The Times launches ‘cities fit for cycling’ campaign

The Times this week launched a high profile cycle safety campaign called Cities Fit For Cycling. The newspaper hopes to highlight issues around cycle safety to make our streets safer.

The paper says that “In November, Times journalist Mary Bowers was just yards from arriving at work on her bike when she was hit by a lorry. Mary, 27, is still not conscious and is making a slow recovery in hospital. Tragically, such an accident is far from rare. More than 27,000 cyclists have been killed or seriously injured on British streets in the past 10 years.”

The campaign appears to have cross party support with, for example, all four main London Mayoral candidates backing the initiative as well as high profile sportspeople and celebrities.

This may surprise some readers of this site as Mayor Johnson has been seen by many as a key obstacle to cycle safety in London. If this is the first step in Johnson’s administration acting on these issues, and responding to public pressure, then that is all to the good.

The Times is asking people to back their campaign by pledging their support, writing to their MP and displaying a badge on their blogs and websites, which you can find here.

The newspaper has launched an eight point manifesto that it believes will make roads safer for cyclists;

1. Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit sensors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.
2. The 500 most dangerous road junctions must be identified, redesigned or fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors that allow lorry drivers to see cyclists on their near-side.
3. A national audit of cycling to find out how many people cycle in Britain and how cyclists are killed or injured should be held to underpin effective cycle safety.
4. Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.
5. The training of cyclists and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.
6. 20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.
7. Businesses should be invited to sponsor cycleways and cycling super-highways, mirroring the Barclays-backed bicycle hire scheme in London.
8. Every city, even those without an elected mayor, should appoint a cycling commissioner to push home reforms.