London cyclist killed by lorry this afternoon in High Barnet

A cyclist was killed when she was hit by a lorry in High Barnet this afternoon. 

Police have sealed off High Street (A1000) at the junction with Wood Street after the collision at 3pm. 

Witnesses said a red blanket was placed over the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Another report here. 


Update


The lorry that hit the cyclist is owned by building contractors Fitzgerald and Burke, based in Oakleigh Road South, New Southgate. No-one at the business was available for comment this evening. 

Maya Patel, co-owner of The Barnet Store newsagent near to the scene of the accident said: “It is a narrow stretch of road and if a lorry and a cyclist were coming through together it would be tight 

It would indeed. From early press reports it would appear that the fatal collision took place on this bend, with the lorry and presumably also the cyclist in the left lane, heading towards the church.

Further update 

The driver stopped at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.”

 

Meanwhile in Bromley a cyclist run down yesterday by a hit and run driver is currently in a critical condition.

Boris Johnson, Transport for London and the killing of Hichame Bouadimi

Yesterday’s Guardian carried a long piece about the recent killing of five year old pedestrian Hichame Bouadimi on St George’s Road, Southwark, asking Why are road deaths in the UK on the rise again? 

Unfortunately the journalist lets two major London agencies off the hook. One is the Metropolitan Police, which has always been institutionally car-supremacist. The Met is contemptuous of cyclists and pedestrians, and has only ever had a minimal interest in enforcing road traffic law. You can speed to your heart’s content in London, and chat away on your mobile phone, and your chances of being apprehended by a police officer are very, very remote. Nor is the Met at all interested in curbing the excesses of the out-of-control road haulage industry. The Met's slogan ‘Working Together For a Safer London’ seems like a calculated insult. Indeed

Drivers in London have a chance of being prosecuted once over a 50-year lifetime of driving.

This indicates that at present there is almost no chance of drivers who endanger cyclists (and others) being charged or prosecuted. 

However, in this particular instance the primary blame for this latest tragedy rests firmly with Transport for London. It was the infrastructure that created the conditions for the violent death of this child. And TfL is resisting all efforts to change direction. It remains firmly committed to the ‘smoother traffic flow’ agenda.

But Boris Johnson should not be exempted from responsibility either. His signing-up to the LCC’s ‘Go Dutch’ agenda was plainly a desperate piece of opportunism when he was struck by a last-minute anxiety that he might, after all, lose to Ken Livingstone. In spite of all Johnson’s rhetoric nothing tangible has actually changed yet. 

Take TfL’s proposals for the Lambeth Bridge roundabout, for example.

Southwark cycling blogger Charlie Holland even uncannily anticipated this latest fatality when back in January he denounced

the five-lane one-way motorstrosity that St George's Road has become

and remarked

Unfortunately TfL are using their time and energy on piddling interventions rather than on measures that will make a real difference.

This road, with three schools on one side and a park on the other, should swiftly be made two-way and cycle-friendly. 

Charlie Holland has also written about the aftermath of this fatal collision here.

Putney roundabout collides with Audi

News from a 30 mph zone.

A former racing driver and close friend of Lewis Hamilton died following an horrific 78mph crash at a roundabout following a night out drinking with friends.

OLYMPIC CYCLIST SPONSOR’S CAR KILLS TWO CHILD PEDESTRIANS

This is not a headline you are likely to read in any British newspaper today.

BMW makes killing machines designed for speedophiles.

And yesterday, while cyclist Laura Trott was winning another gold medal, her sponsor BMW’s prime commodity was at the same time killing two small children waiting to cross the road.

If you look at the Google photo of the crash site (below), you see a classic piece of British transport planning, a junction designed entirely around prioritising the speed and convenience of drivers, at the expense of safe cycling and safe, direct, convenient walking. Incredibly, comments boxes on blogs and in newspapers continue to fill up with cyclists asserting that British streets are just “too narrow” for cycle tracks compared with the Netherlands.

The CCTV footage of the crash also shows in the foreground a white van parked on the footway on double yellow lines by a bend, in itself a symptom of the comprehensive accommodation by British policing and local authorities of everyday lawless, dangerous and anti-social behaviour by drivers.

This killing of two small children occurred in Leicester, where with perfect timing and as a perfect example of the British tradition of soft measures comes this.

BMW drivers have a deservedly poor reputation, based on the fact that they regularly ”lose control” and kill pedestrians as well as killing cyclists (as described here and here), as well as killing other car drivers

Gosh it’s a pity we can’t all learn to share the road and learn some mutual respect innit.

This BMW driver believes that Critical Mass participants are gay (crikey!).

The BBC frequently ignores cycling fatalities but luckily has the resources to report on horrifying incidents involving BMW drivers like this.

The nice thing about being a BMW driver is that you can drive like a madman, crash at an incredibly high speed, and still not kill yourself.

If you had any doubts about the safety of the BMW M5, you can rest assured as this horrific accident attests to the benefits of German engineering. 

According to M5 Post, a 60-year old driver was travelling at approximately 300 km/h (186 mph) when he lost control while swerving to avoid another motorist. 


