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news
London's Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman.jpgLondon’s new walking and cycling commissioner says city is safe for cyclists despite recent deaths
London’s new walking and cycling commissioner has said that reducing road deaths is a priority while also expressing his belief that cycling in the capital is safe. Will Norman described three recent cyclist deaths as “devastating” but said: “I don’t think I would cycle around, and my kids wouldn’t cycle around, London without it being safe.”
Norman this week became London’s first full-time walking and cycling commissioner and he told the London Evening Standard: “I’ve been cycling in London for 15 years and I honestly believe that cycling in London is safe.”
He went on to say that part of his job would be to get that message across to the public. “It could be safer, of course, but it’s also about how people feel… A lot of it is about how we can show more people that it is safe.”
Research released to coincide with Norman beginning in his role revealed that the NHS could save £1.7bn on conditions including heart disease and diabetes if Londoners walked or cycled for just 20 minutes a day.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is committing £2.1bn to his “healthy streets” plan to get Londoners more active, including £145m a year to cycling.
Norman said that he had no plans to drop any of the cycle superhighways planned while Boris Johnson was in office and added that the CS4 route from Tower Bridge to Greenwich and CS9 from Olympia to Hounslow would go out for consultation this year.
He did however suggest that some new infrastructure had been brought in “too quickly” and said: “There is a real risk of bikelash – a kind of back lash against cyclists – and that’s why it’s so important to bring people along with us. It isn’t just about addressing the needs of the cyclist.”
In a bid to combat negative reactions, he said that he hoped to get more construction work done at night, to ease congestion during the day.
He also said that he felt pedestrians had been “ignored” by transport planners for too long. “There hasn’t been the same advocacy and campaigning around pedestrian safety in the past – it’s something that has been neglected by politicians and policy making. Given the statistics around pedestrian fatalities that is something that has to change.”
There were 66 pedestrian fatalities in London in 2015 – a year in which nine cyclists died. The figures to some degree reflect the fact that there are of course far greater numbers of pedestrians.
Norman has also ruled out banning lorries from central London at rush hour, saying “we need freight.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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18 comments
"cycle routes have been brought in too quickly"
What! They were first trailled on the A40 back in the 1930s, have been common place abroad for the last thirty years, and are only now being built in London. What would it be like if we bring them in any slower?
"Pedestrians have been overlooked"
I must be living in a different London. I look out my window and can see dedicated pedestrian infrastructure on both sides of every street.
Nailed it!
Well, not really, given that the alternative was Zac "I'll rip up the cycle paths and get rid of bus lanes" Goldsmith.
(Though, yeah, Khan does seem a bit crap)
Well done to everyone who voted for Khan as you are responsible for this shower of s*ite
I hearby invite Will Norman and his wife and kids to come on one of my daily tussles through Central London. We'll use the Superhighway, but will have to traverse main roads, junctions, and poorer cycle paths to get to the main parks - and this is dangerous enough.
The chances of being wiped out by a truck are pretty low if you're careful, I agree. But the diesel particles will get them whatever they do because some genius placed the Superhighway next to a lorry park. Indeed, the toxic particles emitted from these engines should be reason alone to ban them from Central London during daylight hours; say Congestion Charge times. Moscow does it. Even the ancient Romans legislated again heavy goods traffic!
I doubt I'll hear from you, Will. You've probably got more sense than to ride your kids through Central London. You're probably sincere enough, but for some reason the deaths of circa 100 pedestrians and cyclists a year through collisions seems acceptable. And the deaths cause or accelerated by toxins simply isn't measured effectively.
Now I'm going riding...in the Kent Weald.
"A lot of it is about how we can show more people that it is safe.”
No, it's about making it actually safe. Oh God, we're going backwards.
Am I really supposed to believe his kids ride the same routes as those incidents occurred on?
I saw this bloke interviewed on TV. He comes across as the worst kind of media-trained PR bullshitter. Bland reassurances to the media are not what is required. Get on and build safe cycle infrastructure.
My strong impression is that this guy isn't worth a fraction of Gilligan.
Yep, sadly predictable. Khan has made it clear that cycling or even public health is not one of his priorities.
What are his priorities? Has he got stuck into anything yet?
Glad-handing businessmen, posing for photos, getting TfL into financial shit and slagging off the woeful Corbyn, it appears.
I seem to remember that everyone thought the same about Gilligan when he started though? And I can remember him doing the spin doctor act for the first year or two as well...
Before Gilligan there was the grotesque Andrew Boff in the role. He voted (or abstained?) long with a group of tories aginst reducng the speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge. This individual has still cropped up to support church hall meetings full of braying Hampstead pro-rat runners against the CS 11 route which would have made their lives a tad inconvenient occasionally.
Even this scheme is threatened with dilution to the point of being unfit for consideration.
However, Boris was pushed into action eventually eith he and Gilligan 'getting cycling' to the point where they were at least doing what they could to get some fantastic schemes in of course.
We are 40 years behind the Dutch (perhaps a few less now) - but whether it is worht spending another 8 months (time since Sadiq was elected) to listen to Mr Norman listening to the 'stakeholders'...?
The bikelash is still underway (btw) - as of course are the new normal annual figures for air pollution reaching the limits within the first few days.
Having had to slam on my brakes to avoid being crushed to death by a large construction vehicle in part because of bad road design I can categorically state that London's roads are not safe. At least we know now which oriface Will Norman talks from.
Yeah that's that for another 30 years then...
Well that's f**ked that for another 5 years then. Expect zero results from someone who begins talking in a way which is proven not to work.
“I don’t think I would cycle around, and my kids wouldn’t cycle around, London without it being safe.”
He clearly doesn't believe it's safe; he has a helmet hanging from the handlebars. Given that helmets at best make no difference to the safety of cyclists, and at worst increase risk, perhaps we should be asking for him to be replaced with someone who at least knows the basics about cycling and safety?
Oh great, another spin doctor.
Oi, Norman, NOOOOO.
You do not fix 'people's perception' by delivering a message they've heard before, but louder. See Labour and Brexit. In this scenario, the way to fix people's perception is to actually MAKE IT SAFER.
How many peds were killed by peds and cyclists? How many cyclists were killed by peds and cyclists? Do you see a pattern?
Now get your mum to wipe your arse and start doing your job.
PS, if you need to explain a phrase you coin, it is probably shit.