Cyclists condemn mayor's decision to disband police lorry safety unit

I don't like to talk about cycling in terms of death and danger, essentially because it's safer than walking down the street & I don't like to perpetuate the 'cycling is a dangerous activity' myth, as oppose to promoting it as being ordinary and everyday.  But, in this instance, I think this story is worth highlighting and shows how our 'cycling Mayor' has made a terrible mistake of a decision.  Story lifted straight from the pages of our friends over at the London Cycling Campaign - all credit to them.

Cyclists condemn mayor's decision to disband police lorry safety unit

The mayor Boris Johnson has been strongly criticised for his decision to disband a specialist lorry safety unit run by the Metropolitan Police force.

The decision to axe the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit (CVEU) comes in a year when 8 of the 10 cyclists fatalities in London have involved collisions with lorries.

70% of the vehicles checked by the unit since 2005 have been found to be defective, and it is the only such unit in the country.

LCC cycling development officer Charlie Lloyd said, "It's difficult to believe that our cycling mayor is disbanding the only police unit in the country that has the power to properly investigate unsafe lorry operators, and bring them up to standards set by Health and Safety law.

Eight of ten 2009 cyclist fatalities involve HGVs
Despite the high proportion of cyclist fatalities involving HGVs, the mayor has claimed that the voluntary scheme for haulage companies, the Freight Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS), provides adequate protection for cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

Lloyd said, "The mayor sings the praises of the Freight Operators Recognition Scheme, but there's a significant minority of operators who will never consider joining. It's for these people that the police need expert powers to pursue them until they comply with the law."

Mayor "badly informed" on cyclist/HGV safety
Jenny Jones, London Assembly Member for the Green Party, said, "Not enough is being done to stop cyclists and others from going under the wheels of HGVs in London. What little has been done has mostly been carried out by the police officers in this unit.

"The mayor is badly informed if he thinks that the small back-street haulage firms and businesses will sign up to his voluntary scheme."

Boris Johnson said, "The three sergeants and nine constables [of the CVEU] are being directed to other jobs as part of savings in the police budget.

"That's only happening because we're confident that the freight operators, through the FORS, will implement safety measures."

What is the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit?

Since 2005 the CVEU has completed over 3000 roadside checks of freight vehicles, finding fault in over 70% of cases. The unit has also visited over 400 companies to examine procedures, agree action plans, and issue improvement notices under the Health and Safety Act.

The unit costs Transport for London less than £1 million per year. The funding goes to the Metropolitan Police Service under a  parterneship agreement with the Transport for London Freight Unit.

The combined budget for the police and transport in London in 2009-10 is over £11 billion. 

101 reasons to love cycling in London #6 - zero emissions!

Regardless of whether you believe in climate change or not (and frankly, I see no sane reason why you wouldn't) I think everyone agrees that the release of toxic particles such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere can't be a good thing.  One of the great joys of cycling is, of course, the fact that it is emissions free (which is why, of course, we don't pay 'road tax' - these days it's called vehicle emissions tax and if you ride a bike, or drive an electric car, you don't have to pay it either - honest!) Whilst of course there are a certain amount of carbon emissions released in the construction and delivery of your bicycle these are minimal in comparrison to the emissions for the production and delivery of a car. 
And the emissions for driving 5 miles to work and back for the working year in an average family size car? (I'm going here for the UK's favourite car, the Ford Focus, a 3 door 1.6ltr manual, in silver, naturally) 


You'd emit 157 grams of carbon per k/m.


10 miles = 16.09km
16.09kms x 227 working days in a year = 3652.43kms per annum
3652.43kms x 157grams of CO2 per km =
573431.51 grams of CO2 (or half a tonne)


That is to say, your little Ford Focus would emit half it's own weight in CO2 every year - just to drive 5 miles to work and back.


Your bike?  ZERO!  Is this a reason to love cycling in London?  With our city great capital having some of the very worst air pollution in Europe , I like to think so.

Children in deprived areas "at greater road risk"

The following press release, from the press agency Reuters, is reasonably balanced and tells a story.  It's a sad story about young people and how they are more likely to die on roads in areas like where I live, Tower Hamlets in London, because of their socio-economic standing.  It also discusses a minor issue amongst the cycling community, and approaches to road uses in general.  So far, so straight-forward.  I encourage you to read it and then re-join my for a little analsis at the bottom...

