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Times Cycling Campaign

(70 posts)

  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    It's all over Twitter, the Times is launching a cycling safety campaign - "Cities Fit for Cycling"

    I'll let you read and explore for yourselves (it's not behind their paywall, before anyone starts thinking this is just the Murdoch press trying to make money out of an important issue!), but they have the following 8 point manifesto, very relevant to a lot of our recent discussions on various threads;

    The Times has launched a public campaign and 8-point manifesto calling for cities to be made fit for cyclists:

    1. Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit censors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.
    2. The 500 most dangerous road junctions must be identified, redesigned or fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors that allow lorry drivers to see cyclists on their near-side.
    3. A national audit of cycling to find out how many people cycle in Britain and how cyclists are killed or injured should be held to underpin effective cycle safety.
    4. Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.
    5. The training of cyclists and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.
    6. 20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.
    7. Businesses should be invited to sponsor cycleways and cycling super-highways, mirroring the Barclays-backed bicycle hire scheme in London.
    8. Every city, even those without an elected mayor, should appoint a cycling commissioner to push home reforms.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    Posted 13 years ago #
  3. chdot
    Admin

    Tut tut - I think the 'paper of record' means sensors!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    "
    Boris Johnson is currently preventing Southwark Council from sorting out this junction and making it a safer place for everyone. Why? Because he thinks it is more important that 'traffic' flows smoothly through London's squares and high streets.

    What Johnson forgets is that we are all traffic. Bicycles, pedestrians and drivers. And that we want to 'be' in these places not just 'whizz through' them.
    "

    http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2012/02/boris-johnson-you-promised-cycling.html

    Posted 13 years ago #
  5. Instography
    Member

    I held my nose, crossed my fingers and looked away while I supported a News International title doing anything. But there, I did it.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  6. crowriver
    Member

    I have to say I applaud this initiative. Hopefully it will help to change perceptions.

    Perhaps we'll have to wait until a journalist at the Scotsman, BBC Scotland or Daily Record is hit by a lorry before any Scottish media outlet starts a similar campaign.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  7. cb
    Member

    Currently this is sitting top of their 'Most Read' list on The Times website.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  8. chdot
    Admin

    "
    biggsy321 32 mins 11 secs ago Twitter

    @londoncyclist #cyclesafe Yesterday's accident in Old St where a Boris bike ended up under a lorry! Cyclist not hurt!

    http://yfrog.com/nzvcsgkj

    "

    More info - http://www.lfgss.com/thread79356.html

    Posted 13 years ago #
  9. shuggiet
    Member

    Superb initiative from the Times.. Keeps the pressure up..

    Posted 13 years ago #
  10. chdot
    Admin

    "
    Carlton Reid @carltonreid

    RT @thebikeshow: Via @kieronyates: No cyclists were killed on the streets of Paris in 2011. Zero. None.

    http://bit.ly/yHzhAw

    "

    Posted 13 years ago #
  11. PS
    Member

    I've even gone so far as to buy the Times today to show my support (first paper I've bought in months, possibly years). Will digest the details later...

    Posted 13 years ago #
  12. alibali
    Member

    No cyclists were killed
    Meanwhile, in the UK...

    Posted 13 years ago #
  13. shuggiet
    Member

    I used the Times link to 'Write to your MP' in order to demonstrate support. Ian Murray has provided a rapid and supportive response, albeit fairly non-committal:

    Thank you very much for your email about cycling in the City of Edinburgh and improving the safety of cyclists.
    As we try to reduce our Carbon Footprint, a key part of that must be taking people out of their cars and into alternative forms of transport. Cycling can play a huge part in reducing the number of cars on the road, I am in complete agreement with you that we need to do more to encourage cycling and a part of that has to be reducing the danger to cyclists on the road.
    As a keen cyclist myself I would certainly like to see the expansion of cycle lanes in the city, London's "Cycle Super-Highway" is an excellent example of what can be achieved.

    It is a shame that the excellent work that was started by the previous government appears to have stalled and there now appears to be a lack of significant progress on this issue.

