Staff and students at London universities are mounting a joint bid to improve safety for cyclists in response to a spate of fatalities.
Two staff at the London School of Economics, Adeline Stuart-Watt and Gao Gao, and LSE PhD student Cheistha Kochhar were killed in less than a year.
This was followed by the death of Harry Webb, a student at the London College of Contemporary Music, in an alleged hit-and-run collision in Hackney in September 2023.
A public meeting entitled “A safer future for cycling in London” is being hosted by the LSE on October 31. The event will also be webcast.
Anika Heckwolf, a policy fellow at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute and a colleague of Ms Stuart-Watt, said the need to address road danger had become a “safeguarding issue” for universities in terms of how they looked after their students and staff.
She told The Standard: “With these three tragedies happening, and knowing about all the other [cycle fatalities], we thought it was time for London’s academic institutions to come together to speak up on this issue.”
Preliminary discussions have involved academics and students from all of the capital’s major institutions - LSE, Imperial, King’s College, UCL and Queen Mary University of London, among others.
While many universities already engage with local authorities on an individual basis, there was support for a combined approach – and for universities to learn from each other and draw upon research being produced by their staff.
“We felt these efforts are often quite ‘silo-ed’ within universities, and thought it was really important to bring universities together and have a cross-university network on cycling safety,” Ms Heckwolf said.
“We also have a strong interest in ensuring London remains an attractive place to live and study and work.
“Other cities are increasingly investing in cycling infrastructure, like in Paris. London needs to keep up to remain attractive.”
Speakers at the October 31 event will include London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman, Professor Rachel Aldred of the University of Westminster and Julie Plichon of the sustainable transport charity Sustrans.
The university campaigners want Transport for London and the capital’s 33 borough councils to “accelerate efforts to eradicate pedestrian and cyclist deaths”.
Prior to the May 2024 mayoral election, they called on all candidates to commit to bring forward the “Vision Zero” target for ending road deaths suffered by cyclists and pedestrians from 2041 to 2028, and for all users by 2032.
Ms Heckwolf said: “What we envisage is three or four-fold: raising awareness of the importance of the issue; encouraging universities to engage with local authorities and the mayor on this topic; and sharing expertise between universities and people in universities advocating for change.
“We also think that London universities can be part of the broader public conversation around active travel.”
She recognised that efforts were being made to make London safer for cyclists but said there was more to do.
“Many students would like to cycle to save money, but don’t dare to,” she said. “We have seen progress from TfL, from Sadiq Khan, but more needs to be done.”