LONDON (Reuters) - Children in deprived areas are four times more likely to be killed in road accidents than those in wealthier locations, a report by MPs said on Thursday.

The Public Accounts Committee also said more should be done to examine the "irresponsible behaviour of some cyclists" and what impact they had.

Although Britain is one of the safest countries in the world in terms of road deaths, the death rate of child pedestrians was worse than in many other countries, the committee said.

In 2007, 646 pedestrians and 136 cyclists were killed, with more than 30,000 pedestrians and 16,000 cyclists injured.

The committee called for the Department of Transport (DfT) to introduce more road safety measures, such as speed humps, 20 mph zones and speed cameras, saying the current child casualty rate was unacceptable.

The committee said the higher death rate in deprived areas might be because children in such places were more likely to be unsupervised and to be near roads when they returned from school.

"The department's approach towards child deaths must be one of zero tolerance," said the PAC's chairman Edward Leigh.

"It should give priority to promoting child pedestrian road safety schemes in deprived areas, which suffer disproportionately from such casualties."

The MPs' report said the number of deaths and injuries of cyclists had fallen since the mid-1990s but that from 2004 to 2007 there had been an 11 percent increase, despite no significant rise in the amount of cycling.

It said the DfT appeared unaware that many people thought some cyclists were a "hazard to themselves and other road users."

"Some cyclists are perceived to behave irresponsibly, such as riding on pavements and disregarding red traffic signals, thereby posing a danger to themselves and making other road users including elderly pedestrians feel unsafe," they said.

The DfT said only a minority of cyclists were irresponsible.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

So, the general gist of this story is that, tragically, 646 pedestrians and 136 cyclists killed in 2007.  I only know of ONE death to a pedestrian by a cyclist in recent history.  Which means the other 781 deaths must have been caused by something else, some awful child-killing monster lurking on our streets.  The press release doesn't mention what this killer must be, but I would hazard a guess that it is the automobile...

And what did our national broadcaster interpret this press release as? 

"Cars kill kids"?

Nope.

"Poor kids more likely to die on our streets because they are poor"?

Nope, not that either.

"Lots of people die on our roads but some cyclists are a little bit of a nuisance"?

Nope, not even.

Yes, you've guessed it, the BBC, our national and venerated broacaster, interpreted this story like this:

"Target pavement cyclists, say MPs"

Never mind all those dead kids in our roads, what about those pesky cyclists?!!

I am beyond words, really, I am.

Lighten up!

For those of us in the UK this weekend can mean only one thing - the dreaded turning back of the clocks.  We are officially going into British Winter Time - brrrrrr!  Of course this technically means you get an extra hour in bed, which is always a bonus, but it also means it's going to be dark - and I mean proper dark - before 5PM when it comes to you cycling home.


I'm not your Mum - I'm not going to lecture you about safety equipment and tell you that you should guild every sqaure inch of yourself in hi-viz that you can find (indeed, I have my own theory that if everyone wears hi-viz then it becomes invisible, in which case you have to find something else to catch the attention of other errant road users)


My only wise words I will impart to you is this:  get some lights.


Why?  Well, firstly it's the law and I like to think that if we don't want to end up perpetuating the 'Daily Mail' public image of cycling we should probably all abide by (most) laws, and secondly because this week I have seen people riding along a well-lit street in central London with no bike lights in heavy traffic and let me tell you this - you cannot be seen.  And that is truly terrifying.


So dust off those old lights you probably keep in the back of your sock draw, replace the batteries (come on, admit it, you've not used them for months, the batteries are half dead aren't they?) and peddle on along your merry way - the darkness (or the cold) are no reasons to stop cycling - just get on out there safely and enjoy yourselves.  And hey, if you keep cycling now think how many more mince pies you'll have earnt by Christmas....

101 reasons to love cycling in London #5 - it's fun!

A visitor to this blog recently posted: "Mark, you must not be too utilitarian. There has got to be fun!" on my writing about cycling.  I couldn't agree more - so here it is, my 5th reason for loving cycling in London - it's fun!  Lots and lots of fun!  Want proof?  Riding recently down Blackheath Hill to Greenwich there was no traffic around - it was about 2AM and the streets were deserted.  Having laboured all the way to the top of the hill it was immensely satisying to turn around, face up into the wind, and start cycling down hill again.  That mixture of fear, fun and liberation is intoxicating, coupled with the whirr and hum of a bicycle at speed- every time I get it it's like I am 5 years old again. I can't help it, but I find myself going "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!".


