Cycling UK CAMPAIGNS BRIEFING Goods Vehicles
Goods Vehicles THIS BRIEFING COVERS: The road safety problem; bans, regulation and demand management; the Construction Logistics and Community Safety standard (CLoCS); vehicle design and safety devices; training and information for cyclists and drivers; longer, heavier, faster lorries; enforcement and accountability; road layout and street furniture; research and guidance.
HEADLINE MESSAGES Although lorries are involved in relatively few collisions with cyclists, those that do occur are disproportionately likely to prove fatal. National and local government should take steps to regulate the use of lorries in areas that are busy with cyclists and pedestrians. Exemptions should be made only for specific journeys that clearly cannot be made in other ways or at other times, and should require the use of safe lorry designs, fleets and drivers. National and local government, lorry manufacturers and operators should collaborate to promote safe lorry designs and equipment, especially ‘direct vision’ cabs, which enable drivers to see what is around them as easily as bus drivers can. Enforcement processes should be strengthened to take unsafe drivers and operators off the roads, targeting the least compliant.
KEY FACTS Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) account for only around 3.6% of non-motorway motor traffic mileage on British roads, yet are involved in around 17.5% of cyclist fatalities. HGVs were also involved in almost 14% of pedestrian fatalities, so pose a serious threat to them too. HGVs on average account for around 2% of urban and 5% of rural motor traffic, yet are involved in almost a quarter of cyclist urban fatalities and just over 12% of cyclist rural fatalities. HGVs pose a very significant risk to cyclists in London. In 2015, they were involved in 78% of cyclist fatalities there, although they made up less than 4% of miles driven. Left-turning lorries are a major hazard. In 2015, thirteen cyclists in London were killed or seriously injured when a goods vehicle over 3.5t turned left across their path. Cyclists’ collisions with HGVs are far more likely to prove fatal than those involving cars: the cyclist is killed in about a fifth of serious injury cyclist/HGV collisions. This figure is around 2% for cyclists/cars.
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www.cyclinguk.org/campaigns
Briefing 4Q (January 2018)
0844 736 8450