British Cycling Member Mike's e-petition for cycling awareness in driving test has hit 16,000 signatures and received the backing of Chris Boardman but we still need your help.

British Cycling member Mike from Leicestershire wanted to do something to improve road safety after a cyclist was tragically killed on the roads near where he lives in November 2012. So, over the Christmas break he set up an e-petition calling on the government to support our Road Safety manifesto, which demands that cycle awareness testing be a mandatory part of the driving theory and practical test.

Mike thinks that whilst people in Britain love cyclists (as evidenced by Bradley Wiggins being named Sports Personality of the Year), they don’t know how to deal with them when driving on the roads. Including cycling awareness in the driving test will ensure that all drivers will be more tolerant of and more confident around cyclists and give them the necessary space when over-taking or look for them when turning at a junction.

We think that Mike’s petition is a brilliant idea and want to see it get as many signatures as possible. When we tweeted it, we got over 83 re-tweets and the number of signatures went up from 43 to over 260 in about 16 hours. A week later, over 6000 people had put their names to it, so this is clearly something that people want to get involved with. A month on and the figure has risen to over 16,000 signatures. However, Mike needs 100,000 signatures for the petition to be debated in parliament.

Chris Boardman has lent his support to the petition and commented: "It's common sense, we should make sure that all new drivers are taught how to be careful around cyclists".

So please, take a minute to read the petition and sign it. Then get your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

Read the petition