When was the last time the Tube or the number 8 to Bow Church made you do that?!!

The public face of cycling?

I picked this photo up of an old Raleigh bike advert at Portobello markets a weekend or so ago - it was just festering there, slowly creasing and falling to pieces, in a huge mound of old photographs and pictures.  Something about it struck me, resonated with me, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.  So I picked up the photo for 10p and brought it home...

It was only when I got home, and I had a chance to take the picture out of my jacket pocket, that I was able to think about it more clearly.  

"How happy that sailor on the bike looks", I thought, 

"How handsome, and smartly turned out, and fit - especially compared with his garish fat friend in the background. How comfortable, and confident he seems.  I wish I looked like that when I ride my bike!"

Times have changed, it seems.  If you go to the Raleigh website today and click on the 'Men's bikes' tab, this is the image we are greeted with:

Now I know some of you will be thinking "Well, Mark isn't really comparing like with like - the gentleman in the old photo is a commuting cyclist whereas the gentleman on the mountain is, well, a mountain biker" I know this of course, and it's not apples with apples, but still I think it is very telling that this is the lead image that a cycle manufacturer chooses to promote their range of products.  I think it shows how far cycling and bikes have become somehow 'other' in our world, as oppose to everyday, and ordinary - something done by every day and ordinary people in their own clothes, and in comfort.  Now obviously if you want to ride a bike up a mountain, you need the right gear.  But surely this appeals to a limited market by comparison to everyday and ordinary people? (ie. everyone?) Shouldn't this market of 'everyone' be who Raleigh are aiming their bikes at, not just a small minority?

Transport for London employed M&C Saatchi to come up with their recent "Catch Up With The Bicycle" poster campaign, the aim of which was to encourage transport users to consider cycling.  I think they got it just about right.  Those who choose to wear cycle helmets do so, those who don't - don't.  The people are fresh and happy looking, upright and confident.  You can see their faces... This poster was shot in my neighbourhood in East London, on uber-cool Columbia Road (the shop with the red shutters is a fabulous sweet shop where I go should I feel the need to re-capture my childhood.  And rot my teeth.)

In the 1950s, before your parents and grandparents brought their first cars (only one per family mind you!) Britain had cycling rates comparable with the rest of Europe. Cycle traffic on public roads fell dramatically from 23 billion passenger kilometres in 1952 to only around 4 billion kilometres in the early 1970s, or so the Office of National Statistics tells me.  So long as cycling continues to be portrayed as something odd, alien, dangerous or 'weird' those figures aren't going to change any time soon.  I think the point I am trying to make here is that we need to think about the way that - as cyclists - we are portrayed in the mainstream.  Do your friends think of you as being a bit weird, in your funny clothes on your funny bike?  Or to them are you just another cyclist?  Which would you rather be?

Out of town: Paris, and the velibe scheme

I was recently in Paris and was keen to see how the much discussed Paris Velibe bike hire scheme had changed the City of Lights.  And to check out the cyclists of Paris to see what they were riding, what they were wearing and how many of them were there.


The thing that struck me first, as I crossed town in an electric taxi (Come on London, keep up!) was just how much more traffic there is in central Paris, and how much more noticeable the congestion is - the concept of congestion charging isn't popular in France and it wasn't till I visited Paris, as a comparable city to London, that I noticed that perhaps as a consequence of the congestion charge the traffic situation in London isn't nearly as bad for cyclists as the popular media would have you believe. (Or maybe that it's not as bad as it could be.)  Clear cycling signage helped the bikes to navigate through town and avoid the worst of the busiest streets.

It wasn't long before I saw someone peddling by on a hire bike - you can spot them a mile off because they're a distinctive metallic green colour.  "Crumbs" I thought "that bike looks heavy", but whizzed past me they did so clearly appearences can be deceptive.  What's more, the bikes are striking for their 'all in one' design - they have half-tyre mud guards, integrated bright dynamo lights, a solid looking wire mesh front basket, with a lock and a kickstand.  Everything you need for a city bike, and a millon miles away from that prevalent image of cycling that I think we have here in the UK of bikes being something sporty, hyper-masculine and the reserve of fit bods in lycra (or worse, not so fit bods in lycra!)  Now whilst I'm a big fan of sports cycling, peddling your bike through a city is a totally diferent matter, and it seems to me that Paris have designed a good looking, robust bike that's fit for the job. 

