5 Londoners killed while cycling in 9 days, and Boris Johnson cowardly blames the victims

If you are reading this you are probably aware that five Londoners have been killed while cycling on our capital's streets in nine days. This is a truly appalling figure, and what is worse is that nearly all the deaths have happened in noted accident hotspots where Londoners have been killed before. To take just one instance, Venera Minakhmetova, 24, is the third Londoner in two years to be killed at Bow Roundabout. Is the key issue, therefore, 'cyclists-jumping-red-lights' or the design of specific killed-junctions? An easy question to answer.

Map of recent deaths, courtesy of the BBC

However, when interviewed on this recent spate of deaths Boris Johnson said cyclists 'must obey the law', implying that these Londoners were killed because they were lawbreaking vandals. This is a vile and cowardly response from Mr Johnson. Errant and irresponsible cyclists do not frequent killer-junctions and roads, such as Holborn and the unsegregated section of CS2, in order to throw themselves under an HGV. People get routinely killed while cycling at these junctions because there is no way to cycle through them safely, because they are fundamentally and criminally dangerous. TfL need to be prosecuted for manslaughter.

If there were a section of tube line, say between Vauxhall and Victoria, where trains habitually derailed killing drivers and passengers, then TfL would close the line and fix it immediately. Yet we have junctions and roads in London were Londoners are continually killed while cycling, and TfL thinks it can wait until 2015 or 2016 (at the earliest) before it does anything to change anything. And instead we're told by Andrew Gilligan, 'well, all the other tube lines are safe so how dangerous can taking the tube really be!'. Just because there are quieter roads in London and some half-decent cycle provision doesn't mean TfL should let roads like Holborn gyratory continue to kill people. They know where the problems are. There are specific streets and roads that are incredibly dangerous and these need to be fundamentally changed.

Announcements are all well and good, but we need to change now, before even more innocent Londoners are killed for doing something that the Mayor, TfL, and all London borough councils are actively encouraging them to do.

Please TAKE ACTION NOW and email TfL and the Mayor asking them to prevent further deaths. Just click this link to go the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) page.

Also, do please consider joining the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) if you aren't already a member. They are the only organisation in London that is consistently pushing Boris Johnson to give us continental standards of cycle safety. They are the primary reason the BBC ran a story today on 'Calls for action over cycle deaths in London'. They deserve everyone's support.

Parliament Square Protest Ride - Monday 2nd September - 6pm, Jubilee Gardens - Are you coming?

On Monday 2nd September the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) are holding a Protest Ride starting in Jubilee Gardens which will loop around Parliament Square in order to highlight the pitiful state of cycling in this country and this capital.

The LCC have the full details available here on their website. However, in brief, everyone is meeting at Jubilee Gardens (located next to the London Eye) at 6pm for a 6.30pm start on Monday 2nd September in order to coincide with the Parliamentary debate on the Get Britain Cycling report that evening.

It is vitally important that as many people come as possible. Politicians are only going to act to make cycling safer if they think there are votes in it; if they can see big public support for making cycling safer and easier to do. The way to convince them of this is for 10,000 people to take over Parliament Square on their bikes, creating ample video and photo opportunities which will ensure widespread press coverage of not only the protest, but also, and more importantly, the reasons behind it. This protest perhaps changes little in and of itself, but it does provide a platform for the very real dangers inherent in cycling around London (and the rather straightforward solutions that cycling advocates want to fix them with) to be rang out loud and clear in the local and national media.

This is why everyone needs to come along on Monday 2nd September. Would you rate your chances of survival if you were regularly cycling around the King's Cross gyratory, where this ghost bike is placed to remember the life of Min Joo Lee who was killed here in 2011? I wouldn't. These gyratories need to be removed from London, and we need to show politicians that it will be politically advantageous to give us real, safer changes to our street design, not just empty promises.

Moreover, I will be leading a 'feeder ride' from St John's Church on Ladbroke Grove in Notting Hill Gate and it would be fantastic to meet as many fellow cycling enthusiasts as possible. A map of the various feeder rides being organised is available here. If there's one departing from near where you live/work then why not join it? And if there isn't, why not email the LCC and volunteer to guide your own? It's always safer (and more pleasant!) to cycle in a group with other people rather than by yourself.