Transport Secretary proves worth of segregated cycle lanes by dooring cyclist (video)

A video has emerged showing the benefit of segregated cycle lanes  in which a cyclist is doored by a passenger leaving a four-wheel drive vehicle.

So far this sounds all too familiar for Britain's roads, but the surprise element of this footage is that the man carelessly throwing open the door on his large off-road vehicle is none other than Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

The MP for Epsom and Ewell has previously bemoaned London's cycling infrastructure for “causing too much of a problem for road users.”

The audio has been removed from much of the video so we cannot know what was said, but Grayling does shake hands with the affected cyclist before leaving.

Interestingly, it appears that the MP's aid swiftly hides his parliamentary ID when he realises the assisting cyclist has a helmet cam.

The helmet cam wearer, Laurence de Hoest, told the Guardian: "This is the minister of transport and here he is swinging his door out.”

De Hoest was not aware of who Grayling was at the time, but learned his identity from a Cycling Weekly story about the minister's feelings about cycle lanes.

The cyclist who was thrown from his bike, Jaiqi Liu, also discovered the MP's identity after he'd left the scene.

Liu told the Guardian: “And he says cycle lanes are the problem, which makes me angry. If he is still in the position to make cities safer for cyclists, he needs to do something.”