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Lorry_BlindSpot_TakeCare_.pngTransport for London unveils new HGV warning stickers
After recently agreeing to abandon the controversial 'Cyclists Stay Back' stickers that have popped up on trucks, buses and even small vans, Transport for London has today unveiled their replacement, a warning notice about HGV blind spots.
The new stickers simply say "Blind spot Take care" and feature a silhouette of the back of a lorry and a warning exclamation mark. There is no reference specifically to cyclists.
The new sticker came about as a result of discussions between Transport for London and cycling campaigners, said TfL's director of surface strategy and planning Ben Plowden.
Plowden said: "In partnership with the cycling community we have reviewed safety signage on all vehicles and recently designed and launched new awareness stickers for HGVs that advise of the potential blind spot on the nearside of larger vehicles, replacing the previous ‘stay back’ messaging.”
The new stickers are intended only for use on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, which account for a disproportionate number of cyclist deaths and serious injuries in London.
TfL says that it has asked operators of vehicles 3.5 tonnes and under to remove the current stickers.
One of the biggest problems with the old stickers, according to cycling groups, was that their use on buses led some drivers to think they had legal priority over cyclists.
TfL has said that the 'stay back' stickers will be removed and road.cc understands that the organisation is currently working with cycling and road danger redction groups to finalise the design of new stickers for buses.
At road.cc we are somewhat disappointed in the new stickers. Not because they aren't an improvement on the old ones - they clearly are - but because we think our candidate for a replacement for the old stickers is still far better:
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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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14 comments
Can we start a campaign now to do something about the stickers which say "This bus pulls infrequently", because it reminds me of my own situation and makes me feel glum.
Or we could fix the problem by mandating collision avoidance tech on all large and new vehicles, promote safer vehicle and road designs (minimum width leftmost lane allows a lorry and cyclist to coexist) and impose stiffer penalties on drivers who kill, maim and injure other people.
What about one in the cab that the driver can see... Watch your inside...
Having this on the back kind of makes a good excuse of bad driving?
So, on the non-TfL and non-FORS vehicles, can we make up a sticker to put over those "Stay Back" ones saying:
"C*nt At The Wheel, Watch Out"...
Maybe they'll be removed quickly then?
This is the result of persistent campaigning by RDRF, RoadPeace, LCC and CTC . (See
http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/06/26/transport-for-london-sees-sense-at-last-ov... for the history).
New stickers to replace those on buses are about to be released, and soon TfL will be explaining to members of its Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) why the stickers have been replaced - and also repeat that there should be no stickers on cars, vans or small lorries that don't have a "blind-spot".
That leaves the numerous stickers on vans and cars that are not run by members of FORS. We hope there will be a process set up whereby the cycling/road danger reduction groups' members can contact owners of these vehicles to explain that TfL has changed its position (and anyway never wanted them on cars/vans).
Dr Robert Davis, Chair, RDRF
Much better, thank you.
It will be a long time before the aggressive current stickers are taken off vehicles as they seem to be handed out willy nilly to anyone who drives a white van or works vehicle regardless of weight and length.
Yep.
BqAaDkRIMAAKYrL.png large.png
I'm sure some wag will make up a small sticker with a different four-letter word on it to stick over "spot"
(but really, as funny as that would be, please don't because it IS a safety issue, mmkay?).
All we need to do now is popularise the term "spot" to mean a lorry driver and the stickers are perfect
Gets my vote.
That's not an exclamation mark. It's clearly a broad shouldered city type riding a small wheeled folding bike!
Caution : design flaw
much better, and having seen what happens to a car going up the inside of tractor Trailer, it isn't just cyclists who need to think before acting!