Cycle campaigning

An email is going round be a group called Bikes Alive about a planned protest on 9 January. It reads:
*
"Dear fellow cyclists

As you will be aware, cyclists and other non-motorised road users continue to suffer death and injury (not to mention being delayed, poisoned and terrorised) by the selfish, anti-social (and frequently illegal) behaviour of motorists.

There is no reason for much of the traffic in urban areas, other than (in the case of cars) the selfishness of the drivers concerned. The situation on major roads and at major junctions in London is exacerbated by the policy of Transport for London, which prioritises the speed and volume of motor vehicles above the safety and sanity of everyone else.

Polite meetings and symbolic action are having no effect. We need to act. The time has surely come for non-motorised road users to (nonviolently) defend ourselves.

There is a plan (which you might already have seen leaflets about) for large numbers of cyclists and pedestrians to be at the lethal junction at Kings Cross (where York Way meets Pentonville Road and Euston Road) at 6pm on Monday 9 January. According to taste, cyclists can ride very slowly round the one-way system, or simply not move at all for an hour. Pedestrians could cross the road very slowly - or simply block the road completely.

If we succeeded in at least calming - and perhaps stopping - the traffic for an hour, would TfL finally change their priorities? If not, we could return for an hour every week until they did. (And then we could target another dangerous junction...)

For more details of this plan, see bikesalive.wordpress.com; or e-mail bikesalive @ london.com

SO:

1) Will your group at least publicise this plan to your members/contacts, whether or not you can officially support it?

2) Will your group publicly announce its support for this action?

3) Are there individuals who would help with the planning and preparation of the action?

4) Do you have any comments or questions?

Whatever your answer to these four points, if you have any interest in active resistance to the tyranny of motor vehicles in urban areas, please respond to this e-mail.

Many thanks."*

Southwark Cyclists and Tower Hamlets Wheelers have expressed concerns.

I don't personally feel I can get behind this campaign at least, not as it has been pitched to us - not because it is direct action or because it challenges TfL's reluctance to take cyclists and their safety seriously, but because of the ethos, the divisive message, the hot-headed tone of it. Does it ever help to be so virulently anti-motor vehicle drivers and so generalising about them? I don't think so.

Of course the anger is justified and at times it seems that only physical action that affects traffic flow can achieve results, but I disagree with the manner in which this campaign channels that anger and I'm not convinced this type of protest actually does work in the long term. I think our efforts are much better spent negotiating, badgering and meeting with the decision makers and of course riding our bicycles every day.

This is attitude is surely no way to encourage those who do not cycle to start.

Alex