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Press Releases

Press Release - “10 by 2020” London Mayoral Cycle Safety Challenge Issued

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“10 by 2020” London Mayoral Cycle Safety Challenge Issued

* Noon, 3 August 2015 *

Stop Killing Cyclists have today issued their “10 by 2020” London Mayoral Cycle Safety Challenge to all mayoral candidates and political parties.

Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy said:

The 2016 Mayoral election provides an urgent opportunity to speed up the pace of transforming London into a safer, healthier and more beautiful city, fit for humans aged from 5 to 105 to cycle, walk and do business in safely.

Donnachadh continued:

Any mayoral candidate serious about tackling the shocking scandal of over 12,000 transport related deaths each year and the hundreds of thousands of Londoners living with terrible transport related diseases will back our “10 for 2020” Cycling Safety Challenge.

He concluded:

At the core of our ten mayoral cycling safety challenges is our demand that 10% of the TfL budget must be allocated to cycling infrastructure by 2020. The current pathetic 1.4% of the budget being spent on cycling safety is an insult to those dying every day from collisions, pollution and inactivity diseases.

Ends.

Press contact: Donnachadh McCarthy on 07947 884299, [email protected]
Release Dated: Noon, 3 August 2015

Die-In at Bank, City of London by Stop Killing Cyclists on 29 June 2015 (photo by @ElectricPedals).

Notes

The 10 Challenges, along with background details of each, are listed on full at our STOP THE KILLING website - StopTheKilling.org.uk/10by2020.

The Stop Killing Cyclists “10 by 2020” London Mayoral Cycling Safety Challenge is:-

1. 10% BY 2020: Will you commit to investing 10% of TfL budget on cycling infrastructure by 2020, building up each year from current minuscule 1.4%?

2. END HGV/BUS BLIND SPOT: Will you require full blind-spot safety equipment (Left Hand Side CCTV and alarms) to be installed in all existing and new HGVs, buses, coaches and Tipper Trucks entering London?

3. MINI-HOLLANDS FOR ALL: Will you fund a Mini-Holland Programme for all London Boroughs within your first term?

4. PHYSICALLY PROTECTED CYCLE-LANES: Will you support a comprehensive grid of Go-Dutch standard physically protected cycle-routes across the TfL road network to enable people of all ages and abilities to cycle safely?

5. LONDON 20 MPH ZONE: Will you support a 20mph speed limit across London (excluding motorways)?

6. SAFER LEFT HAND TURNS - EMERGENCY PROGRAMME + IDAHO LAW: Will you support the introduction of the Idaho law, allowing cyclists to turn left when traffic is free at junctions, with full legal priority for pedestrians, when doing so and support an emergency programme of installing safe protected left-hand turns at a minimum of the 500 junctions that were originally promised to be reviewed by Boris Johnson by the end of your first term? (NB These were subsequently cut to 33)

7. END LETHAL TIME PRESSURES ON BUSES/TIPPER TRUCKS: Will you end the lethal paid by timed delivery regimes for HGVs in the construction industry and end dangerous system of paying for bus performance by contracted Excess Waiting Time Targets?

8. SQUARES AND STREETS FIT FOR HUMANS: Will you support a programme of making our beautiful major squares and shopping streets fit for humans, by closing them to motorised transport, including Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Parliament Square, Bank Junction, etc ?

9. TWO TfL BOARD PLACES FOR CYCLISTS: Will you appoint two cycling representatives to the TfL Board, nominated by cycling groups and change its name to the London Cycling, Walking and Transport Authority?

10. TIPPER TRUCK BAN: Will you ban tipper trucks at rush hour and introduce a scheme whereby electric delivery trucks to bring in goods from HGVs parked in outer London, into central London and promote cargo bikes for last mile deliveries?

Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up in November 2013 after the terrible spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the first mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.

All photos on the website are available for media use (with credit given to the photographer and Stop Killing Cyclists), and representatives are available for interviews and media contact by emailing [email protected] or by calling Donnachadh on 07947 884299

In the News

ITV4 Cycle Show interviews co-founder

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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.

