Awareness Raising Spoke Cards Campaign Project?

VB+Ved +1. Should put a website link on the cards (www.insidesuicide.com, www.dfwt.org.uk and www.undertake.org.uk are free), too, unless going very viral.
Other stuff may make sense, too, but this should be the core of the campaign and closest to what the forum does. LCC and CTC can coordinate lobbying
Liked the city hall circle, too.

Indeed.

Don't lose focus of the original email or what happened this morning.

The spirit shown in the first few pages of this thread is inspirational, and whilst we have momentum and the incident is fresh we should push it as far as possible.

Spoke cards are a great idea. A grass roots campaign to raise awareness amongst the wider populace of cyclists of the dangers of trucks.

Stick to that... don't lose focus, squabble or become distracted by too many differing goals. We can totally achieve that one goal with great success and create enough publicity from it to help raise awareness.

I'm happy to throw some money towards creating the spoke cards. And I'm sure others would donate too. Let's act now, whilst we have momentum.

Then, let's spread 5,000 of them amongst 500 core members of the forum. We have those numbers, it can work easily. Each person only has to place 10 spoke cards. Again, a small and achievable target for each person, though the target of 500 people doing it is high (but we have 2,000 active members, so only 1/4 of the active user base).

Don't put swear words on the cards.
And make it clear that they're for cyclists... if they fall off on the road they should still state their purpose out of context.

Just my 2p.

I think we can cover Bill's concern about coverage by adding

"Please spread the message and don't bin this card; just slip it in the spokes of the next random bike you can. Each one teach one."

I can do .eps if you want how big do you want / pixels per inch.
Way over my head, Tommy. In fuckwit speak please?

I love this about the forum. Everyone gets in and collaborates on good ideas (just like HH2: the revenge on the weekend).

I'll donate money, distribute spoke cards and write letters / participate in awareness rides / help organise. I'm just crap on ideas...

I think a dedicated site is a good idea. I'm not sure how much that sort of thing costs but it gives us the opportunity to go into more detail about the dangers. We can include the graphics from Moving Target (if that's cool with the owner) and other bits so it's all in one place. It also opens up the possibility of putting up links to worthy e-petitions (for what it's worth) and get people signing up. Spoke cards are great for getting that initial point across but it would be good to be able to carry it on somehow.

A website is a good idea but I think we are getting a little carried away. If we can get the spoke cards togeather and get some coverage (to spread th word, not for or own glory) it will be quite an achevement.

i can help with any kind of graphics/artwork or website design. just PM me or email me direct:
stevenbennettday[AT]gmail[DOT]com. it's me job.

i was around holborn all day, not nice, also saw a girl get smashed off at a junction on berners st on monday evening by a post van shooting the junction.

+1 to this whole idea

Hey, newish here (just a couple of posts in M&M).

Love the spirit displayed here, saw the aftermath of the incident this morning and was deeply moved. Would love to help with donation & distribution.

Good work folks.

agree on the domain name (poll with the final designs?) and I'll stump up the cash for it (that said, insidesuicide.info is just 99p for a year). We can park whatever info is settled on at a free site like google domains. Quick and easy.

Really good idea, and definitely willing to help out in anyway needed :)

Can offer hosting as well (Although I know VB probably got that covered).

What to do about lorries

at least, this is what I am going to do.

Excellent thread I'm in! It is a shame that we did not use Freewheel for a little demonstration.

I like the idea of demonstrating outside City Hall.

can't get to the LCC letter - link is dead?

can't get to the LCC letter - link is dead?

Dunno. Seems to work for me.

Can't resolve http://www.lcc.org.uk ?
maybe its down? i'll keep testing and post back.

Great letter - Forumongers - I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU READ, PRINT, SIGN AND SEND

Forward to your friends & Family along with any other groups that would respond positively.

By the weekend this will not be news. it is for those who's loved ones involved, but for all others its another event.

The "posts" link on this forum will bring up pages of "what shoes", "advice for Newbies" and a bikes that resemble animals or other such boredom breakers. so get it done now and we got something to build on when the next accident happens.

