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Lorries, as all London cyclists know, are the devil's transport. Having travelled extensively in their cabs in my poverty years, I know why. The drivers are often foreign, rarely familiar with the roads they're thundering down and usually sleep-deprived.
They fuel themselves with gallons of treacly coffee, shunning solid food because it makes them sleepy. High up in the cab you feel invincible, king of the road. Great fun for the hitchhiker. Less so if you're on a bike, wobbling up to the lights.
This week another cyclist was killed after a collision with a lorry. The woman, just 31, was crushed to death by the truck as it turned left into Southampton Row on Wednesday morning.
Holborn, where the accident happened, is a scary place to cycle. Multiple lanes of vehicles jostle for space, switching direction without indicating, jamming junctions and forcing cyclists to weave between dense banks of cars.
It's one of those parts of town — like Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road — where you need to be aggressive to stay safe in rush-hour traffic. Though we all know it's mad to do battle with lorries, there are times they are hard to avoid. Too often in London the results are tragic.
Last week Nick Wright, a father of two, was killed on Upper Thames Street. That's two dead in seven days, both victims of HGVs. And in Kensington High Street last week a cyclist was seriously injured by a lorry.
The accidents are gruesome. Witnesses describe terrible screams, mangled bikes, blood everywhere. One cycle courier who survived such an accident likened his experience to "being taken under by a shark".
A safety officer who watched CCTV footage of another cyclist's death said the lorry "hoovered him up" and spat him out the back.
Transport for London is quick to point out the recent toll goes against the general grain — since the Nineties cycle deaths are down 19 per cent, despite a 91 per cent rise in bikes on the road. The figures have a neat symmetry but hide a worrying trend: the number of deaths caused by HGVs is actually going up.
The most accurate figures available suggest lorries are responsible for a shocking 10 out of 11 deaths so far this year, already more than in the whole of 2007.
You have to ask, what is going on? Even after all the deaths, all the headlines, it's still hit or miss if a lorry indicates a left turn. Big junctions are obvious danger spots but I've seen trucks turn into Marylebone side streets without a second glance. Yet other road users seem to be getting the message.
Since I started my two-wheel trek to work, four years ago now, I've noticed a change in drivers' attitudes to bikes. Blatant hostility has been replaced with a tangible tolerance. Partly it's because cyclists' numbers have doubled in five years. Many of us feel we've reached a critical mass and drivers are simply more used to seeing us.
Last month a taxi driver actually expressed gratitude that people like me are taking pressure off the roads. That's progress, considering I once had to halt a black cab in which I was a passenger after the unhinged driver swerved and accelerated in an attempt to hit a bike.
It remains a calculated risk to cycle in London but I believe we're finally turning a corner. Most buses now leave us room at the edge of the road. These days I'm rarely cut up or hemmed in by them.
Cars and motorbikes still crowd out the green boxes at traffic lights but they expect to see us wiggle down the cycle lane on their left and park our tail-lights in front of their windscreens.
In my experience most no longer race us off the blocks either, instead leaving a respectful nano-pause to let us push off. Still, hundreds of London cyclists are injured or killed every year and everyone from the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) to Mayor Boris Johnson and the Evening Standard agrees that more must be done to ensure our safety.
The main argument is between segregation and integration: should cyclists be kept apart from other traffic, with our own routes, lanes and concrete barriers, or made to share the Tarmac on an equal footing with other vehicles? Segregation is the popular European route, adopted by Scandinavian countries and Paris.
It's doubtful whether London with its archaic road systems could ever be fully segregated but surely concrete dividers between cyclists and vehicles at nightmare junctions would save lives.
The latter approach is cheaper and built on awareness and education, relying more on mutual trust than physical barriers. In theory it could lead to more sensible cycling and better driving, greater responsibility all round. But the potential risks are high.
The LCC, which has campaigned to make London a cycle-friendly city for 30 years now, favours a mixed approach, with safety facilities on dangerous roads and a city-wide 20mph limit on the streets where people "live, shop and work".
It's a move designed not to slow traffic but to keep it flowing — 20mph is almost twice the average speed in central London.
Collisions would be reduced because it's the stop-start process that causes snarl ups and frayed tempers. It's a sensible medium-term plan opposed vigorously by the car-lobby.
