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GUARDIAN Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:00:02 GMT
The Times is right and Boris Johnson is wrong – our roads must be made safer to encourage more cyclists on to them
The front page of the Times today is devoted to its new campaign to make cycling safe. It shows that the love affair with our bikes has just got serious. We want the speed, convenience and health benefits of a life on two wheels and, despite the dangers, we are willing to fight to make that relationship work.
The problem is that, even if we could convince the majority of people to see the upsides, the reality of our unfriendly roads stops them from taking the plunge. All the surveys show that fear is the biggest barrier to an increase in cycling. Indeed, many cycling campaigners may see the Times campaign as counterproductive, as it will reinforce those fears.
London's mayor, Boris Johnson, certainly takes this view and is bullish in his determination that cycling must be a wholly feelgood story. As a London assembly member, I have twice been lectured by the mayor about the need "as an honest politician" to tell the truth, that cycling is getting safer. I was happy to do so, as I had been spouting figures for years showing that it was twice as safe to cycle in London than it was in 1990s. Then I decided to check my facts and realised that the mayor can't say that cycling has been getting safer since he was elected. Something has gone wrong in London and no amount of feelgood publicity is going to cover up the images of ghost bikes and angry protests at dangerous junctions such as Kings Cross.
There is an irony to a cycling mayor becoming a big barrier to a cycling revolution, but that is what is happening. The key change that we need in London is to reinstate the road user hierarchy, which Johnson scrapped in his revised London Plan. This hierarchy made the disabled, pedestrians and cyclists the priority when roads were being redesigned. Without reinstating this hierarchy, the engineers at Transport for London will consistently build roads that favour cars and lorries. This was the key problem at the Bow roundabout, where two cyclists died from left-turning lorries. Recommendations in one of TfL's own reports were ignored because, under Johnson, motorists' time is more important than cyclist and pedestrian safety.
Many of the other changes to our road network, in London and elsewhere, flow from this simple direction that vulnerable road users should come first. My assembly report, Braking Point, showed the big advantages of making 20mph the default speed limit for urban areas and, as the previous mayor's road safety ambassador, I pressed for the adoption of the zero-casualty approach applied in Scandinavian countries. Johnson needs to stop thinking about which roads he is happy to cycle on and instead design roads that either an eight-year-old or an 80-year-old would feel safe and happy to cycle on.
I believe that creating a critical mass of cyclists on our roads will in itself make them safer. I have also spent over a decade pushing for more cycle training, but we have to be clear that the mayor's advice to cyclists at a recent assembly meeting that you will be OK if "you keep your wits about you" is no excuse for inaction on building high-quality cycle lanes. We need to adopt the Dutch approach, which gives cyclists and pedestrians legal priority over cars in many urban areas. Sometimes we need segregated spaces, sometimes shared spaces, but real innovation in this country will come from simply filtering cyclists through traffic lights at dangerous junctions, or even changing the culture of our roads by ensuring that motor vehicles give way to cyclists and pedestrians at junctions.
Changes to the law on lorry design are well overdue and I welcome the growing consensus that mirrors and sensors need to be fitted as standard. We also have to escalate the work by the police on reforming the freight industry, and reaching the small-scale tipper truck operators who account for much of the carnage. Above.....
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GUARDIAN Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:01:54 GMT
'Stalking the stalkers' through a domestic violence register challenges the archaic notion love can be expressed in violence
A few days ago a young domestic violence victim showed me a picture of the man who beat her. He is advertising on an online dating website where he is described as "family friendly" by an online psychological assessment tool. This was a chilling sight and highlighted the need to challenge the anonymity enjoyed by serial violent abusers.
More than any other crime, it seems that domestic violence is still excused, hidden and accepted. But no one would want their daughter, relative or friend responding to this man's advertisement. The idea of romantic love has a worrying relationship to domestic abuse, and even homicide. Violence, even fatal, is often justified by claiming love for the victim. It is also often accepted as mitigation in sentencing, and to support attempts to reduce murder charges to manslaughter. The idea that violence can be a sign of depth of love makes this man's advertisement all the more sinister.
The chief constable of Wiltshire, Brian Moore, claims that there are some 25,000 serial domestic abusers at large in the UK. Two women are killed every week in this country by their partners and former partners. Between four and 10 a week commit suicide as a result of domestic abuse and one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime; this is not a small problem. Domestic abuse is often well hidden within the romantic relationship, but serial abusers should not be hidden.
We can have some say over their anonymity and Clare's law proposes giving individuals access to information about a new partner's violent past. The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme consultation process is now ended but campaigning continues. Wiltshire police propose that there is a "right to know" and a "right to ask" – even arguing that there should be a responsibility on organisations who have information about dangerous individuals to proactively inform a new partner.
This approach would begin to watch these serial abusers and start to reveal their identities; the concept of "stalking the stalkers". It also begins to send the message that such behaviour is no longer acceptable in modern society and challenges the archaic notion that love can be expressed in violence.
I cannot reveal the name of this abuser who advertises for love online. Neither can I reveal the name of the site. I cannot help with the safety of any individual using the site and this saddens and frustrates me, for I have the information. Similarly, those who run online dating sites would probably reject this man's business if they knew he was a danger.
Victims of domestic violence are often wrongly blamed for making poor choices about partners. This unsophisticated view ignores the complexities and dynamics of abusive relationships and distracts attention from the culprit. Critically, as the abuser I allude to shows, prospective partners do not always tell the truth. There is no doubt that dealing with the recurring and prevalent problem of domestic violence requires state action. That should extend to sharing with victims information about the violent pasts of prospective partners so that victims can make informed decisions. The debate on Clare's law unsettles some as it challenges protections that appear to be the bedrock of our justice system.
But in a technology-driven world, crime is changing – both in the ways it is committed and how potential victims are identified. Clare's law represents a change that would make serial abusers visible. Some may argue that it will undermine their rights, but I think that the right not to be beaten by your partner is a more important right.
Domestic violence
Women
Jane Monckton-Smith
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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