Hooray for The Times

Not bad. Not bad at all. Part of yesterday's front page; all of today's and the leading leader, a spread, and most of the letters. I'm referring of course to The Times 'Cities Fit for Cycling Campaign.'
In particular, and for the sake of reiteration: "As a point of comparison: since 2001, 576 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq; 1,275 cyclists died on British streets. The latest data shows there were 1,850 deaths or serious injuries in the first half of 2011, a 12 per cent rise on the year before. Britain leads the world in competitive cycling; it is time that we did the same for the cyclists on our streets." (Feb. 2)
You might expect me to cavil at the details. The oft-repeated need to segregate cyclists from motorists will not be embraced by some cyclists. First of all it won't be achievable in a systematic fashion. Secondly, divider kerbs can cause accidents themselves, especially in the dark. Thirdly, segregation promotes the idea that cyclists should be taken off the roads. Before you know it, the traffic has sped up even more and the idea permeates that we have no legitimacy on the roads.
I have encountered this in other countries. This is the view in large swathes of the USA, and surprisingly, it is the view in Germany to the extent that if there is a bike lane, woe betide if you stumble onto the road. When I did so, when living in Munich a few years ago, I encountered fury from drivers who would be deliberately mean, pulling such antics as spraying their washer fluid while overtaking, in hope of hitting me. Needless to say, however, cycling lanes are superb in Germany - and by golly they're smooth and glass free too, they go somewhere instead of halting with that ridiculous message 'END' as so many British lanes do. And so on and so on. But there is still this ideal, which I would fight for, that says that we can all co-exist peaceably.
I agree with the many letter writers to The Times today who point out the need for some sort of mandatory training for cyclists. My commute is littered with silly riding by silly riders who do not realise why they are silly. In particular, a simply astonishing number of riders without lights.
But the whole subject of lorries and undertaking is frankly scary. One point that is never made, is the fact that although as a responsible cyclist you might vow never to wander up the inside of a moving lorry, it cannot prevent a lorry from converging with the cyclist from behind. As this happens, you are on the lorry's inside whether you like it or not. This happened to me once when travelling south on the A10 in Hackney. The sanctuary of the bus lane ended as a single lane junction hoved into view. A construction lorry that seconds before had been right out of the way, closed to the left and I was uncomfortably on his inside. I made my way to the front (the lights were red so he was stationary), and moved ahead until I could look back up into his cab and get eye contact.
It is not until you sit high in one of these lorry cabs that you realise how little they can see, and that there is a large bind spot even in front of the cab.
Here's one more anecdote from the road, from yesterday, by way of underlining the need for more cyclist awareness by all parties, including cyclists.
I was riding east on the gritty A13, that very same road that passes News International at Wapping, where Times reporter Mary Bowers was crushed. I was at the junction where Commercial Road (A13) turns sharply left into York Road (E14 - under the railway arches by the Limehouse railway station). Because of overtaking a stationary bus, a large refuse lorry was at the junction, stopped at a red light, straddling two lanes. He was not indicating. There was a whole car's width up his inside, but no suggestion that he was leaving room to turn left, because of the bus he'd just overtaken. It would have been easy to have gone up the inside. In fact this would have been safe had I done it quickly, and got right ahead of him. Something told me that there was nothing to profit from this - it's not great to be overtaken again, and again, by the same lorry at every junction. So I hung back and waited. It was still light but I had my front flasher on. It's an Exposure Joystick, one of the brightest LEDs to be had, freshly charged. The driver saw this and just before the lights turned, he remembered to indicate that he was in fact turning left. So I waited and watched. Very tight turn; huge raised kerb and railings on the inside. Certainly no room for a cyclist. I could smell death at this moment. This is how it happens. Even an experienced rider might stray up that apparently generous space, only to be irretrievably trapped. Safety bars and buzzers no good if the driver doesn't indicate.
Let me finish on a related note: it will always be safer to go through a red light in order to be clear of an HGV, in particular if there is no Advanced Stop Line, than to be hovering on the inside. I don't mean 'running the light'. I mean getting out of the blindspot of the HGV. The members of the public who get punctilious about observing the lights don't really know what they're talking about. Perhaps all drivers should be made to ride a bike and vice versa; it would lead to much greater understanding.