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."