Afternoon:
10°c
The Mayor's safety plan is a welcome recognition of the dangers cyclists face. If he is serious about his ambitious targets for increasing the number on the capital's roads, we badly need to make cyclists — especially new ones — feel safer.
The biggest danger is lorries, especially those moving or turning left: such situations led to 23 out of 92 deaths from 2001 to 2006, and eight of the 10 this year.
Encouraging haulage firms to join TfL's Freight Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) may help. City Hall could take a harder line with membership of FORS: haulage firms should not be allowed to tender for work if they aren't signed up.
Central government should tighten up the exemptions for construction vehicles, and rules that allow older vehicles to have fewer mirrors.
And it is surely a mistake to close the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit, whose officers make spot checks of vehicles.
