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Die-in for Akis Kollaros (©Tom Kearney)Vigil planned for London's latest cyclist fatality — but will Camden take action?
A vigil and die-in will be held on Monday, February 16 in memory of Federica Baldassa, the 26-year-old cyclist who died after being hit by a lorry on Friday February 6.
Organisers, campaigning group Stop Killing Cyclists, request participants to gather at 6pm for a 6.30pm start at Vernon Place, Holborn.
An Italian national, Federica Baldassa moved to London ro pursue her dream of working in the British fashion industry.
She had previously worked for Vivienne Westwood in Milan.
Ms Westwood told the Evening Standard: "We are shocked and upset to hear this devastating news.
"Federica was a beautiful person whose optimism and dedication will be missed by all who knew her. My thoughts are with her family at this difficult time.”
Camden Council & Vernon Place
Federica Baldassa was killed in the vicinity of the junction where Francis Golding sustained fatal injuries in a collision with a bus in November 2013.
At the April 2014 inquest into the death of Francis Golding, a spokesman for the Metropolitan police said there had been 77 collisions at the junction in the last 10 years. Of those, 29 involved cyclists, three of whom were killed. A redesign of that junction should be considered, the Met said.
Coroner Mary Hassall expressed disappointment that Camden Borough Council had done nothing to reduce danger at the and issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report, giving the council 56 days to explain what steps they planned to take to make the junction safer.
In its response to the report, Camden Borough Council explained what it planned to do: nothing.
The council wrote:
It states in the Prevention of Future Deaths report that you believe that action should be taken to prevent future deaths and that Camden has the power to take such action, but it is not clear from the report what specific action you expect Camden to take. However, from the content of the report we have taken the action to be early consideration of the Vernon Place / Southampton Row junction for improvement.
As stated in the Council’s evidence provided to the inquest, following the incident on 5 November 2013 a site meeting was held on 26th November and was attended by the Council and the Metropolitan Police. There were no significant issues identified with the layout of the junction that contributed to the incident on 5 November 2013 and no further actions were recommended by the Police. If the Police had identified any action to be taken this would have been prioritised by the Council and implemented at the earliest opportunity.
The report states that this junction leaves cyclists particularly vulnerable. As noted above, this location is a constrained central London location and the demand from motor traffic, cyclists and pedestrians is high and competing for limited space. The Council is legally obliged to consider all of these demands and provide arrangements and facilities that best balance these competing uses.
The council went on to explain that the area will be looked at as part of a wider Holborn scheme, but no decisions on the details of that scheme would be made until well into 2015, and even if the plans included changes to Vernon Place, they would not be implemented until after public consultation, pushing changes back into late 2015 or 2016.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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9 comments
@jacknorell
Sorry I forgot about the area of the lane next to the electricity sub station.
Its easy to forget because there is no protection for cyclists on the northbound lane, and the plastic 'barrier' on the southbound lane regularly gets shoved into the cycle lane - I've had to stop and drag it back into the road several times.
This is what happens when cycle lanes are not segregated with concrete barriers- they become free parking for motorbikes, this was there for 24 hours, and there is motorbike parking opposite where this idiot left his bike.
This bit next to the pub is great design. Taxis regularly parked here in the cycle lane waiting for customers, forcing cyclists around the vehicle back into the road at a right angle. Matter of time before a cyclist gets hit.
I asked Mary Hassell what she was going to do with Camden's bullshit response to her PFD.
She did not answer.
So I wrote to the Chief Coroner; he acknowledged that the PFD system fails if the respondents don't play fair. The Coroners have no power to enforce measures that would prevent future deaths.
This is the plan that was presented to Camden Council more than a year ago:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yw9mkHhGZaVBKYJs6FxyhC1Z4nNYVl-I...
I was asked not to attend future meeting.
You can't ride a mile in safety?
I'm afraid I find that hard to believe. If it is that bad why not walk all the way?
I've been trying to plan a reasonably safe cycling route to the vigil from about 1 mile away. I'm actually going to have to walk for at least some of it. Is that acceptable?
I think your dilemma aptly illustrates the issue at hand...
Looking at those photos I know where I would be - where the cars go. That's not a cycle lane I'm afraid by any clear definition.
That, and the construction work for the power company just down the road as well, with some vehicles that just barely fit into the narrow lane.
The right-hand parking makes it a tight fit, and I can't even blame some of those vehicles colliding with the soft infra. The parking should have been removed in the construction time period!
It's sh*t as it's not maintained, though it's surprising how many normal cars seem to hit the planters...
Needs metal or concrete bollards, bet the cars would see them then (mainly...).
LB Camden are a joke.
Go visit their 'prize' "soft infrastructure" project on Royal College Street NW1. They claim 'dutch-style' infrastructure is the future and are looking at rolling it out up Kentish Town Road.
Their design uses some white paint, rubber armadillos (oversized cat eyes) and thin metal plant pots. Apparently it makes the street more pleasant compared to the previous segregated concrete strip it replaced. Its actually cheaper, which is why they use it.
It basically being constantly trashed by motor vehicles. The plant pots get squashed, spun round into the cycle lanes or tipped over emptying contents into cycle lanes. Rubber armadillos have been ripped off their mounts, left in cycle lane or just vanished. White paint is er, white paint.
So as well as these soft features doing bugger all to protect cyclists, they are actually creating a hazard in the cycle lanes. And damaged plants pots / armadillos are not being replaced with any haste.
We lost 3 plant pots over Christmas and now in February they are still missing. The armadillos on this stretch are now being damaged as vehicles swerve into the cycle lane.
I should point out defenders of the scheme have claimed 'damage is being done by careless and idiotic drivers'.
I should point out that half way up this road is the London HQ of Parcel force with a vehicle repair centre next door = constant movement of HGV.
Not rocket science really?
Well done, Camden Council! That makes it nice and clear what priority they give to the importance of cyclists' safety compared to the "demand from motor traffic".
Come on, everyone! We should know our place by now! Get to the back of the bus, where we belong!