How to design for cycling collisions

A very simple and economic way of designing for collisions between cyclists and drivers is to ensure that a cycle lane is brought into conflict with overtaking motor vehicles. This example from Peasholme Green in York possesses all the design virtues of classic simplicity. This is a primary route into the city centre. The cobbled verge possesses no historic significance and the cobbles were placed there for aesthetic reasons.

However, simply bringing cyclists and drivers into conflict may not be enough to suppress all local cycling. It may be necessary to add an extra refinement, in which case ‘dooring’ should always be considered as an optional extra. This example on Ruckholt Road in Leyton demonstrates how best to situate a cyclist between overtaking lorries and car parking bays.

Quotes of the day

There is a whisper that we might even be at the dawn of a new golden age of the bicycle. I certainly think so. 

There is no doubt that cycling in London has become much more pleasurable over the last decade. 

Two top cyclists whose views can be found in today’s Observer or online here.

Another £10,000 down the drain

The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG) has revealed that it is launching a major inquiry called ‘Why Don’t More People Cycle?’ 

The answer to that question is very simple.

(i) For the majority of journeys cycling is dangerous, frightening and inconvenient, and perpetually subordinated to the convenience and speed of motor vehicles.

(ii) The UK cycle campaign establishment is managed by vehicular cyclists whose solution to (i) - in so far as they believe in it at all, which some don’t - is largely behaviourist rather than infrastructural.

There – I’ve saved £10,000!

(Below) The A112, the main north-south route through the London Borough of Waltham Forest. No inquiry is needed to find out why hardly anybody wants to cycle on roads with conditions like this.

STOP THE CHILD TERROR

This shocking photograph shows a law-abiding cyclist riding in the road while parallel to her can clearly be seen a helmeted cyclist on the footway approaching a blind corner.

This is a recipe for someone being almost killed or almost hurt. (Photo borrowed from here)

Remember that today’s child cyclist is tomorrow’s lycra lout.

The good news is that in some towns firm action is now being taken to nip child cycling terror in the bud.

Yes, this is Britain.

It may be that

Child deaths on Britain’s roads in 2011 were also up by 9% from 55 in 2010, to 60 in 2011. 

And that

numbers of cyclists on the roads seriously injured rose from 2,660 to 3,085 in 2011 – an increase of 16% 

but we want none of that funny foreign nonsense here.

I allude to Stop de Kindermoord.

Or to put it another way, in Britain:

WHERE DO THE CHILDREN RIDE?

And please remember A bicycle ceases to be a toy when it is used on the road. It is a vehicle 

and do, also, please, try to avoid cycling over drains and potholes. 

And now other news.

Britain's obesity epidemic has left schoolchildren requiring 42in trousers and 54in blazers. 

Retailers say they are even supplying primary school pupils with 40in jumpers – a size normally worn by grown men. 

The solution, obviously, is to buy a bigger car for the school run.

Are you safer on a Boris bike?

It is asserted that

bike hire cyclists are three times less likely to be injured per trip than other cyclists in London as a whole.

If true, this is an interesting statistic.

What conclusions can be drawn from this statistic?

Dr Robert Davis believes

they are more likely to be tourists (and have a carefree attitude), not wear helmets, and I would suggest that they are less likely to be aware of the road environment in central London. 

The point is that, yet again, we have evidence of adaptive behaviour by road users, in this case motorists. It backs up the evidence for Safety in Numbers (SiN) 

Does it really, though?

My immediate response to the assertion that bike hire cyclists are three times less likely to be injured per trip than other cyclists in London as a whole is that this may be because trips made using hire bikes are short ones, while other cycling journeys are longer.

If other cycling journeys are on average three times longer than those made by hire bike then the statistical difference in casualties becomes of no significance whatever.

Or to put it another way, it’s about exposure to risk. Measuring safety by individual trips is not a good way of measuring danger because some trips are far more dangerous than others. Exposure to risk involves the length of the journey, the kind of roads cycled on, and the prevailing conditions on those roads in terms of motor vehicle type, volume and speed. (It may be, for example, that Boris bikers cycle far less in the vicinity of lorries than commuter cyclists on certain routes.)

