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[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32927306 ]And a lorry involved again[/url] 🙁 . Six cyclist in five months, all involving lorries at peak times. I knew one of them and he was not an inexperienced newcomer to cycling.
RIP
Feel sorry for the cyclist and your friend but the lorry driver was let go at the scene,which means there was either witnesses or they checked his cameras and proved he did nothing wrong, It's not always the lorries fault...
I know its sad when someone dies on the road, but honestly, with the amount of people riding and driving, i am surprised its not 5 a day, given the general lack of skill and awareness in both camps.
Sorry to hear this, and to you Tired (I assume you knew the LD guy?)
To be honest, cycling in London isn't that dangerous generally because on the whole drivers and cyclists are aware of each other. I'd hate to cycle in places like Birmingham or Newcastle.
The majority of cyclist deaths in London now are due to interactions with construction/ tipper lorries. Whatever you think about the way that cyclist behave, there's a pretty high correlation between the kinds of vehicles that are involved in these accidents - it's generally not cars, or taxis, or buses or bin lorries - tipper trucks seem to come up pretty high on the list. That must say something.
I cycled through town once and that was enough for me,I saw a cyclist pull out of a bike lane into the path of an artic all to get in front off the 2 cyclists in front off him, perhaps lorries need stronger messages on them,like the fag packets..shock and awe, maybe pics off mangled bikes down the side...
i am surprised its not 5 a day, given the general lack of skill and awareness in both camps.
It IS about 5 a day on average. Mostly drivers admittedly but obviously with a fair mix of pedestrians and cyclists in there too. Although "we" (as a collective group of cyclists on a cycling forum) will tend to hear far more about the cycling deaths than the others. Most never even make anything more than half a column in the local newspaper unless they were particularly noteworthy.
but the lorry driver was let go at the scene,which means there was either witnesses or they checked his cameras and proved he did nothing wrong,
No, just means he wasn't drunk. They know where to find him again if needed.
I know that junction very well, ridden through it hundreds of times myself. 🙁 RIP.
5 out of 6 were women. Given (my anecdotal mk1 eyeball evidence) that there are substantially more male than female cyclists on London's streets, that's a significant statistical anomaly.
[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8296971.stm ]edit - seems to have been ever thus[/url]
Tired (I assume you knew the LD guy?)
Yes I did. And I am well aware that accidents can happen and cyclists are not always blameless - although the consequences can be extreme. But...
The incidence of lorry involvement and imbalance in gender are of most interest. The number of tipper lorries (as opposed to say Ocado delivery vans or Tesco trailer deliveries) must be a factor here.
Yes, and we know what the problem is....most of these types of vehicles around my way now have signs on the rear asking cyclists not to come up the nearside/kerbside as the design of the vehicle and the position of the mirrors means there are loads of blind spots and anybody on the nearside of said vehicle is essentially invisible to the driver.
It's undoubtedly an inherent flaw in the design that requires attention and possibly legislation to solve....but until that happens you'd have to be bloody suicidal to cycle up the inside of one of these types of vehicle....and yet despite the signs warning cyclists of the danger I see people doing just that every day!....nutters.
All lorries are getting better equipped,side sensors, cameras, the warning voice that tells you they are turning left..a camera facing the blind spot could help but all is in vain if you get a cyclist getting that close to the truck in the first place,personally it'd scare the hell out of me getting that close to the inside of a truck but some people seem to have no sense..
[i]5 out of 6 were women. Given (my anecdotal mk1 eyeball evidence) that there are substantially more male than female cyclists on London's streets, that's a significant statistical anomaly.[/i]
Be careful, as the last time I mentioned this I got seriously flamed.
It's an inherent flaw in the design of the cycle lane/advanced stop line/junction that puts cyclists on the inside of lorries turning left.
Off the top of my head, one answer would be a bigger box for cyclist to stop in so they don't get stuck on the inside. Another would be a small hatched area one cars length back from the stop line, forcing vehicles longer than a car to stop further back.
This is a reoccurring scenario and really can't be so hard to solve, but someone has to actually think about it a bit.
Condolences to those involved.
Engineering controls (electronic warnings, cameras, warning signs etc) will never be as effective as eliminating the problem through better junction design.
extend the definitions of HSAW to include other road users for those driving professionally