it can be kind of described as like a war.

What are you doing to me?!

-BLEEP, BLEEP!

-You prick!

With the arrival of the helmet camera,

cyclists have found a way to highlight what they see

as the bad behaviour of motorists

CAR SCREECHES You nutter!

SHE SCREAMS

Whoa!

Whoa, you prick!

Jesus Christ!

There is of course another side to the story.

I got my license in 1962

so I've been driving a cab round our great city of London

for 50 years, 5-0,

half a century - get out of that!

Well, there's an old cockney saying -

you've got to have eyes up your wotsit.

And that's very appropriate. when you're on the road in London.

You've got to be "that side, that side, that side"

in your rear-view mirror.

Coming home the other week there was this guy on the bike weaving in and out

and I said to him "What, do you want to kill yourself?"

And he came alongside this window and spat in my face.

You know, charming(!)

It's best not to get involved at all.

Just put your window up and lock the door.

Some people - they can not control themselves.

Whether it's cyclists, lorry drivers, car drivers, cab drivers.

Once they blow their top they want to kill that effin 'B', you know.

That's human nature.

In a recent survey, nine out of ten cyclists claimed to have suffered

some form of road rage.

It was a really nice summer's afternoon.

Everyone was out on their bikes.

A cyclist to the right, and I didn't think he was the best cyclist,

but he pushed his way through past him.

And there's some cyclists on his left who he passed extremely close.

That space is centimetres, it's not even a foot.

It's just an insane space to leave someone.

And of course he gets stuck in traffic

and I'm easily able to get in front of him,

so again he's coming up behind me.

He just came past a little bit quick,

it looks like he was in a bit of a rush.

The lights ahead of us are already red so he's not going anywhere.

I'm thinking he may give me a close pass so I'm seeing him change lanes,

which is especially required at this sort of speed

where I'm doing about 25 miles an hour.

Straight away, he's pulling into my path.

So I slap his vehicle, make him aware.

He really didn't appreciate that.

No, no, no!

He turned in.

It was either go into the curb,

hit his taxi or fall into the road, or stop, so obviously, I stopped.

And this is when you really don't know what's going to happen.

Mate...

What did you do? What did you do?!

I remember that day, I was on my way home.

I finished my shift and I was just on my way home.

I was in no mega hurry.

All of the sudden, this cyclist has come from the right-hand side

so I literally drove around him and just carried on my way.

As far I was concerned, I don't think I did anything wrong.

The cyclist now I'm about to pass on my left hand side,

I AM a little bit close to him

but I have passed him safely and there was no reaction from him.

If you feel in danger, you throw your hands up or make some sort of gesture.

Nothing.

And then as I went on a little bit more

I know there's a bus lane coming up.

That's where I want to go - I want to go into a bus lane because hey,

who's going to sit in traffic when you're allowed to go in a bus lane?

So I started heading for the bus lane.

I'm travelling at speed and going a little bit faster than the bike is.

I have not crossed over the line yet.

I'm still on the white line

and as far as I'm concerned I still left a whole lane for him.

He's got all this lane, all this space, you know.

He could have just let me go and carried on

but no, I think he wanted to antagonise something.

THUDS

And then I'm hearing bang, bang, bang. I'm thinking, "What the hell?

"Why is this guy hitting my cab? I'm past him."

But I haven't turned in sharp. My wheels are not even turned.

If I wanted to take him out

I would have just gone straight into the curb, wouldn't I?

But I didn't.

Mate...

What do you do? Would do you do?!

'If someone gets out of their car, you feel very intimidated.

'You don't know what you're going to do.'

Whether or not they're going to control themselves and just limit it

to shouting and pointing or whether they are going to assault you.

Don't touch my cab, right?! Don't touch my friggin' cab!

-Don't touch my cab for no reason.

-Smile for the camera.

I don't care about your camera!

-I'm reporting you to the police.

-Report all you want.

Don't you touch my cab. I was nowhere near you.

I went out there and I just had to say my mind, you know.

Just say my piece.

-If I could touch your cab, you were too close.

-No!

-Do you not see sense in that?

-No! No, no, no. Don't you touch my cab.

I've noticed if you touch someone's vehicle

they get very possessive about that.

-If I can touch your cab...

-No!

..you're too close.

And what, you're not close to me? Are you not close to me?!

-You're the one overtaking me!

-So what?

So what?!

He couldn't understand that if I could touch his vehicle

from my bicycle then he's too close.

It's your responsibility to pass me safely.

I passed you safely, you arsehole!

You decide you want to go and hit my cab!

"If you had passed me safely, I couldn't touch it.

"If you wasn't close to me, I wouldn't touch you."

I said to him, "I went past you,

"I was clear of you."

You know, this is what I'm trying to get over to him,

but he's trying to get into an argument.

Your stupid little camera! I don't care.

Did I overreact?

Maybe I did a little bit. Was I in a bad mood?

No, I wasn't in a bad mood.