I am not particularly convinced by the argument that drivers treat Boris bikers better than other cyclists, or that the behaviour of Boris bikers is significantly different to that of other cyclists. But then I think that the behaviourist approach to cycling and “road safety” is doomed. Trying to modify the behaviour of drivers and cyclists on shared roads is the classically failed tradition of UK cycle campaigning. Danger reduction is best accomplished through re-designing road infrastructure to separate cyclists from vehicles on the Dutch model, not by attempting to shape the individual psychology of the driver or the cyclist.

My own personal observations also suggest another reason why Boris bikers may be less likely to be hit by a motor vehicle than other cyclists. See if you can spot what it might be.

Crap cycling in Richmond

Quote:

Richmond’s strategy is to increase cycling by 40%! Yes, in seven years’ time, cycling’s modal share needs to rise to a whopping 7%. Except we’ve no idea how to get there. I asked about the strategy, and the strategy is … to increase cycling’s share. 

Luckily the London Borough of Richmond has come up with some exciting ideas, which include:

Advanced cycle stop lines at signal junctions for cyclist safety 

[meaningless white paint on the carriageway which many drivers will choose to ignore]

Extensive widening of footways 

[the current flavour of the month among London’s deranged transport planners, who are doing their bit to suppress even the current low levels of cycling by making things even more off-putting for vehicular cycling by forcing cyclists even closer to overtaking motor vehicles]

Pedestrian ‘countdown’ at all signal junctions to indicate the time allowed to cross the road 

[Richmond is doing its bit to terrorise pedestrians and remind them that the most important thing in life is smoother traffic flow]

There will be CCTV enforcement of traffic violations that impede traffic movement

[there will be no enforcement of laws that protect walking and cycling but drivers who slow things down for other drivers can expect a fixed penalty notice]

Number of car parking spaces (on and off street) will remain the same

[Richmond is as car-sick and car-sodden as anywhere else in Greater London and its crap council plans to keep it that way]

Sadly there are a few malcontents who are not persuaded by these improvements:

surely any plan to get rid of bus/cycle lanes could easily see the introduction of dedicated bike lanes and still have scope to increase pavement width? 

And those ingrates in the local cycle campaign have even dared to suggest that Richmond's transport planners don't understand cycling:

The council is convinced this is an improvement, completely misunderstanding why people do not choose to cycle in the borough.
 
But I expect Richmond is like the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The roads are just too narrow for cycle tracks on the Dutch model. In Waltham Forest our transport planners are making every effort to improve cycling safety by discouraging cycling altogether.

Here on Wood Street in Walthamstow (aka the B160), a direct through route for cyclists has seen expensive “street scene improvements” which involve widening the footway and replacing the cycle lane with parking bays. Cyclists are pushed closer to overtaking motor vehicles and some lovely new bike logos have been painted on the carriageway. This model appears to be being pushed out across Greater London, but as usual pioneering Waltham Forest was there first.

Isn't this a lovely street for going shopping? If trade is suffering I expect it's because there isn't enough car parking.

Free Olympic Cycling Souvenir

As a special service to readers we are happy to supply this special cut-out-and-keep souvenir of “cycling in London during the 2012 Olympics”.

This captures the true atmosphere of the Olympics as it shows what it was like during those golden days when motor vehicle numbers were much reduced and cyclists could cross a major London junction with little for company but a few speeding Games BMWs and London’s iconic white vans.

How to tell if a cyclist is going too fast

A 24-YEAR-OLD driver who knocked down a cyclist has appeared in court and claimed the man on the bike was travelling too fast.

Matthew Gosling, of Royal Sussex Crescent, appeared before the town’s magistrates on Friday morning (July 29) and admitted driving without due care and attention on April 16. The court heard Gosling was turning right into Moatcroft Road from The Goffs, Old Town, when he hit the cyclist causing him to be thrown in to the air.

When interviewed about the incident, Gosling said he felt it was the cyclist’s fault. He told the officers he had not seen the cyclist and suggested he may have been on the pavement and then switched to cycling on the road shortly before the accident.

However, another motorist at the scene said the cyclist was clearly on the road and she was waiting for the bike to pass before she made her manoeuvre.

