Is Cycling in London Safe? What 44,000 Collision Records Show

Cycling in London is safe for the overwhelming majority of journeys, and the danger that does exist is concentrated rather than spread evenly. In 2025, police recorded 5,599 collisions in Greater London in which a person cycling was injured. Six cyclists were killed. About one collision in five (21%) killed or seriously injured the rider. Most of that harm happens in a narrow set of places: 62% of collisions are on A roads, at least 70% are at or near a junction, and 57% of weekday collisions fall inside the two rush hours. Choose quieter streets and protected cycleways, and you remove most of the risk before you set off.

How many cyclists are injured in London each year?

Between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2025, Transport for London's collision records list 44,032 collisions in Greater London in which at least one cyclist was injured. That is an average of about 4,900 a year, or 13 a day. The lowest year was 2017 (4,486) and the highest was 2025 (5,599). Collisions that killed or seriously injured a cyclist rose from 684 in 2017 to 1,187 in 2025.

Two cautions before reading a trend into those bars. First, these are counts, not rates. Far more people cycle in London now than in 2017, so a higher count does not by itself mean each journey has become more dangerous. Second, these are police records. A collision that nobody reports never appears, and the line between a "slight" and a "serious" injury depends on how it was recorded at the time.

"All injuries" counts collisions in which a cyclist was injured. "Serious" counts those in which the cyclist was killed or seriously injured. "Deaths" counts cyclists killed.

Which roads are most dangerous for cyclists in London?

A roads. Of the 25,469 collisions that injured a cyclist between 2021 and 2025, 15,737 (62%) happened on an A road: the main arteries that carry buses, lorries and the heaviest traffic. Unclassified streets, which make up most of London's residential network, account for 4,501 (18%). C roads account for 11% and B roads for 9%. The same split holds for the worst outcomes: 3,203 of the 5,135 collisions that killed or seriously injured a cyclist were on A roads.

This is the single most useful fact for anyone planning a ride. A roads are a small part of London's street network and carry most of the harm. A route that swaps a main road for the parallel back street, a park path or a protected cycleway avoids the roads where three in five collisions happen. It usually costs a few minutes. That trade is what SuperSafe™ routing makes for you automatically.

Are junctions more dangerous than the road between them?

Yes, by count. At least 70% of collisions that injured a cyclist between 2021 and 2025 happened at or within 20 metres of a junction. T junctions and staggered junctions are the most common site by far, with 10,436 collisions (41%), followed by crossroads with 4,159 (16%).

The collisions that happen away from junctions are fewer but worse. 24% of them killed or seriously injured the cyclist, against 21% at T junctions and 20% at crossroads. Speeds are higher between junctions, and a collision at speed does more damage. Switch the chart to "Share serious" to see the ranking flip.

When is it most dangerous to cycle in London?

On weekdays, in the rush hours. The hour from 8am is the worst of the week, and the evening peak from 5 to 7pm is nearly as bad. Together, 7 to 10am and 4 to 8pm account for 57% of weekday collisions that injure a cyclist. At weekends the spikes disappear and collisions follow the shape of a day out, building through the morning to a peak around midday.

Rush hour is when the most people are riding, so more collisions are expected. But it is also when the roads are fullest and patience is shortest. We compared these hours with when people actually ride in When does London cycle?, and the morning rush stands out: it carries a bigger share of collisions than of rides.

Where in London are cyclists hurt most?

Collisions cluster in the centre. Eight boroughs (Westminster, Southwark, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Hackney, Camden and Islington) recorded half of all collisions that injured a cyclist between 2021 and 2025. We rank all 33 in Cycling collisions in London, borough by borough. The map below shows every collision since 2025 in which a cyclist was killed or seriously injured. Pan, zoom and tap a point for the detail.

How to make your own rides safer

The data points to a short list of choices that matter more than any piece of kit.

1. Stay off A roads where a quieter option exists. They carry 62% of the collisions. There is nearly always a parallel street.
2. Prefer protected cycleways and low traffic neighbourhoods. Both take motor traffic away from you at the junctions, where at least 70% of collisions happen.
3. Treat every side road on a main road as a hazard. T junctions are the most common collision site in London.
4. Give rush hour extra care, or shift your ride by half an hour if you can. The hour from 8am is the worst of the week.
5. Plan the route before you ride it. A route you have looked at is one where you are not making decisions in traffic.

Notes and sources

• Collision data: Transport for London road-collision records, which are compiled from police reports. We counted collisions in Greater London between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2025 in which at least one casualty was travelling by pedal cycle. "Killed or seriously injured" means the cyclist was, not just anyone involved. Breakdowns by road, junction, hour and borough cover 2021 to 2025.
• What the data cannot tell you: how many people were cycling. Without that, a count cannot be turned into a risk per journey, and we have not tried. Transport for London publishes cycling volumes and casualty rates in its road safety reports.
• Junction figures treat "within 20 metres of a junction" as at a junction, following the police record. About 8% of records do not state a junction type, so 70% is a floor.
• Method: counts were aggregated by Cyclemate on 19 September 2026 from the same dataset that powers the collision layer on our London map. We will update this page when a new year of data is published.