Police have said a man in his 60s was killed at the junction of Camberwell and Albany road in South London at around 12:30 today in a collision with a lorry.
The news comes on the first day of Road Safety Week and the publication of a survey that claims that more than 40 per cent of UK residents say they don’t cycle because it is too dangerous.
The news of the latest death takes the toll on London's roads to 14 for the year. Over the weekend however, another cyclist was killed in a hit and run in Bath, Somerset. A man in his 50 was killed in a collision involving two vans near Stockton on Tees on Sunday.
The spate of recent deaths has outraged cycling lobby and campaigners. Anger has been particularly acute in London. A petition launched last week that demanded Boris Johnson accelerate plans to make cycling safer attracted 18,000 signatures in 48 hours. It has now attracted more than 28,000 signatures and will likely break its 30,000 target by the end of the day.
Today, a survey by bike insurance specialist Cycleguard claimed 42 per cent of UK residents don't cycle because they feel it's unsafe.
It backs up another survey by Cycle Alert which makes a system that alerts lorry drivers to cyclists in blind spots. Their survey claimed a third of London cyclists said they felt relatively unsafe or worse even on roads they said they knew well.
Speaking last week, after the death of 24-year-old Venera Minakhmetova – the fourth cyclist to die in eight days in London – reflected the mood of many. Cycle Alert's Peter Le Masurier said politicians needed back up the rhetoric with a more proactive attitude.
"I wish the powers that be would adopt a more proactive attitude," he said. "There's political will for sure and there is this incentive to get people cycling.
"The strong sense of the survey is that the lack of safety on the roads remains the main factor that discourages people from cycling. Until they have done something about that perception of fear, you won't reach the target of getting more people cycling."