London Mayor's response to Save Our Cyclists' demands

Cycle safety and HGVs

Question No: 2015/2647
Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban.
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

Written response from the Mayor 

I strongly support any measures to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. TfL is already delivering road safety improvements for all road users, including cyclists, but while there are no easy or quick fixes that can be applied, we believe we have a strong programme in place to make London’s roads safer for all road users.

I have asked TfL to examine the practicality and potential implications of restricting certain vehicles at certain times as part of its wider freight programme. A full assessment of the implications of any peak time restriction is needed to avoid unintended consequences, such as an increase in vans on the road or an increase in HGVs at other times of the day.

I fully support the adoption of the CLOCS Standard by the construction industry and will work with TfL to promote the aims of the CLOCS programme and to encourage construction organisations to commit to adopting the CLOCS Standard.

I support any measure that exposes bad practice and increases our understanding of how incidents occur and what needs to be done to prevent future collisions. CIRAS is a whistleblowing scheme widely used in other transport sectors to allow confidential reporting of bad practice by employees, but does not currently cover HGV operations and is not available to members of the public to raise concerns. I have asked TfL to investigate whether CIRAS would provide any additional benefit to the existing range of measures in place to report, investigate and manage bad practice.

TfL and its partners are committed to enforcing against unsafe operators in London, who are a danger to other road users and who damage the reputation of those operators who work within the law. We work with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), City of London Police and other agencies to target those operators we know to have a poor safety record. We have recently set up a Freight Compliance Unit (FCU), formed of officers and staff from TfL, the MPS and DVSA and the FCU shares information on operator compliance in order to ensure that enforcement is intelligence led and our efforts are coordinated.

I encourage Londoners to report any illegal activity or failure to comply with the law via the RoadSafe London website, which is run by the MPS.

Caroline Pidgeon AM supports Save Our Cyclists' HGV demands

Caroline Pidgeon AM has supported Save Our Cyclists' HGV demands in an email I have published in full below:

Thank you for getting in touch with me regarding the danger to cyclists in London posed by HGVs.

I am only too aware of the serious danger that cyclists can find themselves in when sharing the road with HGVs. Whenever I hear another cyclist has been tragically killed on London’s roads, I know it is highly likely to be someone crushed under the wheels on the inside of one of these vehicles. Too many people have died, and I support strong action to put an end to the danger.

I am in favour of trialling a rush hour ban on HGVs, and I recently questioned the Mayor about this - he admitted that he has now changed his mind, and TfL are now considering the possibility of conducting a trial.

I certainly support the introduction of CLOCS safety standards across all public sector construction contracts in London, and I’m happy to call on the Mayor to introduce this. I also support the introduction of the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) to HGVs – I lobbied the Mayor to introduce this on all London buses, and I am happy to lobby him to extend this to HGVs.

I have visited TfL’s HGV Task Force and I know they do valuable work. However, it’s clear there are still many poor vehicles on ours roads and I would support the expansion of the taskforce to make sure enforcement is as effective as possible.

Finally, I have also called on the Mayor to make more use of the Thames for construction traffic – if we can properly use the river to transport building materials, we can take many more dangerous HGVs off the roads.

Ultimately, it’s clear we need a high quality network of segregated cycle lanes to keep cyclists safe. However, until that is in place it is vital that we reduce the number of HGVs on ours roads, and that the remaining vehicles are as safe as possible.

Thank you once again for getting in touch.

Best wishes,

Caroline

Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group
Deputy Chair Transport Committee
Deputy Chair Police and Crime Committee

www.carolinepidgeon.org
LONDONASSEMBLY Liberal Democrat Group
City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA

Follow me on twitter:     @CarolinePidgeon

Save Our Cyclist's concerns raised with Mayor

Darren Johnson was set to raise Save Our Cyclists concerns at the Mayor's Question Time today (see question below), however the session was disrupted by protesting cabbies.

Hopefully they were able to continue later and we will be back with more details once we have them:

Question Title: Cycle safety and HGVs
Member: Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban. 
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

TfL must extend CIRAS to all HGVs working under TfL Contracts

This post is based on a guest post I wrote for the Safer Oxford Street blog here. I've reposted it to keep our supporters up to date with progress:

 
Dear Friends,

Thanks to campaigners like Tom Kearney, Bus Driver X and a Transport Specialist, from January 2016 TfL will be the first public sector transport agency in UK where both train and bus operations will have access to Confidential Safety Reporting. TfL has made the decision to adopt the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) for all London's buses in part due to campaigning by Tom's blog.