Footnote

BMW produces killing machines like this - every model is guaranteed to go at least 50 mph faster than the maximum permitted UK speed limit.

Olympic cyclists and other athletes who enjoy BMW sponsorship can be found listed here.

Transport for London’s latest insult to London’s cyclists

Reach for a sick bag, dear reader, because you’ll need one when you read Transport for London’s response to the latest killing of a cyclist, who died a hideous and violent death as a consequence of its “smoother traffic flow” agenda.

The best memorial poor Daniel Harris could have is a complete re-design of the junction where he died. The LCC warned of the dangers long ago and was disregarded.

The bicycle campaign [London Cycling Campaign], whose group represents about 11,000 riders across the city, said in a statement that the scene of Harris' death is "a location that we've been warning the Olympic authorities about for years." 

"This crash confirms our worst fears," the group said. The intersection, Cavenett said, is a "confusing" mixing bowl that funnels traffic in six directions near a restricted bus and car entry to the Olympic Park complex.

Transport for London said it was addressing the campaign's concerns and announced at least six signs would be installed along the approach to the junction, warning cyclists and pedestrians of the potential traffic hazards.
 

Cyclist killed today on Holloway Road

A cyclist has been killed in a collision with a bus in north London.

Police were called at about 13:10 BST to reports of a bus having collided with a cyclist on Holloway Road, near the junction with Jackson Road, in Islington.

Update

A new report implies this might be a case of ‘dooring’:

The 25 year-old died at the scene.

Investigators said initial reports suggested the cyclist had collided with an open car door prior to hitting a single decker bus. The driver of that car, an Audi, was arrested and is in police custody tonight.


Olaf Storbeck takes a special interest in London cycling fatalities and his blog will no doubt supply much more information in due course.

Driver who killed cycling RAF Commander is charged

A MAN has been charged with causing death by careless driving after a cyclist from Beaconsfield died in a road accident.

Group Captain Tom Barrett, 44, died in a collision on the A40 in Ruislip on March 10.

The dad-of-two, who lived on Amersham Road, was the station commander at RAF Northolt.

The death of a cyclist: some anomalies and ambiguities

A “NATURAL roamer” who travelled the country on his bicycle was hit by a car and killed on the A34.

Motorists were shocked to see Alistair Bettis pedalling along the southbound carriageway near Pear Tree in the dark, an inquest heard yesterday.

Witnesses said they struggled to make out the 59-year-old as he cycled on the edge of the slow lane in the dark, although one driver said he may have been carrying a red LED bike light.

This is the first ambiguity. Either the cyclist was displaying a light at the rear or he was not. A competent police investigation of the crash scene should have arrived at a conclusion on that point.

Nicola Gibson, who was travelling south on the dual carriageway having left work in Summertown, told Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner she had no time to react after the cyclist veered into the inside lane.

This is the second ambiguity, since the deceased appears to have been in the slow lane all the time. The killer driver’s assertion that the cyclist ‘veered’ is contradicted by her next assertion that she didn’t see the cyclist until ‘a second before the impact’:

The motorist, who was travelling well below the speed limit, struck Mr Bettis as he was 1.7 metres inside the carriageway, crash investigator Andrew Evans said.

Ms Gibson, who was exonerated by Mr Gardiner, said: “About a second before the impact I could see him. (It was) not until my dipped headlights saw the back of his tyre, and I just put the emergency brakes on.
“He seemed like he was right in front of the passenger side.”

The incident took place at about 7.15pm on November 30.

But ‘in front of the passenger side’ is exactly where a cyclist should be riding. And what does ‘travelling well below the speed limit’ actually mean? It could mean 60 mph, if the limit was 70 mph. But speed limits are often a red herring, since the duty of a driver is to drive in a manner appropriate to the road conditions. You can be below the maximum speed limit for the road you are on and still be driving in a reckless and dangerous manner.

Unfortunately bald newspaper reports like these raise far more questions than they answer.

In the comments ‘Quentin Walker, Oxford’ writes

I'm surprised not more cyclists are killed on our roads. Many of them do not have the self-preservation instinct and ride in dark clothing, which can be difficult to see even in daylight.

It is time it became mandatory for all cyclists to wear hi-viz clothing

Such comments are symptomatic of a society in which driving without due care and attention is institutionalised at all levels, to the detriment of pedestrians and cyclists.

a death site revisited: Vernon Place

Vernon Place, eastbound. Three lanes wide at the junction with Southampton Row. Absurdly, the third ‘fast lane’ can legitimately be used for drivers going straight ahead as well as making a right turn. This generates conflict with right-turning cyclists, especially those unable to get into the fast lane because of speeding traffic or obstruction of the Advanced Stop Line (ASL).

Spot the cyclist in the second photo. You can’t, though there is one present here in this three-lane-wide wedge of packed motor vehicles



Vernon Place (London WC1) is a junction where two women cyclists have been killed in recent years, one in 2008 by a left-turning lorry, another in 2009 by a right-turning bus. I blogged about the last fatality here and there was more commentary by Olaf Storbeck here.

