Elephant & Castle Emergency Cycling Safety Proposals Revealed
Date: 5 June 2014
Stop Killing Cyclists have today released their detailed proposals to install emergency cycling safety measures at the Elephant & Castle southern junction, following their direct action there on May 21st.
The proposals, which have been submitted to TfL Managing Director of Surface Transport, Leon Daniels and the Mayor’s Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan, were prepared in conjunction with professional traffic engineers. This was done in response to Leon Daniels’ commitment to treat our proposals seriously.
The proposals, included in a report prepared by Stop Killing Cyclists member Fred Smith, provide for safe segregated cycle lanes at the junction’s left-hand turns and also provide safer routes for right-hand turns. (Report is HERE.)
As the plans use existing infrastructure at the recently refurbished junction, estimated costs are in the low thousands.
Fred Smith, the Stop Killing Cyclists‘ report author said:
“Implementing the signs, lines and small number of separators we propose would be straightforward, very cheap and, we consider, could be achieved within a week.”
Donnachadh McCarthy Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder said:
“Stop Killing Cyclists called for emergency by-passes at the junction in March, prior to last month’s tragic killing of cyclist Abdelkhalak Lahyani. Hundreds of cyclists lay down on the ground at our Direct Action Die-In Protest calling for urgent action at this junction.
We are calling on TfL to implement these practical, low-cost, low-tech proposals as fast as humanly possible. Every day’s delay is another day with unprotected cyclists risking their lives as they pass through the junction”.
He added,
“If successful, as we believe they will be, such low tech, low-cost, emergency measures should be rolled out urgently by Boris Johnson across all of London’s dangerous junctions wherever there is sufficient space for both cycling and pedestrian infrastructure”.
Press Contact: Donnachadh McCarthy
Telephone: 07947 8842 99
UPDATE: Various media outlets picked up this story - thank you - some are listed under ‘Follow-Up’ in our article: Elephant & Castle Die-In - Media Coverage
Notes to editors:
1. Link to pictures and press coverage of May’s Elephant and Castle Draw-In and Die-In Protest by Stop Killing Cyclists:
http://stopkillingcyclists.org/elephant
2. Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up after the recent spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.
3. The London boroughs, including Southwark where the Elephant & Castle junction is situated, are responsible for 95% of London’s roads, whereas the London Mayor and TfL control the remaining 5%, i.e. the large arterial routes.
4. Southwark Council has not installed a single metre of segregated cycle-lane in the four years since the last election.
5. A recent FOI survey by Stop Killing Cyclists revealed that 24 London Boroughs had installed ZERO metres of segregated cycle-lanes since the last elections in 2010.