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Vigil aims to put pressure on Boris and TFL on cycle safety

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The campaign to get London’s Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London to make cycling safety in the capital a matter of priority takes another step tomorrow with a vigil to remember the victims of all cycle deaths in London this year.

At 6pm, cyclists, pedestrians, and friends and family of crash victims will gather outside King’s Cross station to remember loved ones and to highlight what the London Cycling Campaign calls the “unacceptable” death toll on the capital’s roads.

Safety above traffic flow

London Cycling Campaign, Road Peace and London Living Streets will make a joint call at the vigil for the Mayor to reject Transport for London policy of putting motor traffic flow above safety.

London Cycling Campaign say cyclists in the UK are more than twice as likely to die in a fatal crash as they are in Holland. In the UK there are 3.6 cyclist fatalities per 100 million kilometres cycled, compared with only 1.1 fatalities in the Netherlands.

Sixteen of the road fatalities in 2011 have been Londoners riding bikes (up from 10 last year). As more people cycle, as the Mayor wants, then greater provision should be made to ensure their safety.

Urgency

Campaigners are calling for the Mayor and Transport for London to address the most dangerous junctions in the city as a matter of urgency, and to implement continental-style streets in London to make them as safe and inviting as they are in Holland.

Danny Williams, a prominent London cycling blogger and a lead campaigner on better cycling infrastructure in Central London, said: “People are being asked to fling themselves on bikes through multi-lane junctions where cycling is an after-thought. The safety of cyclists and pedestrians should have just as much importance as the safety of motor users on London’s streets.”

Attendance at the Kings Cross vigil to show your concern about cycling safety in London is very much encouraged if you are around the area at the time. The vigil at Kings Cross will be near the gyratory junction where Korean student Deep Lee lost her life after her bike was in a collision with a lorry.

Deep Lee Ghost Bike photo used with the kind courtesy of Mark Ames of Ibikelondon blog


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