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Why Are So Many Cyclists Dying On Manchester's Roads?

The city seems unable to deal with a cycling surge and all too often the consequences are fatal.

Artur Piotr Ruzel's Ghost bike (Photo by Cristian Chesha)

To anyone who's been knocking about in Manchester for a while, looking round, it is obvious that there's been a boom in cycling recently. The student population of the city has always cycled and the perceived wisdom is that Manchester pretty much triples in size when they arrive. Then there are to the growing number of professionals who have been inspired by the British successes in the Tour de France, those wanting to be environmentally friendly or, indeed, those who have simply found a way of getting around the city while working off a beer gut. From people in Rapha jerseys on £3,000 Bianchis, to people commuting on a second-hand hybrids, Manchester is a city that is visibly pushing more pedals than ever before.

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Sadly, with more cyclists have come more cycle deaths on the roads of Greater Manchester. Last year, figures rose by nearly half, with 54 people involved in fatal accidents. Alongside this, 651 cyclists suffered serious or fatal injuries in the 12 months to September last year. Nationwide, 1,730 died while on their bike, which is pretty hard to stomach.

There have been a number of high profile cycling fatalities in Manchester. In the case of Jaye Bloomfield, she was killed by a driver on a pedestrian crossing on the Mancunian Way. The section is well known locally as somewhere where drivers routinely fail to slow down sufficiently, and in this instance, it proved fatal. With a bleak irony, a tribute was placed at the scene of the accident and, months later, another car crashed into it.

Joshua Jarvis was another fatality: a popular 21-year-old student who tragically collided with a cement mixer. His mother became a campaigner for safer cycling in Manchester, telling the Manchester Evening News, "We will be doing that forever now because I think it something that needs to be addressed. There are too many families like us and it is not right. I do not want my son's death to be in vain."

I could go on with more sad examples but we'd be here forever. Of course, one death is too many, but the body count is becoming a grave concern. Manchester, it seems, is unable to keep up with the spike in cycling interest.

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From these tragedies, Manchester has seen the political mobilisation of its cyclists. More and more people joining the "Critical Mass" rides – part protest, part memorials, these see numerous cyclists going round as a big mass in a display of togetherness. There have been vigils in the city, to honour those who have died, as well as attempts raise awareness for the lack of safety on Manchester's roads.

On top of this, there have been more Ghost Bikes appearing in Manchester. Artur Piotr Ruszel was the most recent cyclist to have such a bike installed at the scene of his accident. There's a sense of inevitability that soon enough, another cyclist is going to die, and that the vigil for Ruszel certainly won't be the last.

The arguments about cyclists jumping red lights and paying road tax between motorists and cyclists rumble on, but they happen in every city. More to the point here is Manchester's infrastructure. Manchester's old industrial layout causes problems, but what's worse is that the city's roads are crappy for anyone who uses them, with both motorists and cyclists complaining of the number of potholes. Motorists' insurance premiums take a hammering from the state of the roads, while cyclists are in greater danger, with one cyclist thrown from his bike and hospitalised.

Investment in cycling has been fraught with crappy errors. A few years ago Manchester City Council announced a "Cycle Hub" – which sounded fancy but basically ended up an area in an underground car park with some bike racks in it. One cycling group has sent off an FOI request asking how many people signed up to the £200 per-year scheme because the rumours have it that very few bothered, perhaps feeling that there's little point in building a cycle-parking area in the city centre if you're in danger of an accident travelling to the damned thing. Another cyclists' grumble is that with a bit of forethought, bike paths could have been built along the routes of the trams.

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The money spent on cycling routes has also been met with widespread cynicism, with certain areas considered more dangerous than they were before. In the case of the notorious Upper Brook Street, the area was refurbished, making the corners wider, which encouraged faster driving and little concern for cycling other than some green paint. Artur Piotr Ruszel was killed there mere weeks after the work was completed.

In Salford, the council installed some much-derided "armadillos" – little plastic bumps to stop cyclists veering into the cycle lanes. One of the armadillos was installed slap bang in the middle of the bike lane, one on the pavement and another was smashed to bits by traffic. Thing is, Salford should have seen it coming, thanks to a similarly failed attempt to bring Dutch style cycling to Camden, North London.

And even the positive aspects of cycling in Manchester have their problems. The Fallowfield Loop is an eight-mile off-road cycle path, which goes around the outskirts of the city centre. It's traffic-free and used by cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians. It's part of the National Cycle Network and during the day, the area is refreshingly segregated from traffic. But sadly, the council has again cut the roads up with blocks and barriers, frustrating those that use it. There is a complete absence of lighting which means that it is a bit dodgy when it gets dark. This has resulted in people being mugged, with one man making a career out of the area.

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While parts of the Fallowfield Loop are enjoyable, other stretches of it are, frankly, baffling and unsafe. Sections of the cycle path are cobbled, which is not at all ideal for bikes, especially in wet weather. The sections that ride alongside a canal have with low bridges and hills that turn into sharp bends, just asking for someone to end up in the drink. That one of the poorest sections of the "floop" is area near the cathedral of cycling that is Manchester Velodrome is an irony that hasn't gone unnoticed.

The 45 kilometres of new or improved cycle routes promised by 2025, brought about by a £20million grant could be a pretty big step in the right direction, but that certainly feels far away right now. Past failures are breeding cynicism about how those plans will go, too.

With the amount of vigils, campaigns and pressure groups in the city, Manchester's authorities would be unwise to ignore the situation. A petition has been set-up by cyclists called VisionZeroMcr, who say, "No loss of life is acceptable". The petition says that, "with a VisionZero approach, safety and mobility are not mutually exclusive: it recognises that we should be able to move freely – and feel safe at the same time."

Sadly, Manchester feels like a city that wants to cram more vehicles on the road rather than emphasising safety. Of course, accidents will always happen, but it is obvious that more needs to be done to stop people dying.

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@mofgimmers

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