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TfL's latest Cycle Safety Action Plan details cycleways, junctions, bus & lorry improvements

Acknowledges "much more needs to be done" to make city safe...

Transport for London (TfL) has released the latest version of its Cycle Safety Action Plan, which aims to reduce road danger for cyclists in the capital.

While it doesn't contain anything dramatically new, it's useful to have TfL's thinking on cycle safety collected in one place, and the detailed analysis of serious collisions and fatalities that underpins it is useful to dispel myths.

The plan acknowledges that cycling is a vital part of London's transport mix, accounting for 16 per cent of all road-based traffic in central London at peak times. Imagine the crowding public transport or gridlock if all those riders on the bus or Tube, or driving.

In the plan, TfL says: "London needs more people to cycle and to cycle more often. While the number of cyclists killed has declined over time, there is still more to do, particularly to reduce the number of cyclists being seriously injured."

Improving cycling infrastructure is a major plank of TfL's safety platform. The plan says: "Improving the safety of our road infrastructure is a central focus of this new plan, particularly in the design of junctions, roundabouts, signals and cycle lanes.

By 2016, TfL aims to deliver At least 50 per cent of the Central London Grid by 2016 and Quietways, upgrade the existing cycle superhighways and complete several new ones.

Three mini-Holland schemes in the London Boroughs of Enfield and Waltham Forest, and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames are due to be delivered by 2018.

By 2020, the Better Junctions plan will fix up 33 key junctions to reduce the danger they present to cyclists and pedestrians. Ten schemes are due to be delivered by 2016.

More broadly, TfL says it will focus its road safety engineering programme at locations on the Transport for London Road Network (the major roads under its control) where conditions for vulnerable road users can be made safer.

The plan and associated crash analysis report acknowledges that vehicle design and movement is a big issue for cycle safety.

To deal with this TfL says it will work with London Councils and London boroughs to deliver the Safer Lorry Scheme, which will require  HGVs driving in London to have side guards and extended view mirrors fitted.

Cycling is London varies enormously over the day, with peaks at rush-hour and this is typically when cyclists are involved in collisions with large vehicles. TfL says it is trialling quiet vehicle technology to expand off-peak delivery so that cyclists and lorries do not share road space as much.

The other large vehicle type identified as posing a serious danger to cyclists is buses, which have to be on the road in peak times. TfL will test radar and optical sensors on London buses next year to see if they can reduce collisions and trial Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology which can stop a vehicle travelling above the designated speed limit. They'll also look at how improvements to bus design could protect cyclists.

TfL says it's aiming for a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the Capital’s roads by 2020. The most vulnerable groups – pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – are involved in 80 per cent of serious and fatal collisions; it's their protection TfL intends to make a priority.

The plan claims cycling has become safer in London in recent years, a claim some campaigners dispute, but nevertheless says: "If we are to create a city fit for cycling and achieve both the Mayor's targets of  growing cycling and reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured, then much remains to be done."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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5 comments

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ChairRDRF | 9 years ago
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The Road Danger Reduction Forum has commented at length on the original draft of the CSAP.

Regrettably, apart from a reference to motor vehicle speed, and a cosmetic change in their section where the cyclist casualty rate is discussed , TfL have not made any significant change to the draft CSAP.

For a (quite long) discussion on what is wrong with the Cycle Safety Action Plan, go to http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/11/07/transport-for-londons-cycle-safety-action-...

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Username | 9 years ago
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I would love to see the gradual movement away from buses to trams. Trams are quieter, greener, carry more capacity, more predictable because not affected by traffic, and safer for all users and fellow-road users.

I would also like the growth of cycle infrastructure at the EXPENSE of bus routes (Camden, Tottenham Court Rd proposals, are you listening?). Too many bus journeys in London are over very short distances which can easily be cycled: greener, quieter, cheaper, and healthier for everyone.

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tritecommentbot replied to Username | 9 years ago
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Tram tracks are a disaster for cyclists. You have to hit them at a safe angle which can often be difficult to do depending on other road users and turns in the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAVD4EXb8_M

Cyclists are wiping pretty often in Edinburgh since they've put the tracks down.

Do a search on youtube for Edinburgh cyclist tram and you'll see a number of falls caught on camera.

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OldRidgeback replied to tritecommentbot | 9 years ago
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unconstituted wrote:

Tram tracks are a disaster for cyclists. You have to hit them at a safe angle which can often be difficult to do depending on other road users and turns in the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAVD4EXb8_M

Cyclists are wiping pretty often in Edinburgh since they've put the tracks down.

Do a search on youtube for Edinburgh cyclist tram and you'll see a number of falls caught on camera.

There have been quite a few cycling spills involving the tram tracks in Croydon too, one was fatal if I remember correctly.

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jasecd | 9 years ago
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Lot's of words with too little action so far - will this really be a proper change?

IMO the main hazard facing cyclists is not road design or congestion, it is the attitude of a sizeable minority of drivers, yet you never hear a word about this.

Until someone in power has the backbone to address this I will continue to doubt anything they say.

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