The hire stations, which you see every 300 metres or so were busy with bikes coming and going and seemed easy to use too, so long as you're armed with a credit card.

I took the shots below on the Pont au Double near Notre Dame of some ordinary Parisians peddling about their daily business - and don't they look fabulous in their long coats and heels? 

As you can see all of the cycle stands in the city (placed on former car parking spaces) were busy too - always a sign of a strong bicycle culture.  It's been widely noted that ordinary Parisians trying out the Velibe scheme remembered how much they used to love their bikes, and the velorution followed naturally - I hope the same will be the case in London next year when Boris Johnson launches our very own cycle hire scheme.  The increase in bicycle share of total trips in Paris leapt from 1% to 2.5% in 2007 - more than doubled - there was a 46% increase in bicycle trips in the third quarter of 2007 following the introduction of the Velibe scheme ('Velibe' incidentally, is a made up word combining the French for bicycle 'velo' and that key stone of the French constitution 'liberte' - I think it's a rather fitting word - we are yet to find out what London will call it's scheme when it launches next summer).  The statistics speak for themselves.

I finished my 'cycle study' along the Seine on the segregated cycle pathway that runs between the Louvre gardens (Jardin des Tuileries) and the Voie Georges Pompidou - it's a crying shame that London doesn't have a similar dedicated cycle path alongside the Thames on the Victoria Embankment, and it's high-time we had one.

101 reasons to love cycling in London #4 - avoid the congestion charge!

If you're one of those people who make up the two fifths of car journeys which are under 3 miles in the UK and are coming to London, here's a big tip: don't drive, ride!  The congestion charge costs £8 a day for the benefit of driving a private motor car in central London, and added up over the working year (227 days a year) that's a massive £1816 a year - and this, of course, on top of car value depreciation, vehicle emmisions tax, MOTs and servicing and the price of fuel.  So let's recap - by cycling around central London instead of driving you're getting to your destination faster, you're getting fit, you're reducing carbon emissions in the city with the WORST air pollution levels in Europe and, perhaps most importantly to your Average Joe, you're SAVING nearly two thousands pounds a year.  Sounds good to me.

Bikes on boats - the fast way down the Thames

I took friends on a Thames Clipper fast ferry from Greenwich to Waterloo over the weekend - it's a great way to see London and get about, and considerably cheaper and faster than those awful tourist-laden 'tour boats' you see chugging up and down our city's great river. 


Standing on the stern I was surprised to see 4 bike racks and it suddenly hit me what a great way this would be to get from one end of town to the other with your bike, as oppose to on it.  Don't get me wrong, cycling round town is great, but integrating bikes with publc transport can make it even greater - especially if, like me, you sometimes flag a little and fancy a lift back.

Wouldn't it be great if our buses had bike racks too?  Now that really would be something.  They have a system whereby you can clip your bikes to the front of buses in Seattle, amongst others.  Why not London?

Thames Clippers:

http://www.thamesclippers.com/

Seattle 'bike buses'

http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/bike/bikeride.html

101 reasons to love cycling in London #3 - gets the heart rate going.

As a family we don't historically have the most robust of hearts.  And whilst I consider myself reasonably fit, if I didn't cycle I wouldn't be getting a whole lot of any other exercise.  So, whilst I am peddling to and from work and enjoying the streets of London, in the back of my head I am also glad I am getting the old heart rate going, as an hour of cycling a day can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by up to 50% - I like to think of it as an investment in my future.

Paris to London cycle path plan unveiled

The Mayors of London and Paris, and the heads of the respective intervening counties have come together to unveil a planned cycle route between the two cities, crossing 'La Manche' by ferry between Newhaven and Dieppe.  Planned for completion by 2012 (will the French Olympic cycle team come to the new Velodrome in Stratford on their bikes perhaps?!) the 218 mile 'Green Avenue' will utilise roads, existing cycle paths, and stretches of a disused train line.


"We want to symbolically link the Tower of London to the Eiffel Tower with an alternative mode of transport to the car that crosses landscapes of great quality," said Didier Marie, head of France's Seine-Maritime department.

The press have been headlining about a 'London to Paris' cycle route, but I like to think of it as being the other way, in the hope that some of those chic everyday Parisian cyclists will wheel over here and bring some of their own estimable cycling style with them to the streets of London.


