Author: PA Media

Almost two-thirds (65%) of drivers believe aggressive cyclists are a threat to their safety, a new survey suggests.

The poll of 2,010 UK motorists, commissioned by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, also indicated that 60% believe aggressive cyclists are a bigger problem compared with three years ago.

A similar proportion of respondents (61%) said they would not support a law assuming drivers are always responsible for collisions with cyclists or pedestrians in urban areas.

Department for Transport (DfT) figures show four car occupants were killed in crashes involving a bicycle and a car on Britain’s roads between 2012 and 2021.

That is compared with 494 fatalities of cyclists in such incidents over the same period.

IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research Neil Greig said: “The Government has introduced a range of laws in recent years in an effort to fix the daily conflicts we see between motorists and cyclists.

“However, if our research is anything to go by, this has largely been to no avail, with the majority of respondents still reporting aggression and conflict among road users.

“There is no quick-fix to this issue, but our research sheds light on the urgent need for the Government to maintain its education campaigns on the new Highway Code, and continue to invest in safe road markings for more vulnerable road users to minimise the chance of conflict wherever possible.

“In the meantime, all road users, whether on two or four wheels, should exercise calmness and restraint to help us all use Britain’s roads safely.”

New rules came into force in June 2022 meaning judges in Britain can hand down life sentences to dangerous drivers who kill and careless drivers who kill while under the influence of drink or drugs.

Two months later, then-transport secretary Grant Shapps pledged to create a “death by dangerous cycling” law that would treat killer cyclists the same as motorists.

Nearly four out of five (78%) respondents to the IAM RoadSmart survey said people driving motor vehicles aggressively are putting their safety at risk.

Some 108 people were killed in 2021 in crashes where aggressive driving was a contributory factor, equivalent to 8% of all road deaths.

Duncan Dollimore, heading of campaigns at charity Cycling, said: “There’s no excuse for aggressive behaviour – people can behave badly no matter what mode of transport they’re using.

“The consequences are however disproportionate, with statistics showing poor driving far more likely to lead to a fatality or serious injury.

“The Highway Code changed last year to emphasise the additional responsibility those in charge of larger vehicles, because they were more likely to cause harm if there is a collision.

“Cycling UK has repeatedly called for a long-term well-funded public awareness campaign by the Government to ensure that the changes are better communicated and understood, which in turn will make our roads safer for everyone.”

The amendments to the Highway Code included the creation of a hierarchy of road users based on vulnerability.

It means someone driving has more responsibility to watch out for people cycling, walking or riding a horse.

Another change involved motorists being told they should leave at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists at up to 30mph, and leave more space at higher speeds.

The survey for IAM RoadSmart was conducted by research company Cint in December 2022.

Rishi Sunak has been urged by Sadiq Khan to fund a scrappage scheme for the home counties ahead of the planned expansion of London’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez).

The Mayor of London wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to provide financial support for people in locations such as Surrey and Kent who drive into the capital with the most polluting vehicles to scrap or retrofit them.

He also called on Mr Sunak to match the £110 million he has allocated for London’s scrappage scheme.

Mr Khan is planning to expand the Ulez to cover the whole of London from August 29 to boost air quality, with a £12.50 daily fee for vehicles not meeting minimum standards.

This has met fierce resistance from several councils, with five mounting a legal challenge partly based on the scrappage scheme.

In a letter, Mr Khan urged the Prime Minister to “become a doer, rather than a delayer, when it comes to climate action”.

He explained that several areas introducing clean air zones have received Government funding for scrapping non-compliant vehicles – such as Greater Manchester (£120 million), Bristol (£42 million), Birmingham (£38 million) and Bradford (£30 million) – but London and the home counties “have not received even a penny of support”.

The mayor wrote: “I urge you to use some of the unexpected £30 billion windfall in the public finances to not only match the funding allocated for scrappage in London, but to introduce a targeted scrappage scheme that provides help to those based in the home counties.”

He went on: “London, the South East and the East of England make net contributions to the Treasury every year, and Londoners pay £500 million of vehicle excise yearly, which is then spent on maintaining roads in other parts of the country.

“For our regions to pay in so much and not be helped to reduce carbon emissions and make our air safer to breathe is unfair and doesn’t make sense.”

For diesel cars and vans to avoid the Ulez charge they must generally have been registered from September 2015, while most petrol models registered after 2005 are exempt.