I was going about my business, I was going home.

-You touched me. That's assault!

-No, I touched your camera!

-You touched something of mine.

-Oh, shut up!

-That's assault.

When you start hearing people saying "Anything on my person is assault."

So how far do you want to go with that?

He's got a strap on his helmet.

If you touch that, it's assault.

Where'd you draw the line with that comment?

From that point onwards, I was already walking to my cab anyway.

I just thought, "This is pathetic.

"Why even bother to get out of the cab to have a go at this idiot?"

Look at all these people! You are making a mug of yourself.

I try not to get it into a shouting match

cos it's not going to go anywhere and then here,

looking back on this, I probably shouldn't have done this.

A mug! Lets all applaud the mug. A round of applause, thank you.

He starts all this clapping malarkey.

I thought, "What's all that about?"

Childish.

Thank you!

Just playing up for the crowd which, looking back,

I wouldn't do again.

I don't think it makes the situation any better

and I kind of feel embarrassed about it looking back at it.

You don't own the road or the bus lane!

You don't own anything, mate, but your cab.

What an idiot, you know. "You've only got your cab."

I haven't got just my cab. But my cab is an important part of my life.

My cab is my livelihood.

I'm filming cos of people like you!

You put other road users in danger.

You try to knock me off.

"You try to push me in the road, you're a danger to the public"

and all this stuff.

Well, if I'm a danger to the public,

how come I haven't killed anyone yet?

I've been driving 19 years and I've never knocked a cyclist off

so am I doing something right or wrong?

I'm not looking for an apology from anyone.

I don't think it would be any different to what I would expect from anyone else.

And that's probably why my opinion of slapping someone's vehicle

is that you should do it in only the most serious of situations

because it can make things a lot worse than they already were.

I will shout at somebody and I will have a go

and I will voice my opinion, my annoyance,

but no way am I going to start putting my job on the line

and punching this guy - that's never going to happen.

But I do say one thing, though.

This guy will meet that kind of driver one day.

He will meet that kind of driver

and when he meets that kind of driver, possibly,

I'm not wishing it upon him, this might be a different story.

Want a fight?

-Want a

-BLEEP

-fight?!

No, I don't want to fight you.

-Don't

-BLEEP

-be so arrogant, then!

-BLEEP

-Off!

CAR SCREECHES

What?! Calm down, calm down.

-Calm

-BLEEP

-down?!

-Yes, yes.

That will do you!

-You

-BLEEP

-prick!

-Calm down?

-BLEEP!

As our roads become busier every year,

the number of reported incidents between cyclists and motorists

is on the rise.

BLEEP!

Well, I'm very sorry but...

If it were down to me, mate, I'd drop you like a BLEEP...

-OK.

-Do you understand that?!

-I understand.

-Yeah?!

-BLEEP. BLEEP.

-Sorry, very sorry.

Dealing with any incident in our cities is becoming

increasingly difficult.

Congestion means average traffic speeds in the capital have dropped to 11 miles an hour.

The police have set up a new task force.

To combat the traffic they are back in the saddle

and this time they too have helmet cameras.

It's...

HE LAUGHS

I was going to say a dream job!

It's a good interesting job.

It is like being a bobby on a bike

riding round London like the old days.

You turn up in areas where things are happening in front of you

and you can deal with them directly.

-Texting.

-Oi!

Pull over on the left down here, please.

Not sneaking up on people

but you will just generally pull up alongside someone -

there's someone on their mobile phone.

Just so that you're aware,

everything we do is covered by video evidence.

You can spot tax discs.

We need to have a quick chat with you.

If you can just pull in on the left.

-Why's that?

-Because your tax is out of date.

There's a lot going on but you've got to be focused.

You don't know what you're going to come across.

You, you! Pull over, pull over!

Adrian spotted a motorcyclist going quite fast

so I think he was going to have a quick word.

He's asked him to stop

and he's not going to stop so I'm going to try and stop him.

POLICE RADIO

No-one's reacting to me. I've got no blue lights or siren,

so I've got to react to how people are using the road normally.

The taxi has just pulled out in front of me

so I have to get my senses together.

I've seen the bike go down this side street.

There he goes.

Baltic Street West. Back towards Old Street.

'I can't see him ahead. He's going to be somewhere.'

Towards the city.

Sometimes it's about using your initiative.

And sixth sense and a gut feeling.

Generally, your gut feeling's normally the right one

because you think what would you do in that situation?

'Not always the case.'

It's a loss, loss, Garrett Street.

Silver solo.

I can't see him, I'm not going to let that discourage me.

'He can't be far.'

-Did you see a silver motorcycle come down here?

-No.

No, OK. Thank you.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black dot across the street.

OK. Roscoe Street. Into Roscoe Street.

He's down the end of that road trying to hide underneath a car.

Give it up, mate.

It's a bit of a threatening situation really.

I don't know who he is or why he's trying to hide.

Do not resist me!

This is my safety now. This is me and him.

Get down on the floor.

