A ROAD safety campaigner from Radcliffe is calling for new measures to keep cyclists safe and encourage more people to get on their bikes.

Allan Ramsay is backing a campaign from the Stop Killing Cyclists group to allow cyclists to turn left at designated traffic lights, effectively treating them as a Give Way junction, enabling them to get clear of dangerous heavy goods vehicles.

The scheme, known as 'The Idaho Law' after being introduced in the American state in 1982, became law in Paris last year, while the Netherlands introduced segregated cycle lanes nationwide in the 1960s after a similar campaign.

The 67-year-old, of Radcliffe Moor Road, has pinpointed junctions in Ainsworth Road, Spring Lane, and Pilkington Way as local examples of places where cyclists could benefit, by not being governed by the lights for left turns.

He said: "Reducing road death, congestion and creating an NHS that can cope with an ageing and ailing population, is a work in progress. However, with a whole raft of safety and comfort features, from crumple zones to Sat Navs, and air bags to Blue Badges, it’s seriously ‘top heavy’ in favour of drivers, seen not least in increasing cycling casualties.

"The United Kingdom is effectively 50 years behind with an integrated transport system and, with nobody having an affordable and immediate solution, it desperately needs to unite and give a fair hearing to any and every road safety proposal, not least because our children are being encouraged to do more cycling."

In 1991, while out cycling, Mr Ramsay was struck on the head by a metal bar protruding from a wagon and was on a life support machine before recovering. And in 2008, he was knocked off his bike by a motorist using a mobile phone, but escaped injury.

He added: "How many UK junctions that were once Give Way, are now controlled by traffic lights in order to accommodate car dependency?

"Why should a person who chooses to travel by bicycle for health and fitness, or to reduce their carbon footprint, or because they can't afford a car or public transport, or because it’s the quickest way to get to work, be inconvenienced and endangered by people who have no wish or no need to travel by bicycle?

"If we can 'think outside the box' to speed-up car dependency, then wouldn't it be grossly unfair, if not immoral, not to 'think outside the box' to speed-up bicycle dependency, and indeed walking dependency?

"A better deal for cyclists is long overdue."