John Griffin, head of minicab firm Addison Lee who caused a storm this week and threats of legal action from TfL by telling his drivers to illegally use London’s bus lanes has provoked further controversy with his views on the rise in the number of cyclists killed on the capital’s roads.

The opinions expressed by Mr Griffin in Add Lib magazine, distributed free to the passengers who each year undertake 10 million journeys in Addison Lee’s fleet of nearly 4,000 vehicles, have already received widespread condemnation on social networks such as Twitter from ordinary cyclists and cycle campaigners alike.

We’ve repeated Mr Griffin’s column in full below. If you’re a cyclist, and particularly one who rides a bike in London, it makes for chilling reading.

Here’s what he wrote.

“Green party candidates and others are up in arms about what they see as the murder of Cyclists on London Roads.

“There has, as we all know, been a tremendous upsurge in cycling and cycling shops. This summer the roads will be thick with bicycles. These cyclists are throwing themselves onto some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap onto a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat.

“Should a motorist fail to observe a granny wobbling to avoid a pothole or a rain drain, then he is guilty of failing to anticipate that this was somebody on her maiden voyage into the abyss. The fact is he just didn’t see her and however cautious, caring or alert he is, the influx of beginner cyclists is going to lead to an overall increase in accidents involving cyclists.

“The rest of us occupying this roadspace have had to undergo extensive training. We are sitting inside a protected space with impact bars and air bags and paying extortionate amounts of taxes on our vehicle purchase, parking, servicing, insurance and road tax.

“It is time for us to say to cyclists, ‘You want to join our gang, get trained and pay up’.”

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