Number of cyclists convicted for breaking rules more than doubles, official figures show

The number of cyclists found guilty of ignoring traffic signs has more than doubled since 2010, government figures reveal.

Altogether 125 were convicted of "neglect for traffic directions" in 2014 – the latest year recorded by the data – compared with 52 four years previously.

The UK-wide figures were released by transport minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon in a letter to a Labour peer.

Their publication followed a Lords debate in which the minister said he used to often claim that “the biggest challenge for a commuter in London was avoiding not trucks and cars but the cyclists who were possibly jumping red lights or riding on the pavements”.

First published by the Times, the figures also showed the number of cyclists found guilty in a magistrates’ court of careless driving has risen from 85 to 96 between 2010 and 2014. Successful convictions for riding on a footpath stayed level at about 280 over the same period.

More people are cycling in London than ever before, with journeys up five per cent in 2014 to 610,000 a day, or 23 million a year, according to Transport for London.

After a series of cycling deaths at the end of 2013, the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Safeway on the capital’s roads. Thousands of fines were issued to cyclists and driver under the crackdown.