please empty your brain below

Great to see you covering this - as far as I'm concerned, Boris has blood on his hands. Hope they sort this out sooner rather than later

Hear hear DG. The superhighways sum up everything that's wrong about cycle provision in this country. A huge waste of money and an utter tragedy.

A bleak and tragic report, but can we hope that the coroner might investiage or make reference to the poor quality of the road and cycle lane system at the inquest? Time will tell.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that they are called "Barclays Cycle Superhighways".

I a regular cyclist for over 50 years I am saddened at the death of a cyclist on a cycle route. Many of the recent cycle paths are poorly laid out and are often no more than a line painted at the side of the road.
Segregated tracks are needed.-plus cyclist made to use them. I know of many roads where a cycle track off road is provided and yet cyclists still take their chance riding among the traffic.
Where there are wide pavements, not a busy pedestrian area, and there is room for both, cyclists and pedestrians should be allowed to share.
Cyclists should be made to have bells.
Cyclists should also learn to look behind them or fit a rear view mirror, many seem to cycle along as if they are the only person on the road.
If I am at a dangerous junction I often get off and walk with my bike until I am safely across.

I'm honestly surprised more cyclists haven't suffered. I suspect it's only because they are completely ignoring the highway code and peddling as fast as they can with their heads down and manoeuvering according to the limited horizon of vision they have in that posture that they 'escape'. The fact they they cause problems to pedestrians (I've had my nose and toes clipped many times at the Bow Road Station crossing, for example) and sneak up on the inside of large and small vehicles where they are in the drivers blind spot so when the driver catches a glimpse of them they cause minor traffic accidents.
Being a pedestrian, cyclist and driver I've seen errors on all sides - our roads are just not suited to the uses we expect of them. I wager things will get worse when there are significant numbers of silent electric cars on the roads too.

I'm not sure its correct to say "our roads are not suited to the uses we expect of them". All road users have a responsibility (underline !) to use the roads correctly - it's people's attitudes that have to change. From several forays into East London recently, abuses of traffic laws are rife - I saw a 4x4 not only jump red lights at Katherine Rd/ Barking Road junction in East Ham, but overtake another car, which had stopped, to do so. Too many drivers have not passed a UK driving test.

Very saddening news. May he rest in peace. Both the drivers and the cyclists should commit themselves to ensuring this cannot happen again - then when it does (and unfortunately it will) the blame will fall squarely on the planners and bureaucrats that seem unable to design roads properly (as cheap as possible - yes - as safe as possible - nowhere near).

Paul, you are right - it's about all (underline) road users taking responsibility for safety. People on bikes are more vunerable than those in cars, so those in cars have a responsibility to look out for them. It's not about right or wrong - it's about sharing. There are, unfortunately, too many selfish, ignorant idiots out there - however they travel. Rest in peace, poor Brian. We are all diminished by your passing.


Very very sad. As a father of young girls myself, I would say, though, that for their sakes if for no other reason, I would not subject myself to the huge risks of road traffic accident that "cycling 40 miles a day" every day exposes you to. Father (RIP) was a keen rower and clearly keeping fit was a big priority for him. Kudos. But at what cost?

This route could easily have been incorporated into the wide pavements between Bow flyover and Aldgate.

Very sad, particularly after seeing the picture and tributes that showed it was someone so full of life.
After some of the comments about this 'Cycling Superhighway' both here by DG on this blog, and elsewhere, its failings are pretty hard to miss. It seems the lorry driver has been charged (reports vary between Dangerous Driving and Careless Driving), which now seems the common practice after a fatal collision. I just hope he gets an >unbiased< hearing, meaning I hope he doesn't cop for any blame that doesn't belong to him, if it did turn out that a contributory factor was actually down to poor design on the part of CS2

Last night I crossed Lancaster Place, waiting for the "little green man".
I was surrounded by cyclists as I did so, although the lights were against them and ony one stopped.


Your poem at the end, so poignant. You ought to send it to City Hall.

I cycle across this roundabout twice a day, and I am amazed at how the motorised traffic seems to ignore the red lights. Sometimes one stream of traffic can't emerge onto the roundabout for cars, buses and trucks shooting red in a convoy. We don't know the circumstances of this accident, so it is pointless to speculate.

Regrettably, cyclists often don't help themselves. Near where I live, there's a Pelican crossing with a busy road junction a few yards beyond it. Cyclists are constantly ignoring the red lights on the crossing and then nearly being hit by traffic turning right at the junction. The drivers only have a few seconds to see them and don't expect them to be there in any event. Cyclists shouldn't just ignore the lights on Pelican crossings anyway, but to do it in circumstances which might kill you just seems like culpable stupidity.

Thank you for featuring this tragedy DG.
His poor people.
Bicycles and motor vehicles don't mix.

They should take a leaf out of Kingston's book. There they have largely segregated the cyclists either with a separate clearly marked piece of pavement, or a physical barrier as on Kingston bridge. I regularly both drive and cycle and the attitudes of other road users, both cyclists and drivers, leave a lot to be desired. If I am trying to give a cyclist room other drivers will often hoot or flash, and sometimes where there simply is no room to give, cyclists will shout abuse rather than realise that there is just nowhere to go and they will have to wait and merge into the traffic. And many many people simply DO NOT LOOK where they are going. I nearly got knocked off my bike by another cyclist recently who shot straight out of a side road and as I slammed on my squeaky brakes, said cheerily, oh I didnt see you there. Not botherint to look and not being able to stop if she had looked were of course nothing to do with it.

Every sympathy, but it's a cheap shot to pin it on Boris.











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