Cycle Safety

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:48:58 +0000

I haven't been on my bike since last June's tube strike. It was so stressful, the traffic so relentless, and other cyclists so unpredictable that my lovely red bike has been sitting in the kitchen ever since with its tyres slowly deflating. So I had mixed feelings when I borrowed a colleague's bike to go to Wembley Park in North London to record an item about cyclists keeping safe when confronted with large vehicles turning left. A whole multitude of thoughts buzzed through my mind. How do I get there? How will I carry the bike down stairs to the underground? How do I record my piece and cycle at the same time? But the most important thing was: Whatever you do, don't lose Jon's bike or get it stolen!

I was heading to the site of a building materials company called Cemex to test out equipment which lets truck drivers know that cyclists are nearby. These new devices were installed some time after a Cemex readymix truck struck a cyclist in London in 2000, and she died. She was called Alex and was only 26 years old. Her mum Cynthia Barlow said, "Her life was just beginning when it was taken from her". When Alex was hit she was cycling alongside the vehicle. The driver turned right at a junction in order to turn sharp left, and as a result he cut across her path. Her grieving mother bought shares in Cemex so she could go to its AGM, and then she began working with the company to educate its drivers and find ways to prevent further road-deaths.

So, on an industrial park in Wembley, so close to the Stadium and its arch that I felt I could touch it, I cycled past a Cemex truck, on its nearside. In a safe and staged situation I was imitating a very dangerous scenario for a cyclist. As I did so, a robotic voice shouted out, "Caution! Truck turning left!" Inside the lorry, a high pitched alarm went off telling the driver I was passing, and a set of four mirrors, including a front blind-spot mirror, allowed him to see me more clearly. Later I asked the lorry driver, Jason, whether he could ever imagine driving without these new devices. "I wouldn't like to drive a truck without them. They're another aid. Anything that will help me avoid an accident which could lead to someone's death I'm more than willing to try."

Siobhann Tighe is a reporter and producer on You and Yours
You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

Social Housing

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:13:50 +0000

At the beginning of the year in one of our regular You and Yours ideas meetings I suggested that we make a series of reports on social housing. To be honest I wasn't expecting my pitch to be greeted with whoops of excitement and as I guessed I saw people's eyes glaze over! Fair enough. The vague term "social housing" makes people wonder: "What's that got to do with me? Why should I care?" but still, I thought, the topic is very "us", and it's my task as a reporter to make a dull sounding subject come alive.

Months flew by but I hadn't given up on the idea. It needed more flesh on the bones however and a good place to start, I thought, was attending a conference last month called "Affordable Housing in the Age of Austerity". It was for finance experts attached to Housing Associations who were discussing in great technical detail what they could expect from the new Coalition. It didn't look good they admitted. A new government would have to cut spending, and the axe was likely to fall on affordable housing and benefits. And then the newspaper headlines started appearing. Last weekend's Observer, spread out on my desk, has the headline: "Cuts Threaten Slump In Homes For Poorest". The Daily Telegraph declared on its front pages a week or two before: "Housing Association Chief on £400,000 a year". And the Evening Standard wrote: "Councils Are Set To Put the Brakes On New Homes."

In true multi-tasking fashion, I'm planning a visit to Harrogate at the same time as I write this blog. I'm not going to "take the waters"; instead I'll be reporting from a larger and busier conference on Social Housing which will be attended by Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister. One challenge I've set myself is to get an interview with a Chief Executive of a housing association. Bearing in mind that, according to the Daily Telegraph, more than 50 executives at housing associations earn more than the Prime Minister, what do you think I should ask them?

Siobhann Tighe is a reporter on You and Yours

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

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Cycle Safety

Social Housing