Gates, barriers, and chicanes being installed on Britain’s “most expensive street” to keep cyclists out

Daclu Trelub wrote:

<shrug>

If it's a private road, they can keep it to themselves if they want.

Reeks of the politics of envy, this article.

OK, so Richmond Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, St.James's  Park and Green Park are also technically privately owned by the Crown, would it be OK for the public to be denied access to them as well? As I said elsewhere on this thread, the road belongs to the Crown Estate which essentially belongs to the public, this isn't just an instance of a developer buying some land and creating a gated community, it's land that is supposed to be managed in the national interest and that has had a permissive right of way for over a century.

And how the blazes is it the "politics of envy"? Nobody's saying take the billionaire's houses off them, nobody's saying tax them more, they're just asking to retain the right to use a safe and long-established walking and cycling route.

Probably a few - it looks like a Quality Street.  On the other hand I'm hearing a lot of fudge also.

No one's getting het up.

The facts are fairly clear:

1 - The Crown Estate are treating it as a private road with permissive access, which is likely to be correct unless a claim is made for use as of right under the HWA 1980. I can't call the outcome of that. Leaving it such that a ROW to be established is not a mistake a I would expect from the Crown Estate in their role as landowner.

2 - If that is true they can probably exclude at will. Though whether that can be done on *new* discriminatory restrictions is an interesting one.

3 - Whether they are able to discriminate in their exclusion (mobility aids etc) is perhaps legally unsustainable. under EA2010. 

"Force cyclists to dismount" is very dodgy under Equality Law, and the Crown Estate are professional enough to know it.

4 - The claims about "safety for residents" are a smokescreen constructed from BS. The are essentially zero injury collisions there, and access only traffic to a small number of houses.

5 - The Crown Estate are pandering to locals' prejudices, and not admitting what they are doing. Which is the standard story everywhere.

6 - Alternative routes that will be forced to be used are significantly dangerous, so the CE action will create more casualties.

7 - The CE need to take a rational, rather than a prejudice based, position.

8 - It's wide enough that they could do something more useful.

9 - I suspect the body to watch for action are London Cycling Campaign for cycling, and various pedestrian groups.

BigDoodyBoy wrote:

Wait guys. Is this a private road? On private land? Is there a right of access or some other sort of public right of way? Rather than get all het up about it, maybe some facts for context?

It's a road belonging to the Crown Estate, which manages property which belongs neither to the monarch's private estate nor to the government. The Crown Estate has a remit to manage said property in the national interest, so it's perfectly fair to challenge the fact that they have closed off a road where permissive access has existed for generations to the British public in order to satisfy the complaints of mainly foreign embassies and foreign billionaires. It is, essentially, land that belongs to the nation and has done since George III handed over control of his property in exchange for the civil list and being relieved of his financial responsibilities; in that context closing the road to the whole nation apart from a select handful of the super rich doesn't seem much like acting in the national interest.

Do you mean like the bikers who run into my wheelchair on the pavement because they haven't got any he brain power to realise riding on the pavement in crowded places like town centres and shopping malls where ignoreing the please dismount signs they rode through scattering families with small kids making parents jerk bugies sideways to avoid the brainless bikers , me in a chair which does not magically move sideways got the full force , unfortunately for brainless my chair is powered and much heavier and stronger built I got a really bad jolt very painfull but his wheel needed reserecting from the dead  ,serving him right people not shouting at him were having a good laugh 

I've started getting hedgehog poo in my back garden - it started a few weeks ago, a Tuesday I think it was. I assume this means hedgehogs are visiting my garden regularly. Anyway, we co-exist peacefully - we never see each other. Perhaps you could go out a little later, say between 2 and 4am and then you might avoid these errant cyclists. All the shops will be closed as well, which means you'll be saving money, which is always good. Watch out for the hedgehogs though! Hope this helps.

Wheelywheelygood wrote:

Do you mean like the bikers who run into my wheelchair on the pavement...

You are very consistent to report about such behaviour on this site, so I'm interested to know, how often does this happen to you?
You say it mostly happens in busy pedestrianised spaces, is that when it's so busy a crowd from a slightly elevated position would look like a sea of heads? I figure at that point someone might interpret a gap in that carpet of heads as free space when it's actually it's the space taken by you and your chair.

As the ~95% of users on this site are interested in cycling as sport, recreation, or commuting /general transport (remaining being resident trolls), we are almost certainly not the people recklessly interacting with pedestrians at crowd-shuffle pace. Collective responsibility only goes so far, and we as a community are equally unhappy with the minority who erode what little good faith remains when we are targeted as the vogue out-group. So, with the greatest respect and deepest sympathy for the troubles you face, I don't know what you hope to achieve by ranting in this forum

Assuming that these incidents do happen to you and aren't a work of fiction, what sort of responses do you get from the police? You do report them to the police, I trust...?

Your chair is missing a period key.

Hypothetical quetion for you - if I am a car driver and I also ride a bicycle, would I be banned from these roads ?.

Of course you could just be a trolling (insert your own expletive here).

Just in case you are, as no roads are paid for by motorists, then there wouldn't be very many roads that cyclists and horse riders would be banned from and following from that there could actually be a valid reason to open all roads to cyclists and horse riders - including motorways though we'd probably have to have our own dedicated lane with the middle lane closed to motor traffice for our safety and all cars to be limited to the outer lane.

That would be the M6 toll road then I suppose. Although I think they are banned from it already.

Hivizalways wrote:

Just ban cyclists and horses from roads that motorists pay for. Simples

So no roads at all, given that all cyclists pay taxes that pay for the roads. OK, that's fine.

Motorists don't pay for the roads. I am a cyclist and pay vehicle emissions tax on two vehicles. Now up until April 2022 that tax did NOT pay for the upkeep of the roads and even now only a small minority of that is filtered into the budget for road upkeep. So, going back to your theory, out of myself and you, who do you think deserves to use the roads? Yeah you might want to think about your rediculous narrow minded attitude and engage brain before opening your mouth. .

Bit early for summer holidays.
Oh for the time when trolls had some finesse and imagination.

I'm guessing his far too large motor vehicle, purchased to compensate for inadequacies, is a dark colour, probably an oh so unique shade of grey, so making a nonsense of his username.

Oh for the time when trolls had some finesse and imagination

Agreed- we have here two nutter trolls with the usual type of unsubtle tripe.

Sorry but motorists don't pay for roads anymore we all do in our taxes
What you pay for is to drive 3 ton of metal on such roads .so what we should do is get along cyclist us cycle lanes ooooh forgot they usually blocked by cars hmmmmmmm see my point both got good and bad points 😊😊

I was thinking about some form of outrageous compliance. Pedestrians are also banned from KPG, so that rules out the clown outfit flash mob. I had a look at google maps, was trying to work out the best way to get a lot of cyclists round the - not traffic light oontrolled - entrances to KPG using left turns only. Repeatedly. Until the riders run out of cake.