Boris:- Fix Bow Roundabout

Please take 20 seconds to tell the Mayor of London that cyclists need a safe Bow roundabout

Two cyclists have been killed by lorries at Bow roundabout in less than three weeks.
London Cycling Campaign is asking all cyclists to write to the Mayor, telling him that the roundabout needs to be re-designed. We have set up a link on our website.
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/please-take-20-seconds-to-tell-the-mayor-of-london-cyclists-need-a-safe-bow-roundabout

This is what I wrote:- to safeBow@lcc.org.uk
*Dear Mayor,
Please go to Bow roundabout, try to walk from where Brian died to where Lana died, take you executives and engineers with you then ask yourselves, "Do we really want to live in a city with streets as insanely hostile as this one".
I'm demanding you implement an urgent and effective redesign of this lethal junction, so no more families suffer the tragic losses of the last few weeks. *

Johnson's address is missing from that link. It is:

mayor@london.gov.uk

I would also suggest that all e-mails are personalised.

The link for sending mail is here:
http://lcc.org.uk/pages/bow-roundabout

We are using safeBow@lcc.org.uk so we have a count and dossier of how many people write.
Absolutely personalize your message. That's what I did.

Update: by 10am more than 1000 people had already written to the Mayor. Well done!

Done. Wot I wrote:

*Dear Mayor,

I'm appalled by the two cyclist fatalities that have taken place recently at Bow roundabout.

I am writing to demand that you implement an urgent and effective redesign of this lethal junction, so no more families suffer the tragic losses of the last few weeks.

You will, I'm sure, be aware that the London Cycling Campaign and others have written to Transport for London on a number of occasions highlighting the very serious dangers presented to cyclists and pedestrians at and near this junction, including after it was redesigned to accommodate the Cycle Superhighway.

This tragedy, therefore, seems to have been preventable. Transport for London and the Mayor's office needs to take immediate and urgent steps to make not just this junction, but other junctions such as King's Cross safe for cyclists.

For too long your administration has placed too much priority on smoothing traffic flow at the expense of cyclists' lives. This is unacceptable.

As a cyclist and a Londoner I demand immediate action.

Yours sincerely,

Fox*

I wrote directly to Johnson with a copy to the LCC address.

As he's getting inundated, I went for the KISS approach - "sort it!"

+1 "sort it!" Boris

Yes. Done!!!

Mr Mayor,

I apologise for this unsolicited email but feel it necessary to appeal to you.

There have at this point (15/11/11) been fifteen cyclist deaths during the course of 2011.

This is an unnecessary waste of life which is propagated by Transport for London and their terribly designed cycle lanes which encourage cyclists to filter down the left hand side of traffic into the advanced stop zone. An experience cyclist may know that this is suicide but shouldn't we be able to rely on state sanctioned advice to keep us safe?

Of the deaths this year, eight were caused by HGVs, a further three were by vans and one was caused by a bus run by Transport for London.

Add to that that the two most recent deaths were both within walking distance of each other at Bow roundabout and both caused by tipper lorries. Having lived in the bow area for 4 years I'd say would be a fair assumption that both trucks were traffic from the Olympic site. Does London 2012 really need to go ahead at the cost of it's residents lives?

Until you step in and do something about London's road policies their blood will remain on your hands.

Regards

Dear Mr Johnston,

You have made every effort to market yourself as a keen cyclist, and as Mayor you of course implemented the Superhighway scheme to develop and improve cycling infrastructure in London.

Much of these 'improvements' have flown in the face of cycling groups such as the LCC, such as the redevelopment of Blackfriars Bridge, and the end result is made painfully clear as we hear of two more cyclists deaths in the space of two weeks at a particularly dangerous and badly designed section of the 'Superhighway' at Bow roundabout. If we add to this recent revelations surrounding the author of Eilidh Cairn's death and his most recent victim (an elderly pensioner called Nora who was a pedestrian) then it becomes highly evident that your stance on cycling is little more than meaningless posturing and mendacious attempts to engage with those voters who view the environment and sustainable transport as the ideals by which modern cities should operate.

Continuing to ignore tragic incidents such as those being weekly repeated at Bow roundabout, where government designed infrastructure is proving lethal to its intended users, expresses contempt for these same road users and expounds the belief that political opportunism and economics are more important than protecting vulnerable road users and saving lives. Under these circumstances the Superhighway you have so vigorously championed is little more than a lethal advertising billboard for a dubious financial institution. Hardly a legacy any cyclist would like to leave behind him when he has at his disposal the power and the means to change it..

Sincerely,

Done!

superb emails guys! ^^^^

Done and well done^

Has any approach been made to Barclays about this? I think a concerted push to highlight their association with a deadly scheme might produce pressure on the Mayor from that side as well.

As a bank that bankrolled Mugabe's regime I can't imagine they'd take any notice or a couple of dead cyclists.

They are trying to present themselves in a better light, hence the eco/green stuff with cycling.

If they can stand beside LCC when changes are made, they will look less like the arms trade investing, child labour supporting fuckheads that they are.

That and TfL really got to stop repeating the old *"oh but it's the lowest number of fatalities" *line, there's a difference between acceptable losses and avoidable losses.

http://lcc.org.uk/articles/cyclists-fined-30-pounds-then-told-to-ride-around-killer-roundabout

there's a difference between acceptable losses and avoidable losses.

What's the difference? Almost all losses are avoidable, just not at an acceptable cost. Or is that what you mean?

just received this from the mayor's office. No doubt cut n'paste but at least someone is being forced to take time to respond...

[quote=]Dear Greg

Bow roundabout and cycle safety

Thank you for your email.

The Mayor is very concerned indeed by the recent fatal collisions at Bow roundabout and his thoughts and sympathies are with the friends and family of both victims.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating both collisions in order to determine the specific causes. Alongside this, Transport for London (TfL) is urgently reviewing the operation of Bow roundabout. In addition, TfL will review all major planned schemes on the Transport for London Road Network and all junctions on the Cycle Superhighways already introduced. This builds on work TfL is already doing to improve cycling safety, for example by trialling blind spot safety mirrors through the Cycle Superhighways programme and developing Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) driver training courses to specifically address the safety of vulnerable road users. TfL will widen this work by initiating an independent review of the safety of HGVs used in the construction industry.

The Mayor is determined to maintain and build upon the cycling revolution that is happening in London and, while overall road safety in London is improving, the recent fatal collisions at Bow have made clear the need for all organisations involved, including TfL, the Boroughs, the freight industry and the Police, to redouble their efforts to further improve cycle safety.

Thank you again for writing to the Mayor.

Yours sincerely

[/quote]

You probably know this already by now, but...

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/22247.aspx

How do you rate the improvements? I'm not overly familiar with that roundabout. The dedicated lights for cyclist looks good although, from the video, I can imagine in periods of slow / heavy traffic there would still be the real risk of undertaking cyclists putting theirselves at risk. Probably not too much that can be done there although the use of the flyover may help?

Did you notice the bus trying to take out the car 33 secsin?

The risk still exist, and still states that cyclist should always undertake.

^ yeah it's a bit daft isn't it. They're attempting to cure the symptom rather than the disease.