Cyclists would have a five-second head-start on other traffic at dangerous junctions and all cycle lanes would be reviewed for safety if Ken Livingstone is re-elected as Mayor of London.
Mr Livingstone made his pledge as the Times campaign for safer cycling amassed a total of 25,000 written pledges of support, and more than 1,300 letters were written to MPs urging them to support the campaign and attend a parliamentary debate.
Greater Manchester Police also gave their backing to the campaign, joining a growing list of politicians, celebrities and businesses who support the call for “Cities fit for cycling”.
A debate in the House of Lords this week also suggested that ministers consider mimicking a new scheme in Paris that would allow cyclists in Britain to run through red lights if they are turning left at a T-junction.
About 70 per cent of cycling fatalities are at junctions and many occur when cyclists are forced to pull away from green lights alongside lorries whose drivers do not see cyclists in their blind spots.
The Times campaign is calling for the 500 most dangerous junctions in the country to be identified and improved, installing measures such as phased traffic lights where appropriate.
In the House of Lords, in a debate raised by Baroness Gardner of Parkes, a Conservative peer, the question of cutting the bureaucracy involved in installing Trixi mirrors, which are fitted to traffic lights to allow lorry drivers to see into their blind spots, was also raised, though dismissed by Earl Attlee, the Transport Minister.
Lady Gardner argued that granting permission to cyclists to go through red lights in certain situations could cut fatalities and serious injuries. She suggested that more women were killed than men by lorries turning left at junctions because they “wait at the red lights and men go through them”.
Lord Attlee said that he had not heard of the Paris experiment to let cyclists go through a red light, which was given the go-ahead this week. The Government was “aware of the hypothesis” that more women were killed or seriously injured on bikes than men, he said, adding: “It’s difficult to extract measurable data to formulate policy or to make effective regulations.”
Mr Livingstone, who is campaigning for Labour against Boris Johnson in London’s mayoral election, dismissed the cost of introducing phased traffic lights across the capital, citing the Mayor’s £13 billion budget. “To give cyclists a five-second advantage is a relatively simple thing to do,” he said. “You’ve got to do it everywhere where there is a risk to cyclists.”
Kulveer Ranger, Mr Johnson’s director of environment, said: “Over the past four years the Mayor has been directly responsible for an unprecedented investment and focus on cycling in the capital.”
Cycling lobby groups in the US, Australia, France, South Africa and the Netherlands have backed “Cities fit for cycling” this week, and a group of bloggers has written to Italian newspapers asking them to support and copy the Times campaign.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece
It's enough to make motorists see rouge! Paris to allow cyclists to run red lights in bid to cut accidents
- Cyclists will be allowed to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red
- But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left
- They will be held responsible if there is an accident
By PETER ALLEN
Last updated at 10:24 PM on 7th February 2012
Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights.
The radical measure, which is intended to cut down on accidents, will be studied by city and town planners in numerous other countries outside France, including Britain.
At the moment, thousands of cyclists in cities like Paris and London regularly break red lights, but risk fines for doing so.
Trial period: Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights
Councillors in the French capital have voted to adopt the measure following a three-year campaign by cycle associations.
It will allow those on bicycles to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red.
But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left. Crucially, they will also be held responsible if there is an accident.
Tests on the potentially chaotic measure will start on around 15 crossroads over the next few weeks, before the scheme is fully implemented, so as to cover up to 1,700 Paris crossroads.
Red and yellow signposts posted on traffic light poles will inform cyclists that they can ignore the lights in designated 30km per hour zones.
The official justification for the new rule reads: ‘Experience shows that adding specific traffic lights for cyclists can create confusion for motorists.’
Bold measure: Cyclists will be able to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red. But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left
The measure is also being tested in the cities of Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Nantes, where Paris city hall has noted there have been ‘no rise in the number of accidents.’
Paris has a Velib bike hire scheme which means thousands of amateur cyclists regularly fill the streets.