London’s scrappage scheme for vehicles that do not comply with the emissions standards includes payments of up to £2,000 for eligible drivers such as those on low incomes or the disabled scrapping a car, and up to £9,500 for charities, sole traders and small businesses scrapping or retrofitting vans and minibuses.

Home counties residents are not eligible for the initiative.

Mr Khan wrote that London is “in the grip of a deadly public health crisis”, with toxic air “causing the premature deaths of an estimated 4,000 Londoners every year”.

He continued: “It is abundantly clear then that the cost of inaction is far too high and that further action is needed to safeguard public health and spare people unnecessary suffering.

“I’m simply not prepared to stand idly by while toxic fumes from highly polluting vehicles choke our communities and leave our children reaching for inhalers and gasping for air.

“That’s why I’ve chosen to expand the ultra low emission zone London-wide.”

A smart motorway safety system failed across much of England on Wednesday, National Highways has admitted.

The Dynac system – which includes signs, signals and stopped vehicle detection technology – stopped working at around 8.30am on Wednesday.

The fault occurred across the whole of England’s smart motorway network except in the East and South East.

It was not resolved until approximately 10.30am.

The cause of the problem is under investigation.

There have been long-standing safety fears following fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes on smart motorways without a hard shoulder were hit from behind.

National Highways operational control director Andrew Page-Dove said: “We are urgently investigating an unplanned outage of our traffic management system that took place this morning.

“Engineers worked hard to get the system back online as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“We have well-rehearsed procedures to deal with issues which arise.

“We rapidly took steps to help ensure the safety of road users such as increased patrols and CCTV monitoring.”

Smart motorway safety systems reportedly suffered a seven-hour outage on October 26.

Edmund Kind, AA president, said: “So called ‘smart’ motorways cease to be ‘smart’ when the technology fails, and drivers in dangerous live-lane situations are left as sitting ducks.

“Road users can only have confidence in the systems if the technology works. That’s clearly not the case with the outage today. Some 38% of breakdowns on ‘smart’ motorways occur in live lanes as often there is nowhere to go and these situations, with or without technology, are terrifying.

“While somewhat ironic that the systems should fail on the day their safety is debated in Parliament, perhaps it is now time to go back to the drawing board and totally redesign these roads as drivers have lost faith in their safety.”

Bentley will end production of its famed 12-cylinder petrol engine in April next year, the luxury car maker has announced.

More than 100,000 examples of the W12 engine have been built at the company’s factory in Crewe, Cheshire over the past 20 years.

The decision to halt production is part of the business’s move to electric motoring.

Bentley chairman and chief executive Adrian Hallmark said: “Our progressive journey towards sustainable luxury mobility means making changes to every area of Bentley Motors.

“When we first launched the W12 back in 2003, we knew we had a mighty engine that would propel both our cars and the brand forwards at speed.

“Twenty years and more than 100,000 W12s later, the time has come to retire this now iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification.”

Jim Holder, editorial director of magazine What Car?, described the W12 as “an icon of combustion engines, famed for its power, smoothness, refinement and more”.

He told the PA news agency: “It should be remembered as one example of the peak of what can be achieved technically with combustion engines.

“But Bentley and its customers are acknowledging that we are entering a new environmentally conscious era, where outright performance and luxury can still be attained, but in a less consumptive manner.”

Bentley said it hopes to “retrain and redeploy” the 30 workers involved in assembling and testing W12s.

All Bentley’s models will be available with the option of a hybrid powertrain when production of the petrol engine is stopped.

The company has pledged that all its cars will be fully electrified by the start of the next decade.

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will be banned from 2030, with new plug-in hybrids outlawed five years later.

Volkswagen Group-owned Bentley made record sales last year.

The company, which dates back to 1919, said it delivered 15,174 cars in 2022.

The 4% increase compared with the previous 12 months was driven by demand in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

F1 star Nigel Mansell has shuttered both his Mitsubishi and Hyundai franchises on Jersey.

The 1992 F1 World Champion had centred his car sales and aftersales operations from The Mansell Collection dealership in St Helier, but he’s now told customers that the vehicle sales side of the business will be closing.

Nigel Mansell and elder son Leo made a splash in 2014 when they said they’d be taking on a Mitsubishi new car and servicing franchise. Despite this latest move, though, Nigel’s younger son Greg has stated that The Mansell Collection’s motorcycle arm would continue.

Making the announcement via its website, director Greg said: “As of immediate effect, The Mansell Collection’s car sales, servicing and parts departments are now closed.

“This has come about due to Mitsubishi’s departure from Europe and two years spent struggling with Covid-19 and a subsequent loss of sales.

