Different than Critical mass rides? 10,000 cyclists demand better in London, UK, etc.

So with 10,000 cyclists riding and demanding better cycling infrastructure in London, others in Edinburgh and Rome, do you think these rides over the weekend were different than our critical mass rides in major North American cities?

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public...cle3398722.ece

Apr. 30, 2012 The Times.

Central London was overrun by 10,000 cyclists today, as the biggest bike protest ever seen in the capital took to the streets.

The mayoral candidates Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones, as well as Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, joined the ride from Hyde Park to Blackfriars, which called on the candidates in next week’s local and mayoral elections to make concrete pledges to make the streets safer for cyclists.

Mr Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, said: “I personally am too afraid to cycle on the roads and roundabouts in London and that isn’t right. We need to review all junctions, especially those on the cycle superhighways.”

Ms Jones, the Green candidate, told The Times: I am here to celebrate cycling and London has to understand that cycling is the future.”

A parallel event took place in Edinburgh, where more than 3,000 cyclists – three times the turnout expected - rode down the Royal Mile.

In London, despite the steady rain, cyclists of all shapes and sizes - old and young, male and female, lycra-clad and fancy-dressed - took over Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and Victoria Embankment, chanting for safer streets.
Parmy Boual was out with her three children, Anil, 8, Markus, 12 and Mandeep 10 and said: “I want to see safer streets for us as a family. My kids have always ridden with us, in trailers when they were younger and then on their own bikes. All road-users need greater awareness.”

Mr Hughes, cycling alongside reporters from The Times, said that more secondary school pupils need to cycle and called for all new social houses to include safe cycle storage and parking, to save people needing “to carry bikes up four flights of stairs”. He said: “I have always supported events like this and this is really good to see.”

Dr Ashok Sinha, chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), who organised the ride with support from The Times, said: “We got the mayoral candidates to sign up to the LCC safer cycling campaign, and thousands of people are here to witness that promise. we weill be going back to them the day after the elections to see how they will act on it.”

Between them, The Times’s ‘Cities fit for cycling’ campaign and the LCC’s ‘Love London, Go Dutch’ campaign have received more than 70,000 signatures, with cycling expected to be a potentially decisive issue in the mayoral elections taking place this week in London, Liverpool and Salford.

Campaigners are calling on Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who famously cycles regularly in London, to defend his pro-cycling reputation in the face of escalating casualties. One cyclist said: “At the moment, the cyclists’ vote is with Jenny Jones as first choice, and Ken Livingstone as second preference.”

The organisers of the Pedal on Parliament ride in Edinburgh today are expecting more than 1,000 protesters, after the deaths of two cyclists — Andrew McNicoll, 43, and Bryan Simons, 40 — in the Scottish capital so far this year. Sixteen cyclists have been killed in the Lothian area since 2000. Sunshine is forecast for Edinburgh this afternoon.

“We’ve done nothing like this before,” said Dave Brennan, one of the organisers. “It sends a strong message to politicians that people want to get out on their bikes.”
On Monday the five major candidates for the London mayoral election will take part in hustings hosted by The Times and the Sustrans charity. It will be the only time that all the main candidates will come together to debate cycling.

Although all the candidates have expressed their verbal support for The Times’ Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, James Harding, the Editor, told the Government’s cycle safety inquiry this week that more needed to be done to make sure that “warm words are translated into action”.

In Edinburgh, because smaller numbers had been anticipated, no roads had been closed for the ‘Pedal on Parliament’, leading to a handful of arguments with irate motorists. One cyclist swore loudly at a car as it nearly knocked him off his bike on Canongate, and two taxis turning up onto the same road were also involved in a couple of close calls with the cyclists.

Dave Brennan, who organised the Pedal on Parliament, said: “We didn’t expect these sorts of numbers. We didn’t know how strong the feeling was, obviously we’ve struck a chord. People are coming form all over Scotland.”
But they reached Holyrood, where they were met by representatives from the main political parties, each of whom said they supported the movement’s agenda.
Before setting off, the campaigners held a minutes’ silence in memory of cyclists who had been killed on Edinburgh’s roads recently.

Paul and Jenny Wilson, who joined the protest with their son Christopher, said: “Coming from the north of the city to the south is quite tricky on a bike. The cycle routes don’t join up.”
Gareth Dennis, 21, who is a student at Edinburgh University, joined the protest after being involved in an accident on his bike. “I feel pretty angry about the state of cycling. The attitudes of the British are all wrong when it comes to cycling,” he said.

Alice Ennals Sumner, his friend, agreed: “The main problem is the attitude of drivers. Part of being a driver is recognising cyclists.”

Meanwhile a cycling campaign in Italy which is affiliated to The Times’ Cities fit for Cycling mustered thousands of riders for a demonstration in Rome.

