The junction in Holborn where Dr Marta Krawiec died

• I’VE lived for many years just round the corner from Holborn station, and I move around central London by bike most days, so I was obviously glad to see you had given lengthy coverage in the August 12 CNJ to the latest death of a cyclist on the roads here, (Anger at delays to safety works after cyclist death in Holborn).

But for a number of reasons I’m concerned about the concentration on the major plans for road changes in the area that have been suggested at various times by Transport for London and Camden, with the implication that delays in these expensive schemes are a cause of the continuing dangers to cyclists here.

First, the schemes that have been mooted are not themselves very desirable, one reason being that they would make life harder for local public transport users.

Secondly, the concentration on major road restructuring, even if it includes nice new cycling provision (which it often doesn’t anyway, viz the pending changes at Aldwych), tends to overlook junctions, where the main danger is.

One notorious central London example recently (albeit not in Camden) has produced beautiful cycle lanes, at the end of which the related changes to the layout at a major junction have actually introduced new dangers for cyclists.

Which leads to the main point: some basic and rather obvious changes at junctions around Holborn, as elsewhere, in fact, could remove a lot of the danger for cyclists with far less fuss than redesigning the whole road system.

At the site of the latest fatality, the way the bus lane becomes a left turn lane just leaves nowhere for cyclists that doesn’t lead to a risk of being squeezed from one side or the other; as has been obvious for years. Also, there isn’t even an advance stop line for cyclists at this spot!

These need to be pretty much universal and they need to be enforced. Currently they’re almost universally ignored by riders of motor scooters and motorcycles, and frequently by other drivers as well.

Placing the main traffic lights back at the vehicle stop line would be a great help in deterring motorists from blocking the bike space. When I’ve complained to motorists about their blocking of cycle boxes at junctions I have frequently been threatened.

And these advance stop lines need to be routinely combined with a separate cyclists’ phase on the traffic lights. And by this I don’t mean the odd second that exists currently where such lights are installed, but a long enough period for cyclists to get across the junction safely.

But we all know why this last point won’t happen, whatever the road layout; because no politicians are brave enough to do anything which is seen to slow down motor vehicles, even though we need most such vehicles off London’s roads altogether.

ALBERT BEALE
Little Russell Street, WC1