Ride to brighton

Hi there, as its coming up to national cycle week, and I'm creating a charity ride to brighton.

The ride will be on Saturday 14th june and I want to raise money for the Great Ormond st Hospital.

The event is designed to raise awareness around child wellbeing and I am looking to get as many fixie and single speed riders as possible to make this ride a success.

The aim is to raise at least £5000 and the theme will be Stretch and glow.

This is not strictly a single speed event so come get down with us.

Ajaxamillion

Canna do. On the Dragon Ride.

SO heres the thing, If traffic stopped on Oxford st for one hour then 2400kilos of emissions would be stopped from entering our atmosphere.

So I propose that on Saturday the 25th october we have a cycle march from Trafalger square to Hyde park.

This will not only bring attention to the above facts but also let people and traffic know that bikes are here to stay.

So please pass the word on and lets all make a difference on the 25 october 12 noon,
Trafalger square.

See you there. A

... but also let people and traffic know that bikes are here to stay.

Wasnt aware they were under threat. Must be all those anti-cycling ad campaigns you see about the place.

@ Ajax.
First time I've seen this thead so I'm curious how your charity ride to Brighton on the 14th of June went?
How much did you raise for Great Ormond Street Hosp?

Bike ride to brighton didn't get enough support and I can take responsibility for not pushing it enough but I'm always up for making a difference out there though. And to answer your question I made £5. If anyone need support in a similar project then I'm all ears. A

I assert we're all under threat from pollution. But thats open to opinion

So, what making traffic wait for an extra hour is better for pollution?

Critical Mass and stunts like this just piss motorists off, they don't encourage people to get on bikes that make drivers think all cyclists are nutty hippies with nothing better to do than annoy the piss out of car drivers.

Ajax - erm, is that your entire pitch?

Have you thought about all the other things that go into a protest? Consulting with the police, printing up flyers, getting the word out - but before all of that, having a coherent reason to the protest in the first place. Aka 'having a clue'.

As Hippy said, forcing a bunch of cars to idle in traffic for an hour will not reduce carbon emissions, but it will piss a lot of people off.

If you want to promote bikes, then fine - there are ways to do that. If you want to persuade people to lower their carbon emissions, then fine, there are ways to do that, too. Though the two goals overlap in some ways, however, the ways to achieve them don't overlap so much. Broadly speaking, persuading people to cycle is about making them more confident on the road and teaching them how to maintain their bikes; again broadly, persuading people to reduce their carbon emissions is better done by making people aware how burning fossil fuels costs them lots and lots of money that they could save by being more frugal. Attempting to combine the two in the way that you are suggesting achieves nothing but does increase tensions on the road.

That said, there is a lot of empty posturing out there masquerading as political action so it would be unfair to blame you for a well-intentioned mistake - there are, after all, very few decent role models to emulate in terms of pulling off a decent bit of political action.

But there are some. Just in terms of the people on these boards, have a look at what Buffalo Bill and Roxy have done in terms of simple, grass-roots work that's helped to make the cycling community more cohesive and have a better voice.

Ok so what I've got so far from your responses is that you all have an opinion about what I'm proposing. And I'd like to share this with as many peeps as pos and really make a difference. So make some suggestions and I invite you to join me in creating something worthwhile. H2O I feel some conviction in your speak and thanks for your direction. G