Calls for rush-hour ban on lorries in London after death of cyclist on Monday

IMO British cycling are not helping here:

Banning Lorries from commuting traffic? Totally unrealistic.

LCC et al calling for safety features / training to be mandatory for Lorries and drivers - good idea.

Tragic and all too common.

What are the solutions? I think it's obvious but due to a lack of political will, despite the lip service paid, they aren't implemented.

Make it harder to drive and easier to cycle, all whilst EDUCATING road users how to behave. It's all well and good putting stickers on the backs of lorries and running a few underfunded, half-hearted advertising campaigns but these aren't getting results. Proper enforcement of the rules of the road combined with a serious exhaustive public information campaign as to how to behave on the roads will improve things.

Now is the time to start prioritising cyclists over other road traffic. I drive in London for work as I have equipment to move around but I cycle at every opportunity. If my already lengthy journey to central London took longer then I would just have to accept it as a consequence of driving a car, which creates social costs. Bicycle use creates social benefits so why shouldn't it be prioritised.

Banning HGV's at certain times is, IMHO, pointless - London is busy all the time and I regularly ride outside of rush hour like many others. How about making the following technology mandatory for HGV's and buses in every large urban area, not just London:

Proximity sensors - these must exist surely?
More mirrors - I appreciate Keith's comment above but surely it's an improvement over having less?
Side skirts for trucks.
Traffic lights that prioritise cyclists - giving them a ten or twenty second head start over the rest of the traffic.
Cameras which enforce ASL's - I'm sick to death of sharing dedicated bike boxes with selfish taxi drivers and aggressive motorcycle couriers. Commenting on this doesn't go down well either.

The person killed was the second research scientist on the Cryosat2 satellite, Dr Katherine Giles at UCL. The original lead researcher, Prof Seymour Laxon was her PhD supervisor, who died in January.

Here we go again.... Any incident 'involving' an LGV is instantly their fault. Ban Lorries on the roads and how do the shops get their stock.

Teach cyclists of the dangers properly and, if they have any sense, they won't be in a position to be killed like this. If a large vehicle of any description is likely to be turning, keep back and let it go!!

By the way, I am a cyclist and also an aspiring LGV driver. I firmly believe that the two can co-exist, as long as both use their common sense.

Also, more mirrors won't fix the problem as the more mirrors a driver has to check the longer it takes to check them all, and therefore the more chance that the situation in the first mirror checked will have changed by the time they've checked the last one and pulled away.

The threat of legal action against serious workplace injury and death forced the construction industry to clean up its act on construction sites e.g. Olympic Park. Extend HS@W legislation to include traffic operations of contractors and construction contractors will clean up their act pronto, particularly where death or injury clauses in contract exert punative penalites and wipe-out profits. If all major public contracts included such clauses, behaviours will change overnight - the London Assembly should be setting an example stipulating such clauses in their contracts.

To survive, simply don't mess with trucks or buses before an intersection where they might turn left. Let them go, don't squeeze past.

Such waits might add a minute to my 12 mile commute into work in the City. My life is worth that.

In my experience many cyclists lack common sense. There are two sides to this story and problem.

Erm, it's like rush hour all day in London, I don't think that's a good solution.

Making sure the drivers tax, MOT, insurance and license are squeaky clean is one thing. Making the best mirrors a legal requirement is obvious.

Outlaw the pay-per-load that drivers get, it encourages bad driving far more than Strava encourages bad cycling.

And overhaul the driving crimes justice system FFS because it's a joke right now.

But when are we to start with the basic premise? Humans mingling with large pieces of essential machinery on the move would normally be banned if it were'nt cycling? Err why ban lorries? We don't have people mingling with trains & planes on the move.

There is also a massive uncomfortable risk feeling about being alongside the nearside of any HGV, where the driver is not in view. This really is a bad place to find oneself on a bike. It's probably better to get off and away from the situation; even wheel the bike round the corner.

And please don't accuse me of blaming the cyclist when I am blaming the scenario. It's a dangerous scenario.