Transport for London board members have been urged to ask “serious questions” about why the number of Londoners killed or seriously injured on the roads increased last year.
TfL aims to reduce the number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) by 40% by 2020 and has published a Road Safety Action Plan to help achieve that target.
However a report to be considered by board members next week shows that the number of road users killed or seriously injured in 2012 increased by eight per cent to 3,018.
In a briefing note for the meeting, Transport Commissioner Sir Peter Hendy confirms “the number of KSI casualties has risen after a number of years of a falling trend”.
Despite the overall increase in incidents, the number of fatalities fell from 159 in 2011 to 134 last year.
Of these, 81% were vulnerable road users – pedestrians (51%), riders and passengers of motorcycles and other powered two-wheeled vehicles. (20%) and cyclists (10%).
Last month Mayor Boris Johnson insisted he and TfL were committed to improving road safety, including through better street design and increasing driver awareness of cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
The Mayor also said it was necessary to see the increase in the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured “in the context of a considerable increase in cycling in London” and that the number of KSIs “per journey cycled in London has dropped by 22 per cent over the last decade.”
However London Assembly Member Darren Johnson claimed the TfL report exposes a “worrying gap between Mayoral rhetoric which plays down the dangers on our roads, and the reality of more pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists being killed or seriously injured.”
He said that cutting the number of KSI’s was dependent on the Mayor “recognising what the problems are and what part his policies have played in the rise in the numbers killed or seriously injured.”
Assembly Member Johnson called on board members attending next week’s meeting to ask “serious questions about why vulnerable road users have been so badly affected in recent years.”
The report will be considered at the TfL board meeting on 6 November 2013 which takes place from 10.00am at City Hall. The meeting is open to members of the public.
