Cycle safety in London was the theme of two presentations at the October meeting of the London Road Safety Council (LRSC).
Road safety officers, elected members and representatives from a number of road safety organisations first heard from Elizabeth Kelly, education and training programme manager at Transport for London (TfL), who outlined a review of cycle training currently being carried out by TfL.
Attendees heard that currently only 1% of London schoolchildren cycle to school compared with the national average of 1.975%. Elizabeth explained that TfL is providing £3m of funding annually London boroughs to deliver cycle training, and is trying to identify what needs to change in order to make youngsters and their parents more confident about them cycling to school. TfL’s in depth review into this will be concluded in January 2014.
Nick O’Donnell, chairman of the Borough Cycling Officers’ Group, outlined the role of his organisation and explained that one of its aims is to ensure a consistent approach to cycle infrastructure provision across all boroughs.
In the discussion which followed the presentations, one attendee suggested that the Exchanging Places experience, where a cyclist sees the restricted view an HGV driver has from the cab, should be an integral part of the cycle training programme. Another suggested that if the programme were to be rebranded as ‘cycle safety lessons’ rather than ‘cycle training’, there could be a greater uptake by adults.
For more information contact James Parker, LRSC administrator, on 01483 828443.
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