Cyclist seriously injured at new Cambridge ‘cycle-safe’ junction
October 8th, 2013
A cyclist is critically ill and another has head injuries after they collided at the first UK junction with traffic lights built to protect cyclists.
A cyclist is critically ill and another has head injuries after they collided at the first UK junction with traffic lights built to protect cyclists.
The junction in Cambridge was recently fitted with new traffic lights that include an extra phase giving cyclists 5 seconds to cross before cars are allowed to move. Mirrors have also been attached to traffic light poles to help lorry drivers see cyclists.
Cycle campaigners welcomed the installation of the lights because 16 riders had been injured at the junction in the past five years, 11 of them seriously.
Police are investigating the possibility that one of the bikes did not have a front light.
The new traffic lights are part of a a government trial assessing the effectiveness of such measures and costing £900,000. When the trial was announced in August, a local councillor from Cambridgeshire County Council, said it “should improve safety for all users at this very busy junction”.
However the system was not greeted well by all cycling activists. Cambridge Cycling Campaign chairman said “Stuffing evermore traffic through this accident-prone junction clearly remains the priority. We think this is totally inappropriate for a ‘cycling city’, and against [the council’s] own policy to favour cycling and walking.
“The scheme is better than the current junction design,” Lucas-Smith said, “but it would be hard to make it otherwise.”
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