“Unfortunately, losing the brand had a knock-on effect with our second car brand, Hyundai.

“We certainly wish Mitsubishi and Hyundai all the best for the future with their new partner in Jersey, and we thank the car department for all their hard work over the years.”

Back in 2019, The Mansell Collection stated that it would be closing temporarily in order to create more space for its new car sales business.

Originally opened in 2013, The Mansell Collection is home to The Nigel Mansell Story – a museum that features some of the F1 star’s trophies and race-winning cars, including the Williams FW14B in which he won the world championship in 1992.

Drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) across England will benefit from thousands of new chargepoints, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.

A total of 2,400 new chargepoints will be installed in locations such as Cumbria, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and West Sussex as part of £56 million in public and industry funding.

Sixteen more local authority areas will receive money as part of the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme.

The three original pilot schemes – in Durham, the London borough of Barnet and North Yorkshire – will be expanded.

Councils will also be given support to work with private operators towards the installation of “tens of thousands more” chargepoints in the long term, according to the DfT.

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “The Government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans.

“Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs.”

Fewer than 9,000 public EV charging devices were installed in the UK last year, leading to claims that the infrastructure is not keeping up with demand.

Recent DfT figures revealed the number of devices available for use increased by just 8,680 from 28,375 in January 2022 to 37,055 12 months later.

The department said the Government has already spent more than £2 billion to support the move to zero-emission vehicles.

More than a fifth of new cars sold in the UK last year had a plug.

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will be banned from 2030.

Driving test examiners have announced 10 days of strike action across England, Scotland and Wales.

More than 1,600 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) employed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency will take rolling days of industrial action from March 6 to 28.

The strikes are the latest escalation of the union’s long-running campaign over pay, pensions and jobs.

The examiners took strike action earlier this year which the union said caused disruption to tests.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The Government must put forward concrete proposals to resolve this dispute.

“The more ministers choose to ignore members’ concerns over low pay, the more angry our members become.

“Our members cannot choose to ignore the cost-of-living crisis.

“Ministers can choose to resolve this dispute by putting money on the table.”

Around 100,000 PCS members will strike on Budget Day – March 15 – with the increasingly bitter dispute remaining deadlocked.

Remote driving of vehicles from abroad should be banned in the UK, a Government-commissioned review has found.

The Law Commission of England and Wales made the recommendation in its advice to ministers on how to regulate vehicles being controlled by individuals in remote locations.

This technology is already used in controlled environments such as warehouses and farms, but potential future applications include the delivery of rental cars to customers.

The commission concluded that “difficulties in enforcement” mean remote driving from abroad should be prohibited “until appropriate international agreements are in place”.

It recommended that remote driving in public should only be allowed if companies obtain special permissions.

There is currently no specific UK legal requirement for a driver to be in the vehicle they are controlling.

The review also stated that a remote driver should be responsible for their actions in the same way as someone sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle, but there should be no liability for faults beyond their control such as connectivity failures.

Public Law Commissioner Nicholas Paines KC said: “Remote driving is an exciting technology, but before we see remotely operated cars on UK roads we must address safety concerns through strong regulation.

“Our advice concludes that in the immediate term, the Government would be able to address some gaps in the law around remote driving using existing powers, while also providing a path for companies to use the technology lawfully provided that their systems are safe.

“In the longer term, it could set up a full system of remote driving regulation.

“Regulations must respond to other fundamental concerns around security threats and liability in the event of an accident.

“Our advice paper sets out a roadmap for how the Government can address these problems, whilst also encouraging companies to innovate.”

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “Remote driving is already being successfully used off-road in several industries and has huge potential to provide new services and safety features for road vehicles.

“The Government needs to ensure that safety is at the forefront of the use of any new technology, and the department will carefully consider the Law Commission’s recommendations.”

Traffic lights could become obsolete in 20 years, an engineer supporting a groundbreaking self-driving cars trial said.

Thomas Tompkin of Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) told the PA news agency “a seismic shift in the way our roads are laid out” is possible.

Two self-driving electric cars built by Japanese manufacturer Nissan have completed hundreds of laps around a 2.7-mile route featuring busy A roads in Woolwich, south-east London during the past two years.

This is part of the ServCity project to identify and overcome barriers to deploying autonomous vehicles in cities, which ends next month.

It is believed to be the UK’s first trial of driverless technology involving the use of roadside infrastructure as well as the vehicles’ own systems.

Around 270 cameras installed on the route by the SMLL relay information to the Nissan Leaf cars about potential issues ahead, such as buses stopped in the left lane.