In the News

Co-founder interviewed on London Live TV

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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’

Press Releases

Press Release - Vigil for Sixth London Person Killed While Cycling This Year

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Press Release Header with logo (Abby Taubin)
Vigil for Sixth London Person Killed While Cycling This Year

* For Immediate Release *

For the sixth time this year, Stop Killing Cyclists, the cycling activist group, will commemorate a person killed by a lorry while riding her bicycle, with a Vigil and Die-In.

The person being remembered is 32 year old Esther Hartsilver, who died as a result of her bicycle being hit by a lorry on Denmark Hill at the junction with Orpheus Street just before 8am on Thursday, 28th May.

Esther was on her way to Kings College Hospital where she worked in the Physiotherapy Department but very sadly died of her injuries at the hospital.

Stop Killing Cyclists will begin gathering from 6pm on Monday 8th June at Camberwell Green, and the vigil will formally start after 6.30pm. In this sadly increasingly familiar sight on the streets of London, short speeches will be given, candles lit, and flowers laid around a ghost bike in memory of Ms Hartsilver, before hundreds of people will lay on the road, many with their bikes.

Traffic will be brought to a standstill for two minutes, and all will be given a space to contemplate the terrible price paid by Esther Hartsilver, and by cyclists and pedestrians killed and seriously injured on the streets of London.

Southwark Council (LBS) is notorious for poor cycling provision, and must take responsibility, along with the construction industry, for this latest tragedy. They are complicit in her death. Southwark Council’s Transport Department proposed a by-pass two years ago to allow cyclists to avoid that junction by using Love Walk, but Deputy Leader Labour Cllr Ian Wingfield refused this proposal due to cyclists being according to him “a danger to pedestrians” - thus insisting all cyclists, including children to use the major junctions.

Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy said:

“Let’s make sure Southwark Council is held accountable for their murderous policies. They refused a proposal to have a bypass because (they said) it would endanger pedestrians on Love Walk”

Ends.

Release Dated: 1 June 2015

Event Listings (including feeder rides info):

Notes:

Stop Killing Cyclists - logo with website in red

Stop Killing Cyclists calls on Southwark Council and Transport for London to truly recognise that cycling must be a priority for road design and transport planning if London is to become a safe place for everyone to cycle, not just the fit and the brave, but the pensioner, the child, the parent taking children to school, the ordinary person going about their daily business.

Transport for London must appoint cycling representatives to its board, to balance the representatives of the HGV and taxi industries. It should allocate 10% of its budget to cycling provision, and ensure that every facet of road maintenance, building and planning considers the needs of people to cycle.

Southwark Council must take immediate action to provide protected lanes for people who cycle in this busy borough. No money has been spent on segregated cycle lanes in the borough in 4 years, with LBS having deleted ALL cycle provision proposals in the Peckham & Camberwell Action Plan. Camberwell Green Junction is being refurbished and Southwark Council are refusing to include safe protected left hand turns for cyclists. We call on LBS to reverse their policy on both Camberwell Green and the junction where Esther Hartsilver was killed IMMEDIATELY. It is criminal not to make improvements.

See http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/02february/pages/cycling-safety-a-special-report.aspx for statistics re the health benefits of riding a bike and what needs to be done to cut down the cost to the country through KSIs.

Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up in November 2013 after the terrible spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the first mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.

All photos on the website are available for media use (with credit given to the photographer and Stop Killing Cyclists), and representatives are available for interviews and media contact by emailing [email protected] or by calling Donnachadh on 07947 884299

Events

Moira Gemmill remembered at Vigil and Die-In

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Moira Gemmill, 55, was killed on Thursday 9 April 2015 in the Lambeth Bridge roundabout in Westminster (photo: Evening Standard)
Moira Gemmill, 55, was killed on Thursday 9 April 2015 in the Lambeth Bridge roundabout in Westminster (photo: Evening Standard)

Moira Gemmill was killed in a crash whilst cycling at Lambeth Bridge and Millbank, Westminster on Thursday, 9 April 2015.

Over 400 people joined a vigil and die-in organised by ‘Stop Killing Cyclists’  on Monday, 20 April 2015 at Lambeth Bridge from 6pm.

