Angela McConville for TfL writes...

We are writing to let you know that the Mayor of London has today announced proposals to “make London’s roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists by removing the most dangerous lorries from the capital’s roads by 2020.”

Why?

Over the past two years Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) were involved in 23 per cent of pedestrian fatalities and 58 per cent of cyclist deaths in London, despite accounting for just 4 per cent of the miles driven in the city.

As you will know from the research we have carried out over the past few years, the restriction of drivers’ field of direct vision by vehicle design has been proven to have contributed to many of these fatalities.

‘Off-road’ HGVs were involved in around 70 per cent of cyclist fatalities involving HGVs in the last three years.

What?

Research we commissioned to better understand the blind-spots around HGVs, carried out by Loughborough University, identified variation across the existing fleet in terms of what a driver could see. It found that ‘off road’ construction vehicles were, on average, 32% higher than ‘on road’ vehicles with bigger front and nearside blind spots. It recommended the need for a Direct Vision Standard to categorise and rate vehicles based on the amount a driver can see directly from the cab of the vehicle.  

Working with industry, this Direct Vision Standard, an objective way of measuring how much a driver can see directly from a cab  has been produced by TRL.

How?

The new Direct Vision Standard, which has been presented to, and developed in conjunction with industry will use a ‘star rating’ to rate construction and other HGVs based on the level of vision the driver has directly from the cab.

The next step is to rate the existing fleet of HGVs against the standard to understand the current situation. The rating ranges from zero stars (vehicles ‘not suitable for the urban environment’) to five stars (‘best in class’ vehicles with features like low-entry and remodelled cabs to drastically reduce blind spots).

Timing?

The Mayor is launching his proposed enforcement timetable now, and a consultation process will begin in January 2017. The CLOCS working group and community will be a key group informing the consultation.

Under the Mayor’s proposals, zero star HGVs will be banned from London’s streets entirely by January 2020 and only HGVs meeting 3 stars or above would be allowed on London’s roads by 2024.

The Direct Vision Standard, in combination with the requirements of the CLOCS Standard, will help ensure that only the safest vehicles are on our roads, minimising the risk to vulnerable road users.  

We hope you will be in support of this announcement and we thank you for your contributions to both the CLOCS and Safer Trucks programmes to date.

If you would like further information on the Direct Vision Standard, please visit tfl.gov.uk/direct-vision-standard. Information on the rest of our Safer Trucks programme can be found here at tfl.gov.uk/safer-trucks  

Best wishes

Angela McConville | Project Officer

Freight & Fleet Programmes | Strategy & Planning | Surface Transport

Mail:          Zone 11G8, Palestra, 197 Blackfriars Road, London, United KingdomSE1 8NJ

Phone:      020 3054 6720 (86720 internally)

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