I will never cycle as fast as Bradley Wiggins. I will never bathe in the adulation of Paris as I win the Tour de France. But in one respect we are absolutely equal in the saddle: it could all end when some idiot driver ploughs into us.

Fortunately Wiggo suffered only bruising and broken ribs when that happened to him in Lancashire last Wednesday. His coach, Shane Sutton, was less lucky the next day, ending up in hospital after being hit by a car in Manchester. But both men were spared the fate of Sofoklis Kostoulas, who died last Tuesday, eight days after being crushed by a tipper truck on Bethnal Green Road.

He was the 12th London cyclist to die this year. The 11th, last month, was Hilary Lee, a 66-year-old retiree — so much for the “Lycra lout” stereotypes beloved of shouty drivers. She was crushed by a lorry in Barnet. And on it goes.

It’s possible to overstate the dangers involved in cycling. Nationally, one cyclist is killed for every 88 million miles travelled. I have cycled six miles to work through London most days over the past eight years without a single accident. Ending up like poor Sofoklis and Hilary isn’t something I often worry about.

Still, the dangers put off plenty of would-be cyclists. One survey by an insurer yesterday claimed that almost half of London cyclists have been knocked off their bikes at some point. The steady toll of deaths and injuries should worry my fellow cyclist Boris Johnson. Yet this month it emerged that Transport for London’s spending on road safety has almost halved since Johnson took office, down from £16.9 million in 2008/09 to just £8.5 million this year. In the same period, the amount spent by the boroughs on road safety plunged by more than two-thirds.

London cyclist casualties, meanwhile, have risen every year since 2008. True, there are more of us on the roads — in fact proportionately, London cycling is becoming safer. But more cyclists should mean more focus on safety, not less.

There are plenty of things the Mayor and boroughs could do in the way of education. Ideas such as advance green lights that give cyclists a five-second start — promised by Ken Livingstone in his last mayoral campaign — might help too.

But far more significant is the way we design our roads and junctions. That was the point of the London Cycling Campaign’s Love London, Go Dutch campaign in the run-up to the mayoral election: to get all the candidates to sign up to putting cycling at the heart of the city’s transport system. That’s never going to mean Dutch-style cycle lanes everywhere — there simply isn’t space. It should mean, however, that especially on busy roads, cyclists are given far more priority and protection.

Just how far we are from that is illustrated by the lack of progress since the deaths of two cyclists at the notorious Bow flyover roundabout last autumn. After that the Mayor promised a review of junctions. Progress is slow: TfL says it will finish reviewing 100 priority locations “by the end of 2013”. Four consultations are under way, including on changes to the Waterloo (Imax) roundabout: you can comment on proposals (bit.ly/QtQWBQ) until tomorrow, though it’s unclear whether TfL will listen, given that construction work begins on next Wednesday.

Some proposals amount to an improvement for cyclists. But overall, it’s hard to avoid the impression that TfL’s biggest concern is still drivers’ convenience — keeping traffic moving, even if that makes it less safe for others.

Take the latest rows over Blackfriars Bridge. The bridge has long been notorious: cyclists died on it in 2003 and 2004, and TfL changed the layout. Most recently, it has redesigned the junction on the north side. Cyclists were consulted: the London Cycling Campaign wanted a simple double-T junction.

Yet the end result in February this year, at a cost of £2.14 million, has made cyclists feel no safer. They have to cross three lanes of fast-moving traffic if they want to turn right towards the City on Queen Victoria Street. In July, the Standard reported how Ruth Anthony managed to jump from her bike seconds before it was crushed by a left-turning HGV there. It’s confusing for drivers too.

Precisely these conclusions — and an increased danger to pedestrians crossing — were confirmed by a Road Safety Audit from TfL’s own Roads Directorate this summer. Even AA president Edmund King tweeted: “Blackfriars Bridge really needs to be improved for cyclists.”

How can TfL still end up choosing fast-moving traffic after all these consultations — and deaths? As Danny Williams concludes on his excellent Cyclists in the City blog (cyclelondoncity.blogspot.co.uk), TfL’s central priority simply remains that of old-fashioned road engineers: maximising motor traffic flows.

Meanwhile on the south side of the bridge, there’s another example of official blindness to cyclists. Southwark council has agreed to close part of the National Cycle Network route along Upper Ground — a major cycling artery between Waterloo and the City — for a year, starting later this month. This is to allow developer Mace to revamp an office block by Sea Containers House.

Southwark doesn’t appear to have considered cyclists’ needs at all: it’s just turning a stretch of Upper Ground over to the developer’s lorries, diverting cyclists onto busy Stamford Street. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way: Crossrail prioritises rail transport of construction materials and insisted on cycle awareness training for its lorry drivers.

TfL is simply behind the times. Its own counts show that in 2010, cyclists made up 36 per cent of northbound morning rush hour traffic over Blackfriars Bridge — more than cars and taxis combined. They outnumbered cars on Chelsea, London, Southwark and Waterloo bridges too. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of cyclists on the capital’s major roads more than doubled; in the same period the number of cars in central London fell by more than a third.

It’s not a question of being nice to cyclists: it’s about giving a fair share of the road to a huge group of road users. You don’t have to be Bradley Wiggins to deserve a safe ride home.

Twitter @hernehillandy