Get on the floor!

He might have a knife, a gun. He's a threat so I'm going to control him.

Get down on the floor now.

I don't want him on his knees. I want him on the floor.

Get on the floor. Leave it alone!

I mean it. On the floor.

Down. Right on the floor.

It's always nice to catch the rabbit that is trying to get away

and often it has a reward

because most people who want to get away want to get away for a reason.

Put your hands behind your back.

He, at the end of the day, has failed to stop

but he's got drugs on him, he's got false identification,

different ID documents,

so he's clearly not supposed to be in this country.

He was subsequently interviewed and charged,

and he was convicted the next day at court and sent to prison.

Look at this wally here, look.

I'm not saying all of them but many of them take diabolical liberties,

jumping red lights and going up the wrong way up one-way streets.

Look, look. There's no bikes allowed down there, but look.

With the more cyclists on the road, the increased risk of actually knocking one of them off.

It's a matter of numbers. And they're all at different standards.

Some are quick, some are slow, some are wobbly.

You see them up and down the pavements, going in between you

and a bus which is just unbelievable and there's

a two-foot gap between you and a bus

and they come through the middle of it.

The cyclists are oblivious really, sometimes,

to what's going on around them.

Like the one we're coming up to now. He's got headphones on.

I bet he doesn't even know I'm approaching him.

Just waddling along really. Absolutely crazy.

He's never looked at me once. As if I'm not here.

You know, I don't matter.

"I'm riding my bike and everybody else better beware."

There he goes. Now he's gone right the way across the front, see?

Not even in the lane he started with. Gone across everybody.

And there's a cyclist going across a red light.

Now every other road user has to concentrate on him.

Puts everybody at danger. Everybody.

They're in a world of their own.

They're going from A to B, from home to work.

Red light, look to the right, look to be left, over the main junction.

Beep, beep, beep, beep... "Get some of that."

Right, we're watching you.

We're seeing if you're going to jump the lights.

Even money, he jumps the lights. Even money.

And...yes, I've won!

And he's probably a lawyer, by the look of him.

If I jump the lights or do a dodgy right or a left turn,

the CCTV camera gets me

and the following week, wallop, £60 fine, yeah?

I've never seen a cyclist get nicked.

There seems to be a dearth of policemen

where there's bikes concerned

and they seem to come up in holes in the ground

where a cab driver's are concerned.

POLICEMAN: Hello. You all right?

-Nice to see you've stopped.

-Thank you.

-It's nice to see. A lot of people don't on push bikes.

-No, I know.

It gives you a bad name for the guys to do stop.

We see cyclists jumping red lights a lot.

WHISTLE BLOWS Pull over, sir.

We have people jump red lights in front of us.

Jumper there.

WHISTLE BLOWS

People jump red lights from standing next to us at a junction they go through.

WHISTLE BLOWS

SHOUTS: Stop!

Thank you. I had to shout at you cos you've got earphones in.

We can only deal with one person at a time. Why did you do that?

Because, er, it was green for pedestrians.

-Right, are you a pedestrian though?

-No.

-What are you?

-A cyclist.

A cyclist, yeah.

WHISTLE BLOWS Can you pull over, mate? Pull over.

Whether we give them a ticket or we speak to them

is down to the circumstances involved.

Why did you go through the red light?

Well...You write everything, anything I say,

but there was no-one there so...

-What does a red light mean?

-Yeah, it means we have to stop.

-It means stop.

It's not the crime of the century but it could get you killed.

BRAKES SCREECH

INDISTINCT DISTANT SHOUTING

In 2011, over 3,000 cyclists

were seriously injured on our roads.

CLATTERING, AGONISED GROANS

Three quarters of these incidents occurred on or near a junction.

BANG Oww!

Not everyone gets to walk away.

'Alex loved cycling. She'd cycled from when she was very young

'and then when she was back home after university

'and got a good job working for one of the City law firms

'she went back to the bike and she used to'

cycle to work every day and really enjoyed it.

'The firm that she went to work for was where she met her boyfriend'

and so her life was just starting, she had a future to look forward to.

And that was what was so tragic about when she was killed.

'It was a summer day in June, it was a nice, warm day.

'She was cycling to work and she was'

first picked up on the CCTV image

when a taxi stopped in front of her

and she stopped behind the taxi to let the concrete mixer lorry go by.

So clearly she knew that he was there

because she'd stopped to let him go by.

And then she caught up with him at the traffic lights.

Er...

She reached the traffic lights at the point at which they changed

so carried on going,

and he turned.

My boss came into my office and said,

"I need to speak to you about something."

And I immediately thought,

"Have I done something wrong, what have I done?"

And I got into his office, and there were two policemen there.

They told me that my daughter was dead.

I couldn't believe it.

She was my life for 26 years. You can't take it in.

Despite being only a small percentage of traffic,

heavy goods vehicles are involved in nearly a fifth of cyclist deaths each year.

