Roads too dangerous for parents to cycle with their children, says survey
Posted on in Cycles News
A new survey by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) released today shows that parents think London's roads are far too dangerous for children to cycle.
The LCC's survey shows that 69% of respondents who have children in their household think that their own area of London is ‘dangerous' or ‘very dangerous' for children to cycle. Of those people, 71% commute to work by bike regularly, but only 23% of them cycle frequently with their children in London. Only 6% of respondents said that cycling in London was ‘very safe' for children.
Parent, Corin, 41 from Lewisham said: "There is virtually nowhere in the borough where my daughter can cycle on protected cycle paths and I will not let her ride on the road. When she was younger she went in baby seat on my bike, but I had too many bad experiences with dangerous and aggressive drivers to use that much as a transport option so we tended to take the bus instead.
In response the LCC is launching ‘Sign for Cycling', a campaign aimed at ensuring all the London Mayoral candidates commit to making cycling safer for everyone. Candidates are being asked to commit to the following three point agenda:
- Create more safe space for cycling by building more segregated cycle lanes on London's main roads and making dangerous junctions safer.
- Encourage more local journeys by bike by offering ‘Mini -Holland' funding to every London borough in order to transform high streets and town centres.
- End lorry danger, by ensuring only the safest lorries, with ‘Direct Vision' cabs and minimal ‘blind spots', are allowed onto London's streets.
Year 6 students at Hugh Myddleton Primary School in Islington gathered to help launch LCC's Sign for Cycling campaign by telling their own stories of how much they'd like to cycle but how dangerous they feel the roads are. They branded their playground with the message for Londoners to ‘Sign for Cycling' and call on London's next Mayor to make cycling safe and enjoyable for everyone.
Nathaniel Johnson, aged 10 and Year 6 pupil at Hugh Myddleton Primary School told us "I think cycling is really good exercise. It's really fun!
Sophia Parlett, 10, said "I'd love it if it was safe for me and my friends to cycle on the roads.
Yusra Suleiman, also aged 10 said "My father does get scared when I cycle with him; most of the time we cycle on the pavement [as] there aren't very many cycling paths. My Dad was riding his bike once and got knocked over by a car. If there were cycle lanes, this wouldn't have happened.
Amy Summers, Campaigns Coordinator at the London Cycling Campaign said: "Hearing what the children of London say is a stark reminder of the sad fact that London is effectively denying cycling to the next generation, by not providing enough safe space for cycling. It's not just parents who won't let their children cycle out of fear for their safety, children themselves consider London's roads are far too dangerous for them to cycle on.
"Whether our streets are safe for families and children to cycle is a litmus test of whether they are safe enough for everyone to do so. The Sign for Cycling campaign is calling on all the Mayoral candidates to expand current cycling programmes and make our city safe and enjoyable for cycling for people of all ages and abilities."