Safe Speed Forums

Boris Johnson warned London’s cyclists today that they had to “obey the law of the roads” after it emerged that a man killed in a collision with a double-decker bus had just ridden the wrong way up a one-way street.

Transport for London said that its preliminary investigation suggested that the man – the fifth cyclist to die in the capital in nine days — had just ridden the wrong way up Leman Street to cross the Aldgate junction in East London when he was hit by the bus on Whitechapel Road at 11.30pm. The cyclist, who has not yet been named, died in hospital at around 4am.

The collision came soon after hundreds of cyclists from around London converged for a silent protest several miles to the east at the Bow Roundabout after a young woman was dragged under a lorry in the rush hour. She was named today as Venera Minakhmetova, a 24-year-old Russian national who lived in Bethnal Green. Ms Minakhmetova was the third cyclist killed by an HGV at the roundabout in the past two years.

Scotland Yard said that both the cyclist and the lorry had been heading west along the A11 to the roundabout, which is one of London’s most notorious and complicated junctions. The lorry was turning south towards the Blackwall Tunnel while Ms Minakhmetova was heading straight on.
The male driver of the lorry stopped at the scene and spoke to officers but there have been no arrests.
The latest deaths put pressure on Mr Johnson, the London Mayor, with British Cycling demanding an “urgent investigation” and the former Labour Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, calling for an independent review of the city’s designated cycling “superhighways”. Initial reports had wrongly suggested that the cyclist killed last night had been riding along Superhighway 2.

Mr Johnson told the LBC radio station: “There’s no question of blame or finger-pointing – that doesn’t work in these circumstances. But unless people obey the laws of the road and people actively take account of the signals that we put in, there’s no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people’s lives.”

He added:?“Some of the cases that we’ve seen in the last few days really make your heart bleed because you can see that people have taken decisions that really did put their lives in danger.

“You cannot blame the victim in these circumstances. But what you can say is that when people make decisions on the road that are very risky - jumping red lights, moving across fast-moving traffic in a way that is completely unexpected and without looking to see what traffic is doing - it’s very difficult for the traffic engineers to second-guess that.

“I’m appealing to all cyclists, as well as all motorists, do think of the laws of the road, because if you take these hasty, rash decisions that we’re seeing sometimes, then you will be endangering your life.”
Gordon Seabright, chief executive of the cycling charity CTC, said cyclists were “sickened by the continuing failure to protect cyclists, in particular from the dangers caused by lorries in our towns and cities”.

“We want to see the Mayor of London and all those responsible for the safety of our streets living up to their promises.” Martin Key, campaigns manager at British Cycling, added: “While cyclist deaths are rare, it is clearer than ever that national government and councils must take urgent action on designing roads that address cyclists’ needs.

think there maybe a case for allowing better engineering of roundabouts. Why do many roads have to have a curved entry off the roundabout? It may slow a few vehicles but for everyone is creates a pinch point and I see near misses and accidents at these points. And as I recall these are where a few of these accidents happened.
It is an engineering and self awareness / responsibility, that will help to prevent these incidents.

yet I still see cyclist run reds, as if they do not even apply to them !

Are you saying that these cyclists didn't die as a result of breaking any laws?

There has been an announcement that £35M is to be spent on improving safety of cycling. None of this is allocated to training. This says it all really.

Mole wrote:
Are you saying that these cyclists didn't die as a result of breaking any laws?


Wow, there's a whole tangled thread of mixed and warped thinking wrapped up in that little sentence right there.

Sounds like you're a card carrying member of the "well, they deserved to die because cyclists (including the dead themselves) break the law" brigade.

What a lot of socialist rubbish from the Independent, imagining some evil plot behind a sensible comment from the mayor.

In the accident originally discussed, who was the "victim"? IMO, the cyclist was the perpetrator leaving the bus driver as the victim, traumatised for the rest of his life. Seen in this light, Boris's comment is correct.

I'm sure you would say that motorists exceeding the speed limit,jumping a red light or crossing a solid white line, who come a cropper only have themselves to blame.

I would "blame" the individual motorist, not assert ALL motorist who die at the wheel were breaking the law at the time and this is what caused their demise as has been done here.

But you might well say that such behaviour amongst motorists is quite common.

Wow, there's a whole tangled thread of mixed and warped thinking wrapped up in that little sentence right there.

Sounds like you're a card carrying member of the "well, they deserved to die because cyclists (including the dead themselves) break the law" brigade.