London gets ready to demand change with the Big Ride, will you be there?


London goes to the polls next week to vote for the Councillors who will control 70% of our city's roads; the streets where you live, the routes that you take to school, the quietways set back from the main roads.  In 2012 the London Cycling Campaign succeeded in strong-arming the Mayor to commit a billion pounds to create safe space for cycling on our main roads, and now they're hoping to repeat the success with our local borough councils.



So far a third of all the Council candidates have signed up to implement changes to bring about space for cycling in each ward of the city, but the LCC are hoping their Big Ride this Saturday will help to get even more on board.  It's going to be a two-wheeled kaleidoscopic cycling carnival but with a very serious message: that in order to keep all kinds of cyclists safe, to reduce the death toll on London's roads and to encourage more and more people to ride we must make more safe space for cycling.

How we go about that varies from each borough, with the LCC creating an incredibly comprehensive map of "asks"; from creating residential routes closed to through traffic right up to reducing entire gyratory systems.  It takes just a few seconds for you to find your ward and ask your local Councillors to implement change if they're elected.



And to ensure cycling is at the forefront of all the candidate's minds just days before London goes to the polls, this Saturday's Big Ride is going to really increase the pressure.

Thousands of Londoners are expected; from the very young to the very old, from the lycra clad to the laissez faire on sit up and begs.  There will be music and speeches to greet riders as they assemble on Park Lane, before processing through the very heart of London along an amazing traffic free route suitable for all the family.



Like a mini site-seeing tour of London, the ride will pass Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner, the Ritz Hotel, Fortnum and Masons, the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus, the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.

As well as promising to be a fun day out, every individual who comes will help to build the space4cycling message and ensure that the "story" gets maximum exposure from the media and maximum attention from Council candidates.  
Be there!

The London Cycling Campaign's Space For Cycling Big Ride gathers on Park Lane from 11AM on Saturday 17th May, departing at noon before ending on Embankment.  There are over 30 guided rides from across London to get you there safely, so why not come along and join in?

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