Riding my bike, I suppose I'm not a particularly spiritual person.

But I suppose it's the closest thing I've got to a spiritual thing,

which sounds really corny, but it really is.

It takes you out of yourself.

But there isn't a real... there is no cycling culture in Glasgow,

and I started asking other people why they didn't do it,

and people would say, "Well, it's just too dangerous."

Whoa-oh!

HE SCREAMS

Shit!

Oh!

Jesus Christ!

'Whoa-oh!'

-DAVE SCREAMS

-'Shit!'

The truck ain't seen him, and I'm glad the cyclist had the know-how

to pull the brakes and stop, cos if he had have carried on,

he'd have been underneath.

Fuckin' hell!

It's terrifying to watch. Absolutely terrifying.

It was actually a really nice morning.

It was one of those beautiful mornings that cyclists love.

It was cold, but sunny.

And as I approached the roundabout, I noticed that there was

an HGV approaching one of the other entrances.

I tried to just catch the eye of the driver and I looked over,

and I was certain he looked at me and I'm sure we made eye contact.

And it certainly looked to me that HGV was slowing down,

as you would expect coming up to the roundabout,

cos by this time I was already entering the roundabout.

It's at this point I realised, "Oh, my goodness, what's going on?

"I need to stop, cos this guy is not going to stop."

So I slammed my brakes on.

It actually had a little holder holding a traffic cone or something,

and I remember looking specifically at that.

I remember seeing how it kept getting closer and closer to me.

That was the most shocking and scariest part of the whole thing,

watching this thing get closer to me knowing I can't get out of its way.

I was very, very scared at that point, and I'm sure

I let out a loud yelp at that point, because it truly was...

I thought I was going to get dragged under.

He doesn't seem to have reacted at all, so he must not have seen me,

or - and I'm sure this isn't the case, or he just didn't care -

but I'm sure it must have been that he didn't see me.

I thought he had, but obviously he hadn't.

I just can't understand how that could have possibly happened.

Oh!

Fuckin' hell!

'The cars are going round about me. I'm wobbling all over the road a little bit here.

'Just through shock.'

I knew how close I was

to being wiped off the face of the earth that day.

Losing anyone in a sudden death is dreadful,

because you are totally unprepared for it.

And when it's... Not just when it's an only child,

I think when it's any child, your whole life feels as if it's gone,

because the most important bit of it is gone.

This was her bedroom originally,

but added into it are things that had to come here from her flat,

things that were in her desk at work,

so it wasn't as untidy as this when she was here.

And I've lost count of the times I've come in here, thinking,

"I should sort this out, I should tidy this up,"

and then I just can't, so I leave it now.

But there's lots of... lots of memories.

"Words are so very inadequate for the feelings of loss, anger, pain,

"emptiness and sorrow that we feel."

That was a message left by two of the friends she worked with,

stuck on the lamppost where she died.

And I can remember standing on that corner

and not being able to understand why...

why the driver hadn't seen her.

The lamppost has still got paint taken away from it

where all the notices and cards and things were stuck.

After Alex's death, Cynthia fought to discover what actually happened.

This would eventually lead her to confront the bosses of the company

that killed her daughter.

What happened to my daughter was not an accident,

it was a preventable tragedy,

and my anger at what happened is what motivates me.

I'm not willing to accept, "Oh, well, couldn't see her, that's it."

No, that's not it.

Many cyclists feel under threat...

Fucking wanker!

..even when they are in the cycle lane.

Come o-o-on! Come on!

In response, some try to protect themselves

by taking control of the road,

even if it means annoying other road users.

'At points you need to be on the left-hand side of the road just to keep yourself safe.'

Oi! Fucking hell!

But at other points, you need to take a very central position.

And I do that. I will command a road.

Some people see that as you antagonising other road users.

CAR HORN BEEPS

"You make them drive dangerously," is something I've heard before.

No, I'm just keeping myself safe. There's no space for you to overtake,

so I'm not going to give you the space to overtake.

CAR HORN BLASTS AGGRESSIVELY

L347... Yes!

-What are you doing?

-Have you got a fucking problem or what?

I've got a video camera on my helmet.

I can't give two fucks what you've fucking got!

Go over the other side of the fucking road!

There's a driver in the middle of the road.

You'll cause a fucking accident!

Taking a strong position requires bravery and confidence.

HORN BLASTS

I suspect that the sort of person who gets antagonised by that is

someone who just hates other people being in their way, full stop.

-Oi!

-You cut me off!

They'll right behind you revving their engine.

HORN BEEPS

They'll swerve towards you.

Fuck off!

They're just trying to scare you, and you certainly do feel vulnerable.

Get in the fucking cycle lane, you twat!

But with everyone perceiving that they have a right to be there,

which everyone does, things can get a bit hot under the collar.

Everyone thinking that they know more and that they think that

some people shouldn't be there, it causes conflict.

-Smile for the camera!

-Eh?

-Smile for the camera.

-I'm smiling!

