The government's response to increased coverage of cyclist fatalities has been to set aside �30m for improving safety at road junctions across the UK (If Wiggins can get hit ? Safety campaigners fear effect of Tour de France winner's crash, 9 November). This is far too little ? it's even less than the amount the mayor of London has already cut from the capital's annual road safety budget.
We can't stop death and injury on our roads unless local authorities and the government understand the social and economic value of road safety budgets. They not only prevent avoidable tragedies for many families but also reduce NHS and emergency service costs.
London used to have an exceptional record of reducing road casualties. By 2010 there were 685 fewer children a year killed or seriously injured on London's roads than in the late 1990s. As the previous mayor's road safety ambassador for seven years, I'm sure that if we hadn't spent the money we did and made the changes we did, many of those 685 would not be walking around today.
Last year we had a 23% increase in cycling casualties and a significant jump in the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured. This trend has quickened as the road safety budget has been squeezed down to less than a quarter of what it was. Put simply, austerity kills.
Jenny Jones AM
Green party group leader, London Assembly
??The RTAs of two high-profile cyclists will hopefully lend the lie to Chris Peck's talk of "an overinflated fear of cycling".
Road cycling is probably the most extreme sport since the Romans decided to see how Christians would fare against big cats. The evidence is skewed by only including fatalities ? a group Bradley Wiggins and Shane Sutton will hopefully not fall into. Lesser mortals injured in this way hardly merit a mention. As a cyclist I was hit twice, once by a bus, once by a van. Neither was my fault.
The problem with cycle tracks, which was not covered by Carlton Reid's fine article (Bradley Wiggins cycle accident ? yet another SMIDSY moment, 9 November), is that they are the favourite place for motorists to park half of their car (the other half being on the pavement).
I have taken up martial arts, which, despite a few injuries, is much safer.
Kevin Bell
Tyldesley, Greater Manchester
??The idea that this government is taking cycling seriously because it is spending �30m on dangerous junctions is insulting. It equates to a pathetic �64,000 for each local council, which is not enough to tackle even one dangerous junction.
The UK spends about �1 per year per person on our cycling infrastructure, compared with the �25 per person spent by the Dutch. Meanwhile billions are being spent on roads and motorways.
A national investment of �2bn per year for the next five years would go some way to creating a modern national cycle network. It would act as a fast, effective economic stimulus, improve our health and reduce our carbon emissions.
Bradley Wiggins, it is time to stand up, injured ribs and all, and be counted. Your country's cyclists need you.
Donnachadh McCarthy
London
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/12/bradley-wiggins-crash-insult-cyclists
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