Moira was the 25th person killed whilst cycling in the UK in 2015. She was the 5th person killed in London whilst cycling – all in crashes involving an HGV. All but one of the victims were women.

(photo by Sam Khamtonwong)
(photo by Sam Khamtonwong)

Our deepest condolences go to victim’s family and friends.

Our thanks go out to all the volunteers who helped organise the event, made speeches and shared their photos and videos of it. Special thanks go to the members of the MET Police who cycled to the vigil and kept us all safe.

You can read about the vigil and die-in, plus see videos, pictures and news reports, here:

In the News

Referral of MET Police to Independent Police Complaints Commission called for by Stop Killing Cyclists

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Yesterday, the MET Police issued a correction to a press release they released on the day of the vigil for Michael Mason, who was struck by a person driving a car whilst he was cycling on Regent Street in February 2014.

Nicola Branch from Stop Killing Cyclists says:

Stop Killing Cyclists are horrified to learn of the awful treatment of the family of Mick Mason by the Met Police and we would recommend referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

To have been informed by a Press Release that that police would refer the case to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions], which although a bizarre and unconventional way of finding out, was a massive lift to the family, and now to have that hope whipped away from them equally through a Press Release, is an absolute disgrace.

The Met need to look very carefully how they deal with the family of a victim. They must be accountable for their actions.

Last Friday, 13 March 2015, Stop Killing Cyclists along with Cyclist’s Defence Fund held a vigil and die-in to remember Michael Mason who was killed in a crash on Regent Street a year earlier.

Earlier on that day, the MET police stated in a press release that they had reacted to the family’s call for the case to be referred to the crown prosecution service. They stated: “The [Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards] DPS supported the Detective Inspector’s original decision, but have referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

On budget day, the MET issued a correction to the press and media organisations before notifying the family or their solicitor:

CORRECTION: We have previously stated that the below matter was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. This is incorrect. No referral has been made.

Several members of Stop Killing Cyclists have written to their MPs to express their anger at the way the MET Police have handled the situation.

Nic Fripp wrote to his MP and stated in part:

I’m writing about the appalling miscarriage of justice that continues to unfold over the killing, just over a year ago, of Michael Mason.

Can you and your colleagues bring any pressure to bear on the Metropolitain Police to desist from this farrago of incompetence and stupidity? As the old proverb has it, one should never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but in this case…

Another member, Andrew Reeves-Hall wrote this to his MP:

It disgusts me how MET police have acted recently in this tragic case, let alone how they failed to act initially. Is there any pressure you can apply to get to bottom of their poorly timed press briefings, shocking behaviour to family (they learned of this through media) and failure to refer the case to CPS?

Reaction by other members can be found on the Stop Killing Cyclists Facebook discussion group HERE.

Statements from other organisations can be found in these articles:

In the News, Protests

Michael Mason remembered in ride and vigil on Regent Street

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Michael Mason, 70, was killed on Regent Street in 2013 when struck by a person driving a car.

On Friday, 13 March 2015, a ride, vigil and Die-In was held in conjunction with the Cyclist’s Defence Fund to remember Michael Mason who was killed in a crash on Regent Street a year earlier.

Mick was hit from behind by a car on 25 February 2014 and died in hospital 19 days later. The ride and vigil remembered not just Mick but also the many other people who have lost their lives on London’s roads and across the UK.

Further information from the inquest can be found in this article by Martin Porter: Inquest into death of Michael Mason

If anyone would like to donate to the Cyclist’s Defence Fund to assist with the case for Mick Mason, please text BIKE 38 and the amount you wish to donate, to 70070

eg “BIKE 38 £20” to 70070

Donations are also accepted online at https://www.justgiving.com/justiceformichael

Thank Yous

Cyclists’ Defense Fund… Tweet:

Thanks to everyone who has already donated to #justice4michael appeal https://www.justgiving.com/justiceformichael #stopkillingcyclists

Nicola Branch…

Thank you to everyone who came along tonight, particularly all the speakers, and especially to Mick’s daughter Anna Tatton Brown - a very powerful and moving speech. Also thank you again to the Met police who stopped the traffic, esp Seargent Paul Findlater who made sure all his officers took their caps off during the 2 minutes silence.
The coup of the night being so very welcome at All Souls Church, where we had great food, listened to wonderful Jazz music and our vigil and die-in and the message to make the roads safer for all, young and old, was incorporated into the sermon.
Thank you.

