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This is the most hated man in the whole of the UK. He terrorizes daily drivers, from big celebrities to everyday hardworking people like you and me. Get on.
Investigating Cycling Mikey, UK's most hated man, who films and reports illegal driving in London to police, sparking controversy and debate.
Key Takeaways
- Citizen-led video evidence is increasingly used to enforce traffic laws in the UK.
- Distracted driving, especially mobile phone use, is a major cause of serious road injuries and deaths.
- Vigilante enforcement can provoke strong public backlash and personal risk.
- Police rely on witnesses and video evidence amid budget cuts and operational challenges.
- The balance between public safety and individual hardship is a complex ethical issue.
Summary
- Cycling Mikey is known as the UK's most hated man for vigilantly filming and reporting drivers using mobile phones illegally in London.
- He believes his actions save lives by reducing distracted driving, despite facing hostility and threats.
- Since 2017, video evidence from citizens can lead to police prosecutions without officers present.
- Mikey has reported around 2,500 drivers, resulting in thousands of penalty points and fines.
- His vigilante approach raises ethical questions about policing and public safety.
- He has faced dangerous encounters, including an attack where a driver threw liquid in his face.
- Mikey argues that police budget cuts and stricter guidelines make citizen involvement necessary.
- The video explores the emotional impact on drivers who face penalties and Mikey's personal resolve.
- The documentary highlights the scale of road accidents caused by distracted driving in the UK.
- It questions whether Mikey’s methods are justified or a step too far for online attention.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the UK's Most Hated Man
- 00:55Impact on Drivers and Emotional Toll
- 01:44Cycling Mikey’s Perspective and Motivation
- 02:55Road Safety Statistics and Mobile Phone Use
- 03:56How Video Evidence Leads to Convictions
- 05:51Hostile Encounters and Personal Danger
- 06:56Results: Reports, Penalties, and Fines
- 08:50Ethical Debate and Public Reaction
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Touch me again. I'll smack you. Why are you going to smack me? His goal is simple: to penalize motorists who are using the London streets in an illegal way.
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You could argue that he saved lives, but then you could also argue he's ruined them. Today, we're going to find out how and why. Let's go and meet the UK's most hated man. Imagine you're driving through London, maybe on
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your way to work, and you're greeted with this. Driving a few miles could take hours.
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So, while you're sat at a red light, you check your phone because your missus has just texted you. A few seconds later, you're met by this man.
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Hi, buddy. Hi. All right, sir. Hi. I'm good, thanks. How are you? And just like that, your life can change forever.
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I've got three kids. I'm going to lose everything. The police could take your license, or you may even lose your job.
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And the most hated man in Britain, well, he simply doesn't care. My whole life's going to go. I'll end up myself.
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I understand. I end up. You have a good day. How can someone have such little emotion when someone is begging for their livelihood? Well, let's find out.
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Hi, I'm Mark. Nice to meet you. Introduce yourself. So, I'm Cycling Mikey, and I catch instances of bad driving on my commutes and report them to the police.
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Can I help you, mate? No. So, why are you filming me? Because you're on your phone there, that's why.
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Who are you, mate? Nobody. You're that guy. I'm that guy. Yes, you are. You are known as probably one of the most hated people in the UK, if not the world. How does that make you feel?
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You're right. Some people really, really hate me, and mostly it's those who are less emotionally mature, I think. And I don't let it affect me.
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So, do you think what you are doing is right? I'll be honest. I say sometimes it causes me pain, particularly if it's a driver who I'm in court with and I'm looking the driver in the eyes and he's
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about to be disqualified. But on the other hand, I feel that what I'm doing is right. The benefits and the importance to society of stopping these instances of bad driving far outweigh the pain to an individual
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driver. It's clear that Cycling Mikey is very passionate about what he is doing, and he doesn't care what people think about him. But is his vigilante approach correct? Especially when he's pushing hardworking people to the edge. But before we find out why he does all this,
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Cycling Mikey wanted to show us what the London streets are really like, so we can see for ourselves how big of an issue this really is.
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So, after passing our first test of figuring out how to hire a Lime bike, we hit the roads for a day of burning fires and a max pedal speed of 15 mph. So, the statistics are pretty scary. Over 30,000
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people are killed or seriously injured on the UK's roads every year. And it's no secret a lot of these numbers could have been stopped if the drivers were not speeding or distracted by our number one love in our lives, the mobile phone. And
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this is exactly what Mikey's quest is: to stop the law violations, stop accidents, and ultimately save lives. And soon he started to show us how many people were driving around the London streets breaking the law and actually on their
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phones. And I would just like to say that none of the drivers today in this video were reported.
