Centralised discussion space for TfL plans and cycling in London

There have been discussions today (on Twitter) about the need for a centralised space to discuss TfL's plans for London's streets , infrastructure, road safety, campaigning, protests, police operations etc. accessible to the general public and perhaps not owned by a specific organisation. To some extent LFGSS is already being used for this as is evident from all these threads:

The Central London Grid

Police spotting (junction watch)

road safety?

London (Barclays) cycle hire

The Times cycling campaign

Blood on the streets

Sort of traffic that's messing your commute

Boris' new cycling advisor

Town planning for cycling aka bad junctions

Die in at TFL HQ

Space for cycling protest ride

Cycle campaigning

Shared road space

What do LCC think about cycle training?

The danger of dangerisation

Will I die while cycling to work?

New TfL HGVs can't see you for sh**t poster

Cycle superhighways east extension

20mph debate

Cycle lanes

...and many many more spread over a few sub forums here

Velocio thinks that once LFGSS moves over to microcosm then such a forum would be more accessible to people and LFGSS could host such a discussion space.

Is there a point in setting up a separate forum for these issues prior to microcosm?

Cant people post directly to tfl? Enough articulate writers on here (when they can be arsed)

Press says email at tfl.gov.uk/cyclinggrid
Sorry if repost

Of course they can contact TfL however this idea is more about people having a neutral space for discussing the issues

Prefer to go straight to the organ grinder

Of course they can contact TfL however this idea is more about people having a neutral space for discussing the issues

Is this really a neutral space? There's a pretty strong bias in this forum, unsurprisingly.

LFGSS is neutral in that it is not a campaigning organisation.

In fact people from a variety of orgs (LCC, BC, SUSTRANS, TABS, CTC, Police, Cycling Embassy...) post here despite having their own forums (and can use aliases so can perhaps be more open). So perhaps there is scope for people from different organisations and from no organisations to debate here despite the obvious cycling bias. (Microcosm should make it easier for people who don't usually use forums)

Anyone receive info about the new East London river crossing consultation today?

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/safer-lorries

I received a consultation today about safer lorries/mirrors and side guards.

Submit your thoughts.

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/safer-lorries

I received a consultation today about safer lorries/mirrors and side guards.

Submit your thoughts.

I would have thought this deserves a new thread.

^^ Doesn't seem to go far enough, suggesting that the ban measures would prevent 3-7 cyclist and pedestrian deaths over a 5 year period....Am I reading that right?

Obvs saving one life is so awesome, but considering the effort in producting and actioning such a scheme...

Seems like a lot of consultation, working hours and publicity for measures which are not good enough and are only piece-meal. I see that there are gains being made in criminalisation but it all seems a bit meek.

It's doesn't go far enough!

http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/if-you-want-londons-largest-ever.html News?

Impressive.

^^ Great news. Fingers crossed for this. I'll spread this link over FB.

P.s. I work in Walthamstow Village and there are plans to pedestrianize some of the roads and bridges with a lot of traffic calming measures. It seems as though the Walthamstow Village Residence Association want to make the village more attractive to tourism and connect with Walthamstow Central better.

Plans have not been submitted (but i have seen some sketch plans) of what's to be done.

It looks like a progressive move but I can not convince anyone in my office as they are all heavily reliant on their cars and I am the only cyclist.

@skydancer, time for a new forum?

Yes good idea
A private forum on here that brings together the various advocacy strands would be neat. I'll mention this to @velocio

I'd prefer a public space for such discussion as I'm a layman in such things.

I think you can just go ahead and create it... is there not a "Create Forum" button on the right hand side of the home page?

Whoever creates it gets to own it and define the public/private divide (you can override and configure your own permissions for it if you don't want it to be public).

@velocio yes thanks. Will do
@hairnetnic you are right, it should be public. People can use aliases

Need a name for the forum. There are many cycling advocacy/campaigning/promotion forums. The name needs to ensure that the forum is not just another cycle campaigning place. It needs to be a place where people who want to improve our environment/ public realm can talk, whether they want to encourage active travel promoting walking & cycling, reduce car use and dependency, campaign for better interactions and behavior of all road users etc...
Any ideas?

I'd prefer a public space for such discussion as I'm a layman in such things.

Perhaps you have it @hairnetnic

Improving Public Spaces

It would be good if we could move the various threads about campaigning, HGVs, Cycle infrastructure, driving etc to this new place? @velocio

http://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/586/

When I get a chance I will trawl other forums and suggest which conversations could be moved to the Improving Public Spaces forum and post a request in the mods thread

Just saw that the create forum link was back XD

Great idea for a forum skydancer.
Followed.

I'll only be moving things that are obviously related to the title of this new forum, around half of the links in the first post would not be moved.