I have an inside source that can get me to Boris bike, i was thinking the WAC sticker but i think a follow up spoke card would be even better....

Link works fine. Nice one Bill.

I'm totally up for donating/distributing spoke cards and I'd proudly stick one in my wheel!

Glad all the balls are rolling on this one. :)

Hi all, I haven't posted here before, so just to say that the LCC is very much in support of greater campaigning on this issue. Our HGV group works on this all the time but all additional support is appreciated. Cycling is not dangerous but the high number of fatalities from left-turning lorries is therefore especially upsetting and much more preventable.

Awareness-raising among cyclists is extremely important; for the sake of prevention alone it's a minimal thing one can do. The bigger picture is that there is a lot that needs to be done about HGVs, but little political will to focus on this issue. Just to stress: We are way behind in the UK and the DfT are actively refusing to implement safety measures that have been taken on the Continent.

This is what the template letter to MPs that seemed to be inaccessible to at least one poster addresses. (Just in case anyone else can't access the template letter, I've attached it to this message in .txt format.) If you want to send it, make sure to change it into your own style until you like it, as different-looking letters on the same issue have a far greater impact than letters that seem to spring from concerted campaigns. (NB the template was created in 2007, so some of the time references are out of date.)

The LCC web-site page that Bill also links to is here:

http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=917

My local LCC group, Hackney, is calling for greater political leadership to bring people together.

See 14th July item on:
http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/new.htm

Also in our latest newsletter.

Happy campaigning!
Oliver
LCC

1 Attachment

• HGV_Safety_Mirrors_Letter_to_MPs.txt

I think this is definately a way of getting the ball rolling, even if spoke cards don't have an immediate effect at least it'll spread awareness a little better.

You never know who will see the spoke cards and what they may be able to bring to the campaign.

I don't live too far from Camberwell Art College and a new term will increase the number of riders which are new to Londons roads.
I'm up for taking a bunch down there and raising a bit of awareness.

As a few other people have posted on this thread, you could try and get some media coverage around this.

I and I'm sure a few other people have access to media databases they can send press releases through because we do it all day through work. It doesn't take any money - just the effort to think out and write a press release, have a couple of interviewees ready, and once the press relase is sent someone to spend 10 minutes ringing round to sell the story.

This is interesting news which might appeal to london press and potentially television. It's also a tragically current issue with recent deaths and a simple message, which in my experience are all ingredients for media coverage - which bearing in mind the aim of the campaign can only be a great awareness-raising exercise.

If you're keen on getting in touch with your local MP/Council members etc then http://www.writetothem.com/ is a great way to do it.. I sent one to Harriet Harman (MP for Southwark) about something not related and although it was delayed, I eventually got a response..

MPs and Local Council Members are there to represent us, let's use them

As much as I'm sure letters to senior MPs is a killer idea, this entirely assumes that they a) open their post, and b) give a rat's arse. Not knocking Bill's raison d'être in any way, I just think that, whilst he's struggling to save cyclists as a whole (needs to be done, and you have my vote, should you ever need it for anything, ever), the spoke card plan address the very single desire that is to educate the poor fuckers who end up under the wheels. Which is not to say that I don't occasionally undertake and need a wee reminder.

And "each one to teach one" is a perfect example of the way such a guerilla process should work…

Personally, like.

This is a tidied-up version.

I was toying with the idea of putting drops on the bikes... what do yo think?

hmmm...maybe
although I'd say keep as is, makes it more universal and instantly recognisable. great work.

been reading this thread with interest this evening.
goes without saying that you have my support even though not a Londoner, i'm a road user, and this issue is for everyone.

there is no way this can stay out of the public eye if it has such widespread and unanimous support from everyone on here. lets get at Boris!

Excellent thread - I'm happy to help/distribute/donate as well.

Great work on the spoke card. Perhaps change the text at the bottom to something like 'please don't bin this card - place it in another bike's wheel' will help with getting the cards around?