A report showing lives are saved by letting motorcycles use bus lanes has been suppressed for political gain, according to the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF).

A leaked Transport for London (TfL) report shows accidents have fallen 42% on routes where motorcycles have been allowed in bus lanes.

The findings were presented to London Mayor Ken Livingstone in September but authors were ordered to rewrite them and “bury” safety benefits, according to reports.

A senior mayoral advisor is said to have ordered the rewrite due to fears votes would be lost by allowing us to share bus lanes with cyclists.

BMF chairman Anna Zee said: “Lives are being put at risk for political expediency.”

Roger Evans, Chair of the Transport Committee on the London Assembly, said: "I wish I could say this was shocking but sadly this is all too typical of the way the Mayor and his team operate.

"Any evidence that contradicts their pre-determined viewpoint is ignored or distorted. In this case, Transport for London decided that they did not want motorcyclists to use bus lanes so when this report showed that their doing so would reduce accidents, pedestrian casualties and collisions between motorcyclists and cyclists they buried it and ordered that it be substantially rewritten.

"I’m pleased that the truth about the way that TfL and the Mayor operate has come out."

The report found accidents involving motorcycles fell 45% on trial routes of Brixton Road and Finchley Road while a control route saw a 19% rise.

Pedestrian casualties fell 39% compared to a 3% rise on the control route.

Collisions between cyclists and motorcyclists fell by 44%.

The draft report said: "These figures demonstrate that crashes involving powered two-wheelers and other vulnerable road users become more infrequent even when considering the increased concentration of riders."

TfL said in a statement: “There are serious issues of safety and efficiency involved in this issue, which required proper consideration based upon the collection and analysis of the relevant evidence.

"Our officers had concerns about the validity of some of the early results of the study, which were shared by Greater London Authority officials. Further work has been carried out and when our senior officers are satisfied that their concerns have been met the report will be submitted to the Mayor.''

Check out full story at www.motorcyclenews.com

October 2007 - A man has died after he was dragged for a mile under the wheels of a bendy bus in east London. The 21-year-old was trapped beneath the wheels of the number 25 bus after getting off in Ilford High Road. Emergency crews were called after a passer-by spotted the man's body.

"It appears at this early stage that the male then fell and became trapped beneath the wheels of the bus," said a police spokesman. "The body was dislodged after approx-imately a mile in Romford Road, just past the junction with Rabbits Road."

Pedestrians in London are twice as likely to be hit by a bendy bus than any other bus.

The Transport for London (TfL) statistics also showed that cyclists were almost three times as likely to be injured by a bendy bus.

'The family was hit by a number 209 single-decker bus near a bus stop in North Worple Way. It is the fourth bus accident involving pedestrians and cyclists within the past 48 hours in London.' '

While these statistics reveal the general rise in serious accidents, not reduced by any of the modern money-making accident prevention ideas, they do not show how many pedestrians and cyclists are now being killed and injured by careless, dangerous bus drivers steaming down their reserved bus lanes oblivious to the world around them. And woe betide you if you try and remonstrate against any of Ken's red army. Time to control these buses? We'd certainly all be a lot safer without their private bus lanes - that we have paid for!

Policeperson parades headless biker .... check out MCN site for the story of this person and his strange antics with decapitated motorcyclists ....

It seems that the sheepeople of North Wales Police have unveiled photographs of a decapitated biker in their new anti-speeding campaign. The image showed the man’s head with his eyes still open lying on a grass verge. In another shot the torso is embedded into a car. Ergh ..

North Wales Police Chief Superintendent Geraint Anwyl said the head was torn off by the force of the impact, he explained: “His oxygenated brain went flying down the road for 50 metres, before he expired. It’s horrific, I’m sure you’ll agree.” Yes, we do ... I believe various ex-wives of Henry Tudor had a similar experience. Just imagine, there you are thinking "Got away with that ... "

RoSPA have issued a call for papers for their 70th National Road Safety Congress, to be held in Brighton from 28 February to 2 March 2005. The theme for the conference is 'Driving Deaths Down'. According to the summary:

Be scared of these things - crash rates up 7% this year and rising. Bus lanes and favoured status mean bus drivers are growing more remote from other road users and less aware of more vulnerable road users' safety. Watch out, little kids!

Excellent progress has been made in the first years of the Road Safety Strategy, with deaths and serious injuries down by 17%, and child deaths and serious injuries down by 33% from their 1994/98 levels. However, there are some stiff challenges still to be faced.

Deaths on the road have remained stubbornly over 3,400 in each of the last five years, and slightly more people were killed in road crashes in 2002 than in 1998. Deaths in cars have remained steady and motorcyclist deaths have jumped up by 30% over this period. In contrast, pedestrian and pedal cyclist deaths have fallen.