Of course, this is not a direct route and seems to meander through Redhill in Surrey via Seine Maritime in France before finally swinging into Paris, but it would certainly make for a nice holiday.  And, checking out the video I can almost smell the countryside!  I just hope that by the time the scheme is complete those visiting Parisians aren't so horrified by the state of inner city London's cycling infrastructure that they turn round and cycle back again as fast as they can.

Website

http://www.francobritishcycleplan.org/

Video on Green.tv

http://www.green.tv/avenue_verte 

Out of town: cycling helmet laws in Australia and Sue Abbott

I used to live in Sydney, Australia, so I know all too well from first hand experience just how few cyclists there are out on the streets of Oz.  It's a sad sight indeed and stems directly, I believe, from Australia being one of the first countries in the world to enact a law that makes the wearing of helmets compulsory.  Shortly after the law came into force, levels of cyclists across Oz dropped by 20-40%.  When you consider that cycling regularly is apparently supposed to decrease the risk of heart disease by 50%, as well as all of the other long term health and environmental benefits associated with getting on one's bike, it was all a bit of an own goal for Oz, I'm sure you will agree.  It is worth noting that Australia currently has worse levels of childhood obesity than America.


Well, one determined lady - Sue Abbott - who lives in the pretty, quiet, back-country town of Scone in New South Wales was recently booked for riding without a helmet.  Sue is a well-regarded member of her local community - well educated, sensible, the wife of the town Doctor.  She decided to appeal her court case, and irrepressible Australian film maker, Mike Rubbo, followed her story.  The mesmeric film, below, is the result.  Mike also maintains a cycling blog with an Aussie slant, a jump to which can be found below and in my links bar.


I'm not keen to start an argument here as to whether helmets are a good thing or not, or that the earth is flat or round, merely that doing something that has a risk associated with it in life (be that cycling, smoking or walking down a busy road) should be the choice of the adult individual - and laws to try and force a decision onto us actually has a long term negative effect.  The sooner Australia falls in line with the rest of the world and bans the law on lids, the happier place it will be.



Mike Rubbo's blog:

http://datillo.wordpress.com/ 

Cycle Show parking & the bikes of the London Cycle Hire Scheme?

The cycle show kicks off today at Earls Court in London and will be stuffed to the gills, I'm sure, with bike goodies and cycling accessories for you to spend your well-earned cash on, should you so wish.  I won't be making it this year as I have visitors from overseas and my diary is somewhat overstretched at the moment, but I'm interested to hear what anyone who goes along thinks of it.


Most interestingly, they are having to create a special 'bike park' for the expected volume of cyclists turning up on their bikes having somewhere to lock up their bikes securely.  I find it sad indeed that such a facility doesn't exist already for a big exhibition space in central London such as Earls Court - a bike rack for a week isn't much of a bike rack in my opinion - I'd like to be able to cycle to ALL events there, not just cycling related ones.  In my opinion, new provision needs to be made in planning law that all new developments (whether residential, commercial or a space like the exhibition centre) must have a certain percentage of cycling infrastructure built in - be that bike racks, bike lanes or showers in offices.  Hey presto, the velorution would build itself, but I don't see it happening for some time yet, alas...


Anyway, getting to the point... Transport for London have been boasting that visitors to the show will be able to view and try out the bikes which will be used to launch the Mayor of London's bike hire scheme next year.  Well, you saw it here first folks.  The scheme (which is yet to have a name - any suggestions anyone?) was contracted out to SERCO (the peeps who run that most bicycle unfriendly mode of public transport, the DLR, amongst other things) and BIXI, the people behind the cycle hire scheme in Montreal, Canada.  Therefore, it's probably fair to suggest that for reasons of economic convenience we'll all be riding BIXI bikes next year, which are built in Canada and look something like this:

I, for one, can't wait to try them out - though I'm not a fan of the 'basket' on the front - how are you supposed to keep anything in it?!

http://www.cycleshow.co.uk/

http://montreal.bixi.com/home/home-bixi

101 reasons to love cycling in London #2 - not being sweaty!

Now this might come across as a big surprise, but I see cycling as the non-sweaty option for getting across London.  Despite all the marketing images showing cycling as being a high octane athletic kind of pursuit, you can of course cycle as slowly as you like.  And I'm a sweaty sort of a chap.  But I still prefer to hop in the saddle.


