I hit a Ford Focus once and spent a week with the imprint of my glove on my knuckles.

I’ve hit the door mirrors on two cars hard enough to fold them back the wrong way, to the shock of one driver who’s car was impinging into my cycle lane, who crawled past me then just stopped for no clear reason, which meant my knuckles clouted her mirror with quite a bang.
Fortunately I was wearing Oakley Factory Pilot gloves, which have carbon fibre knuckle protectors.
Highly recommended, or Mechanix gloves are available with similar, just the thing for close-quarter traffic jousting. 😉

Mr Woppit, you do have to watch that junction, the left lane is marked as being able to turn right from.

As for Parliament Square that someone mentioned earlier, I dont’t mind that as if you get in the lane you want it’s easy to stay there.

I don’t like Northumberland Avenue eastbound from Trafalgar Sq, always a race between two lanes to get into one from the lights.

When I did my Bikeability (in Paddington) the instructor made a great suggestion about riding safely in London – pick your route.
Some junctions are designed very poorly – find a route away from them and you manage a lot of the risk out of your journey.
I now avoid Parliament Square and Westminster by going over Lambeth Bridge and round the back through Victoria to Buck House… much more peaceful…

FWIW when I was commuting from Bromley earlier this year the aggression from drivers was far worse there than it is in central London.

I cycle commuted through London for 9 years luckily with only 1 minor accident, i think as long as you ride assertively, take up the lane when necessary and move into position for turning nice and early then generally you will get by ok. I also tried to avoid being on the inside of any high sided vehicle like the plague… 20 seconds off my day is way better than a ride in an ambulance. That’s not to say i didn’t have my fair share of near misses when either a) i was being a nob ( i learned to ride a little slower and improve my positioning to be safer) or b) buses / addison lee were being complete to$$ers.

If you think london is bad, you should try Sydney. I have been here 3 months and have been sideswiped, sworn at and nearly taken out at roundabouts (whilst on them and other cars flying onto them). Also half of sydney roads seem to be at least 3 lanes wide and full of double length articulated lorries. Proper scary…

I don’t think I’ve ever cycled that way over Southwark Bridge, but have never had any problems on either London Bridge or Tower Bridge. I do prefer the former though as it means I can drop back down onto the street the OP was trying to get on with no right turning required.

As above.. I’m happy to cycle in London but yes – picking your route is essential, and unfortunately you can’t really tell from looking at Google Maps (although you can to some extent). Some places are bedlam, some are a breeze. And some are both at different times of day.

That’s why there are so many ‘how to get from A to B in London’ threads on here, and you always get useful sensible advice because it’s always a good question, not a stupid one.

out of townersPrivate Cars – because they shouldn’t be driving in central London, and they need to understand its a different world down here, and their petty little small town aggression towards people “not like them”, doesn’t go down well.

FIFY