Ken Livingstone ‘costing lives’

Ken Livingstone could be causing injuries and deaths by suppressing findings which could dramatically cut road casualties, Tory MPs are set to tell Parliament.

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They say Ken Livingstone is to blame for failing to cut casualties because he has hidden research on the effects of letting motorcycles use bus lanes.

A leaked report on a three-year pilot states collisions fell by 42% on routes where motorcycles were allowed to share the lanes. The report is dated September 2007 but a date has yet to be set for the findings to be officially released.

Robert Goodwill, shadow minister for motorcycles, said: “Ken is directly responsible for not being able to reduce accidents by 42% and people will have been seriously injured and possibly killed in the meantime.”

Bill Wiggin MP, chairman of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Motorcycling, said: “What I’ve done is to forward this on to my front bench colleagues in the Conservative Party so that we can raise this with the Government.”

“We’re looking for opportunities at the moment through questions, written questions, parliamentary debates and adjournment debates,” he added.

Goodwill and Wiggin believe Livingstone fears opening more bus lanes to motorcycles will cost him the pro-cycling ‘green vote’ in May’s Mayoral election. 
They claim that under a Conservative government bus lanes would be opened to motorcycles “universally”.

Roger Evans, Chair of the Transport Committee on the London Assembly, said: “I wish I could say this was shocking but sadly this is all too typical of the way the Mayor and his team operate.

“Any evidence that contradicts their pre-determined viewpoint is ignored or distorted. In this case, Transport for London decided that they did not want motorcyclists to use bus lanes so when this report showed that their doing so would reduce accidents, pedestrian casualties and collisions between motorcyclists and cyclists they buried it and ordered that it be substantially rewritten.

“I’m pleased that the truth about the way that TfL and the Mayor operate has come out.”

TfL said in a statement: “There are serious issues of safety and efficiency involved in this issue, which required proper consideration based upon the collection and analysis of the relevant evidence.

“Our officers had concerns about the validity of some of the early results of the study, which were shared by Greater London Authority officials. Further work has been carried out and when our senior officers are satisfied that their concerns have been met the report will be submitted to the Mayor.”