More recently I blogged about conditions for cyclists as you approach the junction

(Below) I photographed the ASL after the lights had gone to red and waited to see if any drivers would flout it.

(Below) By a strange quirk of fate the first vehicle which came along was a number 98 bus – the same service which killed Dorothy Elder. The light had been red for some time before this bus arrived, and the driver had no excuse at all for doing what he did, which was to wilfully and deliberately drive into the ASL reservoir for cyclists.

(Below) While he was waiting at the lights the driver of this bus switched his attention from driving to reading some papers in his cab. My photo captures the moment that the lights change, with the driver still staring down at whatever he was reading, oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn’t even notice me taking photographs of him. In other words, Metroline drivers of number 98 buses are still driving in a criminal and reckless way at a site where one of this company’s drivers killed a cyclist.

Olaf Storbeck also wrote about the death of cyclist Jayne Helliwell, killed nearby by a bus driver on Oxford Street remarking I urge Metroline and TfL to take responsibility for Jayne’s death. Fat chance, I’m afraid.

Ironically, the next sight I observed was a number 8 bus in the fast lane coming into conflict with a right-turning cyclist (below). The number 8 bus was going straight ahead. The right-turning cyclist had evidently not had the confidence to get over to the right when approaching the junction. This was potentially another fatal collision scenario. However, it happened in broad daylight (whereas the two fatalities occurred here during the hours of darkness) and the bus driver was attentive to the cyclist’s manoeuvre, and braked to allow the cyclist to pass in front. This episode simply underlines what a catastrophically dangerous junction this is for cyclists. The only safe solution here is to separate cyclists from motor vehicles on all four arms of the junction – segregation is perfectly viable in terms of available road space – and to give cyclists a dedicated all green phase. Needless to say TfL isn’t thinking in such terms; sadly, neither are many cycling campaigners, who prefer to focus on confidence building and cycle training, conspicuity, and changing driver behaviour through education, enforcement or new legislation.

Dangerous Britain

I remember once reading somewhere that everyone born in Britain stands a one in seventeen chance of being killed or seriously injured in a road crash during the course of their lifetime. I wish I could remember the source of that statistic but I can’t. I remembered it when I read this sad story:

Dad-of-two Karl Austin, of Biddulph, died on June 30 in a collision with a lorry near Derby on the A50. Today his wife, Linda, and his parents Keith and Joyce paid tribute to the race-winning cyclist.

His parents also lost Karl's sister, Kim, in a car accident in 1986 when she was 19.

Dad Keith, of Semper Close, in Congleton, said: "Having lost Kim it was the last thing we could ever have imagined was to lose both children. It's almost unbelievable but it's happened."

Hackney Road tipper lorry crash cyclist dies

Photo: East London Advertiser



The news has been released today that the cyclist hit last week by a tipper lorry which did not stop, died in hospital on Saturday.

It turns out that he was from the London Borough of Waltham Forest:

Paul McGreal, 44, of St John’s Road, Walthamstow was cycling in Pritchards Road, Haggerston, when he was in collision with a tipper lorry at the junction with Hackney Road at 8.30am on June 21.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died on Saturday (June 25).

The yellow lorry did not stop at the scene but was traced later the same day.

The driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr McGreal

was thought to be on his way to the London Metropolitan University where he worked as a graphic designer.

He had suffered severe leg and pelvic injuries and died at the Royal London Hospital on Saturday.

An inquest is expected to be opened tomorrow.

It is believed he leaves behind a partner and toddler.

Pedestrian killed by lorry: the Blackfriars Bridge connection

photo: London 24

(Below) Transport for London reduces crossing times for pedestrians to ‘smooth traffic flow’

A woman in her 90s has died after being hit by a lorry on Marylebone Road at about midday on Friday. It is thought the woman was crossing the main road at a pedestrian crossing when the incident occurred.

The driver of the lorry has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

A number of things strike me about this latest central London fatality. Firstly, the type of lorry involved. It looks to me like a tipper truck – the kind of lorry which seems to have a much higher rate of involvement in fatal collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists than some other types of lorry. Unfortunately the name of the haulage company involved can’t be identified in the photograph. Recently my spine has been kept regularly chilled by sightings of Thames Materials lorries in Waltham Forest and those tipper trucks weren’t green but red. Very probably the lorry involved in this latest fatality wasn’t a Thames Materials tipper truck but it would be useful if someone like the London Evening Standard’s estimable Ross Lydall could find out. Secondly, the circumstances bear some resemblance to the killing of an elderly pedestrian in Hackney in March.

But setting aside the question of the specific circumstances of this collision and the vexed issue of lorries in central London, there’s an aspect of this fatality which is intimately connected to the ongoing Blackfriars Bridge struggle. Because what happened on Marylebone Road yesterday was Network Assurance in action. Marylebone Road is a hellish road for cyclists and pedestrians because it is totally devoted to the smooth flow of motor vehicles.

Take note of this comment under another report on this crash:

Simon Jacobs said:

I have worked next to Madame Tussauds for over 20 years and both these pedestrian lights and the ones at the junction of Baker Street are far too short for pedestrians to get across in time without taking your life in your hands. Westminster Council need to look into this as a matter of urgency.

