Half of Londoners want lorries – and cyclists – banned from main roads at peak times

Half of Londoners believe lorries should be banned from the capital’s roads during rush hour – but the same proportion, including one in two people who ride bikes in the city, say that cyclists should not be allowed on some main roads at peak times.

The findings come from a YouGov poll commissioned by the London Evening Standard of 1,047 people aged 18-plus who live in London.

Agreement with the statement “lorries should be banned from some main roads in morning and evening rush hour” stood at 55 per cent of all respondents, and at 68 per cent of those who identified themselves as cyclists, around a fifth of the sample.

51 per cent of non-cyclists also agreed that lorries, which make up 4 per cent of the city’s traffic but account for around half of fatalities of people riding bikes in London, should also be banned at those times.

An identical percentage, 51 per cent, agreed that cyclists should be banned from some of the city’s major roads at rush hour and perhaps surprisingly, that was almost evenly split between non-cyclists and those who ride bikes, with 49 per cent of the latter concurring.

– APPCG co-chair Ruth Cadbury calls for Central London lorry ban

So far this year, lorries have been involved in seven of the eight deaths of cyclists in London, with left-turning construction lorries a particular concern, leading to calls by campaigners to restrict their movements at peak hours.

Last month, Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group that he would ask Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to study ways in which the safety of cyclists could be improved.

Areas to be addressed include potentially restricting the movements of lorries, similar to the situation in cities such as Dublin and Paris – although in the case of London, current rules limiting their circulation at night would almost certainly need to be rethought.