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There we go. You all right? Is he your buddy? Yeah. Yeah. Caught him. You're out of luck. Yeah, he's on the phone. Well, you see how quickly you put it away. I don't think she should be holding her phone, should
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you? I'm not reporting it today. Today, I'm just letting you know and giving her a little friendly warning. Just back there, I saw you typing away on your phone whilst driving your Tesla along.
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Typing on your phone. But normally, I would report you right to the police. I'm that guy.
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Oh, thank you. Today, you're lucky because I'm with another YouTuber. Hello, sir. I see you holding your phone there.
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Have you heard about me? Yeah. And you're still using your phone in my patch.
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You can see Mikey does get a thrill out of catching these drivers on their phone. However, soon we got reminded just how hated he is.
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Oh, sorry for you. It just shows your emotional immaturity, that's all. Well, I'll do it when I want.
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You know that one over. See, when you catch someone like this, I don't mind at all. Doesn't bother me.
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He's got nothing better. The main reason he does get this hate and what you are probably thinking at home is that surely this is the police's job. Mikey is a normal British citizen with zero police authority or powers.
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But since 2017, video evidence of traffic offenses can be submitted online, and that footage will almost certainly result in convictions. No police present and no law degree needed.
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We know it's bad to be on the phone. I think everyone watching this realizes it's the same thing. But surely this is the police's job, not yours.
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That's a great question, actually. So, British policing relies very much on witnesses. It can't go ahead without witnesses. And nearly every case you'll see in the land has witnesses in court.
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As time goes on, policing is getting increasingly difficult. Cuts in budget and stricter guidelines, it's getting harder and harder for police to do their job like they initially trained for. But with hard solid evidence from GoPro footage, Mikey is getting police
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prosecutions without a police officer even in sight. Can you get into trouble? Absolutely. If I break the law on camera, the police will totally prosecute me from my own footage. I don't look at them as my friends, even
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though to some degree they're my colleagues now. Do you see it that way? Well, it's that kind of relationship.
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It's just become that because I interact with a lot of those people on a regular basis. But over the years, this vigilante mission has resulted in Cycling Mikey having many very hostile encounters, which often get very scary.
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One which I really want to ask you about is the guy who choked the water.
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In November 2019, Mikey snuck up and caught this driver using his mobile phone while sat in traffic. And after Mikey telling him he was going to be reported, 20 minutes later, the driver hunted him down and came back for his
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revenge. For me, this is about as scary as it gets, as that liquid in that cup could have been life-changing to me straight away. I think acid, bleach, it's a clear substance which he obviously went away, collected 20 minutes later, came
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and threw it in your face. So, I think it was his gym water bottle which had flowers printed on it, yellow flowers. So, some people thought the liquid was yellow, but I tasted it was water. And by the time I tasted, it was
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really too late because he was very quick. But even that didn't really scare you.
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No, I chased him. He was much bigger than me. He's a huge guy with muscles. I don't care though. I mean, like I said, I did a lot of extreme sports, so I've got a fairly high tolerance for physical
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danger. What does cycling do which is illegal? We all do something. You can share with a group.
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So, yeah, probably the worst thing I've done, I admitted to just journalists, is sometimes ride without hands. Even after attacks like this and countless threats on his life, this has not been a deterrent to his course. In fact, this
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has only provoked him to catch more people, and his results prove it. So, how many people have you sort of physically reported?
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So, in the latter season since 2019, it's somewhere around 2 and a half thousand people. I can't remember exactly.
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And how many convicted off that? Something on the order of about 2,600 penalty points and £150,000 in fines and costs and whatnot.
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Surely in normal policing, that amount of penalty points would get you an award. And mixed with 150k worth of fines, in the government's eyes, he must be three-quarters of the way there to a knighthood.
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But within those convictions has been 35 dri
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Mikey not to send the footage in. My whole life's going to go. I'll end up myself.
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I understand. I end up myself, man. You have a good day. Regardless of his pleas, Mikey still sent that footage, which is ruthless.
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But why does he go to such lengths? And in the end, I can't help thinking that nothing's going to change if we don't prosecute these drivers, regardless of how many points they have. So, I feel that we still have to prosecute them.