There have been a number of deaths and serious injuries, with police often blaming the most serious accidents on bikes competing with heavy vehicles at traffic lights.
Cyclists can be crushed in blind spots by lorries turning. Bicycles failing to accelerate away as fast as motorised vehicles are also a cause of constant problems.
Opposition to the regulations have come from numerous road safety bodies, with Paris councillor Laurence Douvin saying: ‘If pedestrians, cyclists, motorbike users and car drivers don't respect each other, the introduction of these practices could increase the risks in Paris.’
The British Highway Code states that cyclists must obey ‘all traffic lights and traffic signals’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097882/Paris-allow-cyclists-run-red-lights-bid-cut-accidents.html#ixzz1mAGoemnO
Motorcycles, Bicycles Can Run Red Lights Under New Law
CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois motorcycles and bicycles will be allowed to run red lights starting in 2012, but only in certain instances.
Motorcycles and bicycles often aren’t big enough to trigger magnetic sensors that switch traffic lights from red to green, WBBM Newsradio’s Alex Degman reports.
That could mean the riders either break the law and run the red light, or wait until another vehicle comes along.
State Rep. Dan Beiser (D-Alton) says the new law means bikers can go through a red light if they wait a reasonable amount of time, but that amount isn’t yet defined.
“A reasonable amount of time, which was not defined in the bill, will be 120 seconds,” says Beiser. “So two minutes, that’s what we’ve come to agreement on and that was part of the governor’s concern.”
The governor issued an amendatory veto of the measure because he wanted a set amount of time the vehicles must wait.
But lawmakers overrode the veto, assuring the governor’s office it would be addressed during the upcoming session.
The law applies to municipalities with fewer than 2 million people, meaning it wouldn’t apply in Chicago.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/12/30/motorcycles-bicycles-can-run-red-lights-under-new-law/
Italy praises Times Cities fit for cycling campaign
James Bone Rome
Last updated February 8 2012 5:29PM
Italy’s insurance industry has praised The Times safe cycling campaign, saying it offers a model for Italy too, where there are twice the number of deaths.
The head of the ANIA Foundation for Road Traffic Safety, established by the country’s insurance firms, issued a statement pledging his support for The Times’ move.
“Making people aware of road safety through the media is fundamental for reducing the number and gravity of accidents. The campaign launched by The Times for the protection of cyclists in Great Britain should be an example for all of how public institutions, private associations and the media should work together to combat what is the greatest tragedy of our country — road accidents,” said Umberto Guidoni, the foundation’s secretary-general.
“If a big newspaper like The Times has taken a position like this, starting a real battle for respect of the rules of the road, it’s desirable that in our country there should be a similarly strong media campaign.”
Mr Guidoni said Italy had 11 million bicycles and came third in Europe in the number of cyclists killed, behind only Germany, with 462, and Poland, with 280.
“The protection of the weakest road users is a common problem throughout the world. Cyclists and pedestrians are the categories most at risk of being run over. In 10 years 1,275 cyclists have been killed on British streets and, according to European statistics, there were 104 victims in 2010 in accidents involving bicyles,” he said.
“In Italy, the situation is even worse: In 2010 263 cyclists died (6 per cent of the total deaths); and 2,556 died over the course of the last decade.
“That is more than double the number recorded in Britain. This shows our country must still do much in terms of prevention, as well as communication and awareness.”
The ANIA Foundation is pushing for the introduction of a crime of vehicular homicide in Italy in cases where the driver is in an altered psychological state or driving well over the speed limit.
“The position taken by the ANIA Foundation and other institutions on the need to establish the crime of vehicular homicide in some cases has begun to produce its first results,” he said. “A man who killed a 24-year-old woman while driving under the influence of drugs has been sentenced by the appeal court in Milan to 14 years for voluntary manslaughter. The sentence overturned the trial court’s sentence of four years for culpable manslaughter. This is only a first step.”
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