In court, Gosling represented himself and told the magistrates he felt the cyclist was travelling too fast because there was considerable damage to his car following the impact. He also said the sun was in his eyes at the time.

a death site revisited: Vernon Place

Vernon Place, eastbound. Three lanes wide at the junction with Southampton Row. Absurdly, the third ‘fast lane’ can legitimately be used for drivers going straight ahead as well as making a right turn. This generates conflict with right-turning cyclists, especially those unable to get into the fast lane because of speeding traffic or obstruction of the Advanced Stop Line (ASL).

Spot the cyclist in the second photo. You can’t, though there is one present here in this three-lane-wide wedge of packed motor vehicles



Vernon Place (London WC1) is a junction where two women cyclists have been killed in recent years, one in 2008 by a left-turning lorry, another in 2009 by a right-turning bus. I blogged about the last fatality here and there was more commentary by Olaf Storbeck here.

More recently I blogged about conditions for cyclists as you approach the junction

(Below) I photographed the ASL after the lights had gone to red and waited to see if any drivers would flout it.

(Below) By a strange quirk of fate the first vehicle which came along was a number 98 bus – the same service which killed Dorothy Elder. The light had been red for some time before this bus arrived, and the driver had no excuse at all for doing what he did, which was to wilfully and deliberately drive into the ASL reservoir for cyclists.

(Below) While he was waiting at the lights the driver of this bus switched his attention from driving to reading some papers in his cab. My photo captures the moment that the lights change, with the driver still staring down at whatever he was reading, oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn’t even notice me taking photographs of him. In other words, Metroline drivers of number 98 buses are still driving in a criminal and reckless way at a site where one of this company’s drivers killed a cyclist.

Olaf Storbeck also wrote about the death of cyclist Jayne Helliwell, killed nearby by a bus driver on Oxford Street remarking I urge Metroline and TfL to take responsibility for Jayne’s death. Fat chance, I’m afraid.

Ironically, the next sight I observed was a number 8 bus in the fast lane coming into conflict with a right-turning cyclist (below). The number 8 bus was going straight ahead. The right-turning cyclist had evidently not had the confidence to get over to the right when approaching the junction. This was potentially another fatal collision scenario. However, it happened in broad daylight (whereas the two fatalities occurred here during the hours of darkness) and the bus driver was attentive to the cyclist’s manoeuvre, and braked to allow the cyclist to pass in front. This episode simply underlines what a catastrophically dangerous junction this is for cyclists. The only safe solution here is to separate cyclists from motor vehicles on all four arms of the junction – segregation is perfectly viable in terms of available road space – and to give cyclists a dedicated all green phase. Needless to say TfL isn’t thinking in such terms; sadly, neither are many cycling campaigners, who prefer to focus on confidence building and cycle training, conspicuity, and changing driver behaviour through education, enforcement or new legislation.

Cycling on the pavement in Chingford

The A112 is the central north-south transport spine for motor vehicles in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It runs from Chingford Green in the north through Walthamstow and Leyton all the way to the northern perimeter of the Olympic site and Stratford.

This road is deeply hostile to cycling, in a variety of ways at a variety of locations. The deterrents to cycling include proximity of overtaking motor vehicles, sub-standard poorly-maintained cycle lanes, speeding drivers, pinch points, a mini-gyratory, cycle lanes placed immediately adjacent to parking bays, motor vehicle congestion which also delays cyclists, obstruction of cycle lanes, both permissive and transgressive, and issues of personal security at the Crooked Billet underpass.

On the border between Chingford and Walthamstow cyclists using the A112 are diverted through the Crooked Billet underpass system, where the cycle monitoring figures tell their own story: for the successive years 2006-2010 the counts over a twelve hour period in July were 309, 324, 294, 223, 228. Back in 1998, when the counts were taken in October, the figure was 335.

The council used to record counts for the A112 but stopped doing so several years ago (the 2005 LIP promised extra cycle counts at new locations; with characteristic cynicism the council then subsequently reduced the small number of monitored routes by two).

No one involved in ‘encouraging cycling’ in the London Borough of Waltham Forest seems at all interested in even acknowledging the spectacular failure of cycling in the borough (where the modal share is less than one per cent), let alone addressing it, diagnosing it, and seeking a solution.

