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Family of cyclist killed at Ludgate Circus calls for change on London's roadsJanina Gehlau

Family of cyclist killed at Ludgate Circus calls for change on London's roads

Mother of victim pleads on behalf of "parents who are losing children on the streets of London"...
by John Stevenson
Thu, Oct 23, 2014 14:13
6

The family of the cyclist who died as a result of a collision at Ludgate Circus last week has called on Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to act urgently to reduce road danger in the city.

Janina Gehlau was a 26-year-old history of arts student from Dusseldorf, Germany who had come to London in September for a three-month volunteer project for her dissertation.

She died in Royal London Hospital on October 20, after being involved in a collision with a lorry on October 17.

Yesterday her husband Marcel Gehlau told the Evening Standard's Matthew Beard and Ross Lydall: "For coming to London, she has been punished. She did no harm to anyone."

Unable to afford public transport, Janina Gehlau bought a second-hand bike to visit galleries and museums, according to Mr Gehlau and Janina's mother Andrea Tasic.

Asked if Boris Johnson should do more to improve safety, Ms Tasic said: “Most certainly — you need to seize this opportunity.

“This issue is affecting parents who are losing children on the streets of London and being made unhappy. The city has got to stop it.”

They said roads were safer in Germany, and called for all road users to be more considerate.

“Cyclists should take more care and especially stop weaving through traffic,” Mr Gehlau said.

“Bus drivers and lorry drivers need to have better all-round visibility from their driving position. Everyone on the road needs to take more care. That would have been in Janina’s interests.

“Bike lanes are one part of the solution but they are not enough. The whole mentality needs to change. Road users need to become more considerate to one another.”

MS Tasic visited London to see her daughter between October 7 and 10. She said they saw cyclists, many on road-racing bikes, riding "crazily fast".

“They were riding so fast it was like a jungle,” she said.

She discussed her concerns with her daughter, she said.

“She wore a helmet all the time. She was a very experienced cyclist and she rode all the time when she was in Germany."

Ludgate Circus
London
Boris Johnson
Janina Gehlau
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

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rootes | 10 years ago
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We need to get the actual details of these terrible events so we can understand what actually happened and the circumstances.

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thereverent | 10 years ago
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“Cyclists should take more care and especially stop weaving through traffic,” Mr Gehlau said.

Around London you can be cycling in a cycle lane then have to move out to pass a Taxi dropping a passenger off or delivery van parking in the lane, then pull back in again.
As Mr Gehlau hasn't ridden in London he doesn't know what the road conditions are like.

MS Tasic visited London to see her daughter between October 7 and 10. She said they saw cyclists, many on road-racing bikes, riding "crazily fast".
“They were riding so fast it was like a jungle,” she said.

Again it is often safer to ride closer to the speed of the other traffic in London as we have such poor cycle infrastrure. With segregated lanes it would be much better.

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Shades | 10 years ago
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Such a sad story. I walked past the incident about an hour after it happened.

“Cyclists should take more care and especially stop weaving through traffic,” Mr Gehlau said.

He's got a point, but I'm faced with this dilemma every day. Go up the outside of the queue; it moves and you potentially get stranded. Go up the inside; we all know the risks there, especially from trucks and buses. Third option is just to sit in the queue, but I ride a bike so that I don't have to.

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noether | 10 years ago
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Being an experienced biker in Germany unfortunately is irrelevant in the UK. Indeed Boris seems more concerned with image than safety, the Cycling Superhighways are a joke in very bad taste, seeing is believing. But to be fair, safety is not only a Boris issue. As I quoted in another blog:

As suggested by the previous section, traffic laws in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany give special consideration to the especially vulnerable situation of cyclists vis-à-vis motor vehicles (German Federal Ministry of Transport, 2006). Thus, they generally require the motorist to make special efforts to anticipate potentially dangerous situations and pro-actively avoid hitting cyclists. More- over, motorists are generally assumed to be legally responsible for most collisions with cyclists unless it can be proven that the cyclist deliberately caused the crash. Having the right of way by law does not excuse motorists from hitting cyclists, especially children and elderly cyclists

Pucher and Buehler, Making Cycling Irresistible (2008)

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Airzound | 10 years ago
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Very sad, but Boris doesn't give a toss about the safety of cyclists otherwise he would have done something by now. Unfortunately she won't be the last to die in such circumstances.

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Jonny_Trousers | 10 years ago
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Terribly sad for the family and all who knew the poor victim. The girl's mother and husband are quite right, of course, that much more needs to be done where infrastructure and attitude is concerned. That said, I can't imagine the speed certain cyclists travel at has much, or indeed any, bearing on the number of cycling related fatalities. Unfortunately they're in terrible danger of reinforcing the false stereotype that its the lycra-clad roadies who are the ones who ride dangerously when I suspect the facts would prove otherwise.

My thoughts are with the deceased's loved ones.

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