Some Safer Cycling Initiatives Announced

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 123 months ago
Some Safer Cycling Initiatives Announced

bike161213The last few days have seen some announcements on making cycling in London safer.

Boris Johnson has been in talks with the government to bring in changes to road infrastructure that should make travelling by bike clearer and safer. The Department for Transport has OK'd the concept of two-stage right turns, allowing cyclists to go into a special area in advance of the traffic. These types of junctions are being earmarked for the Bow-Stratford segregated section of Cycle Superhighway 2. In addition, 12 junctions will get eye-level lights from January 2014 (Transport Network has the full list, Bow Roundabout is one of them) and more cycle-friendly road signs will be introduced.

One of the major causes of injury and death to cyclists in London is collisions with lorries turning left. A system of CCTV cameras fitted to HGVs and the image played into a monitor in the cab will be trialled on lorries working on Crossrail. Transport for London has also been testing it on a bus in Bexleyheath.

This week will see the announcement of the Central London Grid, a network of segregated main road cycle routes and 'Quietway' routes around zone 1. Next year we'll also find out which 33 junctions will get major upgrades – though it's worth pointing that TfL has a list of 100 that it's identified need major work, which itself was created from a review of 500.

Photo by Tyla from the Londonist Flickr pool

Last Updated 16 December 2013