Film students from the University of Westminster have produced a video looking at the current state of cycling in the capital.
Presented by Rachel Mullins, the 15-minute film looks at how campaigners such as Donnachadh McCarthy of Stop Killing Cyclists are fighting to make the city’s streets safer for those on two wheels.
Last month, the group organised a protest on Oxford Street followed by a die-in at Marble Arch, and she also takes part in one of the monthly Critical Mass rides, and visits Amsterdam to find out about the Dutch approach to bicycles.
Mullins also interviews the mayor’s cycling commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, to find out about the inititaives Transport for London is taking to improve infrastructure for cyclists.
The film is a third year project also involving producer Nathan Visick and director Paul Bassett, with Victoria Moseley acting as assistant producer and looking after sound, and Rosy Bell on camera.
9 thoughts on “Video: A Cycling Revolution documentary looks at cycling in London”
This is one of the best looks
This is one of the best looks at cycling in London I’ve seen. It certainly puts the derisory click-bait offerings from the BBC in the shade.
brilliant piece of work
brilliant piece of work
It’s a pity the footage of
It’s a pity the footage of the kids training at the BMX track didn’t make the cut. It’s a good video but it does rather skirt of some of the issues.
Really great piece of work.
Really great piece of work.
Great video.
Having cycled a
Great video.
Having cycled a lot in London (I visit a lot and always take my bike) it’s actually far ahead of the rest of the country. Rode through Birmingham recently… Jesus…
To me, the difference here isn’t necessarily the infrastructure (although, obviously that’s key). But the attitude. In other european countries, a bike is a normal way to travel. And everyone has grown up like that. Here, there’s an attitude (clearly displayed by the drivers in the video) that bikes are ruining it for everyone else.
It is an excellent short
It is an excellent short film.
Congratulations to the students who put it together!
All the speeches from the Stop Killing Cyclists / Stop The Killing rally following the march down Oxford Street in mid-November are online at:
NATIONAL FUNERAL – SPEECHES
The demands made are at:
THE 10 DEMANDS
~Andrew~
Well made and positive
=D> Well made and positive message. Enjoyed.
though I do wish that occasionally would show some understanding. London was not designed a smidge over hundred years ago[approximately when we first had the pleasure of the ride]. It was two millennia ago. We are trying to fit cycling into a huge city where it was not designed to fit. The guys that matter are trying, it’s a bit slow but progress is being made. ‘Demands’ just seems to be a bit militant…..
stealfwayne wrote: Well made
No offence, but I entirely disagree. London wasn’t ‘designed’ ‘two millennia ago’. Its been constantly designed and redesigned on an on-going basis, a substantial proportion of it in the last 50 years. There’s pretty much _nothing_ left of Roman London (and not a vast amount of London pre-WW2).
It was, after all, completely rebuilt after the Great Fire, just for starters, not to mention the blitz and then the huge rebuilding projects of the 60s (thank God the insane ringways scheme didn’t get very far).
Things like the Westway – a relic from that ringways scheme – are in no sense the result of design from two millennia ago, and the Romans didn’t install the North Circular that bisects the north of the city like a wall
(It really strikes me that the area around the North Circular is so much more horrible than that around the South Circular, precisely becuase the former is more of an urban motorway while the latter is just existing roads cobbled together, so doesn’t blight the area around it so much).
And saying it ‘was never designed to fit cycling’ doesn’t make a lot of sense – prior to the 1940s many of the journeys in London were by bike, while not that many have been historically by car.
It was never designed to fit driving, but they got round that by redesigning it! We just need to redesign it some more.
Good film, even if it does
Good film, even if it does concentrate on London and ignores the rest of the UK. The situation in other cities is far, far worse than London, with councils having wonderful pro-cycling policies which are completely ignored by highway engineers, who frequently make cycling more dangerous and less attractive. Come to South Gloucestershire to see truly awful cycle provision which breaks every policy the council has.