A Different Perspective on Cycling Fatalities and Infrastructure from across the pond
Boris Johnson says cyclists must obey law after fifth death in nine...
Sam Jones, Matthew Weaver, Peter Walker and Patrick Wintour theguardian.com, Thursday 14 November 2013 07.47 EST Jump to comments (1744)
Cycling deaths and injuries have put parts of London's blue superhighway system under scrutiny. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Boris Johnson has shrugged off calls for an urgent review of cycling safety in London after a man killed on Wednesday night became the fifth cyclist to die in the capital in nine days. The London mayor said that unless people obeyed the laws of the road, "there's no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people's lives". The unnamed man – the 13th cyclist to die on London's streets this year – was hit by a bus at around 11.30pm on Wednesday evening near Aldgate East station at a junction of Whitechapel Road, on one of the city's controversial cycle superhighways. He was treated on the roadside by ambulance paramedics but died in hospital at around 4am, according to Scotland Yard. The driver of the 205 bus involved in the accident was treated for shock at the scene. No one was arrested. Inquiries are under way to contact the cyclist's family. Discussing the deaths in a radio interview on Thursday morning, Johnson said that while there could be "no question of blame or finger-pointing", cyclists had a duty to obey the laws of the road and heed signals. "Some of the cases that we've seen in the last few days really make your heart bleed because you can see that people have taken decisions that really did put their lives in danger," he told Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3. "You cannot blame the victim in these circumstances. But what you can say is that when people make decisions on the road that are very risky – jumping red lights, moving across fast-moving traffic in a way that is completely unexpected and without looking to see what traffic is doing – it's very difficult for the traffic engineers to second-guess that." View London cyclist deaths, November 2013 in a larger map The London assembly member Darren Johnson, of the Green party, accused the mayor of "dodging responsibility" for the recent deaths and trying to blame cyclists. "Four out of the five deaths of cyclists in the last nine days have involved either his blue paint or his red buses," said Johnson, in a reference to the blue-painted cycle superhighways. "The mayor's comments this morning which targeted cyclists breaking the law as the primary cause of death and serious injury is an attempt to blame the victims, rather than tackling the real problem of HGVs, buses and dangerous junctions." He added: "It is an insult to the dead and injured that the mayor continues to blame victims in this way, rather than accepting his responsibility and getting on with fixing the things he has direct control over." The string of recent deaths has prompted the former Labour transport secretary Andrew Adonis to call for action. "The mayor should appoint a rapid independent review of superhighways after the horror of all these cyclist deaths in London," he said in a tweet. Adonis's call was echoed by Martin Key, campaigns director for British Cycling, the national governing body for cycling. "The fact that five cyclists have been killed in London in the last nine days is shocking news and an urgent investigation needs to take place into what could have been done to prevent these deaths," he said. Key said that local authorities needed to acknowledge the growing popularity of cycling and do more to protect people on bikes by tackling dangerous roads and junctions and banning HGVs that lack up-to-date safety features. Roundabout at the Bow flyover, in Bromley-By-Bow, east London. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA "We have to do a better job of looking after each other on the roads," he said. "That includes significant investment in a nationwide cyclist awareness campaign rather than a few posters in a handful of cities. This is about changing the culture of how people get around, making cycling a more attractive and safer option for millions of people across Britain." Gordon Seabright, the chief executive of the national cycling charity CTC, said it was "sickened" by the lack of action on protecting cyclists from lorries, adding: "We want to see the mayor of London and all those responsible for the safety of our streets living up to their promises." The mayor's cycling commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, counselled against a hasty reaction to the "extraordinary" spate of cyclist deaths. "The danger in the current atmosphere of understandable alarm and concern is that we rush into some panic measure which actually makes things worse," he told BBC London. However, he also criticised the east-west superhighway known as CS2, where three cyclists have been killed since 2011. "From the beginning, Superhighway 2 has been little more than blue paint and I've been pressing to change it," he said. Gilligan added that plans to upgrade all the superhighway routes would go out to consultation in four months' time, and that it would take a further 11 months for any changes to be implemented. Last month the coroner Mary Hassall ordered a safety review of the blue lane system after conducting inquests into the deaths of two cyclists killed on CS2. Venera Minakhmetova, a Russian living in London, who was killed at Bow roundabout on Wednesday. Photograph: Facebook The latest death comes within 24 hours of a female cyclist being crushed to death by a lorry near Bow roundabout. The woman, named by police as Venera Minakhmetova, a 24-year-old Russian who was living in Bethnal Green, was pronounced dead just before 9am on Wednesday. Another cyclist suffered life-threatening injuries a few minutes later when he was involved in a collision with a lorry in central London. A man in his 40s died in hospital on Tuesday afternoon just over an hour after an incident with a bus outside East Croydon train station. Francis Golding Last week, two cyclists were involved in fatal accidents in Holborn and Mile End. Francis Golding, who was 69, died in St Mary's hospital on 8 November – three days after his bike was in a collision with a coach at the junction of Southampton Row and Theobald's Road in Holborn. The other cyclist, who is believed to have been 62, was killed in an incident with a tipper lorry on the junction of Mile End Road and Bancroft Road in east London. Police are appealing for information or witnesses to the latest collisions.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on
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Seriously. There are 1700+ comments and by and large, they are devoid of calls for increasing enforcement of traffic laws against scofflaw cyclists.
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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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Anyone have more detailed knowledge of this situation?