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And as painful as it is on some individuals basis, it's without without those prosecutions, other drivers aren't going to change their ways cuz they won't fear the consequences either.
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Do do you not think today let's do something a bit more happy? Now, there are plenty of arguments for and against cycling Mikey reporting people for breaking the law on their mobile phones, especially when they're stationary in traffic, but most of his
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viral videos are not for illegal phone use. It's for breaking traffic laws at a road junction in London, which Mikey has now made very famous. So, this is Gandalf corner.
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Gandalf corner. So, this is a prime spot where you I used to I think TfL have changed the lights now cuz you don't get nearly the same traffic queue. What would happen is from those lights on Marabone Road,
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you'd get a queue all the way up here. So about half the queue want to turn right and the other half go straight on.
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So if there's a lot of traffic, it blocks up and then people take a shortcut and come on the wrong side of this traffic island. You can see, for example, the the the writing for tourists says which way to look for for
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cars and it's the wrong way. So what does Mikey do to stop those drivers? He jumps out and stands in front of a moving car. You go, you idiot.
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You have to let him. Why are you driving with me? Why are you driving with me?
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He's going to the doctor. He's got I don't care. I don't believe you have to go to the doctor.
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He's driving. He's not in It's not an emergency. It's not an emergency. Doctor, will you stop? Get him. Just Before we get into what happens here at the corner, I want to know why. Why would cycling Mikey go to these extreme
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lengths? What the hell is he doing? Why put your own life at risk? Turning yourself into a human roadblock for a driver just taking a cheeky shortcut whilst in rush hour traffic on the way to work. But before we found out why, if
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There's a couple of things that motivate me and are close to my heart. So, one is obviously my dad being killed by a drink driver and I can't directly deal with drink driving, but phone driving is roughly as disabling as drink driving at
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the drink driving limit. I get that like losing the family member like somebody as close like I've I've lost my dad and it's just like my dad was a long long time ago. It was nearly 30 years ago. It it was very
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strong at the time. I remember I was on the way back home and he was hit by a drink driver at night. So anyway, I rode out there not really knowing what to expect or see. And then I saw the scene
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with all the onlookers. I remember seeing this twist twisted heap of metal. I didn't realize at first it was my dad's motorbike, his beloved Suzuki. And then a car with a lot of damage. And then I saw a body under a yellow
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blanket. Turned out that was my dad. It was pretty sucky, right? Effectively, I really would like someone else not to have that experience.
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Yeah. I get like Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I want to report this stuff. So, I think everyone could relate to that, you know, if if it was their dad, if it was their brother, sister, son, daughter. It's
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like it's Yeah, there's no like revenge thing or anything. I can't change anything of the past. I can't I can't let that eat at me. Why would it anyway? But what I can do is maybe make it better for somebody
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else. That is a heartbreaking story. But Cycling Mike has told us he wants to protect others so families don't go through the pain of losing a loved one, of getting killed by a dangerous driver.
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But surely he can stand at Gandalf corner on the pavement, film the traffic offense and submit the evidence without going to the crazy lengths of jumping in front of a car and having a 5minute standoff. So is he doing this for
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excitement of an argument or maybe it's for making money on YouTube views? Is this a place you've come to do that or is this on your route to work?
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So this is an unusual one. I have people think I spent my life here but I don't.
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I've only been 30 times maybe in six years maybe 50. I don't know more than that though and I would come before work.
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Is this bringing you wealth? So I am earning some money on YouTube but that's not the reason I'm doing it and I still have to have a normal job.
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So does that not give you motivation? Because in theory if you get somebody here 10 million views and it's a 15minute conf confrontation that's a reasonable amount of money.
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Sure. But then you know I don't really go seeking for that. But you said that this place was not somewhere you passed on the way to work.
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So surely somewhere I come especially and the reason I started surely so surely that is to line your pocket.
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It's a good question. No it's not. So the the reason I first came here is because my friends train around the park here and they were being put in danger by these drivers.
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So you had a report that this was dangerous from my friends. So I'm not going to name them cuz they probably don't want to be associated with me too much.
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That's crazy that you think that somebody wouldn't want to be associated with you as a friend.
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They've seen the abuse I get cuz I share it with them. They're my friends after all.
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Yeah. No, like we don't want any of that. Thank you. And soon we saw some of that hate firsthand.
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Surprised you haven't been slapped yet, man. I'll be That's my honest opinion. I'm surprised you haven't been slapped yet.
