A junction in Cambridge has claimed second place in a new list of Britain’s worst cycling blackspots.
The analysis, published this week by The Times, puts Lensfield Road roundabout as the second worst for spot in the country for accidents, only being pipped to the top spot by Warton Road in Stratford, London.
According to the national newspaper’s interactive map, the roundabout was the scene of seven accidents involving bikes last year.
This is just one less than the eight accidents recorded at the table’s number one location.
Grinstead Road in Deptford, London, was also listed to have had seven bike accidents in the last year, while the remaining five locations all recorded six accidents.
The interactive maps were produced by Esri UK and the newspaper’s digital team and were published as part of its Cities Fit for Cycling campaign.
They highlight that 75 per cent of all cycling injuries recorded last year happened within 30 metres of a junction or roundabout.
The analysis comes after the Department for Transport released statistics which showed some 21,287 cyclists were injured on Britain’s roads last year.
It said this was an increase of 9.5 per cent in the last year and represented the highest number of cycling casualties since 1999. A total of 113 people were killed.
Roger Geffen, campaigns and policy director at CTC, the national cycling charity, told The Times it was wrong to restrict improvements to those junctions with recorded accidents.
He said: “These maps highlight the crying need to give cyclists greater safety and priority, particularly at junctions.
“However, junctions with large numbers of cycling injuries aren’t the most ‘dangerous’, they may simply be well used by cyclists.
“Equally, a lethal edge-of-town junction with a motorway might have no cycling injuries because nobody dreams of cycling there.
“Still, both types will need safety improvements if cycling is to become a safe activity for everyone.”
The only rural blackspot on the list was on the A3072 near Beaworthy in Devon where cyclists were injured in six accidents last year.
The publication of the list comes around two months after former Cambridge University student Ying Tao was killed in an accident with a tipper truck while cycling in London at the age of just 26.
Ms Tao, who worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers, was killed in the collision at Bank junction as she travelled into work.
Her death subsequently sparked a mass protest in a bid for safer cycling routes in the capital after it emerged she was the eighth cyclist to be killed on the streets of London this year – and the seventh by a lorry.
The flash protest, called by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), lasted for about 15 minutes and included a minute’s silence that saw all six arms of the Bank junction grind to a halt.
Protestors, some of whom rang bike bells during the vigil, made calls for segregated space for cyclists on London’s roads in addition to the removal of dangerous lorries from the city’s streets.
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