London

Work has started on a new £715,000 clubhouse at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, which is due to be completed in May ahead of a National Youth Series meeting at the West London venue.

Completion of the new building at the circuit in Minet Country Park, Hayes, which hosts some 300 cycling events a year plus sports including Nordic skiing and in-line skating, will coincide with increased use of the track by schools, and will provide youngsters with facilities for changing and coaching.

With just a few months to go before the London Cycle Hire Scheme comes into operation, the man who designed Montreal’s Bixi scheme on which it is based has been talking about the success of that initiative.

Cyclists in London are being urged to complete an online survey compiled by a senior police collision investigator that seeks to explore risk-taking behaviour by bike riders on the capital’s streets.

It is hoped that responses to the survey will help lead to a greater understanding of the complex and often fatal relationship between cyclists and lorries on the capital’s streets.

Better perception of road safety is the key to getting more Londoners to cycle in the capital, a Dutch transport expert has said.

Roelof Wittink, who helped devise Amsterdam's cycle network, believes safety is the “biggest barrier” to Londoners using bikes because they are too scared.

A terrible week for London cyclists – in terms of two fatalities on the capital's streets – has prompted an open letter to Boris Johnson from US cycling campaigner Joe Mizereck.

As road.cc readers will remember, Joe is behind a campaign called 3 Feet Please (www.3feetplease.com) which urges drivers to keep at least that distance away from cyclists. He's received a tremendous amount of support both here and in the US for the campaign.

A relatively mellow start to the road season is being offered by London Phoenix, which has announced details of its Easter Classic on Easter Monday, April 5.

The organisers say the ride is a simple one to get to if you're living in London, starting within the M25 at Fairlop Waters. There are two filly signed routes on offer - 112km and 54km - and both will quickly take you out of the city into some of the most beautiful, quiet and unexplored countryside Essex has to offer.

Sutton Council is today launching a new initiative which it is hoped will motivate 20,000 residents of the London borough to take up cycling, and as a sweetener each household in the Wallington and Hackbridge areas will receive vouchers worth £100 to use on cycling-related products and services.

The campaign is focusing on those specific parts of the borough as part of a drive to promote sustainable transport there. Both host parts of the National Cycle Network, as well as key routes to workplaces in Croydon and Sutton.

Members of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) have outlined their detailed proposals for a ‘BikeGrid’ providing key north to south and east to west routs for cyclists across the centre of the capital to Transport for London, first mooted last year.

The BikeGrid, which uses proposed cycle lanes or traffic-calmed roads to cross the heart of London would connect the arrival points in the city of Mayor Boris Johnson’s proposed Cycle Superhighways, and are also a response to the scrapping of the London Cycle Network, which had only been 60% completed.

Athletes and officials will be using bicycles supplied by BMW to get around London’s Olympic Park in 2012 after UK-based companies such as Pashley and Brompton, the latter based in the capital, were denied the chance to put in their own bids.

Those concerned about the environmental impact of the Games may also have raised an eybrow about the bikes being supplied by a motor vehicle manufacturer.

Cycling is set to take a centre-stage role in London’s East Festival, which starts this Friday, with bike polo and a the Cycle East series of concerts, in which people are encouraged to use bikes to hop between venues, among the featured attractions.

Cycle East takes place on Sunday, and features three concerts in different locations – The London Gypsy Orchestra at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, Sweet Billy Pilgrim at the Toynbee Studios, and Soweto Kinch at Rich Mix.