This enables the cars to change lanes well before encountering obstructions, creating a smoother flow of traffic.

Mr Tompkin, head of network, infrastructure and operations at SMLL, estimated that the high-specification roadside systems cost “around one million pounds per kilometre” but claimed a wider rollout involving more basic technology could be done for a fraction of the price.

“That starts to become a bit more of a compelling business case,” he said.

“If we think about maybe 20 or 30 years time, can you start to then think about the infrastructure outside?

“Can you start to remove some of that infrastructure such as traffic signals?

“Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done before that ever takes place.

“But that’s where you can start to see a seismic shift in the way our roads are laid out.”

Mr Tompkin said he hopes the UK will have “moved on a lot” towards “completely driverless cars” in public use by the end of the decade.

The Government has previously expressed its commitment to introducing legislation that will enable the use of self-driving vehicles.

ServCity’s cars have a qualified driver behind the wheel who can take control when needed.

A driver intervened on at least two occasions during media demonstrations earlier this week, to avoid a possible collision with a bus and to miss a chunk of road surface dislodged from a pothole.

The cars have covered more than 1,600 miles during testing, with no accidents, according to the project’s leaders.

Robert Bateman, who manages ServCity for Nissan, said there have been significant differences in London’s trials compared with those in the US and Japan.

“With London there’s more pedestrian interactions and crossings,” he explained.

“In Japan, everybody follows the rules. Not so in the UK.

“This is why Nissan has decided to do this research work here in the UK.

“Quite frankly, if you can get it right here you can then deliver an autonomous vehicle anywhere in the world.”

Mr Bateman insisted the cars are safer than those with a human in control.

He said: “The car is looking 360 degrees around it. That’s the autonomous vehicle system’s only job.

“It’s not eating a sandwich. It’s not texting. It’s not thinking what it’s going to be doing at work.

“It is 100% safer.”

ServCity is a £10.7 million consortium project involving Nissan, Hitachi, Connected Places Catapult, the University of Nottingham, TRL (formerly Transport Research Laboratory) and SBD Automotive.

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “The Government has invested £7 million in this project to be at the forefront of innovation.

“Since then, ServCity has proven key to answer the practical questions of how to integrate self-driving vehicles into cities for the public good.”

Five Conservative-led councils said they have started a legal challenge over Sadiq Khan’s decision to expand London’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez).

The outer London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon, together with Surrey County Council, issued a joint statement announcing they have launched a judicial review into the Labour mayor’s plan.

A spokesman for the mayor said it would oppose “any challenge to this vital scheme”.

The Ulez is currently limited to the area within London’s North and South Circular roads, but is due to be extended to cover the whole of the capital from August 29.

It will then border areas of Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.

Drivers of vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards are charged a £12.50 daily fee for entering the zone.

The councils said they will challenge the Ulez expansion in the High Court on the grounds that “relevant statutory requirements” were not complied with, expected compliance rates in outer London were not considered, and the proposed scrappage scheme was not consulted on.

They will also claim the overall consultation process was not properly conducted and there was a failure to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the plan.

Leader of Hillingdon Council Ian Edwards said: “Ulez is the wrong solution in outer London as it will have negligible or nil impact on air quality but will cause significant social and economic harm to our residents.

“We believe Sadiq Khan’s decision to impose this scheme on outer London boroughs is unlawful.”

His counterpart at Surrey County Council, Tim Oliver, said: “We are committed to delivering a greener future, but it must be done in a practical and sustainable way.

“We are dismayed at the lack of discussion or consideration given to these proposals by the Mayor of London.

“The impact on many Surrey residents and businesses will be significant and we will not stand by and watch that happen with no mitigations offered from the Mayor.”

Conservatives in London previously claimed City Hall officials “manipulated” the final results of Transport for London’s (TfL) consultation by excluding some so-called “campaign responses”, which lowered the level of opposition in the final count from 62% to 59%.

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: “While we’re aware of media speculation that an application for a judicial review has been made by four boroughs and Surrey County Council, neither the GLA (Greater London Authority) nor TfL have been served with their claim.

“We will be defending any challenge to this vital scheme.

“Around 4,000 Londoners die prematurely every year due to air pollution.

“The Mayor is determined to protect the lives of Londoners who are growing up with stunted lungs and more at risk of heart disease, cancer and dementia due to our toxic air.

“The Mayor urges the councils involved to abandon this costly and unnecessary legal challenge and instead focus on the health of those they represent.”