-Move out of the lane, then, mate.

-No.

-Move out of the lane.

Learn the Highway Code. Learn the Highway Code.

What, you're allowed to ride in any lane you want, in any position?

-How fast was I going?

-Makes no difference how fast you was going!

It does!

Move out the way. How many lanes do you want on your fucking bike?

You don't pay, do you? No tax!

Read this! Read this, you asshole!

And if I can try and improve one driver,

and get them to see they can drive a little bit safer,

then I think that's a good achievement.

POLICE WHISTLE BLASTS

The fallout between cyclists and motorists is a constant problem

for the Met's Cycle Task Force.

'Situation I've got here is a cyclist who's jumped a red light, stopped.'

All right, mate? What's all that about?

'So, just have a chat with these guys sitting at the lights.'

There's a taxi that's been giving a cyclist or some cyclists grief.

-If you let me deal with him, guys, OK?

-I'm just telling you, that's definitely the guy.

It generally arises where someone is in a place where they shouldn't be.

See that guy there? That's the one who nearly ran into me.

OK, listen, listen. Hold on.

Or someone's done something that wasn't necessarily bad or dangerous.

We're not arguing, yeah? Buddy, wait there, let me speak to him, yeah?

There's enough to upset someone. It encroaches on their personal space.

-What's happened, sir?

-Just driving along the bus lane, he's come up

-and he's whacked the cab.

-Whacked the cab?

-Yeah.

-In what sense?

-You almost run me over. I knocked on your door!

I am talking to him, OK? I'll talk to you in a moment.

I was nowhere near him.

Sometimes people do exaggerate on things that have happened,

so I just need to put it into context and get their adrenaline levels down.

Is there any marks on my car?

I can't see any, sir, no. Whereabouts did he whack it?

It's on the side somewhere. I don't know. I got out...

I went like that!

You went like...?!

They're not interested in what I've got to say at all,

so let's just let them vent a bit of their frustrations.

I was literally in the cycle lane.

He flies past me literally about an inch away.

I just knocked on his door as if to say, "What are you playing at?"

He started beeping his horn, having a go at other cyclists,

got out as if he was coming to try and, I don't know what

he was trying to do - have a go at me or something.

And then I jump these lights here

because he's probably going to chase after me again.

I wasn't going to chase.

What I wanted to do was see if you'd done any damage...

I was knocking because you were about an inch away from me.

Have a look there. Let me finish talking to him.

I can step in between them quite easily here.

They're not going to start fighting.

Carry on talking to me.

I didn't. I went like that because you were about an inch away from me.

Don't be silly.

A lot of the time, it's separating them and getting them on their way to defuse it.

Have you got a bell or whistle or anything like that?

-A whistle?

-If you blow a whistle, people know you're there.

No-one has ever told me to wear a whistle.

Driver, thanks very much.

You know what they're like.

I know exactly what you're talking about

and I know exactly what the situation is like on the road.

But I don't want to stand here arguing with people.

You take care. See you later.

An example of how people's emotions take over

and something small becomes a mountain out of a molehill really.

Oi!

Amazing.

What a fine body of man!

The term MAMIL is being used these days

as an acronym for middle-aged men in Lycra.

Men from their 40s onwards who have discovered the joy of cycling

and the joy of Lycra.

We were training for a charity bike ride.

Put your lights on! Oi, lights!

The idea was to cycle from London to Dover and then back the next day.

-Well done, everybody.

-Yeah, not bad.

-What time is it?

-2:15 AM.

We'd got up on the Sunday morning. We'd had a good, hearty breakfast

and we'd decided to head back to London on our bikes.

Going up the A2, I think it was, the traffic was dreadful,

horrible, so we peeled off through the countryside and we had taken a wrong turn, had missed a turn

and we were trying to get back to London.

We ended up going through Bexley.

We had Dartford in our sites. We knew we were getting into London.

We were in pretty good spirits.

We were looking forward to finishing the ride with a beer,

getting on the train and getting home.

Just as we were getting into Bexleyheath,

there were some road calming, I guess you'd call them islands,

in the middle of the road.

I heard a screech of a tire behind me

and my immediate reaction was, "OK, I know what's happened.

"Somebody has tried to overtake one of the guys

"going into the traffic island."

The guy who was in front of me on the bike had nowhere to go,

so he basically shoved this guy onto the pavement, on his bike,

then stopped the car.

The guy who'd I suppose caused the incident had slapped

the side of the car as he was just about to be knocked off.

So the driver got out and had a few words with a cyclist who was

now trying to make his way up the pavement to get out of the way.

But he got back in the car accelerated hard enough

I think for the wheels to screech a bit.

As they came past me, they clipped my right hand with the wing mirror.

By this stage,

I'd decided it would be a good idea to turn on my helmet camera.

Oi!

So he stopped the car and is getting out and coming towards me.

And I'm thinking, "What's going to happen now?"

Wallop!

You can see from the expression on his face, he is consumed by rage.

