Die-in towards Greenwich cycle deaths: On Thursday seventh Jun 2018 Cyclists staged a die-in outdoors Greenwich Council places of work in Woolwich City Corridor after three bike owner had been killed by autos within the space in latest weeks, two by HGV(Heavy Items Autos) vans on the notoriously unsafe Woolwich Rd.
Cyclists are weak highway customers – as are also pedestrians. However whereas virtually all over the place a minimum of in city areas we’ve separate pavements for pedestrians, more often than not cyclists need to share roads with automobiles and lorries. Whereas all highway deaths are tragic its vital to maintain issues in proportion.
Official statistics exhibits 462 pedestrians had been injured by cyclists in 2022, in comparison with 437 in 2021 when one particular person is recorded as dying, and 308 in 2020, when 4 individuals had been killed. The figures relate to deaths on roads and there are another deaths and accidents on footpaths, cycle paths and elsewhere which aren’t included however the numbers are comparatively small.
Comparable figures for pedestrians killed by automobiles have lately been between 346 and 470 with between 4 and seven,000 severe accidents. Whereas round 100 cyclists are killed by automobiles and over 4,000 critically injured.
The variations in numbers are large and rely on varied elements. However easy physics performs an element with the additional mass of automobiles and better speeds of journey making them on common round 60 occasions extra deadly than bicycles in collisions, and rather more the place site visitors is fast-paced and autos heavier.
The place pedestrians and cyclists share paths or different areas there are nonetheless variations, however on a lesser scale, with cyclists usually solely having round 15 occasions the power of pedestrians attributable to their higher velocity.
The federal government reality sheet states “Pedal cyclists are one of many weak person teams. They aren’t protected by a automobile physique in the identical means automobile customers are, and are typically tougher for drivers to see on the highway. They’re, subsequently, notably prone to accidents.”
And it additionally notes that the figures for non-fatal casualties involving “pedal cyclists are amongst the most definitely to be under-reported in highway casualty knowledge since cyclists haven’t any obligation to tell the police of collisions.” Definitely the 2 incidents I can keep in mind the place I used to be knocked flying by automobiles whose drivers had did not see me and the place I clearly had proper of means weren’t reported.
The best threat of cyclists being killed is available in collisions with HGVs. Reported collisions involving one automobile trigger round 4 occasions as many deaths however there are roughly there are roughly 50 occasions as many as with HGVs and people with HGVs are roughly 15 occasions as more likely to kill cyclists.
One of many audio system at this occasion in Woolwich spoke concerning the analysis he was concerned in 37 years earlier on designing safer lorries. Few of the recommendations from this have been carried out, though issues are slowly altering. However most HGVs are nonetheless unsafe with restricted visibility and large blind spots.
Different audio system talked concerning the failure of Greenwich Council to assist the plans for Cycle Superhighway 4, allegedly due to the private antipathy of the previous council chief to Boris Johnson’s former biking commissioner Andrew Gilligan. Since 2018 some progress has been made on what’s now referred to as Cycleway 4, although it nonetheless ends in need of Woolwich. And others identified that air air pollution, a lot attributable to highway transport was an enormous killer in London, inflicting an estimated over 9,000 deaths a yr. We don’t simply want safer roads however want to seek out methods to cut back automobile utilization.
Extra footage at Die-in towards Greenwich cycle deaths.
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Tags: blind spots, CS4, cycle deaths, die-in, Greenwich, Greenwich Council, HGVs, restricted visibility, London, Official statistics, pavements, pedestrians, peter Marshall, polluioin, protest, safer lorries, Cease Killing Cyclists, Woolwich
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