Olympic great Boardman: We must rethink roads so that riders feel safe
Mark Prigg
06.01.09

THE mastermind of Britain's cycling gold medal haul today called for a
complete overhaul of London's roads.

Chris Boardman told the Evening Standard he wants to see roads
transformed to make them safe for cyclists.

And the Olympic star said he would be happy to advise Mayor Boris
Johnson.

Boardman, 40, said: "In order to make cycling in London viable Boris
Johnson really needs to make some ballsy decisions, and now is the
time to do it.

"At the moment cars have priority and that has to change." Boardman
has proposed re-painting road markings to give cyclists more room and
giving them two-way access on one-way roads.

Kensington and Chelsea council is already testing a scheme for
cyclists to be exempt from one-way road restrictions after hundreds of
cyclists were found to be flouting the rules. Boardman wants to see an
expansion of this kind of scheme across London.

He said: "People just do not feel safe on the roads. We need to
completely rethink the allocation of road space, and it is more than
making cycle lanes wider.

"I would absolutely love to speak to Boris Johnson about this. I think
he has to make his move now." A spokesperson for Mr Johnson said: "The
Mayor shares Chris Boardman's passion for cycling [and] has committed
£55million to be spent on cycling commitments."

Campaigners backed Boardman's plan. "There is an awful lot more the
Mayor could to do improve cycling," said Tom Bogdanowicz, of the
London Cycling Campaign.

The calls come after the launch last year of the Standard's Safer
Cycling campaign.

Boardman is considered one of Britain's greatest cyclists, having won
a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics and broken the world hour record
three times. He has since retired from competition and is a technical
adviser to the British Olympics cycling team, which won 14 medals,
including eight gold, in Beijing.


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...afe/article.do

I like The Standard making a sly dig in the article about "hundreds of
cyclists flouting rules"!

Number of cycle commuters in the UK= 1m

Number of uninsured drivers on UK roads= 1.2m.