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

[silversurfer]

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.

[shootingstar]

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.

[silversurfer]

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.

[hebe]

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.