But even if Westminster Council wanted to (which it wouldn’t), it couldn’t, because this road lies outside of its control. It’s a strategic route run by Transport for London – you know, like Camden Road, where pedestrians are left to cross four lanes of motor vehicles without any assistance whatever.

I would be very, very interested to know if this fatal crossing is one of the ones included in this programme, announced two years ago:

Traffic lights are to be re-phased and some will give more time to vehicles at the expense of those on foot.Up to six seconds of pedestrian crossing time could be lost at as many as 6,000 sets of lights across the capital.

If the answer is ‘yes’ (and I have a hunch it might be) then I think it’s time to start shouting from the rooftops that Boris Johnson and TfL are slaughtering pedestrians and cyclists, apart from injuring doctors.

That’s why the battle for Blackfriars Bridge is so important. TfL simply must not be allowed to put the speed limit back up to 30 mph.

TfL’s traffic modelling is intellectually incoherent and irrationally car-centric, and as Danny says it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that TfL's traffic models are killing people.

The time for protest has come (actually, many protests, taking many different forms - there are three quite separate inspirational suggestions to be found here).

But lastly, don’t neglect the conventional channels. Do comment on TfL’s Draft Network Operating Strategy, because, characteristically,

throughout the document it not only doesn't mention speed limits, it exclusively refers to 'speed' as a positive aspiration and not once does it refer to excessive speed of traffic as a problem. The tone of the document is almost all traffic flow - that is - more, faster motor traffic.

This document effectively allows TfL to continue to ignore cyclists, because there is nothing in the strategy that requires them to consider cyclist safety or even cycle journey times when designing roads. In short, this is a recipe for more Blackfriars Bridge junctions, rather than an attempt to fix the historical strategy which has been an attempt to create urban motorways wherever possible.

Walthamstow pedestrian killed in hit and run crash

On Wednesday evening the emergency services were called to

the junction of Markhouse Road and Markhouse Avenue in Walthamstow following reports of a collision.

A female pedestrian was taken to an east London hospital with serious injuries.

The car involved in the collision, which is believed to be a dark coloured Mercedes C-class, failed to stop at the scene.

The woman, who was Vietnamese, died the next day but has not yet been formally identified.

Police want to trace the driver of the car, thought to be a C180 or C220 model, which was driven away from the scene towards Blackhorse Road.

This seems to be the first hit and run killing in the borough since a cyclist was run down and killed on Forest Road in 2007 (the driver was never traced).

The victim, whose identity is now known but which has not as yet been released by the police, was apparently in her twenties.

The crircumstances of the collision currently remain obscure. BBC News says she was run down on Markhouse Avenue, whereas the local paper says Markhouse Road. The local paper is more likely to be right, and indicates that the collision occurred somewhere between the traffic island by the Presbyterian Church and the junction with Markhouse Avenue. Four days after this fatal collision the Metropolitan Police have yet to put up a sign asking for information from any witnesses.

On the very limited information available at present it seems likely that the victim was crossing Markhouse Road when she was hit by the Mercedes, which was being driven north towards Blackhorse Road.

Markhouse Road (aka the A1006) is a lethal and barbaric road. It seems to have a massive crash record (I’ll use FOI to find out the details). It’s featured on this blog on a number of occasions. It has two schools on it (you can see the primary school playground behind the bus stop in the first photo above), churches and a leisure centre, as well as terraces of residential housing, yet the through-driver reigns supreme.

A major problem is speed. It is nominally a 30 mph road but many drivers are plainly exceeding that limit. The crap council’s idea of traffic calming is putting in traffic island/pinch points, which are no use to pedestrians (try getting stranded on one with two small children, or if you are old and walk with a stick), and which force even normal size cars into the crap advisory cycle lane.

The solution? It should be a 20 mph road, backed up by speed cameras. That’s the only way to do it. Unfortunately the idea of reducing speeds below 30 mph on an ‘A’ road is anathema to Britain’s car-centric transport culture.

At the very least the council should be ripping out those lethal pinch points and replacing them with zebra crossings. The council has a lot of latitude as this is not a road under the control of TfL.

Markhouse Road is the kind of road which deters all cyclists but those who are confident enough to cycle in such conditions. Me, I would always prefer to cycle on crap Hoe Street, where in daytime the congestion ensures much lower vehicle speeds, than on Markhouse Road, where vehicles travel much faster and come much closer.

(Below) The junction where the crash occurred.

(Below) The crash site. Which is also an example of how to design road infrastructure that forces drivers into the cycle lane.

(Below) While I was taking photographs a cyclist came by - on the pavement. If you don’t provide safe, convenient infrastructure for cyclists, some people will decide to find their own.

Update

TWO arrests were made yesterday following a woman’s death after a hit and run crash.

A woman in her 20s was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and a man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after the collision in Walthamstow.

A dark blue Mercedes C200 Kompressor, believed to be the vehicle involved in the crash, was also traced after the fatal incident occurred at 10pm on June 1, at the junction of Markhouse Avenue and Markhouse Road.