But lorries are an acute problem, likely to worsen as the vast Olympic construction projects get under way in earnest. Boris Johnson, himself a cyclist, has a duty to act urgently to prevent more deaths beneath their wheels. An awareness campaign aimed at drivers is clearly needed and Boris should pick up where Ken Livingstone left off by making safety mirrors compulsory, along with signs warning "don't pass on the inside".
I'm amazed at the number of cyclists I see undertaking lorries on the way toward junctions, oblivious to the fact they are in the driver's blind spot. There's little point policing lorry drivers if we don't look out for ourselves.
But TfL needs to take responsibility for the death rate too. Feeder lanes at junctions with advanced stop lines — green cycle boxes to you and me — may be making things worse. They give the bike rider a false sense of safety, leading them directly into the path of a turning lorry.
Two of the recent deaths happened where roads are marked in this way.
There are similar to junctions across the city, including one freshly painted on my own route to work. It's time their safety was fully assessed.
In the meantime, there is only one safe way to tackle a truck: give it a wide berth.
Reader views (16)
I regularly cycle at the weekends and some weekdays in London as my better half lives in Teddington. The key has been mentioned before; you get the road you are given. If you cycle 2cms from the curb how much more do you think lorry/car drivers will give you? Own the road, it comes out of the general taxation pot not the VED, so you have a right to use it. As a car driver, motorcyclist and cyclist I apply the same rules, if I put myself in a position of danger then I should expect danger so instead I position myself to give myself security, in the car I respect that, on the motorbike - well I can get around most things in London the motorbike. Point is no-one wants to give up room as it appears every journey/delivery is a life or death matter. Just position yourself so that your life is more important than that delivery/journey.
- Andrew, Devon, UK.
Chris London, there is nothing wrong with shared use paths, they are not crappy they are a relief.
- Dave Wright, Nottingham, UK.
People say they have cyclists intrests at heart, what a load of bull, I havent seen anything done. the roads are terrible, with potholes everywhere, so we damage our transport riding on the left, they want to fine us for all sorts of things, but turn a blind eye when they drive in our cycle lanes! I have had cars, cabs and trucks intentionally endanger my life by swerving at me on their way past riding me into the kerb. I cab driver hit the back of my bicycle, buckled my back wheel and then rode over my bicycle to get away when I wanted his details! Phone 999, they promised they would get back to me as I had his reg number, and guess what nothing! Attempted murder!!!! Bet this guy will endanger other peoples life as well, I dont believe a thing they say about having our non poluting lives as important and wanting to make things safer, where is the proof, except for lip service and trying to rack up votes and seem green!!! Sorry it sounds angry but it is anoying when my life is endangered every time I cycle.
P.S. I am a experienced cyclist with good road sense and cycle about 170km's evry week around london.
- Craig, london
Agree with Bob, You have to be assertive. if you sit back or slow down the space gets taken and you are forced to take actions. Cars will take notice and leave you be if you get in front of them. they might not like it but do they need that extra 10 yds?
The more cyclists on the road the more road users are aware of them. Bus drivers cause less accidents because they are always aware of the near side because the very nature of their job.
Lorry drivers aren't in the wrong. London is not a cycle friendly city, Nor is it a lorry friendly city. we have to meet in the middle.
As for banning trucks during rush hour... Who will pay to police this?
- Pip, Crouch End
"If cycles were invented today, there's no way they'd be allowed on the roads!
- Roy, England"
Erm? Surely you mean if CARS were invented today they would be banned. Motor vehicles are the ones that pose a threat to others, not cycles! Transport statistics show that 44 pedestrians were seriously injured in collisions with bikes last year, compared to 5,756 with motor vehicles. Thus cycles are resonsible for 0.02% of pedestrian collisions but make up 1% of trips - most of them in urban areas, many on crappy shared-use paths. And that's not including all those thousands of cyclists injured by motor vehicles!
Which mode of transport is the greatest threat? Lorry drivers - who kill and injure more of other road users than any other vehicle type.
- Chris, London
"If cycles were invented today, there's no way they'd be allowed on the roads!"
I think the same could easily be said about motor vehicles, also, Roy.
- Glyn, Hackney
If cycles were invented today, there's no way they'd be allowed on the roads!
