TfL's latest Cycle Safety Action Plan details cycleways, junctions, bus & lorry improvements

Transport for London (TfL) has released the latest version of its Cycle Safety Action Plan, which aims to reduce road danger for cyclists in the capital.

While it doesn't contain anything dramatically new, it's useful to have TfL's thinking on cycle safety collected in one place, and the detailed analysis of serious collisions and fatalities that underpins it is useful to dispel myths.

The plan acknowledges that cycling is a vital part of London's transport mix, accounting for 16 per cent of all road-based traffic in central London at peak times. Imagine the crowding public transport or gridlock if all those riders on the bus or Tube, or driving.

In the plan, TfL says: "London needs more people to cycle and to cycle more often. While the number of cyclists killed has declined over time, there is still more to do, particularly to reduce the number of cyclists being seriously injured."

Improving cycling infrastructure is a major plank of TfL's safety platform. The plan says: "Improving the safety of our road infrastructure is a central focus of this new plan, particularly in the design of junctions, roundabouts, signals and cycle lanes.

By 2016, TfL aims to deliver At least 50 per cent of the Central London Grid by 2016 and Quietways, upgrade the existing cycle superhighways and complete several new ones.

Three mini-Holland schemes in the London Boroughs of Enfield and Waltham Forest, and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames are due to be delivered by 2018.

By 2020, the Better Junctions plan will fix up 33 key junctions to reduce the danger they present to cyclists and pedestrians. Ten schemes are due to be delivered by 2016.

More broadly, TfL says it will focus its road safety engineering programme at locations on the Transport for London Road Network (the major roads under its control) where conditions for vulnerable road users can be made safer.

The plan and associated crash analysis report acknowledges that vehicle design and movement is a big issue for cycle safety.

To deal with this TfL says it will work with London Councils and London boroughs to deliver the Safer Lorry Scheme, which will require  HGVs driving in London to have side guards and extended view mirrors fitted.

Cycling is London varies enormously over the day, with peaks at rush-hour and this is typically when cyclists are involved in collisions with large vehicles. TfL says it is trialling quiet vehicle technology to expand off-peak delivery so that cyclists and lorries do not share road space as much.

The other large vehicle type identified as posing a serious danger to cyclists is buses, which have to be on the road in peak times. TfL will test radar and optical sensors on London buses next year to see if they can reduce collisions and trial Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology which can stop a vehicle travelling above the designated speed limit. They'll also look at how improvements to bus design could protect cyclists.

TfL says it's aiming for a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the Capital’s roads by 2020. The most vulnerable groups – pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – are involved in 80 per cent of serious and fatal collisions; it's their protection TfL intends to make a priority.

The plan claims cycling has become safer in London in recent years, a claim some campaigners dispute, but nevertheless says: "If we are to create a city fit for cycling and achieve both the Mayor's targets of  growing cycling and reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured, then much remains to be done."