He's completely out of control.

What worried me on the ground was they were going to start

kicking me because I was a soft target lying there.

But then he got back in the car and drove off.

I'm left sitting on the ground, thinking,

"That was rather a surprise for a nice day.

"And won't my wife be cross?!"

Over in a flash.

Quite stunning, really.

Totally outrageous. Totally out of order.

It makes you realise how vulnerable you are,

if you've got a bicycle between your legs.

The guy was just knocked straight to the ground

because you don't have the balance.

You know the driver is an idiot for the start off,

by the manoeuvre he's done.

What makes you think he's going to be any less of an idiot once

you've slapped his car?

I mean, that's just common assault. That's ridiculous.

What kind of cycling would make somebody do that?

Get out of the car, have a word,

maybe wave your arms around and do some shouting.

That's fine. That happens all the time on bikes.

What doesn't happen is people actually starting

to beat you in the head.

-Simon, do you want the police? Do you want the police? Yeah.

-Yes, please.

They do want the police to attend, yeah.

They've asked for the police to attend but no-one has called as yet.

Over.

When the police turned up, the memory card was handed over,

thinking there must be some fantastic evidence and detail there.

When the police traced the car,

it turned out the owner was not any of the people in the footage.

The investigation stalled.

At the point they decided they weren't going to pursue it

any more, I offered to assist them with their enquiries

and told them I was going to put the clip on YouTube.

That's when it got interesting.

Simon and Cormac aren't the only cyclists now taking matters

into their own hands.

Some, like the self-named Traffic Droid have taken a more

radical approach and have begun to use their helmet cameras

to police the situation themselves.

I see myself as a kind of guardian angel.

Other people see me as a vigilante.

I find that strange because I don't go out at night looking for

everybody committing traffic crimes,

like Batman or Superman or whatever it is!

It's only when things happen within my vicinity, next to me,

that I take action.

So I use the camera to trap bad drivers, name and shame them,

put them online and it'll act as a deterrent.

One of the most popular things I see happening every single day

is the mobile phone. I call that hot potato mobiles.

Because I catch them and then they drop the mobiles because it's hot.

It's a hot potato mobile.

On your mobile?

But there's a new category, iPads.

People are actually surfing the net while they're driving.

That's a mobile device.

That's crazy. And I decided I would create what you might call

a calling card.

HORN BLARES

What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?

What is the matter with you?

The calling card has a head shot of my helmet.

Check it out in 48 hours.

It also has my YouTube address.

They can look at themselves online so they can correct their ways.

Here, I'm driving to work normally, a good day, a normal day.

My positioning on the road is correct.

And out of the blue, this man overtakes and a truck cuts me in.

That freaks me out!

That really made me angry, in fact I said,

"Oh, my God, this guy could have killed me this morning."

Oh!

They've got no right to overtake him like that

but he's put himself in a position and he's chasing again.

Traffic Droid was born the moment I was knocked down,

coming up to three years now.

I was going down this T-junction.

Then suddenly the car coming ahead of me just turned right to me.

No warning whatsoever and I went flying.

That's when I realised I was human.

You know, I'm a human like anybody else.

And... started...

Sorry.

I'm sorry. The moment is still fresh.

I could have died that night, you know.

It still haunts me.

And I thought about people who are disabled at that point.

We've got to do something about this. It's madness.

Today, that annoys me.

That really annoys me stop simple things, simple traffic rules.

That's why I decided I've got to do something about this, using

media of YouTube, to get the message across because it has to be stopped.

There are so many people who get hurt.

People get killed, people get maimed. It has to stop.

That's why I created Traffic Droid.

That's why Traffic Droid came when I recovered.

Ohhh!

You almost took me out over there!

You almost knocked me down!

Check yourself out in 48 hours, please.

You know, I'm hoping here that he was going to give me an apology,

but he had a demonic look on his face and it was that moment I decided,

"You are not going... You are not getting away with it."

Usually I keep my cool...

..but I just couldn't believe people can behave like this.

You don't realise how close that was!

I'm telling you I'm going to report this to the police.

I have it on camera and I have your number.

I'm very, very angry at this point. Very, very angry.

Hey, you will hear from the police, I'm telling you.

I have video evidence, forwards and backwards, of your driving skills.

Your bosses will hear about it.

You hear me? Your bosses will hear about it.

'Even though, occasionally,

'you will turn around and give a driver a dirty look,'

actually stopping and banging on somebody's window -

what do you think will happen next? How do you think it will end?

Do you think the driver will get out and say,

"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't realise I cut you up.

"Here, shake my hand."

Come out! What are you going to do?

-Get yer fucking hands off me motor, you

-BLEEP!

-That's assault.

-Fuck off!

-That's assault.

'That is assault. That is assault.'

-Do you want to park?

-No.

-Do you want to park?

-Go on, then, you fucking

-BLEEP!

-There's no need to swear at me.

-Fuck off or I will run you over!

You will run me over? Everybody heard that. You idiot!