Media

CTC

Cyclists’ Defence Fund

Evening Standard

Road.cc

Videos

DrMorocho- Die-In On Regents Street In Memory Of Michael Mason #StopKillingCyclists @StopKillingCycl

Speeches

Anna Tatton-Brown

Retired teacher Michael Mason, 70, with his daughter Anna Tatton-Brown (photo and caption: Evening Standard)

Listen: Audio recording by ‘veloevol remote’ of Anna Tatton-Brown

Caroline Russell

Extract from We are not equal in the risks we face - speech at the vigil for Mick Mason 13th March…

I spent my evening yesterday at the location of another road death, quietly contemplating with others all that is wrong with our streets and the miserable lack of UK road justice.
The police chose not to charge the driver and didn’t consult with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before making their decision.

The event last night was organised by Stop Killing Cyclists and the Cyclists Defence Fund (CDF). The latter are helping Mick Mason’s family to get answers from the police as to why they didn’t discuss the case with the CPS and are thinking about possibly carrying out a private prosecution of the driver. The CDF has launched a fundraising appeal to ensure there are sufficient funds in the event that a private prosecution is needed.

Pictures

Gosia Cyganowsa…

(photo: Gosia Cyganowsa)
Flowers for Mick (photo: Gosia Cyganowsa)

Joe Dunckley…
For more of Joe’s photos, please see his website: COTCH DOT NET

(photo: Joe Dunckley)
Roger Geffen, CTC (photo: Joe Dunckley)
(photo: Joe Dunckley)

Brenda Puech…

(photo: Brenda Puech)
Roger Geffen of CTC with Nicola Branch (photo: Brenda Puech)
Caroline Russell with Nicola Branch (photo: Brenda Puech)
(photo: Brenda Puech)
(photo: Brenda Puech)

Footnotes…

Original Facebook event listing is HERE.
Person on motorcycle confronts protesters.
And thanks to that lady who tried to talk sense to the crazy LTDA chap.

In the News

BBC Radio4 PM discusses pavement cycling by a 4 year old

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Click the picture to listen to the BBC Radio 4 interview.

In the news yesterday, 10th March 2015, was a report about police in Lincolnshire threatening to confiscate a 4-year-old’s bicycle because she was riding it on the pavement.

Eddie Mair, host of the BBC Radio 4 news and current affairs programme ‘PM’, interviewed Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists, and Joe Irvin, Chief Executive of Living Streets, about the issue of police enforcement of pavement cycling.

Note: contrary to the introduction by Mr Mair, the origin of Stop Killing Cyclists was to build a peaceful but more radical approach to fighting for safer infrastructure for all of the city’s road users; and last November it was part of the Stop The Killing coalition calling making 10 Demands, one of which is Stop the Killing of Pedestrians.

In the programme, Donnachadh said:

What the policeman should have done was praise the parent for teaching the child to cycle in a non-dangerous way in a safe environment.

He continued,

It isn’t a conflict between cyclists and pedestrians that we really have in this country. It is a conflict between cyclists and pedestrians [together] and the HGV road users.

Donnachadh concluded,

The real problem in the UK is our politicians are refusing to invest in cycling safety: in Britain we spend £2 per person per year, in [the Netherlands] they spend £28. If we spent that on creating a network of physically protected, safe cycle routes across Britain then we wouldn’t be having this conflict between cyclists and pedestrians, we’d be on the same side.

Joe said:

The root of the problem is unsafe roads, and things like bringing down maximum speeds to 20mph in urban areas would be a big move in the right direction. It’s no doubt at all that HGVs and cars are the biggest [cause] of deaths and fatalities and that’s for people on the pavement.

On 9th January 2014, Robert Goodwill MP wrote to Donnachadh McCarthy to follow-up on points raised during a meeting he had with Baroness Susan Kramer earlier. In the letter, Mr Goodwill re-issued Ministerial Guidance on Pavement Cycling.

