Delivery cyclists run red lights or use pavements to avoid losing income, claims Deliveroo rider

Delivery cyclists break laws such as running red lights and using pavements to avoid losing income, and would quit if rules were enforced by the police, a Deliveroo rider in Edinburgh tells Scotland on Sunday.

The rider says: "I do not have any issue with laws, and as a recreational club cyclist, I feel some obligation to not give cyclists a bad name and fuel anti-cyclist attitudes held by many motorists. Riding for Deliveroo, I have the opposite mindset.

“If every road law was to be followed, it could easily add five minutes to a delivery, which would cut my income by 20 per cent. My normal ‘Roo’ daytime income averages £10-12 per hour. To reduce that by 20 per cent is therefore not realistic. Most Roo cyclists will, like me, not follow all road laws.

“A delivery rider will have a different attitude to the rules from a recreational cyclist. I don’t think most care about the law or what anyone else’s opinion of their cycling is. In 99 per cent of breaches, no third party suffers any kind of inconvenience.

Riding on pavements, the wrong way on one-way streets and through red lights are the main laws broken by the Edinburgh Deliveroo rider

“Running a red light can be exceptionally dangerous, particularly taking an amber gamble just as lights are changing to red. There are, however, numerous times when there are no cars in sight and riding through a red light is safe and has zero effect on any other party. If the light is on the green man and there are no pedestrians, there is again no impact on anyone.

“Other than being safer than riding up a one-way street the wrong way, I will use the pavement to avoid cobbles, especially when wet. Cobbles in many parts of Edinburgh are not properly maintained, very uneven and rather unsafe.

“Breaking a lot of rules will, I have no doubt at all, be a safer alternative. It will enable distances to be shortened and some major busy and dangerous junctions avoided all together. The downside would be the rider may put themselves at more risk. If the police were able to force delivery riders to follow every rule, many I imagine would pack it in.”