Cyclists who have been killed or injured on London's roads were remembered during a tour of the 10 most dangerous junctions

A cycling sight-seeing tour with a difference took place on Saturday, taking in London's 10 most dangerous junctions for cyclists. The ride - originally conceived by Cyclists in the City blog as a fact-finding mission with a few friends - struck a resonant chord with readers and campaigners. Word spread quickly, and ultimately several hundred London cyclists participated in the "Tour du danger".

As one of the organisers of the tour I was overwhelmed by the response, and the stories of many of the participants. A woman who lived near Elephant and Castle roundabout told me she would never usually dare cycle there.

People brought their children, and we had pensioners cycling with us through some of London's most complicated and terrifying road schemes. It's not everyday you see bakfiets full of kids being pedalled around Hyde Park Corner.

And this seemed to be the point of the ride for many participants. As I told the crowd at the start of the ride:

"None of us should have to fight to make our way to work. None of us should feel afraid taking our children to school, whether that's by foot or by bicycle. Designing public spaces which exclude people on the basis of their ability - that is to say those of us who aren't able to cycle like Mark Cavendish around the Elephant and Castle roundabout - is designing in danger, and designing in inequality. Personally, I find that unacceptable. This week, Boris Johnson, mayor of London, said he thought the Elephant and Castle roundabout was perfectly negotiable by bike so long as you kept your wits about you. I do not believe that the 89 cyclists who have been killed or seriously injured in the past two years on this junction did not keep their wits about them. I believe that these places are inherently dangerous, and it is negligent in the extreme not to act and ensure that these urban spaces are remedied as urgently as possible."

Those who have been killed or seriously injured were at the forefront of the riders' minds as we wound our way through London's most dangerous junctions. Three cyclists have been killed in the capital in the past four weeks; two of them on Bow roundabout where one of Johnson's "cycling superhighways" recently opened. The latest death involved a 34-year-old woman killed in a collision with an HGV on Friday night. Fifteen cyclists have lost their lives on London's roads so far this year.

The London Cycling Campaign is vehemently calling for an urgent redesign of the Bow roundabout - the primary route to the London 2012 Olympics for cycling spectators - and are furious that their warnings about the cycle superhighway, issued in February, were ignored by Transport for London (TfL). Attempts by the local London assembly member, John Biggs, to have pedestrian crossings introduced at Bow, were rebuked because they would cause traffic delays.

Bow is just one of many blackspots where official warnings have been issued and ignored. A proposal to turn Elephant & Castle in to a slower, safer pedestrian peninsula was rejected by TfL on the grounds that it would "slow down traffic too much". At King's Cross, where 24-year-old fashion student Min Joo Lee was killed recently, TfL had been in receipt of a report since 2008 which warned that the design of the junction encouraged traffic to act in an aggressive manner and that fatalities were "inevitable". Cyclist fatalities in Camden and Clapham (Paula Jurek and Johannah Bailey respectively) were also preceded by warnings that the junctions where the crashes took place were dangerous to vulnerable road users.

Despite rider numbers massively increasing in inner London in recent years, and very welcome efforts to improve the safety record of HGV operators – as well as increased cycling budgets, more cycle training and increased marketing of riding a bike as a viable means of transport – Saturday's ride comes after a summer of bicycle protests in the city. A series of "flashrides" have been held on Blackfriars Bridge, where plans to increase the speed limit, rip out cycle lanes and increase the traffic lanes from two to three each way (on a road where cyclists make up the majority of traffic at peak times) were met with anger and dismay; the most recent demonstration attracted upwards of 2,500 cyclists.

London cyclists have united at these events to make it clear that keeping Londoners safe, and encouraging more of them to feel comfortable riding, is not just a question of cycle training, cycle awareness campaigns or indeed copious splashes of blue paint. Instead, physical interventions and a review of the way in which our major intersections are designed is needed. That couldn't be more clear from the 10 most dangerous junctions ride. As one man exclaimed to me - his little son perched on a handlebar seat - as we rode through Vauxhall Cross gyratory: "Ride here? With my kids?! With nothing but a helmet and paint to keep me safe? Do you think I'm mad?!". The cyclists are revolting indeed.

Here are London's 10 most dangerous junctions for cyclists, as defined by TfL, based on killed and seriously injured statistics 2008-10:

1. Clapham Road/ Kennington Park Road/ Camberwell Road Junction

2. St. George's Road/London Road/ Elephant & Castle Junction Southwark (E&C)

3. Elephant & Castle/Newington Butts Roundabout (E&C)

4. Albert Embankment/Kennington Lane/ Wandsworth Road Junction (Vauxhall Cross)

5. Millbank/Lambeth Bridge Junction (Lambeth Bridge)

6. Hyde Park Corner Westminster

7. Strand/Northumberland Avenue/Whitehall Junction (Trafalgar Square)

8. Waterloo Road/ Stamford St/ York Road Junction (Waterloo Circus)

9. Clerkenwell Road/Farringdon Road Junction (via Kings Cross)

10. Mansion House St/Princes St/ Threadneedle St

Would you hold a #tourdudanger where you live? Are known accident blackspots holding back cycling rates in your home town?

• Mark Ames runs the ibikelondon blog