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Cement lorry in London © Simon MacMichael.jpgSave London cyclists by banning lorries in rush hour says Harriet Harman
Acting Labour leader, Harriet Harman, has called for HGVs to be banned in London during rush hour. Her comments come after a recent incident in which a female cyclist was killed in a collision with a truck in Camberwell.
Writing on Twitter while the victim was in hospital, Harman said: “Thoughts with woman cyclist hit by lorry near Camberwell Green. Ban lorries at rush hour. Cycling should be safe”
Adding to these thoughts in a later statement, she said:
“It’s tragic that yet another cyclist – a young woman – has been critically injured in Southwark. My thoughts are with her.
“I want to see London being a safe place for cyclists. That’s why I strongly support Southwark Council’s proposal for a ‘safe cycling hour’ during the morning and evening rush hour, banning HGVs on the roads at those times. People must be able to cycle to work safely.”
Peter Shakespeare, director of communications at the Road Haulage Association, told the Telegraph that a rush hour ban on trucks would be a “kneejerk reaction” and suggested that there needed to be “better education of road users – both drivers of trucks and cyclists, and even pedestrians.”
Shakespeare said that a series of measures had been introduced to improve safety for road users. “The industry has gone a long way to address some of the issues and one also has to bear in mind that not all accidents with commercial vehicles means trucks, it means buses as well.” Even so, all six of the capital’s 2015 cycling fatalities have involved HGVs.
HGVs without cyclist safety equipment will be banned from London from September when the Safer Lorry Scheme comes into force. However, former government transport minister, Lord Attlee, has said that such measures do not go far enough. He has called on the government to research and set out minimum standards for HGV blind spot safety devices.
Speaking in March, he said:
“Products said to be designed to save lives should be independently evaluated and compared. The operators of HGVs would then have all the facts they need to make informed choices and know that the safety equipment they are investing in offers value for money and is effective. I am sad to say that this is not the case.”
He said that he believes a consistent process needs to be established to independently evaluate HGV safety products.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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19 comments
Kneejerk? What fucking kneejerk? People are being killed while TfL sits on it's hands - of the £107 mio cycling budget allocated in 2014, it spent £29 mio!
All bar one of the London HGV victims have been female cyclists. The smallest group makes up most of the fatalities. This is too statistically skewed to be coincidence. What's going on here?
unfortunately with the incoming Government's further cutbacks to Policing, road traffic safety in London is only going to get worse
the only way to directly protect vulnerable road users at busy junctions is by installing concrete infrastructure to provide physical segregation
however, this is also very expensive....
Yes something needs to be done about the interaction between large goods vehicles and cyclist. Banning trucks in rush hour is completely impractical. When does rush hour start and finish? It seems to me that there is never a quiet time for London traffic.
What will happen to the trucks that are already in London when the ban starts. Where will they park for the duration of the ban? It is almost impossible to find parking in any major city for statutory breaks as it is without adding additional hurdles. I am a cyclists who drives a truck for a living and there are faults by both parties, the difference is that in incidents between cyclists and any other vehicle, the cyclist comes second , whether they are to blame or not. Training is the only solution, for ALL road users not just the truck drivers.
7:00am to 10:00am
15:00pm to 19:00pm
Try 5:00am, very quiet.
Apply the ban on vehicles entering. Any vehicles already inside the perimeter is allowed a grace period to leave. As with nighttime deliveries now, lorries can use certain approved corridors in and out of the city 24 hours a day.
My responses here aren't serious suggestions, they're simply to illustrate that if the political will was there to introduce such a measure, it can be done. The same sort of objections have been raised for every single traffic management proposal in London, from bus lanes to the congestion zone and the LEZ.
Instead of banning trucks for a couple of short periods a day which will be broken by some, why not:
A) use temporary concrete road barriers or even cones to zone off and make temporary safe cycling space, especially at left hand junctions
B) Create designated routes for trucks and restrict them to those routes,which are marked and audited as large enough
C) Make all trucks, especially construction vehicle, require spotters.
D) As someone else said, toughen the law to hold dodgy operators to account, including jail for corporate manslaughter
Restricting hours of operation is a possible, but very limited part of the solution. For one thing, it is hardly fair for the (admittedly smaller in numbers, but they are still human beings) people cycling outside those hours, who would have greater numbers of lorries to contend with.
For our take, read through this post http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/03/02/update-cyclists-stay-back-stickers-and-hgv....
It addresses the issues around the "Cyclists stay back stickers", considers the recent history of lorry design (including the attempts by some manufacturers to delay introduction of safer lorries) and then goes on to assess all the relevant possible solutions.
Stick a spotter in the cabs.
These vehicles are known to be dangerous, that's why they need a heap of banksmen to direct them on site.
So if we're going to free them onto public roads, ensure that there are people in the cab as extra eyes for the driver.
Not going to happen and Harriet wouldn't be saying it if she was actually in power. People just need to be more careful and realise there are others around and that no one is actually invincible....even then there will still be collisions.
That's the answer is it? Crossing your fingers and hoping others (often under great time-pressures) will be 'more careful'? You're free to trust your life to that, but forgive me if I don't.
The existing controls on lorries in London are a major contributor to the problem. They're restricted from 9pm to 7am, Monday to Friday, which results in the roads being flooded with them from 7am, the worst possible time.
Why it's 7am is a mystery, the first planes start arriving at Heathrow from 4:30am, and for those near the flight path (which is a lot) those make much more noise.
It was brought in by the GLC to control HGVs making loads of noise at night. Now dampening technology has made them much quieter, its a bit anachronistic.
Exactly. And if the concern is noise, why wasn't the restriction on noise?
I've had to live and work near main roads in London, and the loudest vehicles are usually motorcycles. Small two stroke engines are loud and annoying, but there's also a subset of bikers who are obsessed with having the loudest pipes possible, and they only ever put the baffle in for the MOT.
Large vehicles can be made very, very quiet. If there was an incentive to do so, I'm sure the haulage companies would jump at the chance to avoid the morning congestion.
We're living with legislation that was introduced 20 - 25 years ago, when hgvs travelling at night were a major problem. The issue now is that there is to much traffic at peak morning times because of that legislation and people are getting killed.
The next mayor needs to update the restrictions and make major headway with banning diesel vehicles from within zone 3 to massively reduce pm2.5
Define rush 'hour'? What time do cyclists commute into work in London, is it just within a 1 hour frame?
Shouldn't we make all roads safe at all times rather than this mythical hour?
There are certain periods when the roads are far more crowded though - seems to me its easier for lorries and cyclists to stay clear of each other when there's less traffic about in general, so, while it probably isn't the whole answer, I can't help thinking it would help if lorries were not on the roads at the same time as vast numbers of commuters.
No, don't go banning people - that will just ostracise cyclists even more.
Hand down actual punishments, none of this "6 points and 12 month sentence" nonsense.
Start to actually clamp down on motorists that put more vulnerable road-users at risk.
…and corporate manslaughter charges for the owners of companies that own or hire the lorries.
Agreed
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www.veloism.co.uk
Trouble is, while I'd also like to see tougher penalties handed out, just as speed cameras don't stop speeding, penalties won't stop collisions happening. The best way to eliminate these collisions is to remove all points of conflict.