Many thanks to over 1,300 people who wrote to their MPs objecting to the proposed introduction of longer lorries.

The Department for Transport has decided to proceed with a 10 year trial of up to 1,800 longer lorries, despite acknowledging the potential danger to vulnerable road users and the impact on road infrastructure.

Although this is may be a smaller trial than originally envisaged by the Department, CTC believes this would increase danger to cyclists, pedestrians and other road users. Furthermore, the Department may well decide to enlarge the trial after just a year, reverting to their original plans.

Has the Minister misled Parliament?

Questioned about the longer lorries trial in the House of Commons in September 2011, road safety Minister Mike Penning MP claimed that:

   "We considered carefully whether longer semi-trailers posed a risk to cyclists in particular, and the risk is not there."

A subsequent written question (the reply to which was drafted by officials) established that no such 'careful consideration' took place.

   "The revised Impact Assessment published with the Government's Report on the Consultation into longer semi-trailers does not disaggregate the safety risk between different categories of road user."

CTC wrote to the Minister requesting evidence to back up the original assertion, to which no adequate response came (see correspondence on right hand column).

The Minister has since confirmed in a meeting with the All Party Cycling Group that, to his knowledge, no cycle-specific risk assessment was carried out.

For more on the Government's decision, see CTC's press release 11/10/2011