London's new walking and cycling commissioner starts with crackdown on problem junctions

London's new walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, has named the 73 junctions in the Capital with the worst safety records as he unveiled Transport for London's new approach to delivering improvements for pedestrians and cyclists.

The junctions with above average number of deaths and injuries recorded will be targeted for improvement every year through TfL's Vision Zero approach, which is expected to be a key plank of London Mayor Sadiq Khan's upcoming transport strategy.

The new list of 73 junctions is now being considered in detail to assess what can be done to make them safer. The list includes 21 junctions that have had work completed within the last three years, which is the standard duration of safety monitoring, so these junctions require further study before decisions can be made on whether upgrades have improved pedestrian and cycle safety. Others have work planned, or require new safety studies.

"It's vital that we target the most dangerous junctions across London if we are to improve our roads for pedestrians and cyclists," Will Norman said. We're now analysing these junctions in detail to ensure that we are doing all we can to make them safer. This work will be repeated each year to ensure that our work is making a real difference to the Capital's roads."

Director for the sustainable transport charity Sustrans in London, German Dector-Vega, said: `We welcome this continuing vital work to make the Capital's most dangerous junctions safer for everyone. It is critical that we see rapid progress to make walking and cycling easier and safer if we want London to be a healthier place.'

Will Norman is London’s first Walking and Cycling Commissioner and up to now a less high profile figure than London's cycling tsar during Boris Johnson's tenure as Mayor, Andrew Gilligan.

Norman was previously director of global partnerships at Nike and has also worked with not-for-profit organisations, governments, UN agencies and European Institutions to tackle the global inactivity crisis, with a particular focus on getting children more active. Before working for Nike, Norman was director of research at the Young Foundation and also set up a successful social research consultancy. An avid cyclist and runner, he has a PhD from the London School of Economics and lives with his family in east London.

The 73 most dangerous junctions Norman wants to improve includes 33 earmarked for improvement through TfL's current business plan. A further 19 junctions will undergo new safety studies to identify possible solutions and safety improvements. This includes locations such as Holloway Road and Parkhurst Road, Clapham Road and Union Road and Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane.

TfL's director of surface strategy and planning, Ben Plowden, said: `We're committed to improving road safety in the Capital and we will only achieve this and encourage more people to walk and cycle if we address safety at many of our road junctions. This new analysis will allow us to target our efforts where it is most needed, and will allow us to closely monitor the effectiveness of what we deliver to ensure we're always learning from our projects."

TfL's new 'Vision Zero' approach to reducing road danger is part of the Mayor's forthcoming transport strategy. This means vigorously enforcing traffic law, putting safety at the core of road engineering projects and working to discourage dangerous behaviour on the roads.