Cycling fatalities and injuries need addressing according to report

Cyclist Pic: Tejvan Pettinger

 

Lewisham Cyclists have welcomed calls by the London Assembly’s Transport Committee for Boris Johnson to double spending on cycling.

The group’s chair, Roger Stocker, said:  “It is an interesting report. The recommendation for more spend to go specifically to cyclng is crucial.”

The Assembly report, released on November 21, says improvements can come from Transport for London and Mayor Boris Johnson by “doubling funding for cycling in TfL’s transport budget”, timetabling an action plan for the east-west cycle ‘super corridor’” and by “appointing a commissioner to champion cycling”.

£145 million worth of funding is requested in order to provide such changes.

The report shows that the number of injuries has doubled since 2006, but also acknowledges that the number of cyclists in the capital has more than doubled in the last 11 years.

It is also states that there has been an overall increase in safety for cyclists throughout London since 2001.

In 2011 there were almost 500 serious injuries and 16 fatalities. In 2012 there have already been 13 fatalities in London, five of which were in or around Eastlondonlines’ boroughs.

Stocker told Eastlondonlines: “If the mayor wants 5% of journeys by bike you have to spend money to achieve that.”

But to make lasting changes, he said that traffic engineers need to change their practices. He said: “Something needs to change and I think this needs a different mindset by traffic engineers who are constantly told by the mayor that ‘traffic flow’ can’t be worsened.”

The committee also called for logistical changes, suggesting that accidents would be less likely if there was more space on London’s roads for cyclists.

It is suggested that this could be partially solved by using the Games Lanes that were in operation during the 2012 Olympics.

In the prologue the committee also accused Johnson of lacking ambition by not doubling his ‘cycling revolution’ manifesto, which aims for five per cent of all journeys in London to be made by bike by 2026.

In February Henry Warwick was killed at the Bishopgate junction in the City, after being hit by an airport bus. The next month, teenager Olatunji Johnson Adeyanji was killed in a hit-and-run in Deptford.

In July 31-year-old Neil Turner was fatally injured in a collision in Croydon.

There was a high-profile accident outside the Olympic Velodrome in August when Dan Harris, a social media manager, was hit and killed by a bus transporting journalists to the Park.

Then, on October 29, Sofoklis Kostoulas died one week after a collision in Bethnal Green.

 

 

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