30 September 2010

And so it Begins...


Photo by KyleF @ flickr.com
 http://www.metro.co.uk/news/841931-boris-bike-injuries-spark-calls-for-helmets

This is a story I spotted in the Metro paper the other day, which I note is the backwash from comments made by the charity Brake, who appear to do very sensible work trying to reduce the number of road crashes. The story also appears in other newspapers and on the BBC. I wonder if this is the opening salvo of a more concerted campaign?

It will be interesting to see how the mainstream press frame the cycle helmet debate. From what I can see, not all news outlets have set the two (some sites refer to six) reported serious accidents in the context of 750,000 bike journeys so far on the scheme. It would also be interesting to see that statistic compared with the norm for car journeys, or the number of fatal car accidents in London since the bike hire scheme began.

Let's hope the policy makers are reminded of the sensible thoughts from elsewhere (such as http://www.copenhagenize.com/) on this subject, particularly if they want the cycle scheme to suceed. I've just returned from Barcelona, totally stunned at the impact that their successful scheme has had on the city and desperately hoping that this good news somehow finds its way here.

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