Another London cyclist killed

A 13-year-old boy died who after being struck by a car in Dagenham has been named locally as Thomas Stone.

The accident happened in Bell Farm Avenue at around 7.45pm, according to police and the London Ambulance Service (LAS).

Friends told the Post that Thomas, of Gay Gardens, had been riding his bike when the incident happened.

It was apparently a hit and run killing:

The driver of the blue coloured Toyota Celica, a 20-year-old woman, left the scene but later returned. She was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and taken into custody at an East London police station.

A believed passenger in the vehicle, a 36-year-old man, was also arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and also taken into custody at an East London police station.

It is a bitter irony that this fatality coincides with the latest smiley-smiley propaganda from Transport for London and the Mayor’s office.

New figures released by Transport for London and City Hall show that last year the capital's roads were the safest since casualty records began in the 1970s with the total number of people killed dipping below 150 for the first time.

To me that statement is a classic instance of what, in another context, has been identified as misleading measures of safety on the road and conniving with careless and dangerous driving, since most of the danger on the road is due to behaviour which is mainstream driving behaviour.

Another impressive student of ‘road safety’ is Olaf Storbeck, who calculates that so far this year eleven cyclists have died on London roads, which means last year’s total of ten dead cyclists has already been exceeded. Mr Storbeck calculates that the number of London cyclists killed since 2000 is 186.

Prophetically, he asked several weeks ago:

Will 2011 become a black year for cyclists in London?

Since 1986 the number of cyclists killed in London per year varies massively. On average, from 1986 to 2010 , 17.2 cyclists died per year.

The spin put on the 2010 statistics by Transport for London was designed to obscure an aspect highlighted by the Evening Standard:

The total number of children injured on London's roads has risen since Boris Johnson cut funding for road safety, it emerged today.

A total of 150 more youngsters were injured on the capital's roads last year - a 14 per cent jump.

In 2008-09, the year the Mayor took office, TfL's road safety spending stood at £58.8m, of which £30.3m went to the boroughs.

But the most recent figures show that in 2010-11 just £24.5m has been allocated, £9.7m of which will go to town hall programmes.

Lambeth in South London came under fire earlier this year for scrapping 30 lollipop patrol posts in a bid to save £150,000.

According to TfL figures, there were 2,064 children injured on the capital's roads in 2008. By 2010 this had risen to 2,134.

Interpreting casualty figures and using them as a measure of ‘road safety’ is a very contentious and often ideologically-driven affair.

Meanwhile let’s have a report on London’s safer-than-ever roads from Dalston Junction:

The current situation at Dalston Junction in London highlights a lamentable state of affairs. It is for me one of the most dangerous locations in London, for anybody - motorist, cyclist, pedestrian - and given recent tragic events I am aghast at the continuing rank indifference of the various agencies responsible for the transport network.

I was there again today and asked a 'banksman' why, as a pavement had been closed, and so many pedestrians were hazardously crossing through and in between heavy traffic, a proper (if only temporary) pedestrian crossing had not been provided. "Too expensive" was his reply. So pedestrians deprived of a footpath are crossing in between heavy traffic through which cyclists are also travelling on a highway narrowed substantially by building works. The tragic irony of this indifference is, this is a transport hub.

Julian also inadvertently filmed an impatient taxi driver forcing his way through the Tweed Run

(Below) Apparently no one was hurt in this Walthamstow crash not far from a local primary school. So it’s not recorded in the statistics used to define ‘road safety’. This helps to prove that London’s roads are getting safer all the time.

Lorries killing cyclists: what is to be done?

This is the scene of the latest killing of a London cyclist, in Hammersmith last Thursday. It’s a very revealing picture. The victim, whose name was Naoko, was apparently following her usual commuter route to an office in Hammersmith. She was crushed to death by a waste lorry. The location is on a marked cycling route, on a two-way traffic-calmed street. The crash site is by a speed table.

This latest killing of a London cyclist by a lorry driver was ignored by BBC London News, which has a policy of ignoring cycling deaths unless they involve a socially prominent person or a child. This reflects the car-centric values of the BBC. The London Cycling Campaign continues to insist that the BBC is ‘cycling friendly’, which is manifestly absurd. The LCC website has likewise failed to register this death, but then every death like this is an indictment of the miserably failed policies of the LCC and its traditional campaign posturing that cycling is safe and best done amid motor vehicles.

The circumstances of Naoko’s death are at present obscure and the next few days might provide some clarity (e.g. whether or not the lorry driver was arrested on suspicion of a driving offence). But irrespective of whether or not the cyclist or the lorry driver is held to be at fault, what strikes me about the scene is the environment it represents for both. The road is three lanes wide, yet parking is permitted on both sides and lorries and cyclists are funnelled into the gap in the middle. It’s inherently a conflict situation. And this is where ‘the right to ride’ leaves you – dumping cyclists between lines of parked cars. This is the kind of rubbish that orthodox cycle campaigning is seduced by – ‘quiet routes’ with traffic calming. They are just as much a deterrent to mass cycling as main roads with cycle lanes.