This is a preamble to a sight I saw recently on the A112 in Chingford. A woman cycling on the pavement:

Why was she cycling on the footway? Probably because it felt safer. If that was her motive, it was not unreasonable. The A112 is nominally a 30 mph road but there are no restraints on speeding other than traffic congestion and signalled junctions. Lawless speeding is a particular problem on this section of the A112

Another reason why some cyclists might feel safer cycling on the footway rather than the road is the existence of pinch points. The London Borough of Waltham Forest specialises in putting in murderous pinch points on roads across the borough, including those which are laughably identified as cycling routes. This is what I’d stopped to photograph when I saw her ride past.

A pinch point like this simply engineers conflict with cyclists. There isn’t space for a driver to safely overtake a cyclist, but if you take the primary position you may experience someone blowing their horn and screaming abuse. Note the way drivers veer over towards the kerb when they pass the pinch point (below).
As a major cross-borough route, the A112 needs a segregated Dutch-style cycle track along its entire length. Instead, the council is currently re-engineering lengths of it in Leyton to make it even more attractive for car use and car parking. And no one seems remotely interested in understanding why cycling is a deeply unpopular travel mode in what is a very compact but profoundly car-sick borough.

Conditions for cyclists on Vernon Place

If you are travelling in an eastward direction, Oxford Street (A40) in central London turns into New Oxford Street, which turns into Bloomsbury Way, which turns into Vernon Place. On Vernon Place there is a major junction where it meets the north-south A4200 (i.e. Southampton Row and Kingsway).

Two cyclists have died at this junction in recent years. In 2008 a woman cyclist was hit and killed by a lorry whose driver turned left at the junction and a little over a year later a woman cyclist was killed by a bus driver who turned right at the junction and did not notice her.

These are the conditions for cyclists just before that fatal junction is reached.

London’s so-called cycling revolution is largely made up of cyclists like this: confident, fast cyclists who are usually male, usually white, and usually in the age range 25-45. They are also usually professionals. Often they will be riding road bikes with skinny tyres and dropped handlebars.

The problem is, this kind of demographic restricts cycling to a fringe minority. And even assertive cyclists who take the primary position can end up experiencing problems.

The answer, as we know from extensive international experience, is the provision of facilities that separate cyclists from fast and aggressively-driven motor traffic. Training cyclists to pretend to be motorcyclists is not the answer.

spot the cyclist

I took these pics of the Russell Square ‘improvements’ today, on the north side. On both sides the footway has been built out, narrowing the carriageway. On the side nearest the square the footway build-out incorporates parking bays (below) – exactly the principle which is being rolled out across Waltham Forest, to the detriment of safe cycling. The scope for segregated cycle tracks at this location is blindingly obvious. London remains one of the most backward, car-sick cities in Europe, still relentlessly promoting the parking of motor vehicles across the city centre.

Cycling injuries rise in East London – and there’s been another London cycling fatality

The number of cyclists being injured on Tower Hamlets roads has gone up by 12 per cent in the last three years.

Tower Hamlets fared better than other east London boroughs, as in Barking and Dagenham road accidents involving cyclists shot up by more than half and those involving pedestrians by almost a fifth.

Labour London Assembly member for the area, John Biggs, said the re-phasing of hundreds of traffic signals in the capital may be leading to increased traffic speeds which put cyclists and pedestrians at higher risk.

No surprise, really, since

What TfL have managed to do since 2004 is to preside over a road network so dangerous that it actually cancels out any safety benefit of the 170% increase in people riding bikes on the TLRN.

If TfL really want people to “catch up with the bicycle”, they have got to stop prioritising motor vehicle convenience at the expense of cycle safety.

Meanwhile last week, with almost no publicity at all (car-centric BBC London News characteristically ignored it) another London cyclist was killed:

A cyclist has died following a collision with a motor vehicle (Thursday 14th July) on Kew Bridge.

Eye-witnesses report that the cyclist was knocked off his bike whilst crossing the bridge.

Note the Comment of a local cyclist here.

Another serious lorry/cyclist crash in central London

This sounds bad.

A4200 Southampton Row Bloomsbury, both ways between A40 Bloomsbury Way and B502 Russell Square
A4200 London - A4200 Southampton Row in Bloomsbury closed and queueing traffic in both directions between the A40 Bloomsbury Way junction and the B502 Russell Square junction, because of a serious accident involving lorry and a cyclist

According to ‘Dooks’

Just passed what looked to be a very nasty accident southbound on southampton row. articulated lorry stopped in the road at an angle, a battered green ladies mountain bike by the side of the road a crowd of horrified onlookers and paramedics peering under the wheels of the trailer. ambulances were just arriving on the scene as i passed. Did not look good.

