Viewpoint: Conscience at Thompson's Cross?
She died instantly. A colleague later said he saw her feet sticking out from under a blanket as emergency services and the police did their work. Afterwards in the afternoon I had reason to walk across that intersection. The police had been meticulous in recording the details of the tragedy. Yellow marks on the road showed the outline of her body, where her bicycle had fallen, the position of the stopped truck.
Sand on the road had soaked up the blood. The battered basket of her bike had been placed against a railing. A cardigan which had probably been in the basket hung sadly from a traffic lights post.
All that afternoon and evening, every time I waited for the lift from my third floor I was looking directly down at the spot. The next morning, as I was waiting there for the last time, the sand had been dissipated by the traffic. A life brushed away. But the yellow marks remained.
Last evening, back home, I cycled up to Thompson's Cross to see the completed 'safety improvements' carried out there in the last couple of weeks. I wasn't impressed with the plans. I'm not impressed with their implementation.
For years I've written about the various changes to Thompson's Cross in response mostly to public pressure from motorists and residents. Changes for which nobody has ever admitted directly that what went before each of them was wrong. I was asked to talk about the current works in advance on radio. I told it like I saw it. But even if they hear, nobody listens.
Last evening I saw the same 'safety' pencil cones designed to ‘encourage gradual merging onto the main road for cyclists'. I saw the newly-completed footpaths ‘extending from the junction for a short distance’ for a place which sees very few pedestrians — though I don't begrudge those few the facility. And I saw space inside those footpaths which could have so easily been used for cycle paths to take cyclists safely through a junction made more dangerous for them almost a year ago.
I saw again, in my mind, the yellow marks on the road where that woman cyclist died in Berlin this week.
I cycle that road through Thompson's Cross sometimes. Many others do it more often. I don't want any of us to become yellow marks on the road. Or to have it on the conscience of some car or truck driver who might be involved in making that happen. Whatever about the consciences of those who cheapskate on our local road design safety.
A cardigan is probably still hanging sadly on a traffic lights post in Berlin ...
