The full threat posed to pedestrians by dangerous and illegal cycling in the country’s best-known parks can be revealed by The Telegraph for the first time.
The Royal Parks, which runs eight London parklands, has released a dossier of collision data showing how the elderly, the partially sighted and children have been knocked down and injured by cyclists.
The file, released under freedom of information laws, logs “speeding” and “aggressive” cyclists being involved in hit-and-runs, ignoring zebra crossings, travelling on illegal bikes and hitting pedestrians so hard they are “catapulted” into the air.
Richmond Park and Regent’s Park, which cycling clubs use to record lap speeds, were reported as having the highest number of incidents.
The document includes how Brian Fitzgerald, a Credit Suisse director, collided with Hilda Griffiths, 81, as she walked her dog in Regent’s Park in 2022, causing “life-changing injuries”.
The Muswell Hill Peloton cyclist, riding at 29mph in a 20mph zone, could not be prosecuted because speed limits do not apply to bikes. Mrs Griffiths died two months later from her injuries.
The dossier shows another pedestrian suffered two broken ribs after being hit by a cyclist “doing laps” after he failed to “look properly” when crossing a nearby road a few months earlier.
Last year, a cyclist reported feeling “unsafe” because peloton cyclists were “riding on his wheel”.
However, the file is not exhaustive and does not include Paola Dos Santos, 52, who suffered severe facial injuries when hit by a cyclist on the wrong side of the road.
‘Not road legal’
In Richmond Park in February, a cyclist on a fixed-wheel bike struck a pedestrian “at speed” on a “busy” path with a 10mph speed limit. The bike, which had no front brake, is banned in the parks and “not road legal”, the file says.
In August, a pedestrian was taken to hospital with “multiple serious injuries to arm, head and hip” by a “speeding cyclist” who then “fled the scene”.
The file includes a letter from a runner who said he would no longer visit the park because “it is becoming so dangerous”.
He added: “I’ve on four occasions nearly been hit by a speeding bike. It’s all well and good saying pedestrians have priority but it’s clear that many cyclists (not all of course) are not adhering to this rule.”
In January, a cyclist was attacked by another cyclist who was “throwing punches and kicking them on the ground”.
In the past four years, Richmond Park had numerous reports of cyclists going “at least 30mph”, “full pelt” or “out of control”.
In 2020, a partially sighted pedestrian was “knocked to the ground” by a cyclist who had his “head down because of the wind”. A “very fast” cyclist “on the wrong side of the road crashed head-on into another cyclist”.
In Hyde Park in September, a pedestrian was “thrown to the ground” suffering face, wrist and knee injuries after being “struck” by a cyclist near the Serpentine. A year earlier, a pedestrian was taken to hospital suffering dizziness after being “hit” by a Lime bike near Speakers’ Corner.
In Kensington Gardens this July, a child was found “bleeding a lot” after being “badly hit by a teenager riding an electric Lime bike” near the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground .
Since the summer of 2020, there have been reports of “near misses” near Kensington Palace, where bikes are banned.
A Royal Parks volunteer was “knocked down” and left “shaken” because the cyclist “was shouting and being generally aggressive”.
In St James’s Park a pedestrian was hit by a cyclist who “failed to stop at a red signal” – police were called. Then, close to the Mall, a cyclist among a group of 30 “collided with a pedestrian” who “sustained a head injury”.
In Bushy Park, a cyclist repeatedly rode their bike into a herd of deer, “causing them to stampede” and scaring other visitors.
Gerard Griffiths, the son of Hilda Griffiths, said the dossier illustrated the “alarming attitude of some cyclists”, adding how he fears many more incidents go unreported.
He welcomed the Royal Parks’ request to ministers to try to find a legal route to make the parks’ 20mph speed limits apply to cyclists.
A source at the Department for Culture Media and Sport, which has Government responsibility for the parks, said: “We have received a proposal to improve safety for park users from the Royal Parks and are considering it.”
A Royal Parks spokesman said although cycling has a “deep-rooted history” in the city’s parklands, “the speeds that can now be achieved when cycling in such populated spaces bring new challenges that we are committed to addressing”.
She added that the charity had reviewed its policies following “several cycling-related incidents linked to a minority of people cycling at excessive speeds” and had “implemented physical changes in the parks, including larger or wider pedestrian paths, additional crossing points to improve pedestrian safety and additional signage”.
She continued: “The parks are shared spaces where pedestrians, cyclists and wildlife coexist, and we have a responsibility to all park users to ensure we are acting in a way that protects and promotes their safety. We continue to work closely with cycling groups, community groups and the Met Police to do all we can to ensure the parks can be enjoyed safely by everyone, now and in the future.”
