Cycling in the London - now with added fear

It seems wrong, despite now living in a European city, with adequate, well thought out and thorough cycle infrastructure, to take my eyes off London. I cycled there for almost seven years. It was smelly, cold, rainy and dangerous - but also a shedload of fun. 

Sure you take the rough with the smooth, but still, it was enjoyable. Every morning that I got up and cycled to work, I was not only happy I had a job (the joy of freelancing) but that I could also travel there in style [read: it wasn't the Tube].

Anyway, the London Assembly have now published a report saying that "two-thirds of cyclists were more worried about safety than six months previously".

There have been a lot of deaths and serious injuries - two in this week alone, two the week before, more over Christmas, and before which prompted the 'Stop Killing Cyclists' campaign - organisers of mass Dutch-style die ins. 

"More than 80% of cyclists said they were worried about cycling in London, while more than 20% said they were making fewer journeys because of safety concerns."

People are cycling less because it's dangerous. Soon we are just going to have a bunch of hardcore, aggressive speedsters keeping up the cyclists side of things. Drivers will hate them more. I already hate them.

But maybe £300million of investment into 10 key gyratories will change things? Maybe. I don't hold out hope. 

The proposed Elephant and Castle route. Holds a special place in my heart as it is home to two of my accidents.

Although road surfaces will change, the attitude of drivers will take longer. 

Under the plans cyclists will still, in places, be forced to share a designated road with buses (some of the heaviest vehicles, with one of the largest blind spots, on London's roads). 

And that brings us onto the subject of lorries - they will still be using these snazzy new road layouts, which means £300million still can't buy you safety because only lorries over 3.5tonnes will have additional mirrors (which still don't eliminated blind spots). 

To a layman, or someone who might dabble in physics, this is safe right?!

Oh London, I love you, but man you have so much further to go. This investment might be a step in the right direction, but I can't help thinking it's too little to allay the fears.