IIslington Council has announced that all lorry drivers working for the council or on building sites in the borough will have to take a cycling course to help make them aware of the needs of vulnerable road users, including cyclists.
The bike training will be part of a Safe Urban Driving training course which all drivers will have to take if they work directly for the council or its contractors. In addition, the council will use its planning powers to encourage independent developers to send their drivers on the course or an equivalent.
The decision comes just days after transport minister Robert Goodwill told the Commons Transport Select Committee that it would be a good idea for truck drievsr to spend some time on a bike.
According to the Islington Tribune, the council will insist that any developer of a large project - more than 10 flats - has its drivers trained as part of granting planning permission.
Transport chief Councillor Andy Hull announced the policy at Thursday night’s council meeting. In a statement he said: “The safety of cyclists on Islington’s roads is a matter of life and death which the council takes extremely seriously.
“Through this new package of measures, we are pulling the different levers at our disposal to make the borough a safer place, not only for people on bikes but for pedestrians and drivers too.
“We can never eliminate all risk on our roads, but by acting on our fleet, procurement and planning policies we are doing what we can to minimise it.”
He told the Tribune that around 30 percent of all road crashes in Islington involve cyclists, but the six percent of roads under the control of Transport for London account for 47 percent of crashes.
“The council is, therefore, lobbying for road safety improvements on TfL’s roads, and in particular safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians,” he said.
That means improving major gyratory and one-way systems in the borough including the Archway gyratory where Dr Clive Richards was killed by an HGV in August.
Training lorry drivers he said, was “something we can do now”.
The London Cycling Campaign welcomed the move. The LCC’s Tom Bogdonavich said: “We’re very much in favour of this. Anything that councils can do to make the roads safer for cyclists is to be welcomed.
“It’s an excellent step forward, but it is only one step. Ideally we’d like to see lorries redesigned so they do not have blind spots, by lowering the windscreens to knee height, such as you see in coaches or some rubbish trucks. And, separately, we’d like to see an improvement in infrastructure – including in Islington – to make cycling safe.”
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An excellent start. Other London councils need to follow this lead. There should be a compulsory cycle-training section for all drivers anyway when learning, but especially for the 7.5t+ stuff.
+1
I like this idea.
Attention Lorry Drivers of Islington:
When you have finished this training module, you may wish to cycle to work, or cycle in your spare time. If so, you have a entered a magical world. Cycling is one the one of the best things you can do wearing lycra. We haz advice on bikes, clothing - hi viz and otherwise, lights and the best kinds of cake.
Excellent news!
And yet most research shows that the "arrogant" (your words, not mine) behaviours for which they are stopped are hugely under-represented in the KSI statistics. Going through red lights (much though I deplore the practice) and failing to wear a yellow tabard or a plastic hat are not what kills cyclists - the vast majority of cyclist deaths are because the drivers of large vehicles fail to see them before driving over them. Some extra understanding for these drivers can only help.
This is good. While giving the cyclist or motorist a rollicking/fine this in no way means they will change their behaviour. If you put a motorist on a bike and have them interact with traffic they will quickly get the message and hopefully the penny drops.
or maybe the Met have told pc's to stop and fine cyclists?
Consider for a moment that by various studies 70% of accidents are due to driver error. Yes some cyclists aren't saints, problem is drivers when they make mistakes kill people. More specifically some drivers don't realise how dangerous there actions are.
Agreed and whilst sadly the idiot cyclists give the remainder a bad name motorist will and continue to kill cyclists and get off scott free.
JUSTICE FOR CYCLISTS!
Good news.
HGVs are doing most of the killing and it's sensible to address them first, hopefully other motorists will be addressed in due course.
Common sense prevails but it's all aimed at vehicle drivers, from what RoadCC have published recently regarding Police stopping road users and giving "advice" roughly 50% are arrogant cyclists. Targeting these few would help as we'll in reducing accidents too.
Flyers attached to bicycles may help?
Before anyone gets antagonistic about my comments I'm a cyclist. Cheers
Common sense prevails but it's all aimed at vehicle drivers, from what RoadCC have published recently regarding Police stopping road users and giving "advice" roughly 50% are arrogant cyclists. Targeting these few would help as we'll in reducing accidents too.
Flyers attached to bicycles may help?
Before anyone gets antagonistic about my comments I'm a cyclist. Cheers