Join the vigil for cycling safety in Kings Cross on Tuesday

London Cycling Campaign, RoadPeace, London Living Streets, campaigners and bloggers are inviting all Londoners to join them beside one of the city's most dangerous junctions, where a young Londoner on a bike was killed by a HGV this year.

The vigil will remember all those who have died on London's roads this year and call on the Mayor and TfL to change their focus from 'traffic flow' (by which they mean cars and other vehicles, not bikes or pedestrians) to the safety of all people on our streets. The campaigners want to know why cyclists in London are twice as likely to be killed as those in Dutch cities, and are particularly concerned about the impact of the so-called 'superhighways'.

On the LCC site, Danny Williams of Cyclists in the City says,

"People are being asked to fling themselves on bikes through multi-lane junctions where cycling is an after-thought. The safety of cyclists and pedestrians should have just as much importance as the safety of motor users on London's streets."

Join them (and us) at the junction of York Way and Euston Road outside Kings Cross Station at 6pm on Tuesday 20th December.

The event will be held beside the spot where a ghost bike memorial for cycling student Deep Lee will soon be reinstated.

Her death in October was one of 2011's tragic toll of 16 cycling fatalities so far (an increase on 10 last year). This local Kings Cross blog puts very well the feelings of people in the area, and across London, about this urgent problem and its likely importance in the Mayoral election:

"With the Mayoral election fast approaching it’s going to be interesting to see which candidates put road safety for ALL road users at the top of the agenda, who will give an unambiguous commitment to remove the perilous and outmoded KX gyratory system completely. There is a workable solution, it is likely to be radical and costly, it needs to be identified and implemented and it will stop deaths like Deep’s. She was clearly a beautiful and well loved human being with her life in front of her. This isn’t the time for the usual platitudes and bureaucratic responses."

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Cycle for London this Thursday at 8am

Come and join Climate Rush and London cycling campaigns (and us with some Oyster wallets) for an early-morning bike ride followed by a TfL roadblock this Thursday.

The demonstration is for cyclists and pedestrians alike, and will meet at 8am on the South side of Blackfriars Bridge before moving on to TfL HQ nearby.

What will happen then? Well, as Climate Rush say on their website:

We’ll chalk our messages on their pavement before hurrying off to work (on time!).

Partly aimed at the hopeless way TfL have handled the road space at Blackfriars bridge, the event is also aimed squarely at the heart of the way TfL is governed, and at Boris's record.

They are demanding three things: an open and democratic Transport for London whose policies are made by people, not computers; 20mph speed limits for a civilised city; and car-free and car-light areas to make London streets safe and London air clean.

As they say:

In the eyes of TfL one car-user deserves and is given 5x the space of a cyclist or pedestrian. Every time TfL design a road or public space they put the needs of a life-endangering car above the needs of vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists.

Under Boris TfL is worse than ever – his drive to ‘smooth the traffic flow’ in reality means things like removing pedestrian crossings to speed up driving trips. TfL recently refused to let the public have their say on its spending priorities or its emergency Clean Air Fund. The Fund is now going to be spent on ‘ecomarshalls’ to ask idling drivers to turn their engines off, rather than actually cutting traffic.

Sounds like Boris to us!

Read more on their website here.

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