The piece on You & Yours...
FYI, it's 31m 40s into the broadcast and lasts about ten minutes (click on 'listen again'). Towards the end, Jim Fitzpatrick the Road Safety Minister does comment about the inaccuracy of the cycling statistics, citing missed cyclists in road counting. I can vouch for that: years ago I passed a traffic census on my commute (I commuted into Brighton in those days). They were counting every motor vehicle. But not cyclists. When I observed this, I 'blew my top' and demanded to know the reason why cyclists weren't included in the census. I was shown into the census foreman's tent and given some bland reassurances about "the purpose of this census is to make this road safer for cyclists..." Well, twenty years on, that road hasn't changed at all. I don't suppose that anyone in the authorities has the slightest clue how many cyclists use that road. It's not a particularly dangerous cycling route for experienced cyclists, but traffic is fast enough to scare and intimidate a novice. As is true of most rural single carriageways of that width around here (it's an unclassified road but as wide as most 'B' roads).
Were there really more than 20 deaths around Brighton last year? That's three times the rate for London!
That was the figure for KSIs - Killed and Serious Injuries. Not deaths alone.
Oh and they threw in the bit about obligatory h*lm*ts of course - towards the end of the broadcast...
I know Brighton probably better than any other major city in Britain, and can say that over the years I've not been the least bit impressed with what's provided there in the way of 'facilities'. From my point of view - apart from some bus lanes at really congested periods - best avoided and ride on the road, as indeed do most experienced cyclists there (albeit a lot of them do RLJ...). But for the really nervous newbies I don't know what to suggest. Brighton may be a 'cycling-demonstration' city but it has a long way to go...