Pedal Power
Issue 157
March 2022
www.ldcuc.org.uk
AGM – Monday 14th March 2022
This year’s AGM will take place at 7-30pm on Monday 14th March 2022 at the Toby Carvery, Forest Road, Loughborough, LE11 3HU. Please try and attend as we have had difficulty in achieving a quorum in previous years.
Traffic in Quorn
Quorn Parish Council have recently established a working group to examine the impact of traffic in Quorn. One of the group's briefs is to ensure that Quorn is well represented in responding to the Loughborough local cycling and walking infrastructure plan. Following the recent draft of the plan the council have requested a meeting with the Cycling and Walking Strategy team at Leicestershire County Council to further understand their proposals.
The 2019 Quorn Neighbourhood Plan clearly established that residents were keen to see reduced car usage in the village and substantially more walking and cycling in its place.
Quorn to Old Woodhouse Bridleway
The situation regarding the refurbishment of this path is not clear at the present. At this time it appears unlikely that we will be able to achieve this project before the financial cut off date of 31 March, required by the County Council, and the Parish Council may need to reapply after this date.
Highway Code awareness campaign
As a result of years of persistent campaigning, welcome changes to the Highway Code were introduced on 29 January, which should make our roads safer for everyone. Cycling UK and other charities representing vulnerable road users have been urging the UK government to commit to a long-term awareness campaign. 
Cycling UK is providing some resource for members and supporters to use in their social media posts in order to communicate the main Highway Code changes more widely.
Fewer cars needed
It appears that Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, is worried about being accused of waging a "war on the motorist". When he launched his Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP), he said it provided "the opportunity to decarbonise transport without curtailing our freedoms. It won’t stop us driving."
However the report “Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain” on page 6 states:
“But we cannot, of course, simply rely on the electrification of road transport, or believe that zero emission cars and lorries will solve all our problems, particularly for meeting our medium-term carbon reduction targets to 2035. Road traffic, even on pre-pandemic trends, was predicted to grow by 22 percent from 2015 to 2035, much of it in cities, where new road building is physically difficult and disadvantages communities.
We cannot pile ever more cars, delivery vans and taxis on to the same congested urban roads. That would be difficult for the roads, let alone the planet, to tolerate. “
Loophole lets one in five drivers escape ban
Research undertaken for Cycling UK has shown that more than 8,000 people with 12 points on their license are spared an automatic driving ban each year after claiming disqualification would cause exceptional hardship – with some of them then going on to kill others.
Cycling UK’s new report details case studies of road users killed by motorists who had escaped disqualification after pleading exceptional hardship.
- Lee Martin, a 48-year-old father of two, was killed while cycling on the A31 in Hampshire. He was hit by a van driven by Christopher Gard, who was sending a text message while driving at 65mph. Gard had been spared from a driving ban just six weeks earlier despite accumulating 12 points in one year, all for offences related to use of a mobile phone while driving.
- Louis McGovern 30, was riding his motorbike home from work in Stockport when he was struck and dragged under a van driven by Kurt Sammon, who had jumped a red light. Sammon had also been sending messages and making a call prior to the accident. Three months earlier, Sammon appeared in court after being caught using a phone while driving on the motorway on two occasions. He had previously been jailed for six months for killing a 13-year-old schoolboy, Michael Weaver, in 2004, while driving without insurance or MOT, and failing to stop or report the accident. Despite this record of dangerous driving, Sammon successfully argued that losing his licence would affect his job and his caring responsibilities to his mother.
Brexit "freedom" to ditch EU car safety regs.
The Government has stated that Britain may use Brexit "freedoms" to ignore new EU car safety regulations designed to better protect pedestrians and cyclists.
While the UK was involved in drawing up General Safety Regulations, aiming for higher safety standards for cars and lorries, ministers have suggested they could "capitalise on our regulatory freedoms" to backtrack on implementing the measures.
The regulations include Direct Vision Standard (DVS), first adopted by Transport for London (TfL) when it came into effect in March 2021, before being adopted by the EU.
HGVs of 12 tonnes and above are assigned ratings between 0 and 5 stars depending on how much the driver is able to see out of the cab.
Operators of vehicles assigned 0 stars are required to fit safety features, including cameras covering blind spots, an audible warning when turning left, motion sensors covering the sides of the vehicle at low speeds and a prominent warning on the rear of the vehicle.
In answer to a parliamentary question on the issue, transport minister Trudy Harrison said:
"The package of European measures known as the General Safety Regulation includes vehicle construction requirements covering pedestrian safety and a range of additional new technologies.
"The Department for Transport was involved in developing these requirements, but as they apply from July 2022 it will be for the Government to decide whether to mandate the same systems in GB. No decision has yet been taken.
"The UK’s departure from the EU provides Government with the platform to capitalise on our regulatory freedoms. The vehicle safety provisions included in the EU's General Safety Regulation are currently under consideration. Government will implement requirements that are appropriate for GB and where they improve road safety."
And while the measures were finalised when Britain was still part of the EU, because they are being phased in they do not automatically apply. Requirements for cars and vans to have advanced emergency braking systems, more comprehensive crash tests, and design changes to prevent head injuries for cyclists and pedestrians are now in doubt.
Jason Wakeford, head of campaigns at Brake, the road safety charity, has said:
"The EU proposals, which the UK helped to shape prior to Brexit, provide the biggest leap forward for road safety this century - perhaps even since the introduction of the seat belt. "We urge the UK Government to commit to adopting these lifesaving regulations, helping reduce needless deaths and serious injuries on British roads."
Interim chief executive of Living Streets Stephen Edwards added:
"If we want people to choose cleaner and healthier ways to travel, then we need to improve safety. This means the highest standards for vehicle safety alongside measures that protect pedestrians, including lower speed limits, more effective crossings and better street maintenance."
Paths for everyone
The charity aiming at making it easier for people to walk and cycle, Sustrans, has produced a new report, Paths for everyone: Three years on, which sets out on the work completed by Sustrans teams across the UK's nations and regions to improve the access, safety, and public appeal of the Network.
Some of the information obtained included:
- 72% of users stated the Network is their best option for transport, with 95% of using it for exercise.
- The Network has also seen greatly increased use by the public throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. At the height of pandemic in 2020, the Network carried approximately 4.9 million users over 764.8 million trips.
- In 2020, 3,733 miles of dangerous or inaccessible parts of the Network were removed or reclassified to create a safer and better-quality network overall.
- 315 barriers were removed or redesigned to allow people using wheelchairs and buggies to access the Network.
The report highlights the need for further development to fully achieve equity of access for the UK public and regular Network users; walkers, wheelers, cyclists, and horse-riders. Sustran’s vision is to provide a connection between every community of at least 10,000 people in the UK.
