Coffins laid outside TfL office in call for more cycling investment

Updated

Campaigners have laid coffins outside Transport for London's (TfL) headquarters in a call for it to spend more money on cycling infrastructure in the capital.

Members of Stop Killing Cyclists placed 21 coffins outside TfL's Blackfriars Road office to represent the 21 people killed riding bikes in London since the action group launched in November 2013.

The group was launched after six cyclists were killed that month.

Nicola Branch, co-organiser of the No More Coffins event, said: "We want 10% of the TfL budget to be spent on cycling infrastructure. At the moment it is only 1.4% of their transport budget and that's nowhere near enough.

"Even 10% is a fraction compared with cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

"If you increase the amount of money that is spent on the cycling infrastructure that means that more people will cycle, that means that less people will use private cars.

"As cyclists we are the canary in the coalmine, you sort out the problem of cycling deaths first and then all the other deaths fall into place."

Next to the 21 coffins was a tombstone dedicated to an estimated 24,000 traffic-related deaths in the last three years from issues including pollution and physical inactivity.

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