Some of the statistics highlighted by Donnachadh during the program are noted by the CTC in their briefing document: PEDESTRIANS.

  • In the 4 years 2009 to 2013, there was 1 pedestrian death involving a person cycling on the pavement or verge;
  • Whereas each year, on average, there were 34 pedestrians killed by vehicles.
  • That 1 death statistic rises to 14 when deaths anywhere are considered, for example on the road, when a person walks in front of person cycling;
  • And, the 34 deaths statistic rises to 1,245 when you consider pedestrians killed by people driving motorcars anywhere, not just on the pavement or verge.
  • For 2009-2013, the number of people walking who are seriously injured by person riding bicycle was 334;
  • Whereas, there were 20,181 seriously injured by a person driving a motor vehicle.

Listen to the Interview for a limited time on iPlayer; or on YouTube: BBC Radio 4 PM with Eddie Mair: Interview of Donnachadh McCarthy

In the News

Stop Killing Cyclists featured on Channel4 national TV with Jon Snow

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Jon Snow (centre) interviews Nicola Branch (right) and Steve McNamara (left) on Channel4 television.

On 4th March 2015, popular Channel4 TV presenter Jon Snow interviewed Nicola Branch of Stop Killing Cyclists, a co-organiser of Monday’s protest, vigil and die-in at Westminster City Hall. (Video is embedded below).

Nicola stated,

I want protected cycleways which is slightly different [to segregated cycleways]. I want the model they have in Holland [The Netherlands].

Nicola Branch was a co-organiser of Monday’s protest, vigil and die-in at Westminster City Hall.

Also in the studio was Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA). In January, Mr McNamara stated on BBC London radio that his organisation is against the “Crossrail for Bikes” Cycle Superhighways across central London:

“We’re against it, lots of businesses are against it. We are considering a Judicial Review against the scheme in conjunction with Canary Wharf and others.”

Last night, Mr McNamara stated that he and his LTDA members are in favour of segregated cycleways but not money being spent on building them:

We are all for segregated cycling lanes, my members want segregated cycling [but] The Mayor is spending £1bn of money he hasn’t got in London on cycling, we questioned that.”

He continued,

The fundamental problem is [that] London is the greatest city on the planet - you cannot implement a system in London identical to the one in Amsterdam - systems that work there won’t work in London, we haven’t got the road space for one…

REACTION

Andrew D Smith, a speaker at Monday’s protest, stated today,

When LTDA say they want “segregated lanes” they mean the maze of disconnected fragments on back streets that don’t go anywhere, disappear at junctions so few people want to use them. The moment there’s a proposal for protected lanes that go somewhere useful - like Victoria Embankment or Elephant to Kings Cross, the LTDA fight it tooth and nail.

Campaigning group CyclingWorks.London has stated that over 170 London employers support the Cycle Superhighways scheme.

Jon Klaff, a member of Stop Killing Cyclists, commented on Facebook that, “Steve needs to go to Amsterdam when he comments on lack of road space. He might notice the big, wet things in the middle called ‘canals’. Amsterdam has less space than London. Then he brings up New York, a city that is on the verge of being redesigned around the bike. Basically, he has no facts and lots of opinions.”

Donnachadh McCarthy, co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists told BBC News on Monday at the protest,

Westminster Council has spent ZERO on protected cycle lanes over the last 5 years; And what we want is 10% of the budget spent on protecting people cycling to work and school. We are not asking for more money to be spent on transport - we asking for 10% of the existing budget to be spent on cycling.

INVITATION

Nicola concluded the interview with an invitation,

I would like Steve to come cycling with me but I think Steve is too scared to come cycling with me - many people are too scared to go cycling.

Later in the evening, Nicola tweeted that her invitation had been accepted,

Steve agreed to cycle round Elephant & Castle [with] a hand shake & witnessed by @kemenzerem [Keme Nzerem, Correspondent, Channel 4 News]

Steve McNamara confirmed in an article published in the LTDA’s trade magazine ‘Taxi’, that: “the LTDA has already instructed its lawyers to prepare the grounds for a legal challenge by judicial review.”

