The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is calling for “urgent action” from the mayor of London to address the dangers lorries pose to cyclists.
LCC is asking for urgent action in three areas: a rush hour lorry ban; ‘direct vision’ lorries; and stronger enforcement against operators who allow unsafe drivers or vehicles to operate on London’s roads.
The campaign comes six weeks before the implementation of TfL and London Councils’ Safer Lorry Scheme, which LCC believes will not address the issue because will only require lorries to have “basic safety equipment”.
Ashok Sinha, chief executive of LCC, said: “It is unacceptable that seven cyclists have lost their lives after being involved in collisions with lorries on London’s roads in the first half of 2015.
“40% of cycling fatalities involving lorries occur in the morning rush hour. Almost all of these fatalities involve the construction and waste industry lorries that flood onto our roads at the same time thousands of people are cycling to work.
“The Safer Lorry scheme will do nothing to prevent this from happening, nor will it protect cyclists from lorries with restricted vision or unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers on London’s roads.
“Unless more is done, more people will lose their lives. We’re calling on the mayor to end lorry danger now.”
LCC is calling for action in three areas:
• A ban on all lorries over 7.5 tonnes between 8am and 9.30am, to enable the majority of people to cycle to work without having to share space with lorries
• A commitment to ensure only direct vision lorries are used on projects receiving funding from the GLA or TfL.
• Stronger enforcement against operators who allow unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on London’s roads.
LCC’ has launched a petition for people who wish to support its campaign.
There does need to be some sort of examining process when human beings are allowed to control motorised lumps of metal, but give some a pushchair or supermarket shopping trolley, and some pedestrians might need same.
Derek Reynolds, Salop.
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Cycists may not need lessons or a license, but the motorised vehicle drivers and riders do and yet, despite being ‘qualified’, they still collide with other road users on a regular basis. Pedestrians don’t need lessons and a license either and have no built-in crash protection, so perhaps they should be banned as well. As ever, it’s not so much the type of vehicle that is the problem, it’s who’s operating it.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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It is the bikes that should be banned, not the lorries. Bicycles are fundamentally unsafe, they cannot stand up on their own, they have no inbuilt crash protection and they can be driven by anyone without either lessons or a licence.
Robert Bolt, St Albans
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Whatever happened to shared highways? This smacks of another campaign to restrict larger vehicles carrying out their necessary deliveries. Perhaps buses ought to be restricted during peak times – how would that work out?
London cycling campaign needs to recognise the dangers from large vehicles and compensate with greater care – not attempt to restrict.
Derek Reynolds, Salop.
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