Sounds like most of the crashes involved large vehicles. At a glance my assumption would be that they've done the equivalent of painting a blue stripe down the middle of Cicero, or Western Ave, or (insert your favorite local high-speed heavy vehicle urban hell street here) and told everyone to ride there.
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And this from The Times:
Mayor warns cyclists after dead man ‘ignored one-way sign’
The Mayor said cyclists should obey the rules of the road
The Mayor said cyclists should obey the rules of the road
Boris Johnson warned London’s cyclists today that they had to “obey the law of the roads” after it emerged that a man killed in a collision with a double-decker bus had just ridden the wrong way up a one-way street.
Transport for London said that its preliminary investigation suggested that the man – the fifth cyclist to die in the capital in nine days — had just ridden the wrong way up Leman Street to cross the Aldgate junction in East London when he was hit by the bus on Whitechapel Road at 11.30pm last night. The cyclist, who has not yet been named, died in hospital at around 4am.
The collision came soon after hundreds of cyclists from around London converged for a silent protest several miles to the east at the Bow Roundabout after a young woman was dragged under a lorry in the rush hour.
She was named today as Venera Minakhmetova, a 24-year-old Russian national who lived in Bethnal Green. Ms Minakhmetova was the third cyclist killed by an HGV at the roundabout in the past two years.
Scotland Yard said that both the cyclist and the lorry had been heading west along the A11 to the roundabout, which is one of London’s most notorious and complicated junctions. The lorry was turning south towards the Blackwall Tunnel while Ms Minakhmetova was heading straight on.
The male driver of the lorry stopped at the scene and spoke to officers but there have been no arrests.
The latest deaths put pressure on Mr Johnson, the London Mayor, with British Cycling demanding an “urgent investigation” and the former Labour Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, calling for an independent review of the city’s designated cycling “superhighways”.
Initial reports had wrongly suggested that the cyclist killed last night had been riding along Superhighway 2.
Mr Johnson told the LBC radio station: “There’s no question of blame or finger-pointing – that doesn’t work in these circumstances. But unless people obey the laws of the road and people actively take account of the signals that we put in, there’s no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people’s lives.
“Some of the cases that we’ve seen in the last few days really make your heart bleed because you can see that people have taken decisions that really did put their lives in danger.
“You cannot blame the victim in these circumstances. But what you can say is that when people make decisions on the road that are very risky - jumping red lights, moving across fast-moving traffic in a way that is completely unexpected and without looking to see what traffic is doing - it’s very difficult for the traffic engineers to second-guess that.
“I’m appealing to all cyclists, as well as all motorists, do think of the laws of the road, because if you take these hasty, rash decisions that we’re seeing sometimes, then you will be endangering your life.”
Gordon Seabright, chief executive of the cycling charity CTC, said cyclists were “sickened by the continuing failure to protect [them], in particular from the dangers caused by lorries in our towns and cities”. “We want to see the Mayor of London and all those responsible for the safety of our streets living up to their promises.”
Martin Key, campaigns manager at British Cycling, said: “While cyclist deaths are rare, it is clearer than ever that national government and councils must take urgent action on designing roads that address cyclists’ needs.
“The fact that five cyclists have been killed in London in the last nine days is shocking news and an urgent investigation needs to take place into what could have been done to prevent these deaths.”
Last year, 122 cyclists were killed on Britain’s roads, a five-year high. The majority of deaths involving collisions with cars, followed by lorries and vans. Five were killed in collisions with buses.
The others killed in the past few days included Brian Holt, 62, a hospital porter, who was killed in a collision with a lorry in Mile End last Tuesday.
Francis Golding, 69, an architect, was crushed by a coach in Holborn on the same day and died in hospital three days later.
On Tuesday, a man in his 40s was killed by a bus in Croydon and another cyclist was killed by a lorry in a hit-and-run crash near Nantwich in Cheshire.
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Gordon Seabright, chief executive of the cycling charity CTC, said cyclists were “sickened by the continuing failure to protect [them], in particular from the dangers caused by lorries in our towns and cities”. “We want to see the Mayor of London and all those responsible for the safety of our streets living up to their promises.”
Martin Key, campaigns manager at British Cycling, said: “While cyclist deaths are rare, it is clearer than ever that national government and councils must take urgent action on designing roads that address cyclists’ needs.
Is there no British affiliate of "Bikes Belong" to issue an apology to motorists for the bad cyclist behavior?
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They must not use plastic bollards.
h' $550 said:Gordon Seabright, chief executive of the cycling charity CTC, said cyclists were “sickened by the continuing failure to protect [them], in particular from the dangers caused by lorries in our towns and cities”. “We want to see the Mayor of London and all those responsible for the safety of our streets living up to their promises.”
Martin Key, campaigns manager at British Cycling, said: “While cyclist deaths are rare, it is clearer than ever that national government and councils must take urgent action on designing roads that address cyclists’ needs.
Is there no British affiliate of "Bikes Belong" to issue an apology to motorists for the bad cyclist behavior?
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Permalink Reply by Anne on
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The topic is tied in to myriad cycling infrastructure movements in the UK since the late 60's. It is tied in to the Congestion Zone scheme, the National Cycling Charity (CTC) and other governmental programs. Even the Olympics and professional cycling is part of the overreaching aim to "get Britain cycling".
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I also note that there is no mention in either article regarding whether any of the cyclists were wearing a helmet.
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