Good. So many people have died in London this year simply because their route to work, or to school, or to college takes them via places - like Bow - which have been known to be dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians years. Clear and strong recommendations on how how to improve safety have been made at Bow, and at Kings Cross, and at Vauxhall and so many other killer junctions which have not been acted upon by TfL. When asked recently to consider installing a safe cycle lane at Kings Cross they said "it would cause cues".

The Mayor is Chair of TfL and is ultimately responsible for reigning in this behemoth of an organisation. Whilst he is to be applauded for all that he has done to encourage cycling here in London, to do so whilst making the minimum serious investment in safe cycling infrastructure is callous in the extreme.

I'm glad cyclists are keeping up the pressure and concern; people on bikes are like canaries in the coal mine - they're an indicator species for the safety and liveability of our city.

All the Mayor needs to do is learn how to listen.

C'mon. Cycling has very much been a convenient fig leaf for Boris for years. Just because the man cycles it doesn't mean he represents the views of most cyclists.

The man lives in central London so therefore is likely to be able to get to work without too many Bow style roundabouts between him and his desk, has a history of eccentricity while belies his anachronistic cycling style, is a true blue bullish Tory and reknown for being ambitious (surely then the most pragmatic city vehicle for getting ahead and getting there first is the bicycle given the lax law enforcement, lax regulation and ooh, dare I say it a certain superiority as you glide by those stuck in traffic).

Cycling fits with Boris because it fits his character in the same way it fits with Cameron's. They both see it as a chance to 'get ahead' personally.

I doubt he really cares about the experiences of other cyclists (he'd set more of a good example if he did care, maybe not skipping red lights) or why anyone else anyone else cycles.

and at Kings Cross, and at Vauxhall and so many other killer junctions which have not been acted upon by TfL

I don't know about Kings X, as I hardly ever go up there, but at Vauxhall you see some outright dangerous cycling every day. Cyclists hurtling across the red lights into oncoming traffic, going the wrong way round the junction, playing dodge the bus, etc.

I agree that the crossings need sorting out for pedestrians, that crossing between the mainline and the underground is outright dangerous for everyone, mainly because pedestrians run across willy-nilly and cyclists run the red lights. But I think a campaign for safe, defensive cycling would go a long way to making Vauxhall Cross significantly safer for everyone.

"it doesn't mean he represents the views of most cyclists."

Well, given that he got a majority (53.17% of 1st & 2nd pref votes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_mayoral_election,_2008) then yes he does. Unless you think that the voting pattern of cyclists is inherently different to that of the generality of Londoners.

@Happyduckling

A few bad cyclists are no excuse for not making Vauxhall a better safer place for all. You admit yourself that it's pretty awful.

Whilst of course we should encourage safe cycling (and indeed safe driving, I've seen all of the offences you mention above committed by drivers here too - much more lethal), no amount of cycle training and assertiveness is going to make Vauxhall a suitable place to cycle for older people, people with children on their bikes or cyclists who are less able. Therefore, the space is fundamentally unequal.

Vauxhall (and Bow and so many other places like it in central London) are sick hangovers of an older type of urban planning - fundamentally car-centric and desperately unpleasant to traverse by any other means. In this day and age in a city like London we really should be doing better by now.

The clip of the motorcyclist almost hitting the cyclist is eye opening.

At the point where everyone else is looking right for a chance to pull out the cyclest is apparently given right-of-way and directed to the left of traffic - exactly where everyone is NOT expecting to see another vehicle. How f#@*ing stupid is that?

To rub it in on the safe bit where no one is trying to cut across them they are apparently segregated from the traffic flow?

"Unless you think that the voting pattern of cyclists is inherently different to that of the generality of Londoners."

It may not have been at the last election but, after four years of Boris putting cyclists' lives at risk and the Tories walking out when cyclist safety is to be discussed, I suspect we'll see a change this time.

It's quite simple - neither Boris nor the rest of the Tories give a stuff about cyclist safety. All they care about is their suburban constituents being able to hoon around town in cars, without being held up by pedestrians, cyclists or even buses, whether it inconveniences or endangers anyone else or not. They call it "smoothing the flow of traffic".

Tried crossing the road at the lights lately? Noticed you are kept hanging about for longer than you used to be and have less time to cross? That's Boris.

Whilst incidents as in the above video continues on an hourly basis, Tory members walk out of London Assembly to prevent discussion about cycling safety. Aint life grand?

I've seen all of the offences you mention above committed by drivers here too - much more lethal),

Absolutely, the difference is that those actions are illegal for drivers. I would love to see the Met (or the transport police) have a real crackdown against drivers who jump red lights. Where I live, the light-controlled pedestrian crossings have to have lollipop people as well, to be a physical barrier against jumpers when small children are (safely) crossing the road, something I find that absolutely shocking.

I guess I would rather see the money spent on enforcement than on schemes which redesign the roads, but don't tackle the fundamental problems of dangerous and illegal road use. In my ideal world, jumping a red would be a license losing offence unless with extreme mitigation, and every traffic light would have an enforcement camera. After all, jumping a red is only luck away from death by dangerous driving...

The fact that a majority of the people that voted chose Boris tells you nothing about what cyclists did. There's no data there to suggest that the voting patterns of cyclists do or don't follow that of the electorate generally. That of course leaves aside the fact 53.17% of preferences in the election is well short of a majority of the London population as a whole anyway.

I dare say some cyclists did vote for him, a portion of those are probably feeling quite foolish now as a result. They ought to. The bike he has is a political prop and nothing else.

It's designed to distract people's attention from the fact he is vehmently pro-car and if you listen to him carefully he makes no bones about that. It's why public transport fares have risen at a way faster rate than the congestion charge. It's why signal timings are being changed to the benefit of motorised traffic and the detriment of pedestrians. It's why the WEZ has gone and, on his own data, increased air pollution and congestion in West London. It's why the only cycling schemes that are progressed are the ones that can guarantee not to interfere with the smooth flow of motor traffic. That's why you have a cycle hire scheme and the "superhighways". These give the impression of helping but in reality do nothing to address to core reason that people don't cycle which is that they don't feel safe. A perception, based on current patterns, that is highly justified.

Given all that, the only "surprise" is that people are generally surprised that Boris is still doing nothing to reduce the number of cycle casualties on London's roads.

Just because the man cycles it doesn't mean he represents the views of most cyclists.

From what I've seen of his cycling style, he's a pretty poor cyclist..

Sadly, there'll be little sympathy from the 95 percent of Londoners who don't cycle.

Because of the daily - quite extraordinarily risky - behaviour of cyclists all around the capital, the moral high ground has very much been given up. Unfair, but true.

Also, painting a blue strip on the road is dangerous for some cyclists, who believe that riding on that blue strip is 'safe'. I heard exactly that from a female rider.