Significantly, this will also be the first time in UK history that the long-standing confidential reporting practice has been transferred from rail-to-road, marking a landmark victory for road danger reduction and also a forward thinking move by TfL they should be applauded for.

Despite welcome improvements to the safety of our buses this does not go far enough: Three cyclists in London have been killed by HGVs operated by TfL's Crossrail contractors since November 2013: Claire Abadie-Hitier, Brian Holt and Maria Karsa. When TfL's Crossrail goes live in 2018, all its rail operations staff will all have access to CIRAS; however currently none of their lorry operators have access to Confidential Safety Reporting during construction of the railway.

Last week TfL showed they have the power to lead the way on HGV safety by announcing glass doors will be fitted as a priority to all lorries working for the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and Crossrail. This is a welcome move which will reduce the risk of 'left hook' incidents by providing more direct vision to the front left of the vehicle where cyclists are often directed by cycle lanes.

Confidential Safety Reporting would compliment vehicle improvements by ensuring safety best practice is adopted throughout the organisation and potential dangers are addressed before they result in serious incidents. Now that TfL will be implementing CIRAS on London's streets we need them to extend this scheme to the most dangerous vehicles —and firstly—to the most dangerous vehicles under contract to TfL and its Crossrail Project.

We need TfL to implement CIRAS for all HGV contractors working for TfL and Crossrail. This move would show TfL and Crossrail leading from the front on one of the most pressing road safety issues faced in London and the UK: Cyclist Fatalities involving HGVs.

Adoption of CIRAS for its HGV subcontactors by TfL would pave the way for widespread adoption of Confidential Safety Reporting by HGV fleets working under contract to public authorities across the United Kingdom, a measure which is accepted best practice and already underpins a culture of safety on the railway.

This call on TfL is supported by the Save Our Cyclists petition which I help lead. We are campaigning for Confidential Safety Reporting to be rolled out to all HGV drivers and that needs a large organisation like TfL to demonstrate that this can be successfully implemented across a large fleet of HGVs.

It is only through the persistence and dedication of campaigners like Tom Kearney and his collaborators from TfL's Bus Operations, the Cycling Community and Transport Professionals that we can achieve the incremental victories which make the impossible achievable and give us hope for a future where avoidable road casualties are no longer a daily occurrence.

Extend CIRAS to TfL-contracted HGVs (including Crossrail) Now!

Fred Smith

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-cyclists

Clarie Hitier-Abadie, killed by Gordon Plant Hire HGV Working under Contract to TfL

 
References:

[1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/lorries-face-being-banned-from-turning-left-in-revolutionary-clampdown-aimed-at-preventing-cycle-a2924376.html

[2] http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/higher-safety-standards-needed-for.html

Greens respond to call to end lorry danger

Darren Johnson, a green member of the London Assembly has responded to the call for action on HGVs. He and Jenny Jones AM are supporting our demands for a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement.

We welcome his announcement that he will be tabling formal questions to the mayor asking for these measures to be implemented. His message is as follows:

Many thanks for your message. I am responding on behalf of the Green Assembly Members, myself and Jenny Jones AM.

We completely share your concerns and support these safety demands to help eliminate deaths and injuries from HGVs on London’s roads and make cycling safer for everyone. While I welcome the Mayor’s recent announcement on left turns and mirrors, the Mayor and TfL need to do more and I will therefore be tabling a formal question to the Mayor asking him to implement these demands (a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement).

Promoting cycling and decreasing road danger have been consistent priorities for the Greens on the London Assembly. We will continue to urge the Mayor to urgently redesign the most dangerous junctions, impose a default London-wide 20mph speed limit, segregate cycle superhighways so that they meet ‘Go Dutch’ standards as well as crucial safety measures for HGVs. 

If you would like to be kept informed about our work on cycling then please email Rachel.Carlill@London.gov.uk and we will add you to our email circulation list (emails are approximately once a month). Please be assured of our continued commitment to making our streets safer and more attractive for cyclists through our work with cycling campaigners, through putting pressure on the Mayor and TfL and through our formal committee work here at City Hall.


Darren Johnson AM
Green Party Member
London Assembly
City Hall
Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA