Cyclists are still riding Putney’s pavements and running red lights. Even the cycling lobby calls pedestrian safety the elephant in the room

Cyclists are still riding on Putney’s pavements and screaming at pedestrians who ask them to be careful, two more readers have told Putney.news.

Sally James, who has lived in the area for 50 years, said riders on fast, modified bikes weave through traffic and ride two or three abreast on Lower Richmond Road. They are “really unpleasant” to anyone who tries to pass, she said. She cycles and drives herself. “I beg someone to try and do something about it because it can only end in tragedy,” she said.

Another reader, and cyclist, who wishes to remain anonymous said a rider on a Lime hire bike went through a red light and almost hit him one evening late last year. He was wheeling his bike across Putney High Street at the Putney Bridge Road junction. When he challenged him, the rider “countered that I was wrong as he was on a bike”, he said.

Their accounts follow that of Marcus Ramsdale, who told us this month he was punched by a cyclist who had just gone through a red light on Upper Richmond Road. Since August, readers have reported riders going through red lights, riding on pavements and turning on pedestrians who they consider are in their way.

It is not just a Putney problem, it is happening across London, but open discussion of the issue and what to do about it is still limited. Simon Munk of the London Cycling Campaign, which campaigns for cyclists in London, told the news site The Londoner this week that pedestrians are the “elephant in the room” in conversations about road safety.

“We’re just a much more vocal lobby,” he said. “There seems to be a level of outrage about cycling fatalities, and there should be. But the same is also surely the case for pedestrians.” He added that “no-one talks about it”.

But things are changing and Wandsworth Council is leading the way. This month it approved new rules for hire bikes that now require the companies that run them to penalise riders who ride on pavements or go through red lights. Under the council’s Fair Use Charter, adopted this month, they must run “a clear and visible” system of penalties, with suspensions and permanent bans for repeat offenders. They must also advertise how to report poor riding.

The council has committed to publishing figures every month on complaints, penalties and fines, so complaints about hire bikes will now be counted in public. It will pass complaints it receives to the companies the same day or the next.

We are asking readers to report every incident, especially on hire bikes, so that it is counted.

How to report dangerous riding

The council’s e-bike page gives no email address or form for reporting dangerous riding, only a form for badly parked bikes. We have asked the council which route residents should use.

The simplest way is our form below. It works for hire bikes and private bikes: tell us where and when it happened and what happened, and add a photo if you have one. We will ask your permission before passing anything on. If the form does not work for you, email postbox@putney.news.

For a hire bike, report it to the company as well, with the number on the bike’s frame, the place and the time:

• Lime: 0800 808 5223, wandsworth@li.me
• Forest: 020 8157 7491, londonops@humanforest.co.uk
• Voi: 0808 501 5724, support@voi.com or report.voi.com

For a badly parked bike, use the council’s online form.

If you were hurt, or a crime was committed, report it to the Metropolitan Police on 101 or online. In an emergency, call 999.

What else is changing

A new council team is patrolling the borough, watching known hotspots and removing badly parked bikes. Last month police checked 30 e-bikes and scooters at the foot of Putney High Street in one day and seized 19 of them.

A law passed in April makes Transport for London (TfL) the licensing authority for hire bikes across the capital, replacing each borough’s separate deals with the companies. The rules TfL needs to use those powers have yet to be written.

Cars still cause most of the harm to pedestrians, according to Helen Cansick, who heads TfL’s healthy streets unit. “There’s a lot of heat on the cyclist-pedestrian interface at the minute, but we have to look at the data and it is cars causing most of those casualties,” she told The Londoner.

But the share involving bikes has doubled since 2017, to more than 9% of London pedestrians killed or seriously injured in 2025, according to official figures.

In Wandsworth, a bicycle was the only vehicle involved in 7.1% of pedestrian injuries from 2017 to March this year. Across London the figure was 5.3%. Over that time four pedestrians were hurt by bicycles on Lower Richmond Road and five on Putney High Street, official records show. Near misses like those readers describe are not recorded.

Sally James, the resident who complained to us this week, wants every e-bike to carry a visible number plate, riders to be insured, and a test before anyone rides on the road.

Hire bikes already carry a number on the frame that the company can trace to the rider but they are not visible except under close inspection. The charter also requires the companies to provide insurance covering anyone a rider hurts. Private bikes carry no number, and stopping riders on pavements and through red lights would take four public bodies agreeing to act.

Reports sent to us will be put to the council, the hire-bike companies and the police. The council’s monthly figures will show how many complaints it receives.