CyclingMikey: ‘I don’t hate bad drivers – I hate the bad behaviours’
"It’s not cyclists versus drivers,” says cycle safety campaigner
Friday, 18th August 2023 — By Anna Lamche
CyclingMikey this week [Mike van Erp]
WHEN Mike van Erp was just 19 years old, his father was killed by a drunk behind the wheel.
The experience has given Mr van Erp “that little bit of steel” in his crusade against dangerous driving.
Better known as CyclingMikey to his almost 100,000 YouTube subscribers, since 2006 he has been a thorn in the side of dangerous drivers across the capital.
He records bad behaviour using a camera attached to his helmet or his bicycle.
When he captures examples of bad driving, he uploads them online, and reports the drivers to the police.
He can often be found on Camden’s streets, and in particular around Regent’s Park.
Mr van Erp said: “Criminology tells us that people’s perception of being caught is what stops people offending in the first place… I don’t think making [penalties] more serious does any good. Increasing the chance of people being caught is what will change people’s behaviour.”
While phone use is “the biggest” problem Mr van Erp sees among drivers, other issues include drivers passing through red lights, close passes, and “other forms of driving without due care and attention, like not giving way”.
He has reported more than 1,000 offences to the police since he started keeping records in 2019. Many of these cases end up in the courts, resulting in prosecutions.
Mr van Erp is not put off by the abuse, legal challenges and road rage he faces on the roads.
“I can tolerate it because of my character – I did a lot of extreme sports, and I don’t back down easily.
“People definitely get aggressive about driving, particularly when you call someone out for their driving – it’s the worst insult you could give to anyone. At least that’s how it’s taken. But if somebody doesn’t step up, who will? Things will just get worse,” he said.
Mr van Erp isn’t the only one recording his journeys. “I think there are tens of thousands of cyclists running cameras and hundreds of thousands of drivers running dashcams… it’s not cyclists versus drivers,” he said.
“I don’t see this as a battle on drivers, I don’t hate drivers, I don’t even hate the people I catch. What I hate are the bad behaviours – if they can change the bad behaviours, I don’t have any problems with them.”
Mr van Erp, who is Dutch but grew up in Zimbabwe, has called for better cycling infrastructure, an increased police presence, and citizen reporting.
He said: “I think all the funding should be going towards proper Dutch-quality infrastructure, because that’s what will get everybody cycling. You can see things are getting better… but there’s still some way to go.
“We definitely need more police – this is even outside of the road safety issue, it’s everything – the police have been massively defunded, numbers have been reduced, the same for back office staff and the same for the CPS… without getting political, it’s been successive governments that have done that… I do think more policing will help.
“I also think that more citizen reporting will help. I believe in the last year [thousands of] prosecutions started based on people reporting stuff.”
He spends many hours reporting drivers and attending courts. But just crossing a busy road with his children is enough to keep him committed to his campaign.
“When I was 19, my dad was killed by a drunk driver. That just adds that little bit of steel when I get tired and bored of doing the horrible admin work,” he said. “I detest paperwork [but] I understand what it would mean for somebody else to have to go through that, and that’s my motivation for not giving up so easily on reporting drivers.”