
21.02.2012 / Green Life
Save our Cyclists
It all started last November, when 27-year-old journalist Mary Bowers was hit by a cement truck while cycling to work in London.
It was right then that The Times, the newspaper Mary was writing for, launched a major campaign to promote the safety of cyclists in the UK, starting from a shocking figure: since 2001, 1,275 cyclists died on the British streets (almost three times the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq).
There’s a sort of hidden war going on along the streets, whose only evidence is the growing number of “ghost bikes” appearing on the curbsides. And this is happening outside the UK as well. In Italy, 2.556 cyclists died in the same period of time (more than twice the number of British victims…). That’s why the Italian bicycle bloggers immediately joined and promoted the protest .
It was thanks to their plea and to a Facebook group (which has currently reached over 6,000 members) that the Times campaign, along with the 8-Point Cycle Safety Manifesto finally made it to the Italian newspapers.
So, what’s coming next? While British Prime Minister David Cameron hears the radical ideas of architects, planners and designers from around the world for making Britain’s cities safer for cyclists, a bill for the development and the safeguard of cycling has just been been introduced to the Italian Senate.
Maybe, after all, something is really changing.
Links
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/




