You are reading a single comment by @skydancer and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@skydancer
There are some strange things happening in the cycle campaigning world and this email / blogsite are symptomatic.
London has vastly improved as a place to ride a bike over the past 10 years and evidently many many more people are moving around on two wheels. (There have been some terrible tragedies this year, more than there have been for a few years, yet the increase in deaths and serious injuries has not been proportional to the rise in miles travelled and) London cycling has become safer.
Over these years Transport for London and some London boroughs have worked well with cycling advocates and professionals in genuinely promoting cycling and looking at ways to reduce road danger. 20mph is becoming more prevalent, professional driver education has started and is being funded by TfL. Infrastructure is being modified to encourage road sharing. Yet there are major aberrations, places where riders really need to understand how to position themselves in order to get seen and get space such as kings cross (which they have agreed to review http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/22151.aspx) or vauxhaull cross.
Since LCC has shifted to Go Dutch, which despite attempts at explaining what this means, seems to me so much vaguer and wooly than campaigning for specifics like 'lower vehicle speed limits' Strict liability law' 'Permeable filters through neighbourhoods' all of which are campaigns for facilitating shared space.
There seems to be some prominent bloggers who have taken up the mantle campaigning for segregated cycle lanes or 'clear space for cycling' on London roads (What does that mean?) which has been taken up by LCC as their main campaign issue. This has taken LCC to a much more confrontational stance which may make it harder for TfL to work with LCC as they have in the past in looking how space can be shared, which of course must include major junction/roundabout/gyratory redesign.
I have never had an issue with direct action (I was involved in reclaim the streets in early 90s) yet i think this more confrontational rather than cooperative approach is not appropriate to the moment.