Get on your bike to show politicians you want Space for Cycling in London

If enough come out on the road with a purpose they will get it sooner or later. Those are literally huge numbers definitely worth noticing. If you are flying out of Luton try Mobitairportparking.co.uk and travell safe.

Doh forgot to add will be going on Saturday. I'm starting from tescos Slough at 09:15 for a leisurely ride up the canals to hit the Uxbridge Rd just b4 Ealing then straight run in to top of the park will be stopping on route for a "greasy spoon"

To add to what WORKHARD has just said, perhaps if the cameras that police the congestion zone could be made to differentiate between single occupancy cars/vans etc or those with passangers and then charge extra for the first. That might make a difference, ie make people car share so therefore reduce the traffic volume.

What we need is to get the volume of motor traffic, especially single-occupancy private motor traffic, and in a London context I include cabs in that, reduced on the streets where people live and work and get the speed of the remaining traffic reduced.

Having then made our shared space streets available in safety to vulnerable users by reduction of volume/speed of motors, and only then, should we start looking at segregated infrastructure.

duc888 wrote:

As a very regular rider into London, this isnt the way to go, especially if this means putting kerbstones at the right hand boundary of a cycle lane.

So you are saying that the Dutch, with the highest rate of cycling and the lowest rate of cycling deaths, have somehow got it all wrong?

And that the current every-man-for-himself approach in the UK (lowest cycling rates in Europe) is working well?

duc888 wrote:

Cycling needs to co-exist on the roads and some of the riders need to stick to trains if they feel its insecure or man-up.

Man up? It is supposed to be an inclusive transport mode for all ages, not an extreme sport!

Nice one, I'll have to have a swing up there soon and have a quick blast round.

Depending on when your "Youth" was we may well have been riding Bruntwood around the same time.

Yes, Bruntwood's been completely refurbished with money from the Olympic Legacy Fund. There's a new club running taster sessions with loan bikes and ff lids. I rode there as a youth so this is great to see.

The last time I was in Platt Fields my wife told me I wasn't allowed to ride down the start ramp or go anywhere near the BMX track.

(To be fair, we were in the middle of doing our wedding photos as we'd got married about an hour earlier.)

Has Bruntwood been resurfaced recently? It was a bit of a death trap last time I was on it.

@farrell Time for a reality check here!

Providing kerbed protected lanes on big main roads is the only way to encourage mass cycling. This has worked in countless places all over the world, and anything else has consistently failed.

If you think these types of lanes are 'slow', you're wrong. I've ridden across Amsterdam at rush hour when late for a meeting, and you can easily cover ground just as quickly as you can in London ... but without having to dice with death.

And amazingly the same lanes are being used by children, the elderly and other slower people. It's simply a matter of designing those lanes and junctions well enough to allow rapid travel by bike including overtaking.

I'll be in London this Saturday - not because I'm a slow cyclist or I ride with kids but because I want everyone in London to have the same freedom I do.

It says 'installing physically protected space for cycling on main roads'.

As a very regular rider into London, this isnt the way to go, especially if this means putting kerbstones at the right hand boundary of a cycle lane. Those that ride at a more swift pace that others, and there always will be, will be stuck in too narrow lanes behind Boris bike wobblers.
I dare say its the Boris bike wobblers that have so far had the loudest voice, bleating on about how 'unsafe' they feel, so the (waste of) Space For Cycling campaign has been swayed by what in fact is a minority of insecure individuals.
Cycling needs to co-exist on the roads and some of the riders need to stick to trains if they feel its insecure or man-up.
Lets face it, if the same people feel insecure about driving do they bang on about having special driving space, do motorcyclists demand special lanes because they feel insecure.

roll on the criticism .....

I'll be at the Newcastle one. No road closures or marshalls either, just a two mile pootle around the city centre.
Slightly smaller numbers than in London I suspect!

http://newcycling.org/events/20140411/big-ride-around-town

The latest info about the Manchester Ride on the GMCC website states there won't be a police escort:
http://www.gmcc.org.uk/2014/05/space-for-cycling-gmcc-big-ride-saturday-...

But I'll be there with kids too, so I hope the numbers should make it less threatening than riding up Oxford Road usually is!

I'll be at the one in Manchester with the kids, it remains to be seen how much the police do to enforce safe cycling conditions through Rusholme and the oxford road corridor though.

I know it can be a bit London centric on here but I would have expected some mention of the fact that LCC's Space for Cycling is now a nationwide campaign organised by the CTC and Cyclenation with funding from the Bicycle Association. There are also rides happenning in Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/campaign/space-for-cycling