Riding towards the Colosseum under the banner Veni, Vidi, Bici, they aimed to bring attention to the city’s lack of provision for cyclists and poor road safety record. To make their point the protesters dismounted and lay down as though dead in the Via dei Fori Imperiali. “Policy in this country is made for drivers,” said Alberto Fiorillo, one of the organisers.

Protest organisers said that more than 2,500 cyclists had been killed on Italy’s roads over the past ten years, the worst accident rates being in Rome and Milan.
Paolo Bellino, one of the cyclists, said that the most recent deaths were those of a 54-year-old cyclist run down on Friday near Naples and a 14-year-old boy hit in Parma.

I'm not sure how similar they are. I believe that the London and Edinburgh rides both had the route agreed and published some time in advance, and there was involvement from The Times newspaper. Road closures were effected by the police for the London ride, which seems to have enabled a safe protest. Critical Mass rides seem to be rather more fluid and informal in their organisation- do the local police close the roads for riders, and are they enabled/sponsored by businesses? I'm not entirely sure of how far the Times were involved with the UK rides but there was definitely some involvement.

The Times is currently spearheading a huge campaign for improving cycling safety in the UK. There's been a lot of news about cycling over the last few weeks and it would be great if we actually saw some positive changes come about.

For the critical mass rides in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto they have not been sponsored by local businesses. I am aware of some occasional big rides, there has been skeletal police escort. I'm talking about rides that approach over 1,000...which has been rare. That is a huge effort to do informally. It's not that cyclists in those cities don't care about better cycling infrastructure, it's just critical mass rides isn't always the best tactic: it angers car drivers by blocking roads intentionally without warning.

In fact, to take this approach might be risky long term between the cycling community and local businesses because of the criticism initially from local businesses near bike lanes, etc. A better strategy is to get local businesses sponsoring bike month, bike to work week events, etc. Less overt controversy.

The London critical mass rides take place on the evening of the last Friday of every month. This is a largely informal grouping/event where people who are interested turn up at an appointed place. The event on Saturday was part of a broader campaign called 'Love London, Go Dutch' by the London Cycling Campaign, which is an established organisation with about 11,000 members. The aim of the 'Go Dutch' campaign is to improve cycling infrastructure in the city, pointing to the higher standards in some cities in continental Europe. The ride on Saturday was timed to coincide with the Mayoral elections next week and a lot of organisation and publicity had gone into drawing as big a crowd as possible. This was not an informal ride. Many local groups also arranged meeting points and feeder rides to the event. Cyclists who participate in critical mass also often take part in such organised rides in support of particular issues.

Has transportation planning for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, created new work on cycling infrastructure improvements in the London area?

For Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the City of Vancouver and transit authority, TransLink had a goal to reduce incoming car traffic into the city area by 30% (some Olympic events were in downtown core, some sports events several kms further out).

It was an outright campaign for several months in advance to use transit, bike. There were road closures that were planned and ...temporary bike lanes created...of which 1 of them, a separated bike lane became permanent and runs into downtown Vancouver. But then we had the advantage of a brand new rapid light transit train added onto our network.

It was a transformative experience for Vancouver.

I know so because we live downtown.

Sorry, getting off topic. Hope that this huge ride, will spur on long-term hard work on cycling infrastructure and acknowledge existing behind the scenes work. It takes enormous dedicated work by cycling advocates and the municipality to work together...takes months, years of meetings, technical analysis,etc. It is this work, that is not seen by the public or the bigger group of cycling advocates who are not deeply involved on the planning side.

Not that I can see, but then I live and work south of the river. The Olympic Park is in east London and I hear from friends that a certain amount of work has been done to clean things up like the canals etc. and to improve roads. Quite a bit of road works closer to the city too. There have also been improvements in public infrastructure in various parts of London during the past few years e.g. extension of the tube (metro) lines.

The LCC has been critical of the failure to promote cycling to the games. We now have 'cycle superhighways' in London of varying degrees of effectiveness. Cycle Superhighway 2 which is supposed to run from the city centre to the Olympic Park, ends over a mile from the games and there is a lethal junction on the way (though there is a lot of lobbying on this). Here is a link to the LCC page: http://lcc.org.uk/pages/olympic-park.

I've been commuting in London for coming on 20 years and there have been significant improvements since then. But it has taken a long time and we are a long way from being a safe cycling city. In my view, the thing that has made the biggest difference is the increase in the number of cyclists. This has made us more visible and it makes us more difficult to ignore. I also believe that the previous Mayor of London (who is standing for re-election) introduced changes that made cycling a bit safer such as bus lanes and congestion charging. But as we know, it's still an uphill struggle with a lof of prejudice to overcome. Business interests can also get in the way.

Thanks SilverSurfer. The pictures on that link look like the stuff of dreams. I hope that their ideas come to fruition, and also that the rest of UK follows suit.