As increasing numbers of people get on their bikes, flashpoints between drivers and cyclists are an all-too frequent sight in Europe’s cities. And while infrastructure that keeps different road users apart struggles to keep pace, Ford is launching a new campaign designed to help improve safety and reduce pollution and congestion.
30 professionals from the transport and logistics industry will raise more than £115,000 by cycling 400km across Tanzania. The challenge will support international development charity Transaid.
A quartet of riders from GT Radial are to tackle the Circuit Bugatti in the Le Mans 24 Hour Cycle Race. Brian McDermott, country manager UK for Giti Tire, manufacturer of GT Radial; Ellis Hadley, senior test engineer; Martin Gibson, senior test engineer; and Bertrand Saint-Supery, OEM EU technical director make up the team who will be training hard and raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Following a spate of cyclist fatalities on the roads of London, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has repeated its call for “more to be done” to improve the safety of cyclists on our streets, in a written submission to the House of Commons Transport Committee’s ‘Cycling safety: follow up’ inquiry.
Marc Preedy, commercial director for Goodyear Dunlop Tyres UK has just completed a 335km bike ride for the international development charity, Transaid. The cycle ride, which saw Marc conquer the roads of both the UK and Holland in just three days, has seen him raise an impressive £4000 for the charity.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed a fall in deaths on the road to the lowest number since records began, but raised concern at a rise in cyclist deaths. RoSPA is urging for greater provision in cyclist training, driver awareness and safer roads for cyclists following the publication of annual casualty statistics.
Brake, the road safety charity, is applauding a report out today by the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, ‘Get Britain Cycling', calling for action to achieve 10% of journeys in Britain being by bike by 2025. Currently just 2% of journeys are by bike. The report urged government to work towards 20mph being the norm in urban areas, lower speeds on rural roads and more segregated cycle paths to encourage more people to take more journeys by bike. They recommended a cross-departmental Cycling Action Plan and leadership from the top of government to achieve ambitious targets to get more people out of their cars and onto their bikes.
Parking assistance technology is a nice feature to have in your hatchback, but electronic parking aids really come into their own when fitted to larger vehicles. Continental has developed a camera-based all-round system for some of the largest vehicles available, and the company is presenting it at this week’s Bauma 2013 show. Called ProViu 360, the system is designed with construction and other large commercial vehicles in mind and is intended to offer risk free manoeuvring and the elimination of the driver’s blind spot. Continental claims that in addition to increasing safety for both the driver and other road/site users, the reduction in time taken to position a vehicle and a minimised risk of vehicle damage can lead to lower operating costs.
Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge, has been named Road Safety Parliamentarian of the Month by the road safety charity Brake and Direct Line Group for his work campaigning for 20mph limits in his constituency and across the UK.
The GO 20 coalition, launched by Brake in Road Safety Week 2012, calling for 20mph to become the norm across built-up areas, so children and adults can walk and cycle for their health and enjoyment, and for cheap and sustainable travel, without being or feeling endangered.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has urged greater focus on road safety following the publication of annual casualty figures which show the first increase in UK road deaths since 2003.
The figures for 2011 for Great Britain, released by the Department for Transport, show that road deaths rose by three per cent from 1,850 in 2010 to 1,901 in 2011.
Child deaths rose by nine per cent from 55 in 2010 to 60 in 2011, which is particularly disappointing given that the two previous years showed substantial reductions in child deaths. The number of seriously injured children fell by four per cent to 2,352 in 2011. At 19,474, the overall number of child casualties (killed, seriously injured and slightly injured) barely changed between 2010 and 2011.
There were 453 pedestrian deaths in 2011, a rise of 12 per cent from 2010 and the number of seriously injured pedestrians increased by five per cent to 5,454.
Collision-avoidance technologies, which could help eliminate cyclist and pedestrian deaths caused by driver 'blind-spots', should be made mandatory for all UK buses and lorries by 2015, according to a new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The 'Intelligent Transport Intelligent Society' report also calls for automated emergency response systems to be integrated into all new road vehicles within the next two years. These systems automatically alert emergency services in case of an accident – even if a driver is unconscious – as well as providing the exact location of the accident using Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
Pro-MOTe, the lobby group set up to campaign to keep annual MOTs, has welcomed news that ministers have dropped plans to reduce testing frequency to 4-2-2.
In a written ministerial statement this morning, Transport secretary Justine Greening announced: “Having listened closely to the very many views put forward and considered the available evidence, I have decided that I am not going to carry out further work in relation to relaxing the first test date or the frequency of testing.”
‘Ride for the Roses’ is a well-known charity event initiated by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. First held in Austin, Texas, a Ride for the Roses race has been run annually in the Netherlands since 1998. This year’s event was held in the city of Venlo on September 5 and attracted more than 11,000 participants, including eight motivated employees from Dutch wholesaler Euro-Tyre. Together the Euro-Tyre cyclists covered a combined total of more than 900 kilometres and their contribution to the Dutch Cancer Association, the KWF, was boosted by an additional donation from company management.
Acting on the company’s nomination of Transaid for Bridgestone’s charity of 2009, two avid cyclists from the tyre manufacturer’s Midlands base are gearing up to cycle 420 kilometres across Zambia. Graham Hooper and Gary Grove are undertaking the Transaid Cycle Zambia Challenge, which will see them tackling all terrains – including off-roading through traditional Zambian villages – to help raise awareness and vital funds for the charity’s projects across the country.
The pair are hoping to raise £4,000 through donations from colleagues at Bridgestone, as well as family and friends, which will support Transaid’s work in Zambia, improving infrastructure and building local knowledge on the importance of road safety. In addition to the cycling challenge a number of other fundraising activities are to be organised by the firm throughout the year.
A Shropshire company believes it could have the answer to safety fears raised by Powys County Council’s decision to turn off more than 9,000 street lights to save cash which may set a trend throughout the UK.
Council chiefs are turning off two out of three lights in non-core residential areas after it was revealed the authority’s £500,000 lighting bill was set to rise by £175,000.
But Grant Taylor, managing director of GIBS 2000 Limited and inventor of Traxeyes, believes his innovative glowing light system called Traxeyes could be the answer: “It’s ironic that cars and road users get multi million investments on road safety and pedestrians and cyclists get nothing.”
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