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That's kind of descending even further into criminality though, isn't it? You're asking for it. You're going to get it.
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But I'm doing a good thing for good reasons for society. You're not. You're not. You're not.
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Why is it not good for society? Ruining people's lives in it for no reason. But I didn't ruin their lives.
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They did it by choosing to use their phone while driving. You know it's wrong, right? You know it's illegal.
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All right. What about people that are using the the car screen? That's the same thing. If I'm using my phone like that and I'm using the car screen, what's the difference?
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The difference is that the law has to draw draw a line somewhere and it's imperfect.
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No problem. I I still respect you. I still respect you guys. I don't hate you man.
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Thank you. All I hope is you drive safely and live a long and happy life. Cool. That was awkward.
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You know, that is anger. Like that. But it's misplace anger. I think I think he just hasn't learned to take responsibility and stay off the phone.
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He's he's shaking his Kenya coffee beans at me. However, a shake in the coffee bean gesture is nothing to the abuse he often gets.
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Mate, go. No, you've got me on video. I'm calling the police. I want him to take that video off of you, mate.
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Come, let's go in the park. Take your camera. Take your bag off. Let's go in the park.
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And do what? Let's go in the park. How you like to be on camera now, Mikey?
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I don't mind. Yeah, we'll put your face all over the internet now. Why you sh There is no doubt that Mikey is one of the most hated people in the country. In fact, in a recent poll, he was more
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hated than Adolf Hitler. So, I wanted to dig a little deeper and see if this hate affects him. So obviously social media comments after sort of the years we've been doing it now I've become a bit immune to it and I don't bother reading
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it so much but my god some of yours are and it's non-stop. It's like a it's not like a host pipe. It's like a 12T sewer pipe or it's coming at me under high pressure.
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Does does that never bother you? Does that never like really it rarely bothers me and that's because I don't know I'm in a strong place mentally. I feel good about my life. I know I'm doing a good thing.
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But some of the hatred comments, it's lifethreatening. You've got to think that say say that person at the time when he's gone to court and he has lost his job, then he's lost his misses, doesn't see his kids anymore, gives him
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a motivation to a whole new level because cycling Mikey has changed his and some people won't take the the ownership of that. It's actually he himself who did that to himself. No, I accept that there are I mean there's
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lots of immature people as we see from the hate. Um, I'm willing to risk it is the answer.
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It's clear after what we've seen and heard. Cycling Mikey believes that he is doing the right thing. He believes that people are responsible for their own actions and he is simply holding them accountable. The methods he uses you may
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or may not agree with. But as time goes by, he has put his own life in more and more danger. But since we met up with Cycling Mikey, a video has gone viral where he might have taken it a step too
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far. This is a junction which is similar to Gandalf Corner. The road is temporarily closed the one way, but you can break the rules and do a cheeky illegal move and save a load of time.
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Mikey stands there and waits for someone to chance their luck. You don't need to go that far.
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No off. Go back. What the do you think you're doing? Is this worth it? Is this a step too far? It's endangering Mikey's life.
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ruined his bike and the driver now has some big scuffs on his bumper. But importantly, he had another option. He could have stayed still on that pavement, filmed with his GoPro, captured that illegal move, sent in the footage, and leave it to the police, and
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the driver would have been prosecuted. Same ending, but now it's escalated to a massive problem.
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Okay, so we've took some advice on this from a legal expert, and really interestingly, the car there is at fault. He's gone down a road which is temporarily closed and gone the wrong way down there. But he said that
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criminal damage all day long. This is Mikey. This is not the driver. It wasn't in self-p protection. It was a reckless act which forms part of the criminal damage offense. So he's saying that Mikey here is at fault and he actually
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commits a worse offense than the driver which is really really interesting. And this is sort of like the lengths this vigilante is going to right now. Is this justified or is this a step too far for views on YouTube? Reporting people
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illegally driving on the phone can definitely be argued as a good act. And so is stopping people driving down the wrong side of the road, potentially running people over. But doing this is an extreme way where he nearly gets
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killed. Maybe this isn't the correct way to handle it. Please let us know in the comments what you guys think. Is Cycling Mikey's job to uphold the law, or should he mind his own business and leave it to
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the police? We'll see you next Tuesday, 6
Topics:Cycling MikeyUK traffic enforcementdistracted drivingmobile phone use drivingvigilante justiceroad safety UKcitizen video evidenceLondon trafficpenalty pointstraffic fines