It's simple really.  I used to get to work every morning having experienced this:

...these days I gently peddle through this:

And for those who worry that cycling makes you sweaty, well of course it all depends on how hard you peddle, and in the height of summer the temperature on the platforms of the Central Line in Zone 1 peaked at 50oC this year.  For me, when added into the equation of all the other reasons why I love cycling in London, there was really no contest.

It's all about the cycle chic, baby!

The blogosphere is buzzing with blogs about bikes these days - it seems there's a definite move to get the message out there that going by 2 wheels is a good thing. Of course, there's more than a fair share of sports blogs and sales orientated cycling websites trying to make bikes out to be the reserve of semi-gods of athleticism loaded with cash ready to buy the best kit around. But that's not, in my honest opinion, what day to day cycling is all about, and neither is it going to appeal to 'Ordinary Joe' and encourage him or her to get on their bike in the future.

The radient and lovely Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton besides her Pashley Poppy

Two blogs I love to waste my lunch hour perusing are London Cycle Chic and Copenhagen Cycle Chic - loaded with pictures of bright young things getting about on their two wheeled steeds and not an inch of lycra in sight. Exactly how things ought to be. Can't you see yourself looking as cool as some of these kids out on your bike? Incidentally, Copenhagen Cycle Chic is brought to us by the same people behind the always-fabulous and ever-stimulating copenhagenize.com - anyone with more than a passing interest in the place of the bicycle in the modern world should take a look.

http://londoncyclechic.blogspot.com/

http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

http://www.copenhagenize.com/

101 reasons to love cycling in London #1 - savings!

The first of hopefully many of my reasons to love cycling in London - saving money!  It's not the primary reason why I love to get on my bike every morning but hey, we live in tight times and it's good to be economically conscious.  By my calculations my return tube fair (Bethnal Green to Mayfair & back) comes to £4.40 a day with an Oyster card (more without one, and more if I go anywhere after work on the public transport system.)  As such, if I cycle for all work days at 227 days a year (5 days a week, plus 25 days paid holiday) instead of taking my usual route on the tube I'm making a massive saving of NINE HUNDRED & NINETY EIGHT POUNDS a year.  That's cash in the bank, cold stuff, readies, dough, moolah, cash.  Need I say more?

Cycle Speed Bumps give me the hump

Dear Islington Council,


I was alarmed to hear you'd recently installed 'cyclist's speed bumps' on Douglas Road South in Islington because apparently there are far too many cyclists using this particular stretch of road, presumably flying along out of control and it was only a matter of time before a local resident was knocked down and killed by one of these terror-bikers!

I hear the speed bumps cost some £3,000 to install - a considerable sum I am sure you will agree.  So I am sure that you did your home work before hand and made sure that EVERY resident along this road had asked for the speed bumps (or at least a majority, this is a democracy after all).  I am sure you also commissioned a study to see just how many of these local residents were knocked down and ensured the speed bumps were a commensurate measure suitable to the perceived danger.  I am sure that you took into account the fact that cycling regularly is likely to reduce the risk of heart failure by up to 50% for riders and that it reduces pollution in the local area and factored all of these points into your cycle speed bump equation.

Oh, and of course I know you must have taken into consideration universal access issues - still, I doubt many people with prams, in wheelchairs or with vision impairments probably ever come near this road, right?  So the 14 speed bumps in a row won't affect them at all - no problem!

I am sure you also responded to local residents who said they were concerned that they would be knocked down by cyclists by asking them (politely of course) to just look where they were going before stepping into their road, but I know what these pesky residents are like, they just don't listen do they?

I am sure you also prepared them for the potential shift to motorised transport on their street as all the cyclists who used to use this relatively safe and quiet road decide to drive cars instead to get from A to B, because of the convenience.  Ah, but hang on a minute - more cars - hmmm, 10 people a day die on our roads as a result of car accidents, but I believe only 3 died last YEAR as a consequence of cycling incidents.  So I guess we'd better put 14 speed bumps in a row in all of our roads, to slow down the cars that all the cyclists are driving now, right?

Thanks, Islington Council, that was a well thought out purchase - money well spent!  I am sure that we will all, motorists and residents of Douglas Road South alike will have a better quality of life as a consequence.

