We Really Need to Make Cycling Safer in London

If you happen to be new to London or grew up somewhere else, one of the things you notice when you drive in town is that the cycling etiquette is all messed up. By this we mean there seems to be a grey area around driver education, who’s right of way it is, which often end up at ‘who dares wins’ road rules. Of course in the extreme it gets to road rage.

In the best examples of cycling road rules you see, it’s without question that the cyclist has the right of way. Cars give way to cyclists. The two main reasons for this are; 1. Cars tend to injure cyclists when they hit then and 2. the road laws favour the cyclist and everyone knows this.

In London, this isn’t the case or people aren’t really aware enough to create this safe balance. Just ask a cab driver whether they would ride a bicycle around London, ‘no f%cking way mate’ they shriek. The headlines appear constantly ‘An Italian prince has become the eighth cyclist to be killed on the streets of London this year after he was pulled under the wheel of a lorry near Knightsbridge tube station’ or ‘Italian waitress, 32, is killed by a lorry as she cycled to her new job at a London restaurant.’

Of course the Government did promote this ad campaign only to have it banned as it portrayed a woman cyclist without a helmet, Ooops.

In fairness there are loads of motorbike safety campaigns but the bottom line is that there appears to be a problem with just who’s right of what it is. As you can see below, its pretty insane.

The post We Really Need to Make Cycling Safer in London appeared first on Felix Magazine.