The Fleet Safety Forum, a division of road safety charity Brake, has partnered with a personal-injury solicitors to promote cycling safety.
The Cycle for life campaign is sponsored by solicitors Bolton Burdon Kemp and offers guidance for fleet managers and road safety professionals on cycle-to-work schemes and cyclist safety.
The campaign is supported by a guidance document entitled Cycle for Life: safe and suitable cycling by employees. The booklet contains advice for companies on how to adapt their training and vehicles to protect cyclists. It also showcases the latest developments in cycle-safe technology, and best-practice case studies on companies that have set up cycle-to-work schemes.
Last month, the group also held a seminar in London, which explained how employers and local authorities can work together to get more employees to cycle to work.
Brake development manager Roz Cumming explained that cycling to work brings major benefits but comes with obvious risks. She said: “This campaign aims to equip managers and drivers to capitalise on the benefits of reduced stress, improved health, lower cost and environmental impact, while managing the risks presented to vulnerable road users, like cyclists, by all vehicles, particularly trucks.”
Cycling safety has been a hot topic of discussion this week after Tour de France winner and Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins backed a change in the law to oblige cyclists to wear helmets, after a man died in a crash near the Olympic Park. After winning Olympic gold for Great Britain in the time trial, Wiggins said: “Ultimately, if you get knocked off and you ain’t got a helmet on, then how can you argue.
“So, I think when there are laws passed for cyclists, then you’re protected and you can say: well, I’ve done everything to be safe.”
The guidance is available for free to Fleet Safety Forum subscribers. Non-subscribers can also obtain a free copy by backing Brake’s Cycle for life campaign and completing a short online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/Cycleforlife
