Wednesday 15 September 2010

Vehicular cycling to get worse in Islington

LIVES could be put at risk if transport bosses go ahead with a plan to remove traffic signals from one of Finsbury's busiest cycle crossings.

Transport for London is considering removing lights from a junction in St John Street - even though, at peak times, it allows hundreds of cyclists an hour to cross between Owen Street and Chadwell Street.

Cycling campaigners fear that if the lights are removed, bike riders will risk life and limb trying to cross St John Street - a major north-south route.

Councillor George Allan, a keen cyclist and a Liberal Democrat member for Clerkenwell ward, said: "It would be a devastating blow to the safety and convenience of the hundreds - if not thousands - of cyclists who use that junction every day.

"If they do away with the lights, cyclists would just have to take their chances.