Boris Johnson has announced plans to improve the safety of cyclists ahead of the introduction of London’s cycle hire scheme.
The Mayor has published a number of proposals which he is inviting London boroughs and cycling groups to comment on. These include working with companies operating HGVs to get them to “take cycling safety seriously”, working with operators of construction vehicles to encourage them to install side-bars or other safety devices on vehicles which are currently exempt and a call for the Government to remove such exemptions.
City Hall say the Mayor’s plans will also be sent to around 100,000 cyclists in the capital.
While seeking to reassure Londoners that cycling in London “is safer now than it was a decade ago”, the Johnson said expected increases in the number of cyclists meant it was “imperative that we take action now to ensure that they can cycle safely.”
Official statistics show that although cycle journeys in the capital have more than doubled in the last decade, the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on London’s roads has fallen by around a fifth over the same period.
Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly has branded the Mayor’s safety plan “seriously flawed” and accused the Mayor of “cutting the front line police officers who are taking dangerous lorries off the roads and doing the leg work to make lorry firms take safety seriously” while at the same time “inviting thousands of new and inexperienced cyclists to share the main lorry routes into London”.
The Mayor’s cycle safety plan is available at www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners
