Cyclists stage 'die in' protest at 'notorious' Elephant and Castle junction

 
Protest: cyclists lie down with their bikes at the junction (Picture: Twitter/@markbfc)
Rachel Blundy22 May 2014

A group of cyclists have held a 'die in' protest at a notorious junction in south London where a bike rider was killed earlier this month.

About 400 demonstrators gathered to highlight road safety issues this evening at the junction in Elephant and Castle - Britain’s highest cycle casualty roundabout - where 47-year-old Abdelkhalak Lahyani died on May 13.

Protesters lay down with their bikes in silence for several minutes and wrote messages in chalk on part of the road which they believe should become a segregated cycle route.

Elephant and Castle cycling protest

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The event was staged by campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists, which is calling on London councils and Transport for London (TfL) to invest more in the capital's cycle lanes.

Campaign co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy described the protest as "really moving".

He said: "It was amazing. In an extraordinary way it became like a secular ritual. People stopped going in the cycle lane because it became a special space."

Speaking about the campaign's aims, he accused TfL of "fobbing" cyclists off with limited investment.

Killed: Abdelkhalak Lahyani, right, with family member Bilal Aznanag

He added: "We are just fed up. We feel something more needs to be done."

A TfL spokesman has said the junction may be subject to review depending on the outcome of the police investigation into the crash which caused Mr Lahyani's death.

The former porter, who worked at the Oxo Tower restaurant on the South Bank, was the fifth cyclist to die in London this year.

He was hit at the junction with Newington Butts - an area which was remodelled in 2010 during Boris Johnson’s controversial policy of “smoothing traffic flow”.

Meryem Ozekman, 37, a fitness instructor from Southwark, was crushed by a lorry at the same roundabout in 2009.

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