The latest data shows cycling in London is still not safe enough

JEREMY SELWYN
Ross Lydall @RossLydall16 November 2022
WEST END FINAL

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LAST week I did something I hadn’t done for more than two years. I headed into the office on a Friday.

OK, I was lured in part by the Evening Standard’s new home: hello, Finsbury Square, farewell (at last), tired old Kensington High Street. But the main reason was simple: I fancied the bike ride.

Less than 40 minutes door to door, via the C23 (Lea Bridge Road) and CS1 (De Beauvoir/Hoxton) cycleways, getting back in the saddle on a regular basis is what I need after a less than physically active pandemic.

Luckily for me, I have a generally safe route. C23 is far from perfect and defensive riding is essential, to avoid turning vehicles, wandering pedestrians and lunatics on illegally souped-up e-bikes.

Protest: members of the Stop Killing Cyclists group

Between July and September, eight pedestrians and a cyclist died on London’s roads. Over the same period, 193 pedestrians and 209 cyclists were seriously injured. That’s 31 a week.

From my time on the health beat, I know the fine line between “life-changing injuries” and those that are life-ending. Often survival is down to the skill of our brilliant NHS trauma medics.

Yes, there is a downward trend in serious cycle injuries, while the number of people cycling continues to grow. But that is no consolation for those critically injured or worse by an errant or criminally negligent driver.

When Sadiq Khan first became mayor in 2016, I was alarmed at his decision to ditch protected cycle lanes.

Full segregation had been favoured by Boris Johnson and his cycling tsar Andrew Gilligan after their blue superhighways were shown to be folly. The Embankment superhighway is arguably Boris’s greatest mayoral legacy.

Now protected routes are back in vogue. Camden council has exciting plans for the Holborn gyratory. King’s Cross and Shoreditch await action. Eventually Old Street roundabout, not TfL’s finest hour, will be finished.

Cycling is a magical way to explore the city — even if you only end up at the office. But much remains to be done to make it truly safe.

Ross Lydall is the Evening Standard’s transport editor

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