ITV4 Cycle Show interviews co-founder

Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists, was interviewed on ITV's The Cycle Show.
Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists, was interviewed on ITV’s The Cycle Show.

The popular ITV4 ‘Cycle Show’ included a segment on cycling safety in their programme that went out this week, on Thursday 16 July 2015.

The segment started with an introduction to issues faced by people who have chosen to cycle, including HGV dangers. That was followed by an interview in the studio between the host and Dr.Rachel Aldred, a senior lecturer in transport at Westminster University, and Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists.

Donnachadh stated,

Cyclists are just [like] the canary in the mineshaft: around 12 to 16 cyclists get killed a year in London, which is terrible, but 100 pedestrians and what is really shocking is that around 3500 die from inactivity diseases because they are afraid of cycling. So we see ourselves as a campaign to stop killing everybody.

He continued,

So what we need is to invest money. The Dutch have invested something like £28 a year per person for nearly 40 years; we’re investing around £2. That is damaging our health and our economy.

You can watch the program on ITV4 player or on YouTube.

Co-founder interviewed on London Live TV

London Live interview of Donnachadh McCarthy 2015-07
Donnachadh McCarthy on London Live TV’s ‘Headline Interviews’ programme in July 2015. Click the image to watch the full interview at London Live’s website.

Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists, has appeared on London Live TV as part of their ‘Headline Interview‘ series.

The interview begins with an overview of Donnachadh’s early career in ballet dancing and party politics; then from about 9 minutes in, Donnachadh discusses the impact of poor road infrastructure on the health of people, not only those who choose to cycle today but also people that walk and drive.

Donnachadh said,

Cyclists are probably the smallest number of people who are dying on London streets. There’s around 100 pedestrians being killed every year…there are around 4000 people dying from pollution from our transport, there is around 3000 people dying from inactivity diseases.

He continued,

The campaign for Stop Killing Cyclists is actually to save the lives of 7000 others who are not cyclists. It is to benefit the health of all Londoners because all Londoners are breathing pollution, and there is something like 2/3 of Londoners who are unfit.

The interview is on London Live HERE.

UPDATE 15 July 2015: after the broadcast of the interview, this report came out - London’s air pollution ‘cost 9,400 lives’