    Thank you for your email on this important issue, If I can be of any further help on this or any other issue please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

    Yours Sincerely,

    Ian Murray MP

    Posted 13 years ago #
  14. chdot
    Admin

  15. Nelly
    Member

    Didnt buy it, but its the entire front page today, Cav, Hoy, Pendleton, Romero, Wiggo etc all signed up. Article inside from a truckers perspective, detailed graphics showing danger zones inside left turning truck etc.

    Think they are also going big guns tomorrow.

    @shuggiet - Ian Murray is also my MP - same kind of response - at least he thinks about it as he on occasion cycles to his surgeries.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  16. Darkerside
    Member

    With my cynical hat on, the honourable gentleman manages to say a great deal without actually committing to doing anything about it...

    Anyone bought today's paper yet?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  17. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I noticed that when Cav tweeted it he said something along the lines of "please support this to make our sport safer". I thought about getting all citizen cycling in response, but I didn't.

    I did once reply to a tweet from Chris Hoy moaning that he couldnt' park his car directly outside his flat in Edinburgh because he had another house in Edinburgh registered as his main address so couldn't buy a residents permit. My heart bled...

    But that aside, things seem to get noticed and more traction in this country when big name "personalities" sign up for it. So I suppose it's all good.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  18. PS
    Member

    @K Think Hoy's main residence is in Manchester, rather than him having two houses in Edinburgh?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

    "
    I noticed that when Cav tweeted it he said something along the lines of "please support this to make our sport safer".
    "

    Yeah I saw that.

    I think there is a long tradition of (some) people who cycle calling it sport (not Sport).

    Whether this helps to dis/encourage 'general public' is uncertain.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  20. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @PS would make sense, assume he gets a council tax discount on it then as a secondary residence and therefore forfeits residents permit rights

    Posted 13 years ago #
  21. LaidBack
    Member

    But will this resonate with general population outside London?

    I note no Provosts have joined the campaign yet....

    Posted 13 years ago #
  22. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Professor Stephen Glaister, head of the RAC Foundation, said: "We support the campaign" ...

    However, he insisted that cyclists had a key role in guarding against collisions and some must address their 'cavalier' attitude towards the rules of the road."

    On this I think he's probably right. In fact, it goes for any journey by any mode of transport. Whose journey is so time-critical – emergency services excepted – that every opporunity to advance one's position on the road by mere metres must be taken? Is your life, and potentially someone else's, so unimportant compared with the clock?

    For cycling I take great issue with good facilities being provided but which are then made inaccessible by parking or traffic jams on narrow roads.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  23. Instography
    Member

    Times is saying ...

    Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield and Belfast city councils all threw their weight behind calls to reform urban areas.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  24. And Edinburgh? The only UK city to sign up to European cycle targets? The city that wants to be a 'Model Cycling City'?

    So it doesn't support the Times' campaign?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  25. Roibeard
    Member

    Just used Write to Them to encourage my Councillors to add Edinburgh to the list, perhaps even in time for tomorrow's paper which continues the campaign.

    No idea if peer pressure ("all the other big boys are doing it") will work!

    Robert

    Posted 13 years ago #
  26. Instography
    Member

    Just heard back from my MP.

    " Thank you for your email.

    I agree there needs to be more support for those who choose to cycle, including better cycle routes and much improved facilities on board trains to store bicycles.

    I have written the Transport Minister, Keith Brown, asking what measures the Scottish Government is taking to promote active travel and safety for cyclists and I will be back in touch whenever I receive a response."

    I look forward to hearing from him.

    One of the issues with this gaining traction is, of course, that none of the Scottish papers will pick it up as it means giving credit to a rival.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  27. PS
    Member

    Anyone got a hotline to Cllr Gordon Mackenzie? He should be all over this as a catalyst to help the council achieve its cycling commitment...

    Posted 13 years ago #
  28. Roibeard
    Member

    @Instography - I was surprised that the Guardian has referenced their rival's campaign (drove me to check ownership!). Perhaps after all, it's not too much to imagine it being picked up by the Scotsman...

    Edit - also the Telegraph, but the Independent doesn't mention the campaign, despite having a leader today jumping on the bandwagon!

    Robert

    Posted 13 years ago #
  29. SRD
    Moderator

    BBC story about scooters also references the Times campaign

    Posted 13 years ago #
  30. This does seem to have some genuine momentum behind it. We need to capitalise and keep this thing going...

    Posted 13 years ago #

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