Do you want to make cycling safer?

Lucky Douglas

This campaign by the Times seems to be building a real head of steam.
Please get behind it by signing the petition and writing to your MPs here http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/

spen666

I'd advise people to think carefully about signing up to this - one of the small print items is to the effect of your details may be added to a petition

No indication of what petition is or what your are signing up to.

i'm in support of the general aims of this campaign but am not giving them a carte blanche to use my details on whatever petition they like. No option to avoid this save not signing up for the campaign

diy

I wouldn't support this at all:

1. Lorries entering a city centre should be required by law to fit sensors, audible turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.

No real problem with this, but cyclists could do with be reminded not to ride up the inside (or outside) of lorries next to junctions. Just madness - I see it happen at least a dozen times every day on my commute.

2. The 500 most dangerous road junctions must be identified, redesigned or fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors that allow lorry drivers to see cyclists on their near-side.

There have been a lot of negative effects of Cycle ASL's and Cycle lanes which are vastly underrated. Cycle lanes on narrow roads put cyclists safety ahead of motorcyclists safety for example. I don't think they properly risk assess the impact to other road users and sometimes they make things worse for cyclists. Its not about making the roads safe its about changing attitudes to make the existing roads safe imo.

3. A national audit of cycling to find out how many people cycle in Britain and how cyclists are killed or injured should be held to underpin effective cycle safety.

err. they already do that but lets not look at "killed and seriously injured" Its a meaningless gathering of two incompatible statistics. K being a fraction of SI and SI being anything that might need hospital treatment. It means nothing. You could have 5 K and 500 SI, one year and 50 K and 450 SI the next showing a safety "improvement".

4. Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.

How about supply and demand or demand and supply ruling how much is spent?

5. The training of cyclists and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.

already is

6. 20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.

Lots of evidence to show that drivers pay less attention when the speed limit is well below the 85th percentile of speed that they would otherwise choose. This will just cause chaos, require mass enforcement and make drivers resent cyclists even more and it will make cyclists assume a false sense of safety.

7. Businesses should be invited to sponsor cycleways and cycling super-highways, mirroring the Barclays-backed bicycle hire scheme in London.

Invite away, they will spend money if it makes good business, they wont if it don't.

Every city, even those without an elected mayor, should appoint a cycling commissioner to push home reforms.

Sound like another pointless job that taxpayers can't afford.

sfichele

I've signed up, but I share the concerns. The publicity it is generating is a good thing, and cyclists are in desperate need of some limelight. However, I do hope it produces sensible debates and outcomes, and not just swathes of badly thought out cycle lanes, or compulsion to wear hi-viz.

Lucky Douglas

sfichele wrote:

I've signed up, but I share the concerns. The publicity it is generating is a good thing, and cyclists are in desperate need of some limelight. However, I do hope it produces sensible debates and outcomes, and not just swathes of badly thought out cycle lanes, or compulsion to wear hi-viz.

Totally agree. The details are debatable but anything that raises awareness in the general population gets my support.

Wirral_paul

I havent signed up after reading all the points on DIY's post that he's copied across. The first and second ones for example - how will a trixi mirror on lorries make cycling safer? What would make things safer is for idiot cyclists to not put themselves in a position where any driver has to rely on a mirror before turning left across a cyclist.

Agree with point 5 though - train cyclists to be safe themselves before relying on other road users to do it for them!!