Map shows London cycle routes labelled unsafe after dark for women

Women have shared the barriers they face while cycling, including gendered abuse and avoiding certain routes after dark. Cycling should be about freedom, but the joy of riding is often ruined for women and many feel forced to avoid London canals, underpasses and parks when the sun sets. Two cyclists talked about road violence they have faced when riding in the capital ahead of the London Cycling Campaign Women’s network protest ride in the dark tomorrow.

A retired nurse was told to ‘get out of my way you f****** old cow’ by a van driver after he almost crashed into her, while another rider was told ‘you can f*** off and suck your mother’ when riding her bike. It comes after cycling campaigners have found that almost a quarter of TfL’s Cycleway network is ‘socially unsafe’ after dark. Almost a quarter of the 219-mile London Cycleway network was found to be ‘socially unsafe’ after dark, the London Cycling Campaign found when its volunteers assessed the routes during nighttime rides against a set of criteria.

The report said: ‘For part of the day and year these Cycleways are effectively unusable for most people, with women and girls being. disproportionately affected. A swathe of London Cycleways was labelled socially unsafe, meaning places where there is a risk of harm from other people, the campaigners said. The LCC riders looked at what kind of an area the route was on such as by a railway, industrial areas, overgrown vegetation, within a park or on a towpath or river.

Each route was also scored for its features, such as whether there were reports of antisocial behaviour, blind corners or ‘ambush points,’ feeling neglected, lack of an escape route or poor lighting. ‘While many of these routes are valuable for leisure cycling during summer months, and should continue to be. enjoyed as cycle routes, they are not inclusive enough to be classified as Cycleways, part of London’s core, strategic cycle network.’.

The campaigners urged TfL, councils and police to make leisure routes safer with more CCTV and lighting in underpasses, isolated areas and crime hotspots. To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro's London news hub. Nevin Sunderji, 58, from Hounslow, said how he was left feeling ‘sick’ after an encounter with a threatening driver in 2018. When riding on Kensington High Street to her job in Farringdon, a driver decided to suddenly switch lanes close to Nevin on the junction near St Mary Abbots Church. The two locked eyes before the driver suddenly put his window down.

The male driver with ‘Jamaican flags all over his car’ told Nevin ‘you are behaving like you own the road, why don’t you suck your mother’ along with other expletives. ‘He was on a roll. It made me feel sick,’ the travel consultant and cycling teacher told Metro. She continued: ‘It happened so quickly and out of the blue. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong – I know how to cycle on the road. I was in the correct lane, I wasn’t riding erratically and I didn’t even ring the bell.

‘All I did was to look into the car, see and be seen, to make sure he could see me.’. She said the situation made her ‘feel unsafe’ and has stayed with her since. ‘I started crying when I got to work. It’s never happened to me before,’ Nevin said. Nevin said she avoids alleys on a bike and on foot even if it is a ‘shortcut home.’. ‘I don’t like cycling in the dark through Hounslow. Nothing’s happened but I just feel like ‘nah, not going to do that,’ she said.

Julia Manteghi, 72, a retired nurse from Brent, was enjoying a regular ride just after the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns when ‘a van close passed me and then tried to cut me up.’ Shocked from the near miss, she ‘shouted’ and said ‘you cut me up.’. On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a year-long campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women. Throughout the year we will be bringing you stories that shine a light on the sheer scale of the epidemic.

With the help of our partners at Women's Aid, This Is Not Right aims to engage and empower our readers on the issue of violence against women. You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk. Read more:. The driver, a man in his 20s, then leaned out of his window and said ‘get out of my way you f****** old cow.’. She told Metro: ‘As an older woman you don’t pick fights with people like that. I didn’t realitate. What can you do? You have no hope in hell.

‘I did very much feel threatened, because he used his car against me. I don’t want to get knifed or punched. It’s that sense of self entitlement to feel he had ownership of the road. ‘I frequently get told move over and I regularly get hooted at. Drivers do not appreciate that cyclists can’t go right next to parked cars.’. Julia, who has cycled in London since she was 18 and does so five days a week, said she avoids certain routes after dark, including ‘deserted’ and ‘unlit’ off-road paths and underpasses.