John Lew has posted this photo on Twitter (which I have cropped - the original is here).

'Two days of carnage' in Hammersmith & Fulham

I won't stop cycling there but I do think London needs to aspire to the more cycle-friendly European cities.

I took a look at Hammersmith & Fulham’s Borough Cycling Stategy document. It looks to be quite a few years out of date. It says that locally

It is often difficult to find space for segregated cycle tracks.

Yeah, right. The Hammersmith gyratory, the Shepherd’s Bush gyratory… by the time you’ve accommodated three or four lanes of motor vehicles there just isn’t the space, is there?

Sadly, forces outside the control of the council are going to cause a shocking situation in August.

In the words of Cllr Nick Botterill, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment

traffic is likely to grind to a halt just so that a few cyclists can ride their bikes through Fulham.

Cyclist down on Lea Bridge Road, Leyton

A MAJOR route through Waltham Forest was partly closed this morning after an accident involving a woman cyclist and an ambulance.

Emergency services were called just after 8.30am to the junction of Lea Bridge Road and West End Avenue in Leyton.

The cyclist, in her 30s, was treated for leg injuries and taken to Whipps Cross University Hospital.

Judging by the photos on the local newspaper's website, the bike was hit from the rear.

This section of Lea Bridge Road was identified by Waltham Forest Council’s 2011 LIP as the one with the highest crash rate involving casualties of any in the borough.

Meanwhile in the City today a tipper lorry collided with a woman cyclist.

Me, I was somewhere else – heading westbound on cycling-friendly Forest Road (A503). Conditions as below.

(Below) About 300 metres further on I encountered this car. It frequently parks here, quite legally, because it is displaying a blue badge. Even though this cycle lane is on a major route it is perfectly legal for the driver to park here for up to three hours, then drive round the block and come back and then park for another three hours, ad infinitum.

Some drivers think they can overtake you when you are passing this car, which is why I always pull out and ‘take the road’. Unfortunately a small minority of drivers regard this as a provocation and blow their horns and scream abuse.

Doubtless the blue badge on this car is legitimate, though in the wider context it is worth bearing in mind that

for the past two years, motorists criminally misusing blue badges have been able to drive around Waltham Forest without running the slightest risk that any action will be taken against them by the only two agencies empowered to act – the council and the police.

The real problem on Forest Road is the infrastructure. It would be perfectly feasible to build Dutch-style cycle tracks on this section of very wide road which carries huge volumes of motor vehicles in and out of London. The same applies to Lea Bridge Road.

Meanwhile

Tributes were paid today to a London cyclist who was crushed to death by a lorry as he cycled to work during the rush hour.

Father-of-one Peter McGreal, a web manager and trade union representative at London Metropolitan University, died four days after he was struck.

It is understood that the lorry was turning left and Mr McGreal was in its blind spot.

Charlie Lloyd of the London Cycling Campaign said: "We're concerned that the junction within the last two years has been turned from a narrow one-way street into a wide two-way street that has become a rat run for lorries."

Another lorry driver hits a cyclist and doesn’t stop

POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a teenager was knocked off his bike by a HGV in Heysham.

The 18-year-old was cycling from Morecambe towards Heysham along the A589 Heysham Road when he was clipped by the HGV at the junction of Seymore Grove at around 7.30am today (June 29).

The HGV didn’t stop and the teenager, who is from Heysham, fell from his bike suffering a number cuts and bruises. He was treated at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

And now here’s the story of Mary Strutt.

Photo: The Courier

She recounted the terrifying moment when the lorry struck — crushing her beneath.

"I was conscious throughout and I felt the wheel running over my body," she said. "I heard the grinding, crunching sound as it went over me — and every time I close my eyes I hear it again.

"I thought I was going to die and so did the doctors. When I initially asked if I was going to survive, they said it was too early to tell."

Hackney Road cyclist critically injured by tipper lorry which did not stop

Photos: London 24

On Friday an elderly pedestrian was killed on a pedestrian crossing on Marylebone Road by a tipper lorry. The victim has now been named.