Yours somewhat sarcastically,

Mark

The RAC fails to get it.... COMPLETELY

The RAC Foundation purports to "campaign to secure a fair deal for responsible road users."[1].  By that statement one would assume they mean ALL responsible road users, you know, cyclists, motorists, people on buses, the lot. Right?.. Wrong!

In commenting on their report "A Roads Policy for Londoners" [2] released today, they had the following to say about cycling:

"The Mayor of London is in danger of becoming pre-occupied with minority-focused transport schemes, and high-cost initiatives rather than concentrating on the fundamental travel problems faced by millions of people every day.  His emphasis on cycle ‘super-highways’, bikes for hire and a new bus for London has blinkered him to the wider strategic issues.  With increasing demand for road space, many areas of central London could become no-go areas for cars because of the proliferation of road works, bus lanes and cycle-ways. In outer London population and traffic growth is set to bring increasing misery for motorists."

The chairman of the foundation, Professor Stephen Glaister, goes on to say:

"There are already an estimated 7.6 million people in greater London and this figure is set to grow by 800,000 by 2025. In the same period an extra 900,000 jobs will be created. This means an extra four million journeys in the city each and every day...

...[the Mayor] needs to think less about attention-grabbing policies linked to niche modes of travel like cycling and grasp the bigger problems of transport in the capital, not least congestion in outer London. With the best will in the world, encouraging a few more people onto their bikes is not going to solve the relentless jams in the suburbs." [3]

Now, maybe as a cyclist I am being somewhat facetious here, but is it just me or have the RAC Foundation totally failed to understand the point of cycling and schemes to promote cycling here?  Boris Johnson's cycle superhighways scheme (on which I will write more of later) is part of a raft of measures aimed at bringing about a 'cycling revolution' here in London - a scheme to help instigate a modal shift from other forms of transport to the bicycle (ie. to stop cycling being a 'niche mode of transport' and become a major form of transport.)  In a country where 60% of car journeys are less than 5 miles in distance [4], and considering the health benefits to the population, you'd think this would all be seen as a GOOD THING.  Clearly not by the RAC Foundation, whose entire tone seems to be somewhat focused on the private automobile as the only solution to all of our ills. There isn't one solution to London's traffic problems - not cycling, not new buses, no magic wand.  But, a focus on diversifying transport options (and this is where bikes come in) is a valuable path forward and if this means the motorcar becomes an element within a broader range of transport options then this has to be a positive.  Inner city London, incidentally, has the lowest ownership of private car levels in the whole of the UK according to the Office of National Statistics, so when Boris is focusing on transport options other than the car he is appealing to the whole of his electorate, not just a select few. (56% of us do without a car in my home Borough, Tower Hamlets.  57.8% in more affluent Islington.) [5]

Furthermore, I find it galling that the RAC Foundation is complaining about a comparatively low sum of money (off the top of my head the Transport For London budget for cycling schemes and promotion in London this year is somewhere in the region of £120 million - less than half than the approximate cost of building just one mile of new motor-way.)  Viewpoints like the RAC’s only help to re-enforce the idea that cycling and cycling schemes are somehow 'stealing' money from motorists when of course we all pay for roads through our Council Tax and not, as so widely believed in this country, by our 'Road Tax'.

When Professor Glaister says "This means an extra four million journeys in the city each and every day" he fails to quantify how those journeys will take place (they could be by tube, or tram, or car, but not JUST by car) so is clearly employing alarm tactics.  And, when he goes on to say "With the best will in the world, encouraging a few more people onto their bikes is not going to solve the relentless jams" he clearly hasn't grasped the importance of cycle advocacy and promotion schemes and their potential effects for transformation - back in the 1970s Denmark, and specifically Copenhagen, were as jammed and clogged with cars as any other European city - now they are a model transport city where 55% of all journeys are made by bicycle [6]  That's how big the dream is at stake here and it's a poor show by the Professor for thinking otherwise.

It's a big FAIL for the RAC Foundation - Proffessor Glaistor, see me after class.

Links & sources:

[1]  http://www.racfoundation.org/ "About Us"

[2]  http://www.racfoundation.org/files/A%20Roads%20Policy%20for%20London%20(Peter%20Brown).pdf

[3]http://www.racfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=692&Itemid=35

[4]http://www.ne-derbyshire.gov.uk/environment--planning/live-cooler-smarter-greener/our-local-environment/greener-transport

[5]  http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7239

[6]  http://www.copenhagenize.com/