City of London road safety video labelled "appalling"

Handle Like Eggs video urges harmony between road users

Published: September 10, 2013 at 4:29 pm

The City of London Corporation has released a "fun" road safety video that's got 'viral' written all over it – but not, we think, in a good way.

The cycling video – called Handle Like Eggs – features animated eggs cycling and driving in London. When Belle (an egg) gets hit by Toby, a car-driving egg, they tacitly agree they both bear responsibility for the accident and they drive off happily into the sunset.

Handle like eggs road safety video

Video: Handle Like Eggs, a Road Safety Message

In the video, Greg Williams, head of media at the City of London Corporation says: "Today I'm here to tell you about sharing the streets safely and that’s a real priority for the City of London Corporation because we've got a global financial centre packed into a medieval street pattern."

The video's helpful hints include asking cyclists to use the bike lane and not to sit in driver's blind spots at traffic lights. Motorists are asked not to use their mobile while driving too.

The video is already racking up the negative comments due to the way it's presented. One YouTube viewer commented: "Is this a joke? This is appalling!"

It's not the first time this year a video urging harmony between pedestrians, drivers and cyclists, has hit controversy. In July, Scottish Transport minister Keith Brown launched the Nice Way Code, which was immediately satirised. Sally Hinchcliffe of Pedal on Parliament, a group lobbying for safer Scottish roads said at the time: "Simply asking us all to be nice to one another without backing it up with real changes and enforcement is a waste of taxpayers’ money."