If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately you’ll know that the number of cycling related deaths on London’s roads, has been increasing at a rapid speed over the last 2 weeks. There have been 14 deaths on London’s roads so far, with 6 of these occurring in the last 2 weeks and this sudden increase in cycling deaths is causing uproar from the cycling community.
Is cycling really getting more dangerous or are we just all paying more attention? Those in the cycling community are defiantly making their voices being heard, calling for better infrastructure and safety training for other road users to look out for cyclists.
Over the years, the number of cyclists on Britain’s roads has been increasing. Official figures show that the number of cycling related deaths and serious injuries has been steadily rising in London from 468 in 2010 to 673 in 2012.
We’ve all noticed more bikes on the road and figures show that the number of trips carried out by bike in London has increased by 66% between 2001 and 2011. Figures provided by the Department for Transport have also shown that in London, there has been a dip in the number of deaths and serious injuries per billion miles cycled.
When looking at data from the last 30 years, the number of deaths and serious injuries to cyclists per billion miles has almost halved since 1979. This does seem to suggest that cycling has become far safer than it was 30 years ago. However since 2008, the number has slowly started to increase and the recent numbers of cyclist deaths that have occurred in London, in such a short space of time, have done nothing to restore cyclists’ confidence about their safety on UK roads. In 2010 London had 10 cycling deaths, in 2011 there were 16 and in 2012 there were 14. So far 2013 looks set to top 2012, with 14 deaths on London’s roads already this year.
