66.7% of cyclist fatalities in 2018 on TfL’s LCN London Cycle Network

In 2018, so far, nine cyclists have been killed in London and two thirds of these deaths were on routes signposted by Transport for London (TfL) as cycle routes. London has 9,215 miles of road and the London Cycle Network (LCN+)  extends to 560 miles. So 66.7% of cycle fatalities were on the 6% of London roads designated by TfL as cycle routes. Two of the deaths (22.2%)  were on TfL’s flagship Quietway 1:

1. Oliver Speke died on the A206 Romney Road on LCN18, on 11th May  2018
2. Edgaras Cepura died on the  A206 by the Woolwich Road roundabout, on  LCN18 and LCN64 on, 18th May 2018
3. Antonio Marchesini died on Childers Street (on World Bicycle Day) on LCN2, now Quietway 1, on 14th June 2018
4. Shane Murtagh Hammond died at Battersea Queens Circus, on Cycle Superhighway 8 and LCN5, on 9th July 2018
5. Dr Peter Fisher died on High Holborn at the junction with Newton Street (on 2018 Cycle to Work Day), at the junction Quietway 1 and LCN 39, on 15th August 2018
6. Peter Harris died on the junction of Bestwood Street and Evelyn Street, on LCN183, on 29th September 2018 

For the UK as a whole, cycling 1 mile is twice as dangerous as cycling the same distance in  Amsterdam or in Copenhagen. Imagine if breast cancer survival rates were twice as bad in London. Would Norman tell us that getting your treatment in London is safe? Cycling on the TfL London Cycle Network is much more dangerous than cycling on the rest of the road network. But our cycling commissioner, Will Norman, tells us in the below video that ‘Cycling is very safe in London.’ Obviously, most of the London Cycle Network should decommissioned. Only the safe sections should be retained. TfL should not signpost cyclists to early graves.