Injuries pile up in cycle lane championed by presenter Vine
INJURIES suffered by cyclists in a cycle lane hailed by Jeremy Vine for improving road safety have surged since its opening, analysis of Transport for London (TfL) data reveals.
Three cyclists were seriously injured last year in the “safer cycle pathway” on a west London high street, the equivalent of all such major cyclist injuries there in the three years before the bike lane opened.
The one-mile route on King Street, Hammersmith, also recorded an increase in slight injuries after 10 cyclists had minor collisions, more than double the number in 2019 before the lane was created.
The full extent of casualties is likely to be higher because TfL’s collision data for 2022 are currently only available for the eight months to August.
Now road safety campaigners say they fear bi-directional bike routes – where cyclists travel both ways on a single route – can pose crash risks at junctions. A “serious injury” is classified as requiring a lengthy hospital stay from broken or crushed bones, internal injuries, severe cuts or concussion.
A “slight injury” includes whiplash and cuts. Two of last year’s serious injuries were caused by bikes and cars colliding at junctions. The third cyclist suffered major injuries in a three bike pile-up.
John Franklin, a consultant in cycling safety, said the junctions where the crashes occurred appeared to have “bad sightlines”. He added that some “less experienced” cyclists could feel a “false sense of safety” when in a cycle lane. The King Street cycle path – from the Goldhawk Road junction to the Hammersmith Broadway gyratory – now allows cyclists to travel in both directions despite much of the road being one way for cars.
This has led to fears some motorists may fail to look both ways at junctions because it is one way for cars. The council has placed road signs at junctions warning of the bi-directional bike lane. The King Street route, part of the £12 million Cycleway 9, was praised by Vine, a BBC broadcaster, because cyclists now use it “confidently” after a roundabout used to be like “a scene from Ben-Hur”.
Simon Munk, of the London Cycling Campaign, urged London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham to “urgently look at what is going on at the junctions where collisions are happening and fix the issues”.
Last year, the Hammersmith Society, which campaigns to improve the borough’s environment, gave the cycleway its “wooden spoon” award as it had been introduced in a “costly and inefficient way” without public consultation and caused “pollution and delays”.
A TfL spokesman said the number of people using the cycle lane had doubled compared with 2017, but further safety improvements were “ongoing” and there was “not yet enough data to draw reliable conclusions”.
A spokesman for Hammersmith & Fulham, which worked with TfL on the route, said safety remained a “huge priority” and the route would be continually monitored.