And look closely. One of those parked vehicles is the ubiquitous black cab. London is clogged with thousands of black cabs, which enjoy ridiculous privileges and have entire traffic lanes dedicated to their free parking. There are vastly more cyclists in London than black cab drivers, yet the black cab lobby has real force, whereas the LCC is dismally ineffectual. And behind the parked black cab in the photo is a massive 4X4.

Cycle of Futility argues that

The problem is not “collisions between cyclists and lorries”, it is that lorries drive around our streets mowing people down.

Yes. But the real problem is that cyclists are expected to share space with lorries. In other words, it’s the infrastructure. On Queen Caroline Street you could very easily separate cyclists from motor vehicles, but it’s not something the fundamentalists at the LCC have ever believed in. And even at the level of vehicular cycling, this is a failed cycle route. ‘Alien’, who took the above photographs, comments

Police at the scene, when I said lorries/cars treat this area as a rat run agreed. They'd received complaints from residents in the area.

Road closures to prevent rat running remain the exception rather than the norm. And cycle access through such road closures is often risible.

On the same morning, a short time earlier, a commuter cyclist died in Edinburgh. Again, it occurred on a street where lorries and cyclists are brought into conflict:

Last night local residents and a cycling campaign group voiced concerns that recent work to extend the pavement outside the school and a nearby roadworks diversion could have contributed to the tragedy.

Victoria Lamb said changes to the width of the road had made it more precarious for cyclists.

"The pavement outside the school was extended about two months ago and it's narrowed the space for anyone, particularly a cyclist, turning into East Claremont Street," she added.

Douglas Henderson, 65, who lives in Broughton Road, said: "The new pavement outside the school juts out too far, meaning the road is now too narrow.

And a London Fixed Gear contributor comments:

there are a number of factors here that make for grim reading. Broughton Road is closed for 12 weeks for gas works so all traffic is being diverted up E. Claremont St, a relatively narrow cobbled road with cars parked on both sides all the way down; directly opposite the accident scene is the main North Edinburgh refuse depot, with dozens of rubbish trucks coming in and out every hour; the traffic crossing has been widened in the last month (there's a primary school there, and the lollipop ladies often have to dodge RLJers - cars and, less so, bikes, there), narrowing the road by some 6ft or so. BBC is saying it's a bloke in his 20s, a lorry's involved, so pure conjecture would lead me to believe truck was turning left into E. Claremont St and took him with it. Just grim news, I cycle this road every day and have had numerous incidents here

Once again, on-street car parking combined with the new fashion for footway build-outs (another form of pinch point), puts cyclists in among lorries in a confined space, contributing to a situation that puts cyclists in danger, and deters the majority from cycling.

Jack Thurston:

When I asked Klaus Bondam, the Mayor of Copenhagen, what was the most difficult but most important decision he has made to make Copenhagen cycle friendly he gave a clear answer: replacing car parking space with spacious, segregated cycle lanes.

It’s a lesson the LCC and its branches show no signs at all of wanting to learn. After the previous London lorry killing in Camden ‘Lucky’ asked FFS. When will Boris do something about lorries in London.

Up popped that regular commentator ‘charlie LCC’ (who I assume is the LCC’s Campaigns officer, Charlie Lloyd)

Despite some comments, Boris's people are doing some things to help reduce the number of these horrors. We think they are close to including on-bike cycle training in the lorry driver CPC courses run by TfL, if they can get the approval from the authorities. We need to keep pushing for councils and companies to take up this training.

In other words, maintain the status quo. Don’t get rid of lorries or re-design the streets to keep cyclists separate from lorries. Instead ‘train’ lorry drivers to be aware of cyclists, and encourage cyclists to sit in lorry cabs to understand how limited the driver’s vision is.

This provoked an angry retort from ‘spindrift’, which you can read here.

LCC activists rushed to Charlie’s defence. ‘helly’ wrote

I don't think we should derail this thread into politics, tempting though this is. As editor of the Camden Cyclist, I am saddened and horrified by what I've read about this crash, which has occurred on 'our patch'.

But protestations of anguish don’t get us anywhere. Charlie Lloyd’s defence of Boris Johnson was just as much a political intervention as ‘spindrift’s’ entirely reasonable retort.

With all this stuff about the panacea of lorry driver training, it’s worth bearing mind that

Motorcycles (53 per cent), light vans (52 per cent) and four-axle rigid HGVs (52 per cent) were the vehicle types that most frequently exceeded the speed limit on 30 mph roads.

Charlie Lloyd popped up again on the Guardian website. He was anxious to sideline the call for separate cycling infrastructure:

The integration vs. segregation debate is largely internal to the cycling community. A far bigger hurdle to jump is the embedded belief amongst most traffic planners and politicians is that maintaining motor traffic capacity is the first priority.

That might be true if cycle campaign organisations had asked for separate cycling facilities to be met with the argument that it would cause congestion, but it’s not true because the LCC has never asked for it. The clique who run the LCC don’t believe in segregation and never have done. They don’t have a holistic approach to cycling, which is why when the London Assembly consulted on parking enforcement neither the CTC nor the LCC could be bothered to respond. On-street car parking is of no interest to the CTC or the LCC and they have never lifted a finger to oppose it. They are collaborationist organisations, complicit in maintaining the status quo. This makes perfect sense if you believe that the place of cyclists is among HGVs and buses and white vans, which is the position of the guru of orthodox British cycle campaigning, John Franklin.

