Safety
Cycling in London is sometimes perceived as unsafe so the London Cycling Campaign and Transport for London issued guidance to minimise the risks.
A study of deaths of cyclists in London published in 2010 stated that "the biggest threat remains freight vehicles, involved in more than 4 out of 10 incidents, with over half turning left at the time of the crash." The London Cycling Campaign and others strongly recommend that cyclists should never undertake a lorry, especially in front of red lights.
Between 1986 and 2011, 439 cyclists were killed in traffic accidents in Greater London. The annual number of deaths varies considerably, for example, in 2004 only 8 cyclists died whilst one year later the number rose to 21. The worst year was 1989 with 33 fatalities. According to Andrei Morgan et al. (2010) "the number of cyclists killed in London remains small, meaning that even if trends were present, they may not have been detected."
The absolute number of deaths can be compared to the number of cycles on the road. The absolute number of bike journeys in London has roughly doubled since the 1990s, from 300,000 daily journeys in 1993 to 500,000 in 2007.
Andrei Morgan et al. (2010) estimate a "death rate per 100,000 cyclists per kilometre per year". This number came down significantly in recent years: In 2006 it was 11.1, while the average between 1992 and 1999 was 15.5. Morgan et al. estimate that this figure declined by 2.7% per year.
A map showing all cycling fatalities in Greater London since 2006 is available on the internet, as well as a spreadsheet containing publicly available information about the crashes.
Read more about this topic: Cycling In London
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
“Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions formerly associated with it, they can no longer retreat to the safety of those conventions. The woman who rejects the stereotype of feminine weakness and dependence can no longer find much comfort in the cliché that all men are beasts. She has no choice except to believe, on the contrary, that men are human beings, and she finds it hard to forgive them when they act like animals.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“Firm, united, let us be,
Rallying round our Liberty;
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.”
—Joseph Hopkinson (1770–1842)
“A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion. He becomes a perjurer, all his thoughts and emotions being directed with reference, not to an accurate and just appraisal of the real world but rather to the safety and exaltation of his loved one, and the madness with which he pursues her, transmogrifying his attention, blinds him like a victim.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)