In less than two days, more than 18,000 people have signed a petition urging London Mayor Boris Johnson and his Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan to accelerate changes to make biking in the capital safer.
The petition was launched in aftermath of a spate of cycling fatalities around the city. Five cyclists have been killed in a nine-day period. The latest victim – the 13th on London's roads this year – was hit by a bus near Aldgate East station on Wednesday night.
"Cyclists are losing their lives at the expense of slow progress on cycle safety," read the Save our Cyclists petition. "And Boris, 13 deaths in 2013 are 13 too many."
The petition calls on the mayor to accelerate the roll-out of his vision for cycling in the capital which promised almost £1bn would be spent on cycling over the next decade.
The petition calls for urgent redevelopment of the highly controversial Cycle Superhighway 2, action on lorry danger and more training for cyclists and motorists.
It is the latest blow to Johnson's reputation as a cycle-friendly mayor. The city's cycle hire scheme bares his name as Boris Bikes.
Yesterday he was under fire for suggesting that if cyclists fail to obey road rules, "no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people's lives," he told radio station LBC 97.3.
And in October, he suggested segregated cycle lanes would not be the "knockout blow" for improved cycle safety and said there was often not enough space on London's streets for segregated cycle lanes and vehicle traffic.
Visit the petition site here.