Charlie Lloyd also remarked that

The Cycling Revolution is a social revolution, it is a behavioural revolution as well as an infrastructure revolution. It is already happening in parts of London and other cities.

This is the usual tosh. There is no cycling revolution in London..

As fast as some people are recruited to cycling, an equal number give up. Like Karl McCracken’s dad.

It’s a complete delusion that cycling can be turned into a mass activity through a ‘behavioural revolution’ without supplying safe, convenient, segregated infrastructure. And after thirty years of the London Cycling Campaign we still don’t have a single street in Greater London where the cyclist comes first. Meanwhile the killing of cyclists by lorries continues with the same sickening regularity. And Trixi mirrors and cycle training and lorry driver training are all irrelevant and a diversion from the fundamental issue of redesigning London’s streets for safe cycling.

And this kind of project is absolutely typical of the LCC:

The LCC’s Lucy Cooper explains the project’s genesis: “Gwen recognised that cycling is a great solution to get older people active as well as being a convenient way to get about. She was aware, however, that many people she met of a similar generation lacked confidence and overestimated the barriers to cycling. As a result, Gwen set up The Agewell on Wheels pilot project in Hammersmith and Fulham to respond to these barriers.

This is the usual patronising stuff which locates the barrier to cycling in the individual's fears, not infrastructure. People don't want to cycle in traffic: that's the barrier to cycling, and this project doesn't address it. Instead it requires participants to adapt to traffic. It will work with a few people but it will never get masses of elderly people cycling in the way that occurs in the Netherlands.

The courses provide intensive support to combat barriers to cycling. Advice is given on buying bikes and how to use the cycle hire scheme (more on that later), free DR bikes if they already have a bike, route planning information, an introduction to their local cycling community through led rides and free LCC membership.

Naturally there is nothing about numbers or retention. And gosh, this is SO typical of conditions for cycling in London, is it not?

another London cyclist killed by a lorry today

Photo: alien8






















A CYCLIST has died after a collision with a lorry in Queen Caroline Street.

Police and ambulance crews were called to the Hammersmith street at 8.24am on Thursday morning to find the biker, believed to be a woman in her 20s, dead at the scene.

Half an hour earlier a cyclist was killed by a lorry in Edinburgh.

Cyclists and exposure to risk

The cyclists most at risk of a collision are arguably those who are most exposed to risk. This might mean cyclists who take foolish risks. Gareth, for example, notes that I witness on a near daily basis cyclists filtering in the blue cycle lane in an unsafe position. But careful, experienced non-risk taking cyclists also get knocked down, and those who are most at risk seem to be those who do a lot of cycling, especially on ‘A’ roads outside urban areas.

Two examples spring to mind. Firstly there are people on charity cycle rides. They may be relative novices when it comes to cycling but when they end up being knocked down it is not necessarily as a consequence of anything they’ve done. It is simply that very few people cycle on non-urban ‘A’ roads any more. Those who do are often club cyclists, time trial cyclists, or dogged CTC ‘right to ride’ cyclists. Their willingness to ride on fast roads where few other cyclists venture exposes them to danger from drivers who aren’t expecting to meet a cyclist.

Like last Wednesday morning, when two cyclists were killed by drivers who were subsequently arrested by police.

In the first case a driver seems to have driven into a group of five cyclists on a charity bike ride in Wales:

A motorist has been arrested following the death of a cyclist in a road crash on the A55 on Anglesey. The rider, aged in his late 20s and not from north Wales, was with a group of five cyclists who were thought to be on a sponsored bike ride.

The incident, involving a silver Vauxhall Corsa car, happened between Gwalchmai and Llangefni at 1017 BST on Wednesday.

There’s more information about the victim here. Interestingly, two vehicles crashed on the same road the day before.

On that same morning a man was arrested following the death of a cyclist after a collision involving a van in Northumberland:

Police say the 43-year-old woman, who died in hospital, was from Jesmond in Newcastle.

She was cycling along the A189 Spine Road, near Cramlington, when the crash happened on Wednesday morning.

A 22-year-old man has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.

It emerges that the victim

was an avid cyclist whose love of bikes took her all over the world, but she was killed on her commute to work when she was involved in an early morning collision with a van on the A189 Spine Road, near Cramlington, on Wednesday.

“Amongst the many activities she enjoyed she was a keen long-distance cyclist having cycled in the Pyrenees, Caribbean and Western Isles.

“She enjoyed water sports like canoeing, diving and sailing and winter sports and she had just returned from a trip to the Dolomites. She was also an avid reader, badminton player and talented needlewoman.”

Under this story the first comment reads:

I do the A19/Spine Road commute most days and the traffic doesn"t often travel under 80. There needs to be a proper cycle path built, there have been more than enough deaths on these roads and its a popular route.

