New Blackfriars Bike Lane "Waste of time and effort" · 6.03.05
In May 2004, Vicki McCreery was killed whilst cycling north on Blackfriars Bridge. She was killed by a bus, which ran her over from behind in broad daylight. The driver was sentenced to a year in prison, having been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.
Since Vicki's death, a lot of media and political attention has focused on the bike lane which she was using at the time of the collision. The lane is on the left-hand side of the middle lane, so placed to allow cyclists to avoid the slip lane to Victoria Embankment at the north end. Ken Livingstone ordered the lane to be altered, and even the trial judge described it as dangerous. There was no mention that Blackfriars Bridge, the second most cycled bridge in London after Waterloo, is effectively a motorway, with a motorway intersection at the north end, has escaped mention.
Despite consultation with London Cycling Campaign's local groups, and the LCC's steering group on major roads, Cycle (Land & Transport) Planning and (Highway) Engineering Committee (CPEC), in which it was said by Transport for London's consultants: "A variety of short term options for north bound cycle lanes were discussed. It was pretty much agreed that road space rather than pavement should be taken for cycling", the proposal that was received by LBMA for comment shows a bike lane on the pavement, with an extra set of lights at the north end. The LCC had previously asked for the source of the problem, the junction at the north end, to be reengineered, so that cyclists and pedestrians could be designed back in, which would be in keeping with Ken Livingstone's stated policy. A member of CPEC contacted by the LBMA for comment described the consultation process as: "yet more wasted meetings and examination of poor designs for the North and South ends of Blackfriars Bridge. As ever LCCs comments to TfL officers are met with: 'there is no funding' or 'it would reduce (motor traffic) junction capacity'". Meanwhile, Ken's spends £40 million on strengthening bridges to increase the London road network's capacity for really big HGVs.
At the recent LBMA meeting, the proposal was declared to be utterly irrelevant to London's bicycle messengers. A letter has been sent to the petrol head, sorry, engineer responsible for the project. The LBMA's chair, Bill Chidley, described the proposal as "a waste of time and effort. No working bicycle messenger will ever use the proposed cycle track". If you want to see the plans, call or email Bill.
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