http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15703169

at the same place another cyclist lost their life,and an lgv, was involved, surely its time for better education of both drivers and cyclists to the dangers of getting to close to each other.

And a plea to any event organisers,please ask a freindly Lgv owner for the loan of a vehicle just so cyclists can experience from the cab, what the driver can see, and hopefully it may stop the increasing rise of cyclist/lgv accidents.

I think you’ll find its increased reporting not increased incidence. No of HGVs on the road is probably rising, certainly the roads are always getting busier. Level of cycling is definitely increasing. Yet, no. of cycle fatalities seems to be consistently falling according to the stats.

I think the internet means what would have been a story in the local paper or a couple of column inches buried in the back of the paper gets highlighted in places like this – so you become aware of stories from across the UK rather than only those in your own area.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/road-deaths-fall-record-low

Yes and. sadly, no.

Long term trend has been downwards on fatalities, but up the last three years..

“Although deaths and injuries fell significantly for motorists, pedestrians and motorcyclists, the number of cyclists killed rose for a third consecutive year. Deaths rose by 7% from 104 in 2009 to 111 last year, although the DfT says the number of cyclists rose by just 0.5%. The cycling casualty rate is, however, well down on the average annual death rate of 186 during 1994 to 1998.

The national cycling campaign group CTC said that while the risk of being killed on a bike had more than halved since 1990, more needed to be done.”

There have been a number of cyclists killed locally over the last year or so, but they didn’t get mentioned in the national press, for the same reason that local motor and pedestrian fatalities didn’t; they are local, and unexceptional, a tragedy for those involved, of course, but on a national level? No, not newsworthy.

So just over two riders per week killed. Plus however many maimed.
I would say that it’s two too many.

Started a project last week delivering Bikeability 3 to a group of 14yr olds. Taking them out on the roads around town where they mostly live is interesting 💡
The norm has been to deliver the old cycling proficiency, now Bikeability 1&2 and then nothing. This is the first Bb3 to be delivered locally.

But is it down to lack of awareness, dangerous junctions with poor sight lines,more traffic, cyclists and motor vehicles, or just media hype.

or just media hype.

Or as someone^^^^the fact that it has been pcked up and reported, a bit like train crashes and plane crashes
I know locally the number of bike incidents that I have heard of but that have never made the news or local papers. Ditto road accidents

Edlong,

A single year variation is usually not statistically meaningful. The consistent long term trend (over ~20 yrs) is down – which goes against the trend for increasing numbers of road users.

But is it down to lack of awareness, dangerous junctions with poor sight lines,more traffic, cyclists and motor vehicles, or just media hype.

I’d be surprised if the overall trend was for worse sight lines now than historically.

Actually worldwide the evidence seems to be that the more cyclists you have the fewer get seriously hurt/killed: awareness, expectations increase.

I’m normally very cynical about how data is collected reliably – but fatalities in road accidents is one of the stats where I think we can have reasonable confidence in the data.