Camden cyclist death crash update

Photo: Islington Gazette

The lorry turned left at this junction.

Her name was Paula Jurek.

A FRIEND of a student from London Met who was crushed to death by a lorry has written to Boris Johnson to urge him to take action to prevent more tragedies involving cyclists in London.

“Paula only got this bike recently. The real shocking thing was she was so excited about having this bike and then to be involved in an accident so suddenly. She was far from naïve and understood how busy London could be.”

Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s transport advisor, said: “I was extremely saddened to hear about Paula’s tragic accident and my thoughts are with her family and friends at this time. The police are currently investigating the circumstances around Paula’s accident and we will work closely with them to help in any way we can. I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to look in detail at the concerns which have been raised in this particular case to see if there are any improvements which could be made.”

‘If’? At a junction which has no crossing lights for pedestrians and no Advanced Stop Lines on Camden Road? Camden Road is a four-lane carriageway entirely devoted to the supremacy of car drivers and other motorized transport.

A little more detail has emerged about the collision:

Police said the lorry was turning left into St Pancras Way when it collided with the cyclist, who was on its nearside.

"Even a casual visit to the spot where Paula died makes it abundantly clear that the intersection could be safer. I would ask that, if nothing else, you immediately exercise the powers of your office to address these specific issues before any similar incidents are allowed to occur."

Mr Dean’s fears are echoed by other cyclists who regularly use the busy four-way yellow box junction close to Camden Road station.

Simon Stevens, 18, said: “This road is dangerous. There was something wrong with the traffic lights for awhile. I don’t like coming through here because you always get beeped by cars.”

Meanwhile four days earlier in London:

Maria da Assuncao Grijo, 73, a Streatham resident originally from Portugal, was waiting to cross the road when an MTS sewage truck turned from Streatham Vale in to Woodgate Drive, at 9.35am on Friday (April 8), trapping her underneath the back wheels, witnesses have said.

The driver of the lorry - a 55-year-old man - was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

And this morning in Belfast a cyclist was killed by a lorry.

Kill while driving using a mobile phone and lose your licence for just three years

Keisha Wall, 20, a university student, was sitting alongside her mother, who was a driving instructor, when she lost control of the Suzuki Jimny she was driving and hit Christine Lyon, 63.

Wall had passed her driving test only months previously and was looking at the message on her mobile phone when she mounted a pavement and struck Mrs Lyon, who was crushed against a wall and died instantly.

Wall got her mini 4X4 as a present. She’s an unrepentant narcissist who turned up at court clutching her mobile phone. Her driving instructor mother was complicit in her reckless driving but has not apparently been prosecuted for anything, nor does her career as a driving instructor seem to have been jeopardised in any way.

Wall, like other killer drivers, enjoyed the powerful institutional protection of that creepy collection of individuals who make up The Sentencing Advisory Panel. The judge’s hands were tied:

Judge Stephen John said that the crash came under the lesser category of 'avoidable distraction' under level three for the sentencing guidelines.

This murderous egotist was therefore only banned from driving for three years.

Camden’s death junction: TfL continues to sacrifice cyclists and pedestrians to motor vehicle flow

Camden Road (A503) southbound, at the junction with St Pancras Way. The lorry driver turned left here. There is no ASL for cyclists and the carriageway markings allow both a left turn or continuing straight ahead.

It is claimed that Camden Council has long been in negotiations with Transport for London (TfL) for improvements to this junction, which TfL has resisted. I find that quite plausible, since TfL to this day remains obsessed with traffic flow (‘traffic’ being exclusively defined as meaning motor vehicles) and puts it before the safety and convenience of pedestrians and cyclists – something which is now widely recognised by a number of cycling campaigners. Camden Road is a hellish major route for motor vehicles, two lanes in each direction, without even the most rudimentary vehicular cycling infrastructure. The sole priority is maintaining the volume, speed and flow of motor vehicles. As far as TfL is concerned, cyclists and pedestrians are an obstacle and an irrelevance.

The time has surely come to start applying some pressure to TfL with a cyclists’ protest outside the appropriate TfL office. A ten minute sit-down in the road outside, one weekday lunchtime? Bring the traffic to a halt. Get the media along. The message need not be a particularly contentious one, because surely everyone agrees that cyclists need to be treated as equals not inferiors. There's nothing wrong with sending an email but this kind of thing keeps dissatisfaction within a very narrow section of the cycling community. We need consciousness-raising publicity stunts as well as using the conventional channels. And those stunts are going to have come from the Critical Mass end of the London cycling spectrum, because they'll never come from the timid world of orthodox cycle campaigning.

(Below) Even for a car driver, this is a tight corner with vehicles swinging out towards the adjacent lane.

(Below) Pedestrians get no lights at three of the four arms of this junction. This requires them to hurry across  four lanes of traffic on Camden Road with no protection.

(Below) A male cyclist positions himself well beyond the white line and the lights, technically breaking the law but succeeding in making himself highly visible. I think there’s probably quite a lot of truth in the theory that women cyclists are more vulnerable than male cyclists because many tend to be both less assertive and more likely to obey the design and rules of a motor-based transport infrastructure.