I still have this thought in my head, "Don't hit back."

You will hear from the police.

I'm so glad I have this restraint. It could have been very ugly.

You will hear from the cops!

'I could have taken this guy out,'

but, hey, it's not my style. I don't fight.

Traffic Droid sent his footage to the police.

No further action was taken.

But the clip became part of the war between cyclists and motorists,

which is increasingly being played out online.

Posting clips online has varying effects.

People can get a little bit annoyed.

You have to be thick-skinned and just ignore some things,

block people's comments because what you want to try and keep in there

is how can they look at their mistake,

and try and change what they did, so that next time they're better.

A lot of people said,

"Oh, you should have thrown that cab driver through the windscreen

"Oh, good on you, Gaz, for applauding."

I just don't get involved in that cesspit, if you like.

I think I decided almost right from the start that I wanted to

post it online and get people talking about them.

What was a complete revelation to me was how people reacted.

Once or twice a week, I would say,

I'd have people who would say they would love to see me

being squashed under a lorry or HGV's wheels,

or if they ever find me, they'll run me over.

I take it with a huge pinch of salt now,

but if I can find who they are, I'll point out to their employers, maybe,

what they're doing and what their opinions are.

Cynthia also took matters into her own hands

after her daughter was killed by a left-turning cement lorry.

She spent the months that followed

searching for the truth of what actually happened.

I hired a traffic investigator

and paid him to go through all the evidence.

I did spend a lot of time watching lorries,

watching how they manoeuvred on the road.

I spent a lot of time thinking about it.

I was absolutely driven by the desire to try and make sense of something

because it was just all so bizarre.

There's a cyclist coming up the inside now,

so I've got to watch him all the way through.

Another one hopped up the kerb.

He's a coming-by-train man, him,

and then gets his little bike off the train and rides to the office.

Trucks turning left - a very difficult manoeuvre.

He has to make, basically, a 90-degree turn.

There's a time in that turn when everything on the left

has disappeared because his mirrors can't cover out enough.

As I turn left, which I'm going to do now,

the corner becomes a pinch point.

If you was a cyclist there, you become closed in that gap,

and if there's a set of railings on the side,

or there's nowhere for you to jump up on the kerb...

He hasn't even noticed there's a lorry turning left!

..then you're under the lorry, really -

potentially fatal accident.

After reviewing the case,

the coroner concluded that Cynthia's daughter's death was accidental.

I just felt that I was somehow to blame for the way that

my daughter had been treated and I really was suicidal.

I decided that I was going to fight my daughter's corner.

She was dead but I wasn't.

I was still here and I'm still her mother,

and I was determined to fight her battles.

And I really began to be clear that

focusing on one case, one incident, one person,

was not the answer, because there were just so many others.

I thought if I want something to be done,

I need to put myself in a position of being able to make a demand,

and that was when I decided to buy shares in the company

that ran the lorry fleet - it was RMC then, Cemex now -

in order to give myself the right to go to their annual general meeting,

where I would have the opportunity to question the directors.

I'd never done anything like that in my life before.

I was terrified, absolutely terrified.

MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY

Cyclists' helmet camera footage is beginning to make a difference.

This clip led to a prosecution for careless driving.

Who the fuck are you?

You bastard!

And the posting of the Bexley punch clip online

would make a massive impact on that case.

Within a matter of weeks, there were a quarter of a million hits on it.

It just went viral, absolutely viral.

There were some amazing comments as well.

You know, some people were saying,

"A lawyer and a cyclist in one go - result!"

Interestingly, the guy who had attacked Simon

found himself being recognised in the street.

I believe, shortly after that,

he decided his best course of action would be

to hand himself in to the local police.

They charged him and he was subsequently convicted

of common assault and fined a total of about £600, I believe.

I think the outcome for him,

by being identified very publicly to his community through YouTube,

was a lot more severe than if

the police had actually caught him at the scene of the crime.

Now, you could say, is that justified,

in the case of somebody who gets out of a car and punches somebody?

"Do you think they deserve a little bit of public humiliation?"

I'll leave that up to you.

'The AGM was in a very grand hotel in West End.

'Lots of very affluent company kind of people,

'which was really intimidating and I just I thought,'

"I must be crazy!"

I was shaking.

But someone that I went with said that she would help me

and so, at the critical moment,

the friend who was with me pushed me up

and the microphone was handed to me and I thought,

"I can't stop now. I've got to see this through."

READING OF STATEMENTS OVERLAP

"My daughter was killed while she was cycling to work

"by a ready mix cement mixer lorry, making a left turn...

"The first point I wish to make concerns driver training

"and I have been in contact with...

"My second point concerns vehicle design...

"If there is anything at all you can do about any

"of the points I have raised, please do it in memory of my daughter."

There was complete silence at the end of it,

and then I went diving for the ladies' loo,

and one of the other shareholders followed me in, and said,

"You sent shivers running down my spine," and so I thought,

"Well, somebody's heard something, then."

