The absolute horror of five cycling deaths on London’s streets in the past nine days demands urgent action.Here’s what the mayor should be doing:
1. Reassess the cycling superhighways and improve them urgently. This can be done with plastic road barriers, paint and other emergency measures.
2. Analyse the precise cause of these and other actions to draw out lessons quickly.
3. Scrap the idea that all improvements have to be done under the notion of ‘nothing must slow traffic flow’. While Boris Johnson has encouraged cyclists onto the roads, he has done nothing to mitigate the dangers they face. The result has been all too apparent
4. Institute the freight strategy that is being drawn up by TfL urgently. This must reduce the number of lorries at peak times,ensure all drivers have training.
5. Stop blaming cyclists. There is no evidence that these accidents are being caused by mistakes from cyclists and even if they are, that is not helpful as it exonerates motorists from taking extra care.
6. Ensure that bus companies have safety targets in relation to cycling, an idea which Johnson scrapped
7. Speed up all aspects of the Cycle Vision -Londoners cannot wait
Every death is a tragedy, one of my careers many moons ago was a cycle courier in London I would often get knocked off my bike, 90%+ of the time it was my fault as I was feeding down the inside of a vehicle, cyclist think that cars and other road users have a 360 degree view around them, they don’t this should be considered when coming down the inside of any vehicle.
I feel the blue lanes lead cyclists into a false sense of security they should still remain completely on their guard for the unexpected, I won’t go on about the cyclists that don’t obey the highway code as they are just idiots waiting for an accident to happen.
One of the worst things Boris has done is introduce the bikes these encourage tourists and other non London savvy people to jump on bikes and ride round, this is pure madness.
Banning Lorries and other vehicles is not the answer as they pay to use the roads cyclists do not.
You may well be surprised to learn, Alex, that under British law ALL road users may use the road equally. Some use it by right (cyclists, pedestrians) some by licence (all drivers). VED is a tax on emissions. Using your logic, Priuses ambulances and the Queen’s cars should all get off the road as they don’t “pay” to use them.
Simple fact is that paying £120 a year in VED does *not* give you more or less entitlement to get around using roads. Chances are, when you do some basic maths, that the VAT paid on that cycle beneath the rider you’re staring at as he ducks past you while you’re Stuck In Traffic Because You Are Traffic, is more than the VED you pay on your car annually. Now there’s an uncomfortable thought eh? Share the road, mate. Share.
I was referring to banning lorries which is complete nonsense as they are one of the reasons the city prospers. Cyclists by the nature that many ignore things like traffic lights (I spend enough time in town to see it with my own eyes) seem to think they are above the rules and regulations, I know this is not true for all but many seem to feel the rules are for someone else.
Until all road users abide by all the rules things will not improve.
Vehicles pay to pollute the atmosphere, not use the roads. Plenty of vehicles that have low emissions pay no VED. As a previous cyclist I’d have thought you’d be well aware of this fact. VED is not a license to treat the road as your own and it is this view that we must challenge constantly. They are public roads for the public paid for out of normal tax revenue. We all pay for them.
As operators of highly dangerous vehicles, drivers must be held to account for their lack of attention. This is paramount to making our roads safer. Cyclists are not blameless I agree but if they make a mistake, they scuff a knee. if a lorry driver makes a mistake, people die which is why more effort must be made in this area. It’s appropriate responsibility.
not true, I had a car that ran on LPG that was a 1,000 times less polluting than petrol I paid the same amount of road duty to use that car as an unconverted car, it is complete fiction to suggest that road duty is linked to its polluting factor, that is what they want you to believe, I had this conversation with the DVLA and their response to me is I recoup the saving at the pump not in lower licensing, which is also a joke because the fuel was only 40% cheaper not a 1,000 times cheaper.
I am not saying everyone else is blameless the point here is each person should be making best efforts to protect themselves, I ride a scooter round town all the time and have to consider how foolish some of the drivers are and make allowances for that.
London is not about to scrap buses but if it did and moved over to trams in some places it would make things much more predicable for all the other road users, I believe that buses are the main problem due to the stop/start pulling in/out that they have to do.
I would love to see 100% dedicated cycle lines that are completely apart from the main carriageway but that is not going to happen as we have a historic problem with the widths of our roads, until then everyone has to look after number one and consider everyone else in the process.
Alex, if you really were a cycle courier, you must have been a pretty poor one, if you were often getting knocked off your bike. I had one collision in several years, off and on, on the job. I agree with you about blue lanes, however trotting out the same old rubbish about cyclists not obeying the HC is not only boring but misleading. If you were a courier you would know London’s roads well enough to realise just how badly they are designed for cyclists and pedestrians. And you would be able to make constructive comments about how best to make changes for the better, rather than using your post to repeat misinformed and irrelevant information.
Alex - Check out Paris and Dublin which both have heavy restrictions on when certain types / sizes of HGVs can enter the city. It works and Paris has had zero cyclist fatalities in recent years, I believe. London did this for the Olympics and the world didn’t end. It might need some adjustment, it might only be needed for the rush hour periods, but it might save lives, make everyones commute much more pleasant, and if it encourages companies to use smaller vehicles for delivering in London, then the improvements could be substantial.