Thursday 21 November 2013

Cycling fatalities and police checkpoints



The appalling number of cyclist fatalities in London the last few days has provoked a constructive response from the Met, if not the Mayor.

Recognising that the majority of these accidents involve lorries, the police yesterday conducted a bike safety operation in central London, setting up checkpoints and stopping lorry drivers and cyclists. According to the Evening Standard the majority of lorry drivers committed one or more offences, mostly to do with driver’s hours. It seems that cyclists were also stopped in the interests of balanced PR, and warned or advised about wearing cycling helmets and headphones.

Most cyclists in London would accept that i) we have an image problem with many drivers in terms of safe riding and obeying the rules of the road and ii) that staying safe is something that we have some control over, so if the police are looking to highlight cyclist safety awareness as part of a campaign to clamp down on lorry driver offences then that is a pill we would surely swallow.

It does not help though that the Mayor chose to highlight the danger of cycling with headphones – which really only endanger the user - rather than the glaring and real danger of HGVs on London’s streets. He left the impression of wanting to create a debate over a side issue rather than delivering on his promises to tackle the problem of lorries killing and maiming cyclists.

Of course the police action may just be a one off, to give the impression of action in a very bad news week, and it remains to be seen how they follow it up. If they are serious about making a difference these check points should be expanded and repeated.

The police should also, in conjunction with TfL and London Boroughs, set up a unit to investigate all lorry-cyclist incidents involving death or serious injury and to collate data and intelligence on the cause of such accidents and how they can be avoided. There will be patterns, and lorry driver hours, on-vehicle safety features (or lack), segregation and driver education are likely to be issues that emerge. This sort of intelligent investigation should be standard if the issue of cycling fatalities is to be taken seriously.

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