Well, I never really planned to go down the activist route with this blog but I guess sometimes its too important to ignore. If you don’t live in the UK you can pretty much ignore the rest of this update!
We all know that Heavy Goods Vehicles is the leading cause of cyclist deaths in London. Luckily, there is a unit in London that inspects HGVs to make sure they have safety measures in place that can reduce the chances of death or injury. This is the only unit in the country and it has been highly successful. Now Boris wants to close it.
Well, luckily there is something you can do to help and it won’t take more than 2 minutes or any cash so put your wallet away!
Step 1
Go to: http://www.writetothem.com/
and find out who your member of parliament (MP) is
Step 2
Then go to: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=39378
See if your MP has signed the form. If they haven’t tsk tsk
Step 3
Contact them using: http://www.writetothem.com/ and ask them to sign the Early Day Motion.
Note: Make sure you contact the councillor in your area because they won’t reply to you otherwise.
Please help by spreading this round to everyone you know.
Ah end of bit of activism for another day!
As a Cyclist, I wish to correct your statement in this. HGV’s very rarely ‘Cause’ cyclist deaths. In my experience, the cause is generally cyclists not using their brains and riding safely. When you are near an HGV and or a junction, don’t get alongside the HGV unless you can GUARANTEE you can get clear before they can move!!! That goes for buses too!!! Very few people realise just how difficult it is to drive a large vehicle, and how many and big their ‘blind spots’ are.
STOP BLAMING HGV DRIVERS FOR CYCLISTS STUPIDITY!!!!
I regularly see other cyclists being REALLY stupid around these large vehicles, and it is only due to the expert driving of the vehicles that they don’t get killed!!! I do realise that sometimes it is the driver at fault, but all too regularly I beleive the cyclists are!!!
Hi Keith, thanks for your comments. I think you are partly correct that the cyclist has a major role to play and how they cycle around HGVs makes a big difference. However, from what I have read many of the incidents have not been inexperienced cyclists some have even taken part in professional events. This makes me think you can’t just blame the cyclist. Also if you look at some of the crash reports you can see that there is little the cyclist could have done.
As always this is a problem that can’t be solved with just one solution. Having a HGV inspection unit seems only logical to ensure better safety around these vehicles.
Keith,
Firstly, I think your tone is somewhat disrespectful to cyclists who have died at the hands of a HGV – many of whom have been highly experienced cyclists, a higher proportion of which have been women, and have often not been ‘at fault’ but trapped between the truck and poor street design on designated cycle paths (pay a trip to Valance Rd in Whitchapel, where a very experienced female cyclist was recently killed and you’ll see just what I mean)
Of course cyclists have to look out for other road users when out on the road, but likewise other road users need to keep a look out for us. If a vehicle is incapable of doing so (ie massive blind spots, lack of mirrors, driver incompetence) I’d question whether it is appropriate that such a vehicle should be on city centre roads at all.
To pronounce that all HGV drivers are innocent and cyclists are stupid is both short-sited and lazy thinking – of the 3000 roadside checks that the roadside HGV inspection unit has made, 70% of HGVs have had illegal faults. A cyclist is hardly to blame for that, I think?
Have you seen the video where a lorry whose doors were held together with a wire coat hanger burst open on Narrow St in Limehouse taking out a row of parked cars and comes close to hitting a cycling group (which included our own so-called cycling Mayor) Again, in what way were the cyclists at fault here?
Andreas is not picking on HGV drivers – he is expressing his democratic opinion that a policy decision by Boris Johnson – to try and save a measly £1 million per annum out of a budget of £11 billion – is wrong and should be revoked.
I am shocked by the anger of your response and would encourage you to think again about the real issue here – that is, that a valuable cycling resource is about to be lost due to paltry financial concerns and that more lives could be lost as a consequence.
Mark