David Williams: TfL needs to up its game on bikers’ safety

So why the attack? The Assembly launched an investigation into motorcycling in October, reporting back last week. Transport Committee chair Val Shawcross said: “It’s no coincidence TfL rushed out a PR release [on the handbook and training] the day before our report — it knows it has not done enough to protect motorcyclists in London.”

The report said motorcyclists, with pedestrians and cyclists, were among London’s most vulnerable road users. During the past two years, one in five motorcyclists had been in a collision. Just over three in five had been in a near miss. Around 17 per cent of those injured on London’s roads — 24 per cent of serious casualties — are motorcyclists, despite this mode accounting for one per cent of traffic.

“After a period of decline, it appears the number of motorcyclist casualties in London is growing,” noted the report, adding that in 2010, 4,337 motorcyclists were injured. By 2014, the figure was 5,233, a rise of 21 per cent (compared to 5,146 cyclists).

Despite TfL’s handbook and training, I fear the figure will rise again as, for parts of London, the handbook has come too late. So many newly designed roads and junctions are now hostile to motorcyclists that they feel distinctly unwelcome. Astonishingly, the report reveals that while TfL’s cycling programmes have a £913 million budget over 10 years, there is “no dedicated budget” for TfL’s Motorcycle Safety Action Plan.

Strenuous, laudable efforts to help one vulnerable group — cyclists — have made some roads less safe for motorcyclists and I comment as one who cycles more than I motorcycle. Now consider the handbook’s “still attempting to filter” warning — and a recent Local Transport Today report noting that TfL has deliberately narrowed traffic lanes to such an extent that motorcycles cannot pass queueing traffic. TfL defended this, saying London cycling design standards advised against “ambiguous road widths”. Where is the balance? Motorcyclists can now struggle to find a practical route through London while hemmed in by new cycle lanes often bereft of users outside rush-hour.

TfL must take two key actions to reverse rising motorcyclist casualties. The first? Listen to Ms Shawcross. She says inconsistency regarding access to bus lanes for motorcyclists causes “unnecessary confusion”. TfL allows motorcyclists in bus lanes on its roads but 19 out of 33 boroughs don’t. “A more pro-active strategy is required from TfL to ensure a common approach,” she says.

She also calls for close monitoring of Cycle Superhighway roads to assess safety impacts for “other vulnerable road users, particularly the reduction in road space for other traffic”.

Ms Shawcross concludes: “PTWs can be the congestion-buster of the future. More deliveries could be made by motorbike and electrified motorcycles will have a big impact on pollution. We have to ensure there is space for all modes of transport on London’s roads and we have to ensure every road user can get from A to B as safely as possible. During my time on the committee, we have spent a great deal of time and effort ensuring TfL considers the needs of cyclists and pedestrians — now it is time for them to pay more attention to the safety of motorcyclists.”

The second key action? TfL should review its new road schemes and implement the advice in its own handbook. It’s all there.

GOOD ADVICE TO FOLLOW

There’s nothing like an observed, filmed, two-hour ride through London to jangle the nerves but I needn’t have worried.

If the tips that Mark Jaffe, of Phoenix Motorcycle Training, gave me are anything to go by, guinea pigs on TfL’s commendable 1-2-1 pilot training scheme will be safer for it.

Trainers follow novices on a daily commute, stopping to dispense advice. Jaffe corrected my positioning (too leftwards for visibility) and, crucially, spotted I wasn’t looking far enough ahead — a typical London trait.

Mine was just a ‘potted’ course, but I’m enjoying the same benefits of feeling safer and more confident after family cycle training. Currently available only to those living, studying or working in Croydon, I highly recommend it.

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@djrwilliams