The organisers of the 2014 Tour de France Grand have predicted that it will boost the soaring popularity of cycling in Britain and put Yorkshire on the global map, as they begin their final six months of preparations for one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Samantha Hirst, a personal injury lawyer at Ridley & Hall solicitors believes that there is a lot of optimism and excitement surrounding the upcoming Tour de France event:

“I will personally feel a sense of local pride when the riders cycle through towns such as Leeds, York and Harrogate. But I’m concerned that this rise in cycling will be unsustainable, unless parliament is prepared to address road safety concerns.”

Some of the accident statistics are concerning; the Department for Transport’s 2012 road casualty statistics show:

• a 10% increase in cyclist fatalities from 107 in 2011 to 118 in 2012 and a 4% rise in serious injuries from 3,085 to 3,222.  This is against a trend of decreasing casualties in road accidents for all other modes of transport.
• the number of pedal cyclists killed or seriously injured (KSIs) per billion miles cycled has risen by 18% from the 2005 to 2009 average to 1,074 casualties per billion vehicle miles – this is 3% higher than in 2011.

Samantha goes on to say, “Action needs to be taken by the government to prevent cycling accidents – I deal with too many cases often involving serious injuries, which would have been prevented.”

Chris Boardman, a former Tour de France yellow jersey holder and adviser to British Cycling said, “The government’s apathy and poor understanding about the causes of cycling accidents are no better now than over 16 years ago.”  He considers that this causes a direct threat to the governing body’s plan to attract more people into cycling.

Samantha Hirst says, “It has been fantastic to see two British riders winning the Tour de France over the last two years. According to Sport England (a public body that distributes funding for sport) this success has seen an overall increase in cycling participation by 137,000 to 2 million between April and October last year. Encouraging people to participate in sport and be more active is a positive change, but are Britain’s roads equipped to deal with such a high increase in cyclists, especially after the Tour de France event?”

Last year a total of 14 cyclists were killed in London. 6 of these cyclists were killed between the 5th and the 18th November 2013. The UK Transport Select Committee is currently investigating cycling safety and the causes of these deaths.

Opposition Labour Party member Louise Ellman, who leads the Select Committee, said, “Progress is being made, and the findings of the current probe will be published in the first half of this year.”

However, Chris Boardman said in a British Cycling statement that lawmakers should be ‘embarrassed’ over their lack of basic knowledge about the issue. Boardman’s experience of cycling around the world has encouraged him to come forward with some ideas of how Britain could improve its road safety.  He suggests that the UK needs better cycling paths, especially in urban areas with more junctions.

He goes on to say:

“The government has a difficult choice. There is a finite amount of space so to make better cycle lanes you are going to alienate others. It’s a scary change that could lose votes.”

He suggests we should look across the pond, specifically at New York, where he says cycling accidents have stayed at the same level since 2007 even when popularity rose by 250%. Boardman believes there is a deeper, political motive and has said “In New York, there was a political will for change. David Cameron says he wants to make Britain a cycling nation, but what good is that if you have no participation target, no strategy and no funding commitment?”

One Yorkshire city that has seen a huge increase in cyclists is Hull. According to the Yorkshire Post, about 8.5 per cent of the working population cycle to work, compared with about 2.5 per cent per cent outside London.

Samantha concludes:

“Local authorities will have to be prepared for this shift. A lot of work needs to be done and the government will have to look at making practical changes to improve our roads to ensure road safety. I think the biggest challenge is changing people’s attitudes to make cyclists and motorists more tolerant of each other. I enjoy my work…but I would be very happy to see fewer injured cyclists.”

Samantha is a Paralegal in Ridley & Hall’s specialist Litigation team with years of experience in personal injury cases.

For further information please contact Samantha Hirst of Ridley & Hall, Queens House, 35 Market Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2HL on 01484 538421.