TfL will begin issuing fines to vehicles that drive within, or cross, the white lines of cycle lanes that are marked by a solid white line and cycle tracks on TfL’s Road Network (TLRN) from next week. Cycle lanes play a vital role in keeping people cycling separated from most motor traffic, reducing the risk of collisions, which can cause death and serious injury. Reducing non-compliance will help improve safety and the confidence of cyclists as part of TfL’s Cycling Action Plan and Vision Zero goal of eliminating death and serious injury on the road network.
‘Bristolians are sick of cars clogging up streets and pavements’ – B24/7
As US Road Deaths Rise, France Is Safer Than Ever. Why? I Bloomberg UK – CityLabTransportation
David Zipper – 16 June 2022
Urban Institute researcher Yonah Freemark looks at traffic fatalities in France and the US in search of explanations for why the two countries’ road safety trends diverged.
Traffic deaths in the US surged at an annual rate of 10.5% last year, the fastest pace on record, to an estimated 42,915 fatalities. Pedestrians are at particular risk; 2021 saw an estimated 7,265 deaths among those on foot, the highest total in 40 years.
Although leaders like DoT Sec Pete Buttigieg have repeatedly warned of a “national crisis” in roadway safety, they seldom emphasize its uniquely American nature. Roadways in Canada, the European Union, Japan and Australia have generally grown safer in recent years — both before the pandemic and during it.
How can better bus networks be rolled out? A DRT case study – transportxtra
In France, the city of Orleans has been piloting DRT since 2018. Over the last four years there has been a strategic shift in the transport system, adding under-served zones to the transport network using DRT and moving less frequent fixed route services to DRT, guaranteeing people connections to the rapid transit network
Sleep-deprived medical staff ‘pose same danger on roads as drunk drivers’ | Health | The Guardian
Robin McKie
About half of all hospital doctors and nurses have had accidents or experienced near misses while driving home after a night shift.
The risks they pose to themselves and other road users have been calculated as the same as those posed by drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit, delegates at a European medical conference were told last week.
As a result, health experts have called for doctors and nurses to be allowed to take 20-minute power naps during night shifts. This would make their journeys home safer and would also help to protect patients from mistakes they might make through tiredness when administering drugs or other treatments.
Infrastructure investments paying off on cyclist safety, shows research – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Forming the basis of the study, analysis of Department for Transport Road Safety Data published in November of 2021, paired with Freedom of Information requests to local and county councils, reveals that what are officially badged as road traffic accidents involving cyclists and motorists have come down by 10%.
Greater danger from SUVs and vans | ETA
eta.co.uk 24th March 2022
In news that will surprise nobody who ever walks or cycles, research from America has found that SUVs and vans are substantially more likely than cars to hit pedestrians when making turns.
“We already know that larger vehicles cause more severe injuries when they strike pedestrians,” said Jessica Cicchino, one of the authors of the research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “The link between these vehicle types and certain common pedestrian crashes points to another way that the increase in SUVs on the roads might be changing the crash picture.”
Cycling to work uptake held back by significant obstacles – Workplace Insight
Neil Franklin A new poll from Direct Line Cycling Insurance claims that commuters are being increasingly discouraged from cycling to work by a number of factors, and those who do ride in face a dilemma on where to store their bike. While an estimated £1 billion worth of bikes are used to commute every day across the UK, the research suggests that as many as 1.5 million cyclists are deterred by the lack of bike storage facilities at their workplace
London councils pledge 30,000 new bike storage spaces amid four-year wait lists | Evening Standard
Joe Talora
Newly-elected councillors in London have pledged to install a total of 30,000 new cycle parking spaces across the capital in a bid to cut long waiting lists.
The Standard reported in March that some Londoners were facing waits of up to four years for secure bike parking, with waiting lists topping 60,000 across the capital’s boroughs.
Views sought on legal framework for Williams-Shapps Plan for rail – Transport Xtra
The DfT has launched a public consultation that sets out plans for legislative changes needed to reform the railway. This follows publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail in May 2021, and announcement in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022 to introduce a Transport Bill to Parliament to modernise rail services.
Control of rail infrastructure and trains will be brought under the control of new public centralised body Great British Railways (GBR). It will own the infrastructure,…
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