Cycling Embassy of Great Britain accepts offer of interview with new Road Safety Minister

The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain appreciates the launch of a new Department for Transport advertising campaign, entitled THINK! CYCLIST, which calls for drivers and cyclists to look out for each other. The spirit of the campaign is to be welcomed. 

However we believe that urging cyclists and drivers to watch out for each other is far from sufficient. The distressingly high rate of cycling deaths and serious injuries needs more than publicity campaigns calling for better behaviour. It needs a fundamental reassessment of the way our roads and streets are designed; roads and streets which all too often put cyclists and drivers into direct conflict. 

To this end, we accept the offer of an interview with the new Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond. Writing on his blog, board member David Arditti responds -

Dear Sarah,

 

Thank you very much for the email and press release.

I appreciate your sending this to me, and the offer of an interview with Stephen Hammond.

I would be very interested in having an interview with Stephen Hammond, on behalf of the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, of which I am a Board Member.

I would particularly like to find out if the new Road Safety Minister considers it a priority for the government to achieve far more emphasis on the provision of safe, high-quality, separated cycling infrastructure for cyclists in the UK.

In the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain we consider that this will be the only effective way of reducing the distressingly high casualty rate of cyclists on our roads. Eighty-seven have been killed so far this year, and four in one day, the 5th September. We consider this is not a problem that can be addressed merely with publicity campaigns calling for better behaviour from road users. Most of our road designs are highly outdated and constantly force cyclists and motor vehicles into conflict, in sharp contrast to the road designs of many of our continental neighbours, particularly those of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Germany, where the issues around accommodating much larger numbers of cyclists than we have here, more safely, have been effectively solved.

We would therefore be very interested to find out how the minister regards this issue, and what plans he might have for addressing it. The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, which is dedicated to identifying and sharing best practice on cycling infrastructure, would very much like to work with him on practical solutions.

Yours,

David Arditti