Category Archives: Advocacy

City of London Police: Road Safety Forum

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This morning I attended the Road Safety Forum organised by the City of London police, at their Snow Hill police station, near Smithfield Market. It was a good meeting, well attended by a range of officers, including at a senior level, plus those responsible for implementation on the streets. There were also representation from Corporation of London and Transport for London. Among the most interesting things I learned was that during a single day of random spot checks of lorries (HGVs) by City of London Police on 30 September this year, every lorry stopped was found to be breaking at least one road safety law. Continue reading →

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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Nice to see the police setting an example. Today at 2.20pm on Webber Street, corner of Blackfriars Road, SE1.

For those who don’t know, this is an Advance Stop Line, a ‘safe place’ for cyclists to wait at junctions. If it wasn’t filled with two tonnes of Plod, that is.

The license number of the van is LX54 JBE.

‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ roughly translates as ‘Who watches the watchmen?’

27 September 2008: Bicycle Film Festival comes to town

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The Bicycle Film Festival comes to London from 1-5 October. Laura Fletcher is the BFF’s London ambassador and she previews a handful of highlights from the seven screenings at the Barbican Cinema plus all the parties, art shows, polo matches and roller-racing that make the Festival a veritable jamboree of bicycle culture. Plus a very special message from the Founding Director, Brendt Barbur. Buy tickets online here.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3) over here.

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CycleSafeLondon.com

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Two cyclists have been killed and another injured in collisions with lorries on the streets of London in the past week. This brings the unofficial total fatalities in 2008 to 8 or 9, depending on whether you count someone killed while wheeling their bike a cyclist or pedestrian. Whichever way, it’s 8 or 9 too many. Raising awareness, calling for action to make London roads safer and educating cyclists on how to minimise risk are the objectives of CycleSafeLondon.com, set up this week by members of the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed web forum, myself included.

Critical Mass is tonight and we’ll be distributing a basic leaflet explaining the problem and what can be done. You can download it to print yourself from here. Continue reading →

14 July 2008: Vive Le Tour // Civilised Streets

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Celebrating Bastille Day and the first week of Le Tour De France plus a discussion of civilised streets with Louise Duggan, streets advisor at the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). Just six days until this year’s Dunwich Dynamo….

Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

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28 January 2008: Transition Town Bicycling

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Totnes in South Devon is where the rapidly growing ‘transition town’ movement all began. Transition towns are a response to the problem of resource depletion, peak oil and climate change and embrace the practical and more esoteric aspects of changing lifestyles and mindsets. Totnes and the surrounding countryside – like many rural areas – remain heavily reliant on car travel. What can be done to get more people on bicycles in the countryside? Is cycling a viable rural alternative to the internal combustion engine? For more on Transition Towns, listen to the latest episode of Resonance FM’s Low Carbon Show. Plus Eric Gauster of Cycle Training UK on some great value bike maintenance classes for Londoners. We give away a place on either a basic or intermediate class to the listener who best completes the following sentence:

“I want to go on a bicycle maintenance course because…..”

email to bikeshow@gmail.com

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14 January 2008: Are cycling Waterloo sunsets under threat?

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Thames at nightSouthwark Council plans to ban cyclists from a key stretch of the Thames Path, which runs along the south bank of the Thames, alongside the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. Jack Thurston canvases the (mixed) opinions of passersby and rapidly discovers that no one has been consulted about this proposed new byelaw. Koy Thomson, director of the London Cycling Campaign shares his perspective on the plans and argues for shared space. Amy Cooper reports on cycle training with Patrick Field and a new year’s wish list of cycle-friendly policies for the next Mayor of London.

For more on the draft byelaw banning cycling on the Thames Path, visit Southwark Cyclists’ website. To make your views known to the two Southwark Councillors responsible for this policy area, you can email them directly:

Lisa.Rajan@southwark.gov.uk
Paul.Noblet@southwark.gov.uk
Jeffrey.Hook@southwark.gov.uk

It might be a good idea to forward or cc any emails you send on this to the redoubtable Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists, who is leading the campaign against the byelaw:

info@southwarkcyclists.org.uk

MP3 | Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis etc)

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