Boris drives through ban on unsafe HGVs …

The Times, 2 September 2015, Graeme Paton, Transport Correspondent

New restrictions could be placed on delivery vans in London amid fears that cyclists are being put at risk by a boom in internet shopping.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said that more needed to be done to reduce the congestion they cause after figures suggested that the number of vans in the city would soar by a fifth in the next 15 years.

The measures could include those used during the 2012 Olympics, such as altering delivery times to avoid rush-hour traffic, rerouting vans away from congestion hotspots, marshalling deliveries towards special collection centres and encouraging the use of cycle couriers.

The mayor said that a similar crackdown was needed on minicabs, with the rise of Uber, the booking app, driving a sharp increase in the number of licensed passenger vehicles in the capital.

Mr Johnson made the comments as he introduced a ban on HGVs driving in London without safety equipment to protect cyclists and pedestrians.

In the first move of its kind in Britain, all lorries must be fitted with side guards that prevent cyclists being dragged under the wheels and large mirrors to give drivers a better view of the road.

Transport for London said that other measures were also under consideration, including forcing HGVs to have bigger side windows in the lower panel of the cab door to give drivers direct sight of any cyclists on the road alongside them. Electronic sensors may also be required, and HGVs could be restricted to the routes with the fewest cyclists.

The measures introduced this week follow the deaths of eight cyclists in London so far this year, seven in crashes involving lorries. Figures published in February showed an average of 12 accidents involving cyclists a day.

HGV operators can be fined £1,000 for each breach of the new rules and vehicles can even be banned from driving in London altogether.

Yesterday Mr Johnson said that a “very disproportionate share of cyclist deaths and serious injuries are caused by lorries” and that the scheme would save lives. However, he admitted that action might be needed to curb delivery vans, which have increased sharply in recent years amid an increase in people shopping online.

The changes follow the publication of figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency showing that almost 3.5 million small delivery vehicles were registered last year, a rise of a quarter over the past decade.

In London alone, 7,300 vans enter the city an hour during the peak morning rush period, and the DVLA predicted that the figure would swell to almost 9,000 within the next 16 years.

Mr Johnson said: “We think by 2031 there will be a 20 per cent increase in white van traffic just because of internet shopping. We need to do things to reduce congestion from commercial vehicles: marshalling commercial vehicles more efficiently, minimising the number of journeys.”

In the summer of 2012 delivery firms were encouraged to operate outside of rush-hour periods and to consider using more efficient loads.

Mr Johnson said: “You can do what we did during the Olympics, where we had a regime that tried to have specific marshalling points in areas where big loads are brought in and then dispersed in a more rational and efficient way.

“It is a big technical problem. Internet shopping is creating more traffic and we need to address it.”

He added: “We think there are too many minicabs that have been licensed — that’s adding to the congestion. We need to be able to control the number of minicab licences.”

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