Strava has been urged to take away the roads of Regent’s Park, London, from segments, after a pedestrian was killed in a collision with a bike owner.
The operator of Regent’s Park, The Royal Parks, has written to Strava and different biking apps to ask for the removing of the Outer Circle from its leaderboards. It follows a collision involving Hilda Griffiths, 81, a pedestrian who was hit by a bike owner, Brian Fitzgerald, in June 2022, and later died of her accidents.
Nevertheless, no prosecution was introduced as pace limits don’t apply to cyclists, with it being recorded as an “unintended biking collision loss of life”. On the Coroners’ Court docket listening to, it was mentioned that the cyclists had been travelling at as much as 29mph in Regent’s Park, the place the pace restrict for vehicles is 20mph.
The case has seen renewed requires crackdowns on biking speeds within the nationwide media.
On Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph reported that The Royal Parks had written to Strava to ask for the removing of the Outer Circle section. Regent’s Park is without doubt one of the hottest locations to cycle in central London, with greater than 62,000 individuals finishing the Regent’s Park Outer Circle section.
The idea is that with no section, there can be much less incentive for timed laps of the park. Nevertheless, its reputation lies with it being a largely car-free house within the centre of one of many greatest cities on the planet.
The quickest ever public completion of the Regent’s Park CCW section, which is 4.4km lengthy, was 4:49 in September final yr, which implies it was performed at a pace of 54.8km/h, or 34mph.
It was additionally reported that The Royal Parks had written to golf equipment that used the park to remind them that cyclists utilizing any royal park are required “to look at the motorized vehicle pace limits for the park”.
A Royal Parks spokesperson mentioned: “We have been extraordinarily sorry to listen to of the incident which resulted within the loss of life of Hilda Griffiths. We are going to proceed to work with native stakeholders, together with biking teams, to tell our strategy. Now we have made contact and can observe up with biking apps similar to Strava to request removing of the Outer Circle within the Regent’s Park as a section on the app.”
The Telegraph reported {that a} doc was despatched to biking golf equipment stating that “pedestrians have precedence with the Royal Parks, as they make up nearly all of park guests”. It added: “We do ask that cyclists observe the motorized vehicle pace restrict for the park.” Nevertheless, Biking Weekly understands that this isn’t a brand new doc, as a substitute simply the Royal Park’s coverage assertion from final yr.
It isn’t the primary time that Regent’s Park and biking have been within the information this yr. In February, an umbrella physique of London-based cyclists known as for motion from the Metropolitan Police to deal with a sequence of violent bike robberies which have affected their members.
