A pedestrian has been injured after being struck by a cyclist at a controversial ‘floating’ bus stop on Westminster Bridge.
The pensioner was crossing a bike lane to reach the bus stop at a zebra crossing when they were hit by the passing cyclist and hurled to the floor in the latest incident to be reported at ‘floating’ stop. Leaked figures have suggested that up to 60 per cent of cyclists do not give way at the often narrow zebra crossings that lead to the Shared Use Bus Boarders (SUBBs).
In a video clip shared by blind charity NFBUK, cyclists are even seen swerving onto the pavement where the crossing is flush with the cycle lane, says The Daily Mail Online.
It called for the ‘chaotic and downright dangerous’ junctions, such as the one near St Thomas’s hospital on Westminster bridge, to be scrapped, adding that the configuration put visually impaired people at particular risk, with the boarding ‘islands’ shown to be too narrow for users of mobility canes when stepping off buses.
It said: “These designs are not safe and they need to be urgently halted.”
SUBBs require pedestrians to venture across segregated cycle lanes with often constant bike traffic to board their bus. A common feature on streets in the Netherlands, they have now become more prevalent in the capital since the pandemic, when London Mayor Sadiq Khan rolled out 62 miles of cycle lanes in just 12 months.
(Pic – NFBUK)