The London Cycling Campaign stated on 29 January 2015: “the LTDA (represented by Bob Oddy) and the Canary Wharf Group (Peter Anderson) – sit on the TfL Board, which must ratify [the Cycle Superhighway’s] funding. Indeed, the Canary Wharf Group PLC already has form– being behind a damaging and inaccurate behind-the-scenes briefing against the superhighway proposals.”

In the same issue of ‘Taxi’, the LTDA reaffirmed its policies which include: ‘a complete ban on pedicabs‘; and, ‘taxi access to all bus lanes‘. Ed.Note: people who choose to cycle are permitted to do so in many of London’s bus lanes.

Jon Snow is also president of CTC, and has promoted their Space4Cycling campaign.

You can watch the full interview here (it was preceded by Keme Nzerem’s report): Nicola Branch debates with LTDA on Channel 4

Press Releases

Press Release - A Terrible Place to Walk or Cycle

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Press Release Header with logo (Abby Taubin)

A Terrible Place to Walk or Cycle;
Local Death, Local Action

* For immediate release *

For the fourth time this year, Stop Killing Cyclists, the cycling activist group, will commemorate with a Vigil and Die-In a person killed, while riding a bicycle, by a lorry being driven through our streets.

The person being remembered is 36 year old Claire Hitier-Abadie, who died when her bicycle was hit by a Cross Rail lorry as she cycled through the road works at Bressenden Place near Victoria Station on Thursday, 19 February.

Stop Killing Cyclists will start their protest outside Westminster City Hall in Victoria Street, gathering to music from 5pm on Monday 2nd March 2015.

From 5.30 there will be speakers who campaign for safer streets for people who walk and cycle in Westminster. These include Tom Kearney, Oxford Street Collision Survivor & TfL Bus Safety Campaigner; Caroline Russell, Walking and Cycling campaigner; speakers from Westminster Living Streets, and representatives from Road Peace.

Westminster City Council is notorious for poor cycling provision, and must take responsibility, along with Transport for London and the construction industry, for this latest tragedy. This area, outside one of the busiest stations in London, is terribly dangerous for people on foot or bicycle.

At 6.30, the vigil for Claire will begin, still at Westminster City Hall rather than on the dangerous corner of Bressenden Place where she died.

In this, sadly now familiar ritual, short speeches will be offered along with a candle-lit ghost bike before everyone lies on the ground, with their bikes, to silently commemorate Claire Hitier-Abadie.

Traffic will be brought to a standstill for two minutes, and all will be given a space to contemplate the terrible price paid by cyclists and pedestrians through traffic violence in London.

Stop Killing Cyclists calls on Westminster City Council and Transport for London to truly recognise that cycling must be a priority for road design and transport planning if London is to become a safe place for everyone to cycle, not just the fit and the brave, but the pensioner, the child, the parent taking children to school, the ordinary person going about their daily business.

Transport for London must appoint cycling representatives to its board, to balance the representatives of the HGV and taxi industries. It should allocate 10% of its budget to cycling provision, and ensure that every facet of road maintenance, building and planning considers the needs of cyclists.

Westminster City Council must take immediate action to provide protected lanes for people who cycle in this busy area. If our streets are allowed to become construction sites, as has happened outside Victoria Station, then construction site standards must apply to vehicles on them, with restrictions on movements, careful checking and provision for those who must pass through.

Vigil Co-organiser Abby Taubin said:

“We must put an end to these terrible tragedies and invest in making our roads safe for all who use them. “

Ends.

Release Dated: 24 February 2015

Event Listings:

 

Stop Killing Cyclists - logo with website in red

Notes:

Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up in November 2013 after the terrible spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the first mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.

Photos and information about previous vigils can be found on our website at http://StopKillingCyclists.org. All photos on the website are available for media use - with credit given to the photographer and Stop Killing Cyclists.

Representatives are available for interviews and media contact by emailing [email protected] or by calling 07947 884299.

We would like to highlight this video about road danger in Westminster; it was published in January by Rod King of the 20’s Plenty campaign: http://youtu.be/-sNImwSaC1k