Have the ‘easy wins’ been achieved? Will further reductions be much harder to achieve, especially for drivers, car occupants and motorcyclists?

The Review of the Road Safety Strategy highlights the need for further action in key areas, and Congress will explore what more can be done in these areas to influence driver and rider behaviour to prevent crashes from happening in the first place.

How about more cameras, chaps? I mean, think of all that lovely money, and if you can ban enough drivers then accident rates must go down eventually ... surely?

Or, just perhaps, the present policy of lumping the cause of all accidents onto speed is missing the point and doing nothing for road safety. It does seem a bit daft spending all your time and money trying to get all those accident reductions when you're only looking at 4% of the problem .....

And just to discourage 'bus and tube use, mad Ken has put up fares. A single Tube journey in zone one will cost £3 instead of £2 while a single bus journey will rise from £1.20 to £1.50. Bonkers Livingstone said the aim was for fewer people paying cash (as opposed to not paying?) and the increased fares to be introduced from January would raise about £80m. "This proposed fares package focuses on halving the number of cash journeys made in 2006 to speed up journeys and improve the efficiency of the network," he said. And he's probably right - half the people, half the aggro for the bus companies, but the same money!! Brilliant! He conceded the new single Tube fare of £3 would probably be the most expensive in the world. Ken Livingstone is completely off his trolleybus.

Enter R.Gifford, a director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, stage left, wearing a stern expression:

"Improving motorcyclists skills merely means they kill themselves in a more skilled way"

Exit stage right, appearing sage and wise.

When MCN contacted Robert Gifford to challenge him he called motorcycles: "Hopelessly dangerous." Gifford said he could prove that improving skills makes people more dangerous. His example? "Cars with ABS are involved in as many accidents as cars that aren't." When MCN suggested ABS isn't so much a skill as a mechanical operation he put the phone down on them.

You too can write to Robbo:

Robert Gifford
PACTS
3rd Floor Clutha House
10 Storey’s Gate
London
SW1P 3AY

In 2000, the government set a new target for a reduction in the number of casualties to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 2010, compared with the average for 1994-98; a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured; and a 10 per cent reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres.

There were 302,605 casualties on roads in Great Britain in 2002, 5 per cent less than in 1994. 3,431 people were killed, 4% less than in 1994. 35,976 were seriously injured, down 18% and 263,198 were slightly injured, down 3%.

Of interest to us are 2 wheel vehicles. Killed rose from 467 in 1994 to 609 in 2002, up 4%. Seriously injured was up 3% at 6,891.

Figures for casualties in 2002 indicate that:
the number of people killed was 4% below the baseline
the number of children killed or seriously injured was 33 per cent below the baseline
the slight casualty rate was 12 per cent below the baseline

Bollards and width restrictions, so beloved nowadays by local authorities and road safety organisations. Pictured on the left is a classic "road calming" measure: bollards, kerbs, plenty of white paint, including a nice big slippery 'SLOW' sign right in the braking zone. This design is always entertaining to watch, as it directs traffic towards the oncoming lane (is this safe?) and demolishes car suspension when drivers get it wrong. How many unsafe cars are driving around after damaging their steering, suspension and tyres by clipping the kerb?

The other option is the road hump. These come in various flavours, from the simple yet deadly tarmac hump to the prettier but much more expensive paved hump. These are better in that the ramping is normally more gradual and thus a good deal less dangerous, but the paving creates all sorts of amusement in the wet if you're on two wheels. Not too bad when travelling in a straight line, but it all gets a bit more exciting when the paving is placed at a junction. ...

Turning from the main road into the side road in the picture on the left, a vehicle must traverse a projecting kerb and then travel over the paving, all whilst turning. Fine on four wheels, but on two? A two wheeler has to lean over to turn, so the poor old front tyre is having to turn, bump over the kerb and then try and find grip on the paving, with perhaps a little braking too. Hmm ...

Not helped by poor maintenance. Hitting this kerb on a moped will unsettle the steering and is likely to cause an accident. It appears that councils get lots of lovely grant money from government to put this stuff in, but nothing for maintenance, so our road systems just get more and more neglected.

Notice also in the picture above the plethora of signs, wooden posts and newly planted trees, a killing zone for two wheel users, and all located around a paved road surface with minimal wet weather grip. Add a little rubber from cars turning over the paving and a spot of oil from vehicles waiting to pull out and traversing this junction becomes unecessarily dangerous. But why is the paving there? Is it just to look pretty? Won't look too pretty covered in blood, will it?

And what's this all about? I remember that bus stops used to be pull-ins, where the bus could stop yet allow traffic to pass. Now they seem to be pull-outs, so the bus completely blocks the road when stopping. How mad is that?

And on the safety issue, how many cars and trucks have run straight up that kerb because they didn't twig that the pavement suddenly jumps out into the road? Pity the poor cyclists ....