Hop onboard an HGV and see what they can't see

For most cyclists, HGVs are the thing most feared on urban roads. Despite only comprising 5% of traffic, they are involved in about 50% of cyclist deaths each year, and many more serious injuries.

When I sat in the driver's seat of an HGV this week, I realised that fear can be a good thing.

The Metropolitan police's Traffic Cycle Team are currently running safety events called Exchanging Places, which give cyclists the chance to see exactly what a lorry driver can – and can't – see.

Sergeant Simon Castle, in charge of the Cycle Team, said: "The old message is 'share the road' but it is difficult to do that if you can't see the other point of view."

The driver's seat of this particular HGV was above my head. I climbed up while an officer positioned himself on a bike down the near (passenger's) side of the truck, as cyclists commonly do in traffic.

The cyclist was clearly visible in my mirrors until he moved to the nearside door. I could see him in the down-facing mirrors on the windscreen and door, mounted on all HGVs since 2007, and in the Fresnel lens (which isn't compulsory). In the two mirrors which stick out like ears over the kerb, he was completely invisible.

When positioned at the front-left corner and directly in front of the cab, he disappeared altogether. My co-pilot, the Cycle Team's Carl Burridge, says modern HGVs have as much acceleration as a car from stationary, so sitting directly in front is extremely dangerous. In some positions, the cyclist's hi-vis clothing was the only reason I saw him.

Then he demonstrated the correct road positioning, in front of the lorry, at about the length of a cycle stop box, at which point he turned around to look me in the eye.

"It's harder to run someone over once they've looked you in the eye," says Burridge.

Also, importantly, you know if you've been seen. You can see a video of the police demonstration here.

Charlie Lloyd, of the London Cycling Campaign, said:

"By far the most hazardous place for a cyclist is way out on the left of a large lorry, 1.5-3 metres away, outside the area seen in the mirrors or picked up by sensors. That is the area that a turning lorry swings into at speed when turning left. To the cyclist the lorry comes out of nowhere, to the driver the cyclist is invisible."

But even when fitted with audible sensors in blind spots (which buzz or give a verbal warning if an object is too close), and a rear-facing camera – ie with all measures both legal and optional – the fact was clear: there is only so much an HGV driver can see.

Sergeant Castle said: "With seven mirrors and the whole front windscreen to look at, by the time you have moved, the view has all changed."

"It is very difficult and no one is perfect."

Since October, the team has put 450 cyclists in a lorry cab. HGV drivers can also receive cycle training but this takes seven or eight hours.

The consensus is this: overtake, don't undertake, or simply wait behind the lorry. And always think this: is it at all possible that this truck could turn left or right in the time it takes me to overtake? The London Cycling Campaign provides this advice with a useful lorry blind spot diagram.

Lloyd says: "The people who get caught aren't always the inexperienced cyclists, it is all kinds of cyclists."