In the week after she stood up at their AGM,

Cynthia was asked by the company to help improve their safety record,

a record that had seen them kill or seriously injure

one cyclist on average every year.

We started off with a driver training video.

We started putting signs on the back, extra indicators, extra mirrors,

and it was round about that time

that proximity sensors began to become available.

If I turn left like I am now,

it will pick up cyclists coming up on my left-hand side

and make me look in the mirror,

make me double-check that there's no problems down there.

I'm sure it's saved lives, absolutely positive it has saved lives.

Before all this stuff was done, the technology was fitted,

Cemex did say that they had

a fatality or a serious injury, or something every year,

At least one.

Now they don't.

Their lorries have stopped killing people

and that's a good enough recommendation for me,

but I now want other firms to do the same, so I can't stop yet.

BEEPS HORN

Fucking hell! What the fuck's up?!

It's a cycle fucking path!

As more and more cyclists film their every move,

we're getting a more detailed picture of life on Britain's roads.

-WOMAN:

-Oh, my God!

HORN BLARES

-MAN:

-Jesus Christ!

Nah, he's OK.

He almost died.

It's clear that everyone must take responsibility

if we are all to share such a crowded space.

CYCLIST YELLS

Fucking hell!

CYCLIST GROANS

-WOMAN:

-Why?!

All right, sit down, sit down.

You shouldn't have done that. You know this is a pathway.

RESIGNEDLY: This is a cycle pathway.

Ooh!

Oh, dear!

I'm sorry. This is one DUMB cyclist.

Definitely the cyclist's fault. He should have given warning.

But this is what happens on pavements every day.

Every day of the week.

TRAFFIC DROID: I've got him on camera.

I'll catch him up and tell him what he's done.

'I deal with cyclists as well,'

so I'll be seen as a traitor.

Hold it!

You jumped the lights over there. You don't do that again.

'I bet he felt very embarrassed after that,'

but we're all road users, and some cyclists really annoy me.

Not all cyclists jump red lights but, for some, it's a way of life.

Oh, my gosh!

What ABSOLUTE lunatics!

Races across cities, like this one in London,

are being organised by couriers to showcase their skills and speed.

I can understand the excitement they're after but, that said,

I'd probably feel like, "Oh, my God, I nearly died!

"I need to stop."

HORN BLARES

I wouldn't describe these as cyclists at all.

I'd just describe them as...

They're criminals, really. What they're doing IS criminal.

It's putting people's lives at risk.

Absolutely suicidal.

It's totally irresponsible. Completely irresponsible.

If a motorcyclist was riding like that, you'd want him strung up.

If they had a number plate, they wouldn't be doing that, would they?

HORNS BLARE

-MAN:

-Wanker!

Whilst I might admire the skill that these guys have -

they've got to have a certain amount of skill

to be able to do that and still be alive -

they're endangering themselves,

and I would feel so sorry for the poor soul

who maybe knocked one of these guys down,

cos they will have to deal with the guilt that they would have

from, you know, killing somebody.

They are doing more damage to other cyclists on the road

than they can possibly imagine.

I'm afraid my instant reaction to this is -

sometimes, getting out of your car

and punching cyclists in the head who do this

might be a good idea after all.

ALF: Not a copper in sight, look.

It gets my back up when I think cyclists are riding like that

and getting away with it, and other poor souls lose their lives

with some stupid act by some stupid car driver, you know.

Another cyclist coming up here.

Look at that - a kid sitting on the handlebars of a Boris bike!

How can I, as a driver, defend against something like that?

One wobble, one slip, they fall off - under my wheels.

Nothing I can do about it.

And I'd be left devastated afterwards.

My family and myself would probably go through

untold court appearances and stress,

all because somebody didn't take the responsibility

to use the bikes properly.

There are idiot drivers, there are idiot cyclists,

and they should all be punished to the full weight of the law.

It certainly is a competitive space when, actually,

it needs to be a co-operative space.

We all have responsibilities here.

I think if people were a bit nicer towards each other,

then the problem would be better,

but let's not expect too much of human nature.

Last year, 107 cyclists died on the roads in Britain.

Many of these deaths are now marked with a symbolic ghost bike.

Sadly, last August...

..on a lovely, hot Saturday afternoon...

..our lovely eldest grandson was knocked off his bike

and, nine times out of ten,

he would have broken his shoulder or hurt his arm, or hurt his leg,

but this tenth time out of ten,

it's killed him stone dead.

Terrible. Terrible.

I was always highly critical

about the behaviour of many cyclists in London,

but then since we lost Sam,

it's almost like the boot's been put on the other foot, so to speak.

You're leaning towards the cyclists,

there's sympathy towards the cyclists,

from what you've suffered, yeah?

Cyclists are not only to blame.

They're probably two-thirds to blame,

the government's to blame

and the mad car drivers are to blame as well,

cos the answer is don't drive a bloody car and don't drive a bike.

End of.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd