: NEW BATTLE FOR SAFER CYCLING

From The Evening Standard - 30/04/2007 (627 words)

News

BY ANDREW GILLIGAN AND DAVID WILLIAMS

LONDON is failing to keep pace with a huge rise in the number of people cycling to work.
There has been an estimated 70 per cent increase in cyclist commuters in four years but only
10 miles of a proposed 560-mile network were created last year.
Cycling groups say this is holding back a radical transport revolution which could help keep
the city moving.
The shortfall is revealed as the Evening Standard publishes a 12-point charter for cyclists in
London - a series of key demands aimed at making cycling safer and easier for everyone.
The latest figures reveal a sharp rise in cycling fatalities. There were 21 deaths in 2005, up
from eight in 2004, and 372 casualties.
The charter demands a properly integrated cycle network with continuous lanes on all main
routes.
Of the 70 per cent increase in cycling since 2003, there were rises of 20-25 per cent in both
2004 and 2005.
But the increase last year was only around six per cent and this is being put down to the
slowdown in the provision of new routes.
Simon Brammer, director of the London Cycling Campaign, said: 'The presence of cycle
facilities has a major impact on whether people cycle. But the delivery of those facilities is
much too slow. It needs to be much faster than it now is.'
Experts say there are far too few cycle lanes and the routes often fail to link up with other
stretches, can be poorly maintained and strewn with debris.
Darren Johnson, lead member on the London Assembly transport committee's report into
cycling, told the Standard: 'A lot has been done to boost provision for cyclists but nowhere
near enough.
'We still have too few cycle lanes and there are big gaps in the network. Originally the target
for completion of the London Cycle Network, was the millennium - now it looks like 2010.'
Charlie Lloyd, of the London Cycling Campaign, said: 'We need to see more on-road
measures.' He said provision of cycling facilities was hampered by ageing and unsafe one-
way road systems and poorly designed junctions.
Figures for September last year - the latest available - show that of all the boroughs, Haringey
spent the most on cycle lane provision (£712,000), followed by Islington (£619,000), Lambeth
(£572,000) and Kingston (£542,000). Barnet spent nothing and Kensington and Chelsea
spent under £6,000.
In 2005 the London Assembly transport committee warned that the London Cycle Network
was on the brink of financial crisis because of inadequate funding from Transport for London.
TfL has since provided an extra £40 million for cycling initiatives, £28 million of it to be spent
on cycle lanes by 2009/10. TfL's own figures - regarded as conservative by cycling groups -
show more than 450,000 cycle trips are made every day in the capital compared with 300,000
in 2001 - an increase of 50 per cent.

EVENING STANDARD'S 12-POINT CHARTER

A real cycle network across London
Better cycle lanes with proper segregation
Enforcement of special advanced stop lines for cyclists
HGVs to be fitted with special cyclist safety mirrors
Compulsory cyclist awareness training for all bus drivers and new HGV
drivers
Cycle-friendly streets: fewer one-way systems which funnel cyclists into the middle of traffic
More cycle parking across London
A police crackdown on bike theft
Make safe the Thames bridges: some of the most dangerous places for cyclists
Campaign to alert the self-employed that they can claim a 20p a mile cycling
allowance against tax
Better cycle-bus-rail coordination: adequate parking at all railway
stations
Cycle training for all schoolchildren and any adult who wants it