7,500 sign petition urging Sadiq Khan to make London’s junctions safer for cyclists

More than 7,500 people have signed a petition urging Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to make the city’s junctions safer for people on bikes.

The petition, organised by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), was handed this morning by Simon Munk, its campaigns manager, to Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon.

Pidgeon, who is chair of the London Assembly’s Transport Committee, will deliver it to Khan at a forthcoming Mayor’s Question Time.

She joined Munk and other members of LCC staff today at the junction of Theobald’s Road and Southampton Row in Holborn, where Dr Marta Krawiec was killed in August while cycling to work.

Three other cyclists have been killed at the same junction since 2008, and a further three at other junctions on the Holborn gyratory.

The petition urges the mayor and local authorities across London to “take rapid action on dangerous junctions now … You must remove all critical safety issues for people walking and cycling at junctions and deliver a ‘Vision Zero’ London free from fatal road collisions.”

Munk said: “The rapid, welcome changes TfL and Camden Council have made at this junction show that we do not have to wait years for changes to lethal and dangerous junctions.

> Immediate” safety changes announced for killer junction in Holborn

“Safety improvements do not need to get bogged down in modelling, nor should powerful stakeholders get an effective veto to them.

“Where people’s lives are clearly at risk, TfL and London’s boroughs simply should and must act, and a lot faster,” he added.

Pidgeon said: “It is hugely regrettable that another petition calling for action to address such a dangerous junction and stretch of road is even necessary.

“I only hope that the message is finally heard that no cyclist or pedestrian should have to face such horrific dangers on our roads.

“It is now time for action not excuses,” she added.