In the daze that followed his head-on smash, Ben Williams’ first instinct was to apologise to the food delivery rider whose battery had detached from his e-bike on impact.
Watching the rider struggle to reattach it, he thought for a moment he must be to blame.
Sharp pains shot up his back, but he assured the courier he was OK.
Only when the rider, dressed in black with the trademark square food bag on his back, carried on his way did he reflect that the collision was entirely this man’s fault.
Safety last: A delivery worker cycling among pedestrians on a pavement in Glasgow
PhD student Mr Williams, 24, had been cycling home from work in Glasgow’s Tradeston when he rounded a right-hand bend on the two-way cycle path and slammed into the electric-powered bike coming towards him.
Mr Williams was on the correct side for his direction of travel. The e-bike rider must have been on the wrong one. A more shocking realisation awaited.
Arriving home in severe pain, he went to the toilet and the blood in his urine told him he had an internal injury.
He went to A&E at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and was there for the next four nights.
‘They diagnosed me with a grade three renal injury, which is where you have a larger than one centimetre laceration on your kidney,’ he told the Mail.
The blunt force of hitting his back on the kerb – or a bollard lining the cycle path – had produced the tear in the organ.
He returned to his parents’ home in Manchester to recuperate, his PhD work was delayed and he was unable to ride his bike for two months.
Mr Williams’ crash last October may be attributed by some to bad luck – a regrettable encounter with a rogue rider flouting the Highway Code for who knows what reason.
The problem with that view – as a growing backlash against food delivery cyclists on fat-tyred moped-like contraptions makes plain – is the rogue riders are everywhere.
It is only a matter of time, many believe, before they are the cause of still more serious accidents – even deaths.
The issue is readily apparent for anyone regularly using Scottish city centre roads and pavements.
They will know that e-bike riders carrying food bags for outfits such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats use both types of thoroughfare.
Many think nothing of weaving through crowded footpaths if it suits their journeys or avoids waiting at traffic lights.
In the space of an hour spent delivery rider-watching in Glasgow city centre, the Mail witnessed two e-bikers threading through pedestrians on a Gordon Street pavement, a Deliveroo rider mounting the kerb on St Vincent Street and almost colliding with two pedestrians, a rider with an unmarked backpack on the pavement on Argyle Street and a Just Eat rider in the same area veering onto the pavement instead of waiting at a red light.
On George Square a distracted Uber Eats rider had one hand on the handlebars and in the other held his phone – while on Wellington Street, which is one-way, another rider careered up the pavement against the flow of traffic and nearly collided with pedestrians.
Little wonder Mr Williams and organisations campaigning for safer streets say a crackdown is urgently required.
Cycling Scotland wants the companies contracting the riders to take more responsibility both for training and ensuring the vehicles used are safe and legal. Many are neither.
Last weekend in Glasgow police seized 12 illegal e-bikes which had been modified to allow them to go at high speeds. Their owners were charged with road traffic offences.
Others, say police, have not been modified but are classed by law as mopeds. They must be registered, insured and taxed and the rider will need an appropriate driving licence and must wear an approved safety helmet.
According to the law, electrically assisted pedal cycles (EAPCs) – which assist the rider only up to 15.5mph – can be used in all the same places ordinary bicycles can.
But a bike which continues to assist the rider beyond 15.5mph, or does not require pedalling at all, falls into the same category as a fuel-powered moped.
Yet in the present, highly confused set-up, these are being ridden by some as e-bikes – often on pavements – by delivery contractors with no helmet and none of the necessary paperwork.
Cycling Scotland stresses it has no issue with electric bikes, which bring benefits to all ages and make cycling more accessible.
Safety: Cycling Scotland’s Simon Bradshaw wants checks on bikes
But these, it says, should not be confused with illegal bikes ridden by delivery drivers.
‘Electric bikes are legal where they have a pedal-assist motor, maximum power output of 250 watts and the electrical assistance must cut off at 15.5mph,’ said a spokesman.
‘Enforcement of existing laws against illegally modified bikes can help, but the solution needs to involve greater responsibility being taken by delivery companies to ensure their riders are not using illegal modified bikes, such as having throttles.’
He added: ‘Delivery companies also need to take rider safety seriously, including providing training on cycling safety, observing the law and Highway Code.’
The organisation’s road safety manager Simon Bradshaw, formerly Police Scotland’s deputy head of road policing, told the BBC: ‘A simple thing would be, are companies actually checking the bikes the riders are using to make sure that they are legal?
‘If the riders are given effective training around safety, if their bikes are checked to make sure they are legal and roadworthy and if they’re given effective training and support and the right safety equipment, I’m sure it would make a difference.’
Others believe a review of the laws around e-bikes is overdue – and that they should all be classed as mopeds.
In August, a meeting of residents in Glasgow’s Garnethill heard the biggest problem for pedestrians in the area was lawless cyclists – normally on e-bikes.
Some said they were too afraid to venture on to Sauchiehall Street as pedestrians because nowhere on the thoroughfare was safe from e-bikes. A woman told of her
90-year-old mother being knocked to the ground by one.
‘We’re looking for the governments to actually try and find a way to have these bikes classed as a motorbike,’ said the area’s Neighbourhood Watch chairman Bill Beckett at the time.
