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White van drivers to experience Manchester city centre on bikes as part of new training course

Safe Urban Driver Lite course will put emphasis on driving in the city centre

A new Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) course will see commercial drivers taking to the roads on bikes in a bid to become more aware of cyclists. Safe Urban Driver Lite, which complements existing LGV courses, is aimed at bus drivers, delivery drivers, and taxi and minibus drivers, as well as drivers of smaller lorries.

The half-day course is being run by cycle training organisation BikeRight!, who also run TfGM’s cycling course for LGV drivers.

Hundreds of lorry drivers made to ride bikes on London's roads

Topics tackled include visibility at junctions, roundabouts and complex road situations; collision avoidance and defensive driving/riding; and understanding other road users.

This will be reinforced with an on-road session guided by a BikeRight! Instructor which is intended to help drivers empathise with and have a better understanding of vulnerable road users.

Liz Clarke, managing director, BikeRight!, said:

“This course has been designed to respond to the needs of drivers who may be self-employed, work for smaller companies, drive non-LGV vehicles and are more likely to use city centre streets as part of their work routes.

“We have found from experience that courses aimed at LGV drivers have a positive impact on road safety, but not necessarily within city centres for the simple reason that LGVs are less prevalent in the city centre than smaller commercial vehicles. With Safe Urban Driving Lite we aim to rectify this situation, creating a safer environment for urban drivers and cyclists alike.”

Helen Smith, Head of Logistics, Environment and Active Travel at TfGM, said:

“Over the last two years we’ve provided safe urban driver training to hundreds of LGV drivers and we’re pleased to extend the training to more people who drive for a living.

“We’ve set ambitious targets to increase the proportion of journeys made by walking and cycling and, as more people get on their bikes, we must continue to make the safety of everyone on our highways a priority.

“We’ve already delivered, and continue to work on, a range of infrastructure projects and activities which make cycling a more attractive and viable travel option and aim to reduce the number of incidents involving cyclists and vehicles.

“We’re also keen to encourage adoption of the CLOCS standard by freight and logistics operators to reduce accidents between larger vehicles and vulnerable road users such as cyclists.

“We’ll be considering changes to our own internal procurement processes to support this initiative further and will be discussing our approach with other public sector organisations.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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5 comments

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ktache | 7 years ago
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I have just seen, in the costa near where I live, a group of  middle aged and above and slightly larger gentlemen, undergoing what appeared to be a classroom on cycle training.  There were a great many bicycle school bikes stacked up outside and one of the gentleman was wearing a ****** Transport tabbard.  This is central Caversham so the Reading area.  There is hope in the world on the world on this day of dread.

I had seen the bike school doing stuff here before, saturday in caversham is very busy, with some large goods vehicles, but because of the volume rather sedate, but never to such an obvious group of truck drivers.

Of course if they had been very overweight I might have thought that they could be taxi drivers and then I would have known that the world had gone truely mad.

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Bob Wheeler CX | 7 years ago
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prepare to shit yourselves lads!

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biketime | 7 years ago
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Would we could have these programs in the States. Tough guys in a five or ten ton truck who yell at or buzz cyclists made to hit the streets on bikes?  Yeah buddy!

I want to be upwind of them after they soil themselves when that first big truck passes them.

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biketime replied to biketime | 7 years ago
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biketime wrote:

Would that we could have these programs in the States. Tough guys in a five or ten ton truck who yell at or buzz cyclists made to hit the streets on bikes?  Yeah buddy! I want to be upwind of them after they soil themselves when that first big truck passes them.

Avatar
Grahamd | 7 years ago
1 like

HGV for Travis Perkins, white van in Manchester, taxis next?

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