On the same day as the new London Cycle Design Standards were put out for consultation an updated Cycle Safety Action Plan was also released for consultation with the same deadline of Friday 25th July. The previous version of this plan dates back to March 2010 and reference is made between the old and new plans. The new plan is the implementation of the Mayor's Cycling Vision from 2013, and combined with the standards and other announcements gives an opportunity to check on progress.
The Cycle Safety Action Plan is much shorter than the new standards at only 41 pages long, largely as it makes reference to many other earlier commitments on road safety and design. There are far more immediate actions and plans in the Action Plan than the Standards, for fairly obvious reasons.
Particular attention should be paid to the way the plan seeks to deal not only with safety but also the perception of safety. It's notable the plan attempts to place London in the context of the UK comparing traffic volume on TfL roads to the proportion of casualties. Further, on page 10 it shows a simple bar chart of "pedal cycle fatality per millon of population in 2012" for some major cities and cites this as showing London has fewer fatalites than New York and Amsterdam. A convenient soundbite, but not a useful comparison.
The primary study cited in the plan takes the STATS19 reported collision data and tries to combine it with the LTDS travel survey data to give a measure of risk against journeys. These are then looked at by mode/age, gender, ethnicity and vehicle involvement. There is a noted disproportionate risk for BAME cyclists, and the sadly familiar prevelance of HGVs in fatal collisions. An attempt is also made to show cycle KSIs by borough against passenger kms. The illustration is interesting but it seems not particularly helpful to my eyes.
There is also reference to a 2013 study by TfL into cycle fatalities updated research from 2010 to analyse in depth 53 collisions. In parituclar this study is being used in the plan to inform ideas around extra guards and changes on HGVs and other vehicles. No explicit reference is made to it influencing junction design.
The plan finishes by listing 32 actions split under the following headings:
- Designing safe streets for cycling
- Safe vehicles on our streets
- Improving driver standards and awareness of cycling
- Enforcement and delivery of safe cycling through the criminal justice system
- Greater communication, skills and training for cyclists
- Building knowledge and promoting cycling for all
Most actions are due in 2014-16 though some actions stretch on to 2020 reflecting existing priorities already set or long-term targets.
There's a lot in here and I hope to cross-reference it to the Cycle Vision commitments to compare changes since publication.
There's been a news piece on LCC, but otherwise no great comment online as yet.