‘And we’d like to see every individual who is using these e-bikes go through a test on the bikes, like a driving test, prior to its use and be licensed.
‘These bikes are actually motorised and they can go at a fair pace, up to about 30mph, and due to the fact the wheels are really thick they can cause some serious damage if they hit somebody.’
There are widespread calls for Police Scotland to crack down harder on the rogue e-bikers – and the familiar lament that there are too few beat officers to deal with them.
Scottish Police Federation general secretary David Kennedy made that point on BBC Radio Scotland days ago – and highlighted the difficulty of spotting an illegal bike on the street.
‘How do you tell just by looking at a bike how fast it is or the power of it?’ he asked.
On the evidence of recent seizures, progress is being made.
‘We have been carrying out joint patrols with officers from the local problem solving team in Glasgow city centre in response to complaints and incidents,’ Inspector Hugh Niccolls told the Mail.
‘Our focus is on educating riders on safety and legislative requirements, as well as using action where necessary.’
He added: ‘Over the weekend we seized 15 e-bikes and e-scooters as well as reporting more than 20 people for various road traffic offences.’
In one incident this week, Police Scotland officers saw an e-bike rider with an orange food delivery bag failing to stop at a red light at a pedestrian crossing.
When questioned, the rider was found to be in the UK illegally. He was arrested and reported to UK immigration.
How carefully are riders and their bikes vetted, then? Deliveroo, which is recruiting riders, provides information for prospective deliverers using e-bikes.
It says they will need their own vehicle, safety equipment – such as a helmet – which the company can supply, a smart phone, proof of their right to work in the UK and be aged 18 or over.
It points out that motorised vehicles require the appropriate insurance.
E-bikes, however, are not inspected as a matter of course. Every rider, it says, is required to complete a programme of road safety guidance and, where it discovers an illegally modified bike in use, the rider’s contract will be terminated.
The attraction for these riders is they can work when they choose.
They use a phone app to determine which orders require delivery from which outlets, then accept the one suiting them best.
E-bikes help them carry out more orders during their working hours, which means they earn more.
Is this the motivation, too, for jumping red lights or riding on pavements to avoid them?
Mr Bradshaw of Cycling Scotland, certainly, believes the disregard for the rules of the road is ‘incentivised’.
Other considerations, perhaps, incentivise them to dress almost entirely in black and wear hoods or even balaclavas, making the identification of rogue riders almost impossible.
It is all a far cry from the minimum ‘kit’ requirements for Deliveroo, for example, which stipulate reflective jackets with ‘flash material’ to identify key parts of the body, phone mounts and helmets in good condition.
The company points out all this is available to riders from its ‘kit store’.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the rider on the wrong side of the cycle path who smashed into Ben Williams was dressed completely in black and, if he was using lights at all, they were too dim to be spotted. ‘They’re a bit outrageous and completely oblivious to any sort of rules,’ said Mr Williams.
‘They seem to have no consideration for anyone else, any other road user or pedestrian, or even their own safety at times.
‘It’s absolutely crazy the number of times I’ve seen one almost get hit because they have decided to go through a red light or they’ve decided to cut off a driver.’
Today he is ultra-conscious of delivery riders on e-bikes and gives them the widest of berths.
‘I just clear out of their way because I know they’re probably not going to move. What I see is a lot of throttle-controlled bikes.
‘You can just put the throttle up to full and not even have to pedal, so they are operating them like mopeds and they should be treated like a moped.
They should have registration plates and insurance on them as well.’
Now fully recovered, Mr Williams said he never cycles without a helmet. In contrast, the food delivery squad are rarely seen with them. Nevertheless, the delivery companies the Mail spoke to all highlighted their safety ethos.
‘Road safety is a priority for Deliveroo,’ said a spokesman. ‘We condemn the use of illegal e-bikes and support Police Scotland in tackling this issue.
‘During the onboarding process, every rider completes a programme of road safety guidance and can order hyper-visible safety equipment designed to ensure they are visible to all road users.’
He added: ‘All our riders are required to meet minimum safety standards and, as with all road users, they must follow all local traffic laws and road regulations.’
Just Eat said safety is ‘very important to us’ and guidance is provided to food outlets and couriers.
A spokesman said: ‘If we are ever made aware that a courier delivering on our behalf has acted in a way that does not uphold the standards we hope to deliver, we will of course take action.’
There is a code of conduct for riders delivering Just Eat meals and zero tolerance of criminal behaviour. Of the more than 86,000 outlets operating on its platform, most employ their own couriers but self-employed contractors operate for those who do not.
An Uber spokesman said: ‘The safety of our customers, couriers and the general public is a top priority for Uber Eats.
We expect couriers to adhere to all applicable laws and regulations.’
Uber Eats does not penalise couriers for being too slow – and if they are found to be delivering meals faster than expected for a bicycle or an e-bike, they are required to ‘verify’ their vehicle.
Robust defences, then, from the three main contractors of fast food riders. And yet, as a visit on any day to Scotland’s busiest city centres would surely illustrate, the rules are routinely broken with impunity. Which will come first – reform or tragedy?
Additional reporting by Cameron Roy