- Roy, England
I have signalled left at the approach to a junction, positioned my truck in a manner that could only be interpreted as “Turning Left”, sat at the junction waiting for the lights to change, and had a fleet of cyclists or motorcyclists cram themselves through the narrow gap left between the side if the truck and the pavement railings or street furniture. I’ve even gotten out of the truck and checked my indicators were still working because I couldn’t believe that anyone would be so stupid. But my indicators were working fine!
I had a black guy, wearing black clothes on a bicycle with no lights grab the ratchet straps above the back wheels of my artic trailer so he could get towed along the A501 the other day! The only reason he lived is because of the flashing headlights from a truck or bus behind warned me. If that cyclist had hit a pothole and gone under my wheels before I saw him I’d have got the blame for running him over!
If you want to be able to cycle to your local store, cafe or restaurant and get what you desire 24/7 then please realise that each need at least one van or truck delivery a day. Even cycle shops get their deliveries by truck!
- Nick, Gillingham, Kent.
for every cyclist who jumps a red light (which i'm not condoning) there's probably three or four pedestrians who cross or step into the road without even looking. Surely a sense of collective responsibility rather than finger pointing is called for?
- Stephen, NW1
Maybe if cyclists showed a little more respect for everyone else in particular us pedestrians and quit acting like the world is in their way maybe they wouldnt have so many accidents and people might care a little bit more if they got run over. Where I live South london cyclists are terrible for rideing the bikes on the sidewalk and through red lights. Boris johnson size fat blokes on their supersize mountain bikes flying past at 40/50 miles an hour. It is very distressing if you are elderly or with your kids and the powers that be don't seem to care, it is considered a quality of life crime along with litter and dog fouling. One of these days a child will get knocked down and measures will get put in place but the sad thing is it won't be until somebody, a 'pedestrian' is killed before anything is done about it.
Corey, London
- Mac Stuart, South London
Agree with banning HGVs in the rush hour - any deliveries should be done before or after.
However, as a seasoned cyclist, one rule that people would do well to heed is not to overtake on the inside.
- Mike, N21, UK
If drivers are now more tolerant towards cyclists, how about cyclists becoming more considerate towards pedestrians? Stop riding along crowded pavements and jumping red lights/pedestrian crossings, particularly when people are crossing! I see this daily and it's "offensive" cycling!
- Fraser, London
great, balanced article about a subject of increasing concern. I think that things are really coming to a head on this issue, and it will only get worse with the construction with the Olympics. It was bad around Kings Cross during the St Pancras build.
- Matt Shaw, Kentish Town
This kind of aggressive nonsense from the bikists is part of the problem. Cyclists don't have to pass a test, they don't have to pay for a licence or insurance, they can't be identified - and the consequences are to be seen every day on the streets (and pavements) of London.
- Ed, Hampstead
See this guys excellent suggestion from the main ES article on this tradgedy:
I'm surprised that nobody else has even hit on my excellent scheme as submitted to the TFL people.
Do not allow HGVs into London between 7am - 9.30am and then from 4.30pm to 7pm. Hey presto! congestion instantly cut to pre Livingstone levels and safer roads for cyclists.
And yes I do own a bike and I have lived in Skandinavia, I am also a builder and recognise how we all want our deliveries first thing (7am - 8am) but something has to give and I am affraid it has to be the HGVs for the good of all of us.
Has anybody else noticed how a HGV can take up one entire change of lights. Now do you see where I am going?
- Jimbob, Kensington
- Carl Hubbers, LONDON
I saw the bike under the truck's tires on Southampton Row well after the accident took place, there was already a diversion in place. It was a white 18-wheeler. Didn't notice if the number plate was UK or not but it doesn't really matter.
The poor lady who died, the fear that gripped her as she realized what was happeneing and that it was all too late was horrible.
In a way we make our own luck, but in 5+ years of commuting I feel cyclists have to be aggressive - we have to be deliberate in occupying a lane or gesticulate wildly when turning because otherwise we will not be noticed. I'd rather be noticed for the wrong reasons and get obscenities yell at me then not be noticed until I'm under someone's wheels.
People bear in mind if you don't cycle offensively or at least defensively and get in the face of those behind you who are in control of 2- or 3-ton mechanical killin machines, you're at risk.
- Bob, London
