Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the edition that we sent in June 2024. If you like it, please sign up on our Get Involved section – you will be showing your support for our work and you will receive our free monthly bulletins a month before they appear here.
IN THIS ISSUE… +++ Nationwide reaction to fatality in Regent’s Park +++ What was the key issue in the death of 81-year-old pedestrian? +++ Why ride-logging apps aren’t the bad guys +++
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HAZARDOUS THOUGHTS
The recent inquest into the death of an elderly woman after she stepped into the path of a cyclist in Regent’s Park has placed cycling speeds under national scrutiny, prompting an attempt by a Conservative MP to make cyclists face the same penalties as drivers who cause death or serious injury. With the incident attracting much negative media attention, The Royal Parks has felt pressure to review its largely supportive policies on active travel and cycling across its estate, including Richmond Park.
TRP has already asked Strava, along with other ride-logging apps, to remove Regent’s Park Outer Circle as a segment (a route where cyclists’ times are ranked), while the perimeter road in Richmond Park has been flagged as “hazardous” – which, compared to roads outside the park, it is not. The inference is clear: when it comes to keeping pedestrians in Royal Parks safe, TRP wants to tackle what it considers to be the inappropriate speed of cyclists.
But the exceptionally low accident rate involving pedestrians indicates that the overwhelming majority of cyclists in Royal Parks ride safely. Our concern is that restrictions may be ill-considered which would impact the enjoyment of riding in Richmond Park – pushing visitors to ride on less safe roads outside. We urge TRP to take a circumspect view by consulting with us and Regent’s Park Cyclists for our views and experiences on the most effective means of improving cyclist and pedestrian safety and enjoyment. In this bulletin, we set out why.
QUICK TO JUDGE
It is fair to say that, following the wide coverage of 81-year-old Hilda Griffiths’ very unfortunate death, many ordinary members of the public have become aware for the first time that there is no speed limit for cycling on British roads. And many may have assumed that cyclists can therefore ride as fast as they like, whenever they like, with impunity, which is not the case. There are already laws against dangerous and inconsiderate cycling, including inappropriately high speeds, which the police use if a cyclist is considered to have put pedestrians or themselves at risk.
A concomitant conclusion by many incensed readers of national newspapers would have been that if investment banker Brian Fitzgerald cycled at the speed limit for motorists when he was out with his clubmates at 7am on a Saturday morning in summer 2022, he may not have struck the victim. But on the basis of the facts presented at the inquest, this seems unlikely.
Fitzgerald said he was only two metres away when he saw the woman – giving him less than a quarter of a second to try to avoid her, even if he had been traveling at 20mph (although if he had been moving slower, it could be argued he would have hit her with less impact). It would appear assistant coroner Jean Harkin’s verdict of “accidental cycling collision death” bears out this considered opinion and is, we believe, a fair one. She also rejected calls for a report into the prevention of future deaths caused by cyclists in Regent’s Park because “there has never [previously] been a death of a pedestrian as a result in these circumstances”. And nationally, the risk of a fatality in such situations is incredibly small: only 2.5 of the UK’s 400 annual pedestrian deaths involve a bicycle – the rest are all down to motor vehicles.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Rather than focus intently on the issue of speed, The Royal Parks should take up the offer from Richmond Park Cyclists and our friends at Regent’s Park Cyclists to engage in dialogue and to look at other aspects of road safety which contribute to collisions. Do riders in groups communicate as effectively as they can to each other when they see a pedestrian? Could there be improvements to signage, alerting cyclists and pedestrians to each other’s presence? Can visibility be improved by restricting parked cars in Regent’s Park, or encouraging cyclists to take the central position, thereby moving them further away from the kerb?
All of these are thoughts and suggestions, not recommendations. We already have our Safer Riding Guide, which covers the most straightforward means for cyclists to aid road safety in Richmond Park, and it was put together with the help of the Royal Parks’ police unit. The latest version will soon appear on our noticeboard outside Colicci, and we will encourage TRP to promote it.
WE’RE STRAVA KEEN
Another aspect of cycling that the wider public may not have been aware of until they read about the Regent’s fatality is the use of Strava. With its segments and leaderboards seemingly encouraging fast speeds, the most popular ride-logging app probably looks like the bad guy. But lap times were recorded on cycling forums long before Strava arrived in 2009, and they could now migrate to closed WhatsApp groups – making the tiny minority of cyclists who do travel at problematically fast speeds harder for the authorities to see. And there is another aspect of Strava which would be useful for The Royal Parks to harness.
Strava Metro is an aggregated, anonymised, deep-dive information source which is only available to “groups directly involved in active transportation and infrastructure planning” – organisations, in other words, like TRP. Two years ago we put together a presentation which aimed to show TRP how the data available could measure how safe Richmond Park is for cycling and walking, as well as improve aspects of safety. Sadly, the process of getting the presentation to TRP’s board stalled – but recent events make this an opportune moment to restart that process.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
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All the best,
Richmond Park Cyclists