The amount of people over the years that have mentioned to me they would like to commute to work but are too nervous is also too many to count.  Hence I think the new Cycle Friday Rides to guide inexperienced cyclists in on their commute is a good initiative.

On Friday Boris joined the Cycle Friday guided ride into central London to raise visibiltiy of this scheme designed to encourage new cyclists to commute by raising their confidence by riding in with a guided group. These type of initiatives aim to get more new cyclists riding and as I said are great.

I think Boris is good to get stuck in and raise the visibility but my word to Boris though is the problem and reason people don't ride in to work is because a) the roads are too crammed and too busy and b) there are not enough cycle routes. It just does not feel safe (even if you are an experienced commuter like me). You need to stop avoiding the issue and papering over the cracks, if you want to see an increase in confidence and hence cycling in London the you need to look seriously at reducing:

a) the speed limit in London

b) with reducing the volume of precious motor vehicles and journeys on the roads

c) more and cycle routes which admitedly is not so easy to do in a city that has grown aggresively and rapidly with minimal control or thought for cyclists since the great fire of London gave us a missed opportunity to make a real difference for this great city. Still allowing motorbikes into bus / cycle lanes is probably the daftest thing any mayor has done since 1666 so well done Boris.

You also need to legalise left turns at lights for cyclists and remove the unecessary risk of getting squeezed by a car on a turn. The release below..

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has joined new cyclists on a Cycle Friday guided ride into central London. The Mayor said the rides were a great way of introducing people to regular cycle commuting. He said: "These rides are a terrific opportunity to give people who are tempted to cycle but maybe nervous of London’s roads, the opportunity to build their confidence by coming to one of several locations where they will be escorted on a commuter route into town by the wonderful marshals of the London Cycling Campaign.”

The Cycle Friday rides have been set up for the Mayor by LCC as a campaign to encourage more cycling commuters. Significant growth in cycle commuting is critical to managing the transport needs of London’s growing population. The Mayor has set a target of a more than 400% growth in cycling by 2025 from 2000 levels. Steady growth in cycling since 2000 has seen an increase so far of 107%.

LCC Chief Executive Koy Thomson said "Every cyclist is one less person driving in to work or squeezing on to the tube – Cycle Fridays are an easy and effective way of showing people how easy and convenient regular cycling can be – the more people hear about Cycle Fridays and try cycle commuting the fewer cars there will be on the roads."

Cycle Fridays are responding to a growing market of occasional cyclists who want to commute but need to build their confidence and knowledge through accompanied support. Hundreds of cyclists, including a high proportion of women, have already participated in the rides and the feedback has been highly positive. Many participants have gone on to riding the routes by themselves:

"I've lived in London for over three years and have always been scared about cycling around London drivers. Since going on my first Cycle Friday, I’ve cycled to work on my own three times now. Without your guided route, I don't think I would ever have cycled to work." Claire Arnold, Cycle Friday regular

"The rides have got me cycling to work and I’ve discovered how quick and enjoyable it can be to cycle in London – it’s great to be shown a good bike route which has so little traffic." Mark Campbell, Cycle Friday commuter from Brixton.

The rides run at 8 am every Friday until the 2nd of October from Mile End, Ravenscourt Park, Finsbury Park, Brixton, Swiss Cottage and Greenwich. Full details are provided at http://tfl.gov.uk/cycling Participants can simply turn up and join the ride. They are advised to arrive 15 minutes early so that their bike can be given a safety check.

Some info on the rides:

-        Rides start at 8am from Brixton Mile End, Finsbury Park, Ravenscourt Park Greenwich and Swiss Cottage

-        All rides are run by a ride leader with support from marshals and volunteers

-        More than 250 people have participated in the rides so far with an average number of 12 per ride.

Key Events

LCC is running dozens of free guided bike rides to the Mayor’s Skyride in central London on the 20th of September . An LCC member inspired the original London mass ride which now attracts 50,000 cyclists into the centre of London.

London Cycling Campaign is a volunteer led charity with 10,000 members. Its vision is to make London a world class cycling city. There are more than 800,000 regular cycle users in London.  LCC works to improve cycling in London.

Source: London Cycling Campaign

Good to see Boris has started wearing his cycle helmet although guessing he is not too comfortable with it

Written by :

stumpy_dan

 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed