7th London Cyclist Death Today

[flecc]

Following a commuting death yesterday, another one today, bringing the total to seven so far this year.

All seven deaths have been in collisions with HGVs, but before we get the usual hysteria about trucks, it's far from being the only important factor.

Arguably the most important factor is that six of the seven have been female cyclists, despite them only forming around 20% of the cyclists. This is no fluke as I've shown before, year after year women form a wholly disproportional number of these London commuting deaths, yet still there's little publicity and no action taken on that very relevant factor.

For example, the BBC announcing this latest death today immediately went into anti-truck mode but made no mention of that fact that the male cyclists avoid being killed by them, the 20% of women cyclists providing 86% of the deaths this year. Not unusual, I've posted on this specific problem for three years now.

Why women are not getting the message is a mystery. Why government and the media are not getting the message is as big a mystery. Is it really so politically impossible to mention anything unfavourable to women when their lives are at stake? The current problem is well understood, women are persisting in riding into the left side of trucks or not correcting that when they find themselves in that potentially dangerous situation. All they need do is to either hold back, drop back, or when traffic is stationary at junctions, move ahead across stop lines. And taking notice of flashing indicators is important too, when they indicate a vehicle is turning left, a cyclist's duty is to take note and act accordingly.

However, I suppose this will trigger the usual postings about trucks and drivers, while ignoring the elephant in the room.
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[selrahc1992]

Following a commuting death yesterday, another one today, bringing the total to seven so far this year.

All seven deaths have been in collisions with HGVs, but before we get the usual hysteria about trucks, it's far from being the only important factor.

Arguably the most important factor is that six of the seven have been female cyclists, despite them only forming around 20% of the cyclists. This is no fluke as I've shown before, year after year women form a wholly disproportional number of these London commuting deaths, yet still there's little publicity and no action taken on that very relevant factor.

For example, the BBC announcing this latest death today immediately went into anti-truck mode but made no mention of that fact that the male cyclists avoid being killed by them, the 20% of women cyclists providing 86% of the deaths this year. Not unusual, I've posted on this specific problem for three years now.

Why women are not getting the message is a mystery. Why government and the media are not getting the message is as big a mystery. Is it really so politically impossible to mention anything unfavourable to women when their lives are at stake? The current problem is well understood, women are persisting in riding into the left side of trucks or not correcting that when they find themselves in that potentially dangerous situation. All they need do is to either hold back, drop back, or when traffic is stationary at junctions, move ahead across stop lines. And taking notice of flashing indicators is important too, when they indicate a vehicle is turning left, a cyclist's duty is to take note and act accordingly.

However, I suppose this will trigger the usual postings about trucks and drivers, while ignoring the elephant in the room.
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Fascinating,especially if one considers - to drag another elephant into the room by its tail - the whole multitasking/hunter-gatherer/women are better at picking berries and looking out for predators and so have better lateral attention spans hypotheses. Are you absolutelyvsure of your statistics? Could it be that women and men are different kinds of cyclists? Are 80% of the cycle messengers female,could there be a confounding variable?

 

[flecc]

Fascinating,especially if one considers - to drag another elephant into the room by its tail - the whole multitasking/hunter-gatherer/women are better at picking berries and looking out for predators and so have better lateral attention spans hypotheses. Are you absolutelyvsure of your statistics? Could it be that women and men are different kinds of cyclists? Are 80% of the cycle messengers female,could there be a confounding variable?

No, there is no variable, year by year virtually every death has been of commuters. Indeed almost the whole growth of London cycling has been in commuting, due to the £10 a day car congestion charge and expense of overcrowded public transport.

I'm sorry the search facility doesn't work well enough for me to link you to my previous posts on this, especially last years in which I detailed all the figures.

The reasons for the disparity are well known though. First, female cyclists are too law abiding and stop at red lights on the nearside of truck cabs, under the mirrors and in the blind spot. Second, they too often seem content to ride alongside trucks on the nearside in the danger zone, rather than getting out of danger by either going ahead or dropping back. Third and baffling, and I've seen videos of this happening, they can sometimes seem to ignore flashing indicators on vehicles. I watched a CCTV one on ITV News in disbelief as a woman rode straight up the nearside of a truck about to left turn with it's large rear indicator flashing right in front of her. She was killed, but obviously they cut the video just before the crunch point.

Most of the deaths are with HGVs, indeed all 7 this year so far are, and virtually all are as a truck left turns and a cyclist is, or suddenly arrives in, the blind zone which the driver cannot see. The trucks involved are mostly the high cab type used in construction work, which for practical reasons cannot have low forward cabs or side guard fences.

It seems men are rarely involved due to their greater inclination to overtake rather than stay alongside and preparedness to cross the stop line at lights to sit ahead of vehicles there. Whether intentionally or otherwise, they are much less likely to be in the danger zone.

There have been experiments with additional mirrors, cameras, warning signs and buzzers, and many trucks operating in London have some of these additional features, but they don't seem to be the answer. That doesn't surprise me, with the best will in the world a driver cannot continuously stare into mirrors when left turning, he also has to look elsewhere much of the time, particularly where he is turning into.

