Cyclists and road safety is rather topical at the moment. Sadly it has taken the deaths of 6 cyclists in London in 13 days to get many people looking at road safety. Tonight for example, the BBC1’s The One Show had a lengthy feature on cyclists safety. That was probably as a result of the political opportunism of the Labour Party today with its road safety proposals.
Also tonight, there is an article in the London Evening Standard by Mary Creagh, the Labour Shadow Transport Minister.
I have linked to that article and would urge you to read it. There are also cycling proposals by the Mayor of London which I have also linked to.
So, what of these proposals?
Well I have to say that all the proposals in my view start from the wrong point. They all seem to try to treat the symptoms rather than the causes of the problems.
BANNING HGV’s FROM CENTRAL LONDON IN RUSH HOUR
This is a common call from some cyclists but in my view is mistaken and selfish.
Firstly, of the 14 cyclists killed in London this year, I understand that only 2 were killed in accidents involving HGV’s during rush hour. Thus HGV’s in rush hour are not the main cause of cyclists deaths.
Secondly, banning HGVs at rush hour only displaces the problem and makes the roads more dangerous for cyclists outside of rush hour. For example if 240 HGVs use a road per day, this is an average of 10 per hour. If you banned HGVs for say 3 hours at morning rush hour and 3 hours at evening rush hour, then these 240 vehicle movements are now compressed into 18 hours, an average of 13.3 per hour. Thus for any cyclist on the road outside of rush hour, they are having to face 1/3 more vehicles than they would do without the ban.
SEGREGATED CYCLE LANES
There are calls from many people and groups for completely segregated cycle lanes. IN my view these calls are again mistaken and treat the symptoms (badly) not the causes.
The streets of London are too crowded and compact to enable there to be segregated cycle lanes on all routes. If there are segregated cycle lanes, motorists will inevitably object to cyclists using the main carriageway. Cyclists will be familiar with the aggression and hatred shown towards them now by motorists who demand they ride (illegally) on the pavements. Imagine how much worse it will be from those ignorant motorists when they see money being spent on cycling facilities and find cyclists on the road still? So what are cyclists to do when there is no segregated cycle lane going where they want to go to?
There is a recently introduced section of segregated cycle superhighway from Stratford to Bow as part of Cycle Superhighway 2. So what are my problems with this?
Well, firstly, it is not all bad and I do not want you to think I am anti these per se. The problem comes at every junction, because you are segregated from the motor traffic, vehicle drivers do not notice you as you are in a separate lane. Now, imagine if you will what happens at a junction with a motorist wanting to turn left….Yes, you have guessed it, the motorist turns without across the cycle lane without thinking about cyclists coming along the cycle lane. Thus every junction becomes more deadly for cyclists. (This problem could have been reduced by using a raised kerb/ speed bump to separate the cycle lane from the main carriageway at junctions. This would force the motorist to go over a slightly raised kerb and draw attention to the fact they were turning cross a cycle lane.)
On this particular route, there is another issue. The segregated lane forces cyclists away from the flyover and forces them to use the roundabout. The flyover has seen 0 cyclists killed in the last 13 years. The roundabout has seen 3 cyclists killed in the last 2 years alone.
Thus the segregated lane is forcing cyclists to take a less safe route.
Then there is the problem that people do not observe the cycle lane. Just look at where this police car parked within days of the segregated route opening. Not only do they park on the cycle lane, but it is also within the zig zag lines of a pedestrian crossing
So, as you can see segregated cycle lanes are not THE answer.
These proposals do not treat the underlying problems, they merely treat the symptoms and in my view actually make matters worse in the long term.
Banning HGVs at rush hour makes the roads more dangerous to cyclists outside of those hours by increasing the number of HGVs on the roads then. We should not be introducing policies that will increase the danger for other road users.
So instead of being negative, what can be done?
Well, firstly I would say that cycling is not in itself inherently that dangerous. We need firstly to put the risk into perspective. Figures can be spun to make cycling seem safer or more dangerous depending how you present those pictures.
I cycle to work in central London most days and am horrified by the standard of cycling I see from some cyclists. To be honest, I am amazed there are not more accidents. Whether it is people swerving across lanes without looking or signalling, riding up the inside of vehicles indicating to turn left or even riding without lights at night.
Many cyclists will object to me saying this, but as cyclists we must take more care for our safety. It does not matter who is to blame in an accident, there is no point in being DEAD right. Similarly, some cyclists ride too fast for the conditions, especially in heavy traffic. It is better to be late in this world than dead early in the next.
One of the issues with the cyclists I am referring to in the 3 paragraphs above is also an issue with other road users, whether, motorists, pedestrian or other. That is to much thinking of only themselves and not thinking about others. Whether it is the motorist trying to force his way past or forcing his way out of a junction because he is in a hurry, or whether it is the pedestrian crossing the road on a red light, or without even looking. This is the same as the cyclists who ride through red lights, up the inside of left turning vehicles etc.
There is a distinct lack of consideration for other road users these days. How do we tackle this?
Well, I would argue that we need to look both long and short term at solutions:
SHORT TERM – we need to prosecute road users for driving/ riding without due consideration for other road users. The legislation is already there and it needs to be enforced. We need to reverse the frankly barmy policies of successive governments of downgrading road traffic offences. There were 1754 people killed on the roads in Great Britain in 2012 a. Compare this to 146 people killed by guns in 2011 in Great Britain b. We have very strict gun laws, yet despite roads being the location of more than 10 times as many deaths we treat road traffic offences are minor matters and the Governments are downgrading their seriousness. For example, the Crown Prosecution Service no longer include road traffic offences in their figures of successful and lost cases (fro start of the current business year).
This is not about persecuting motorists, it is about prosecuting properly those road users who use the roads without consideration for others.
I have always thought our US friends were wrong to have laws criminalising jay walking etc. by pedestrians, but having observed the dangerous and selfish behaviour of some pedestrians, I am moving towards the view that we need similar offences here to deal with those selfish few pedestrians.
This would help provide a level framework of consideration being required from all road users.
We should be forcing all HGVs to have proper mirrors that can enable drivers to see cyclists. There are proposals for this, but they are regularly delayed on the grounds of cost. I understand the cost is under £400 per HGV vehicle. A small price to pay to save lives
LONGER TERM – one of the things I have noticed in recent weeks is the behaviour of parents taking their children to school. The number of parents who encourage / drag their children across the road without looking and/or ignoring the red light as pedestrian crossings. What message is this is sending out to children? I would suggest it is sending out the message that all that matters is the individual and that there is no need to think about how your actions affect others.
Similarly, we see the same with motorists. You have all seen the parents that stop to drop their children off at school on pedestrian crossings or the yellow no parking lines outside a school. Again, what message does that send out to children?
We need to ensure that we are sending out the correct message to future adults
This is not just a problem limited to road users. It happens on public transport. indeed the behaviour at rush hour on public transport is incredible. You regularly see people trying to force their way onto trains/ tubes before those on board have been able to alight. Not only is it bad manners, but it is stupid as they are trying to force their way onto packed trains without allowing people off the train, thus making the trains less packed.
Too often we make excuses for bad behaviour. We repeatedly talk about our “rights”, without a thought to how the exercising of those “rights” affect others.
We need to educate society at large that for every action there is an effect.
Spare a thought how your actions affect others, no matter what you are doing
a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_Road_Casualties_Great_Britain
b http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-kingdom
Cycling Around Slowly 