"bikerider7" wrote in message
om...
[Note: I have not been on Blackfriars bridge, and the article seems
quite
vague on the "problem" with this particular cycle lane....]

Scandal of our deadly cycle lanes

The dangerous road layout that has claimed one life in London is now
being promoted across the country as a model of good design

Mark Townsend
Sunday May 23, 2004
The Observer

Vicki McCreery had predicted the journey home might kill her. Days
before she was crushed by a five-ton bus, she had told friends a new
cycle lane over Blackfriars bridge in London would claim lives.
As hundreds of people gathered for her funeral in north London
yesterday, relatives demanded to know why a lane meant to protect
cyclists from other road users had cost the 37-year-old
physiotherapist her life.

The lane had been in place barely two weeks before she died almost
instantly following a rush-hour collision near the crest of the
bridge. Safety campaigners are stunned that permission was granted for
a narrow cycle lane sandwiched between two fast-moving carriageways
and one of London's busiest bus routes. Worse still, a steady convoy
of buses is allowed to veer across the thin path reserved for
cyclists.

As McCreery forecast, a fatality was inevitable. Her death has already
become emblematic for groups which claim the tragedy exposes the
hypocrisy behind government initiatives to raise the number of
cyclists. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has promised a 200 per
cent increase by 2010, a figure already dismissed as too ambitious.
Failure to convert more people to two wheels is blamed largely on the
introduction of lanes similar to that on which McCreery died.

Those cyclists courageous enough to use Blackfriars bridge admit to
shuddering as they reach its northbound approaches. As McCreery would
have done in her final moments, they talk of feeling intensely exposed
as dense commuter traffic flashes by on their right while buses
undercut them on their left.

'She felt intimidated by the new crossing. She was extremely concerned
about her safety, but it was the only route she could cycle home,'
said a friend.


One must also take responsibility for ones own safety. If there was a
section of road that you believe was dangerous, why not get off before it
and walk past that bit? Surely its madness to cycle on a bit of road you
believe to be dangerous, just because someone painted the words 'cycle lane'
on it?
--
Tumbleweed

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