Another problem is the way in which swarms of cyclists are often seen to overtake on both sides of slow vehicles simultaneously, there's only so much a driver can do in these circumstances.

No amount of alteration to trucks can stop the problem when patently it isn't exclusively a truck problem. The answer is that women just have to get the message and stop engineering their own misfortune. Pro rata since they are only about 20% of the commuters, instead of six there shouldn't have been a single London female cycling death this year, just the one male death at most.
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[RobF]

My sister in law, comparing herself to her husband in motoring and cycling situations, backs the 'women have poorer spatial awareness than men' theory.

Men are also stronger cyclists so are more likely to accelerate away from danger at traffic lights, even if that's not their primary aim.

 

[SteveRuss]

due to the £10 a day car congestion charge
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£11.50 now

 

[flecc]

£11.50 now

Thanks for the update Steve, I've never had to pay it so not up to date on how much. It didn't take long to creep up twice from the original £8.

I suppose this last £1.50 increase was to compenasate for Boris removing the western extension income for his buddies in the area.
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[SteveRuss]

Thanks for the update Steve, I've never had to pay it so not up to date on how much. It didn't take long to creep up twice from the original £8.

I suppose this last £1.50 increase was to compenasate for Boris removing the western extension income for his buddies in the area.
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£5 when it came in to existence. I think I remember Ken Livingston said he wouldn't put it up.

The amount it's crept up since its introduction is alarming to say the least. I only use it when I have to which luckily is rare!

 

[flecc]

Yes of course, I'd forgotten that far back and as said, I've never paid one. Trips into or across the central region were either by e-bike or motorbike, though before the charge I quite often crossed the centre by car. So I suppose the charge worked as intended for me, not that my infrequent trips would have made much difference.

However, in 2010 when I had occasion to travel into Central London a few times for a specific purpose, it prompted me to use public transport for the first time in well over half a century, bus, tram, train and tube. I must say they'd all changed quite a lot in that time!
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[RobF]

Some stats for London in this link.

Arguably too many to take in, but it shows the number of deaths has remained about the same, despite a large increase in the number of journeys.

The gender imbalance is not explained.

http://www.gicentre.net/blog/2013/11/24/risk-cycling-and-denominator-neglect

 

[flecc]

The trouble with that is the use of KSI, killed and seriously injured.

It not only hugely inflates the figures, the assessment of what is a "serious" injury is unreliable.

I only use killed figures since that gives unarguable comparisons and is the most reliable assessment.

And as you say Rob, the gender deaths imbalance avoided as usual, though I covered it very fully last year and this year it's once again very obvious.

I suppose it's considered politically incorrect to single out a gender, but with such a serious issue, the "three monkeys" approach to the problem is surely far worse.
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[flecc]

Here's two extracts from a government report on cyclist accidents which have some relevance:

Adults aged 30–49 years

Reported KSIs have increased sharply for the 30–49 year age group since the year 2000.
The 30-49 year age group were injured predominately on roads in urban areas, on week days between 6 -9am and 3–6pm. KSIs for this group also had a less pronounced summer peak compared with the other age groups. This suggests that a large proportion of this age group are likely to be commuters.

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)

HGVs present particular challenges for cyclists and are over-represented in cyclist fatalities (18% of fatal cycle accidents involved an HGV, compared with 4% of serious accidents). These accidents were more common at junctions where the main collision configuration was the HGV driver making a left turn while the cyclist was going ahead. ‘Vehicle blind spot’ and ‘passing too close to the cyclist’ were judged by the police to be key contributory factors. From the data, it appears that this is a particular issue for London and it has been the subject of recent research for Transport for London (Keigan et al., 2009). Ongoing work being carried out here will provide important lessons for other authorities.
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[SteveRuss]

I was sitting at the lights the other week and a 18 tonner pulled up right beside me, which I didn't much appreciate.

He then put his left turn indicator on which I only noticed due to there being a speaker attached to the rear of the cab at my ear height that started repeatedly announcing that the vehicle was indicating left. I pretty much wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for that little plastic speaker that that was the drivers intention.

Suffice to say that I pulled right forward and over the line and made eye contact with him before the lights changed. Otherwise, well.. You never know what may have happened.

 

[flecc]

I only noticed due to there being a speaker attached to the rear of the cab at my ear height that started repeatedly announcing that the vehicle was indicating left.

Yes, those speakers are a blessing in this circumstance, and many London trucks have had them added. It's all too easy for a cyclist not to see the front indicator just above, and for the trucker not to be able to see the cyclist in that spot.

The snag even with the speakers though is the number of cyclists in London who ride with earphones in, listening to music. To me that's really asking for trouble.
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[SteveRuss]

The snag even with the speakers though is the number of cyclists in London who ride with earphones in, listening to music. To me that's really asking for trouble.
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I despair at cyclists with headphones. You need every sense and 100% of your awareness at all times whilst cycling.