Yesterday a cyclist on Hackney Road was critically injured by a tipper lorry whose driver did not stop at the scene.

Police are appealing for witnesses to a serious road accident in East London yesterday when a cyclist was seriously injured in a collision with a tipper lorry.

The cyclist, in his 40s, is in a critical condition in hospital following the collision during the morning rush-hour in Hackney Road, Bethnal Green, at the busy junction with Prichard’s Row.

The lorry did not stop at the scene, Scotland Yard confirmed, but has since been traced. The driver has been arrested in connection with the investigation and given police bail pending further enquiries.

The crash happened

in East London at crossroads that nearby residents say has been made dangerous by road ‘improvements.’

The cyclist was taken to the Royal London Hospital with severe leg and pelvic injuries after the accident in Hackney road, Bethnal Green, outside the Days Inn Hotel.

Families on Bethnal Green’s Minerva Estate nearby are worried about safety where the road crosses Temple Street and Prichard’s Row and want Tower Hamlets council to take action.

“They widened Prichard’s Row when the hotel opened two years ago. This is when the danger started, because they moved a pedestrian crossing further away—which means traffic coming onto Hackney Road from the side streets gets blocked and can’t go ahead or turn right.

“As soon as drivers see gaps, they put their foot down and shoot across—you don’t see them and they don’t see you until the last second.”

The families say they have complained for several months.

Just fancy that!

Team Green Britain Bike Week is supported by EDF Energy

That’s EDF Energy as in

A cyclist left facing a lifetime in a wheelchair after a road accident has won a multi-million compensation payout at the High Court in London. Alexander Kotula, 27, was badly injured when he fell into barriers around electrical works in Park Street, St Albans and was hit by a passing lorry.

EDF Energy Networks PLC and their contractors, Morrison Utility Services Ltd and Birch Utilities Ltd, admitted their failure to maintain a pedestrian passage of one-metre width through the works meant they were in "breach of duty". They had originally argued that Mr Kotula was in part responsible for his own injuries because he'd either negligently cycled on the pavement or dismounted and carelessly walked through the works.

These claims were rejected in June last year by Judge Simon Brown QC, who said: "The defendants were wholly responsible for this accident in laying out a very hazardous multi-layered trap of a narrow path on a curve with a kerb across it."

The judge said the electrical works were beside a very busy road, with no warnings and no safety zone between the barrier and passing traffic. As the road was narrow and without cycle lanes, he said it was a "reasonable decision" for Mr Kotula to cycle on the pavement. Mr Kotula suffered devastating spinal and internal injuries, is dependent on a wheelchair for mobility and is unlikely ever to be able to walk again.

Scenes from a traffic-smoothed London

Three lanes of motor vehicles, with the gutter for cyclists. Bloomsbury Street. Yes, who can doubt that cycling’s time has come?

All these pics from central London were taken today.

(Below) This happens all over central London. Backed-up vehicles and impatient drivers reduce pedestrian crossings to single file. Yet no one ever talks about it. And Transport for London doesn't give a toss about pedestrians, doesn't even acknowledge there's a problem. Because car-centric Transport for London created this uncivilised condition. High Holborn.

(Below) The crossing point for pedestrians is blocked by three lanes of backed-up vehicles. The yellow-hatching stops short of the pedestrian crossing because obviously it's only the free-flow of motor vehicles that matters. Princes Circus.

(Below) This powered two-wheeler 'L' driver has grasped one of the first principles of London's roads. It's okay to jump red lights and go across when it's green for pedestrians. No one will mind, especially not the police. Great Russell Street.

(Below) For pedestrians it's green for go, so cross here. You have two and a half seconds to reach the other side before Boris Johnson switches the light back to red. Tavistock Square.

(Below) This powered two-wheeler remained stationary on the zebra crossing for two minutes. I was interested to see that he had a map on a lectern attached to his handlebars. That means he's a trainee learning 'the knowledge' which will enable him to become a black cab driver, and add one more vehicle to the streets of central London. Byng Place. And if you enlarge the pic above showing the powered two-wheeler jumping the lights on Great Russell Street you'll see he's also learning 'the knowledge' and also has a map attached to his handlebars.