Londoners On Bikes

Londoners on Bikes (http://www.londonersonbikes.org.uk/) is a new, volunteer-run, 'popup' campaign group that has been set-up specifically for the Mayoral Elections that are happening on the 3rd of May. You may have seen our campaign posters in your local bike shop window, or been handed one of our flyers at a junction, or even had your bike tagged with one of our pink cycle bands.

Our aim is simple. We want to tell the Mayoral Candidates that cyclists across London do care about cycling policy. How do we think that we can do this? By telling them that their cycling policies are so important to all of us, that this is the one thing on which we will judge them.

This is the one big chance that we as London Cyclists get to influence how Transport for London (TfL) treats us over the next five years. The biggest part of the Mayors Job, and the only part that he has full control over, is TfL.

One question that we've been asked a lot is how are we different to the LCC? The LCC are a charity, and as such are not allowed to tell their supporters (or anyone else) how they think that you should vote. As we're not a charity, we're free to make electoral recommendations & advise people to vote for the candidates who'll do the most to make cycling safer and more enjoyable (on an absolute scale, you can argue that it's already both, but we still believe that there is much more that could be done)

Where do you merry folk fit into the picture? We need people to sign up, spread the word, and volunteer. The more sign-ups that we have, and the faster that we have them, the more influence that we can have on the campaigns. We've already started to be noticed not only have we appeared in some of the cycling specific press a couple of times, we were also asked to comment on the £15 Million extra that Osborne announced for cycling in London in the budget by ITV's news crews. We also got a mention in The Times' article that gave a run down of the main candidates cycling.

Hopefully this is just the start. We currently have Just over 3,300 members, but we need more. The bigger we are, the more the Politicians, those who would be our Mayor have to pay attention to us. If we can become big enough we can force them to promise more for cycling. If the election is as close as it looks like it might be, and the electorate are as disillusioned with politics as some commentators fear that they are, this may be our best chance yet to make cycling in London safer.

If you have any questions about the campaign, and/or suggestions as to how we might reach more people, let me know, and I'll try to get back to you with answers, or pass them on.

Thanks for ploughing through all of that for me!
MrDrem

TL:DR? - Sign up with Londoners on Bikes to get a Mayor who has a better cycling policy.

Are you going to the Living Streets transport hustings? https://www.lfgss.com/thread82245.html

We are indeed.

We're also planning an 'event' nearby, a flyering session at minimum I believe, athough there are plans in the pipline for something bigger if we can manage it.

Nice one. See you there.

Sadly I can't make it myself I don't think, so I've not booked a ticket.

If I can go, I'll be along helping with the event outside, if it goes off. Don't want to say too much about it in case it doesn't though. I suspect that this is making it sound grander than it really is though. :)

Our new campaign video went live at 9 this morning.

http://vimeo.com/39326868

On the website there are only four candidates on the 'candidate of the week.'
What about the three others?

props.

On the website there are only four candidates on the 'candidate of the week.'
What about the three others?

Good point, I'll get onto the webteam about it.

Right, we're trying to put together a series of questions that people would like us to ask the candidates, that are cycling related. This has been kicked off on twitter (see #bikehust) and facebook.

Is there anything that you guys would like us to ask?

We'll only be able to get a limited amount of time with them, if at all, so I can't promise that your questions will be asked, but let us know what they woud be!

Let us know on twitter using the #bikehust tag, on our facebook page, or here!

On the website there are only four candidates on the 'candidate of the week.'
What about the three others?

Here an answer for you...

Why doesn’t Londoners on Bikes have all seven mayoral candidates on its front page?

LoB is focusing only on the cycling policies of candidates from the four main parties – Boris Johnson (Con), Ken Livingstone (Lab), Jenny Jones (Green) and Brian Paddick (Lib Dem).
We do not display Carlos Cortiglia (BNP), Lawrence James Webb (Fresh Choice for London) or Siobhan Benita (Independent) on our front page because none of them have made cycling central to their campaign, and we therefore consider it extremely unlikely that we will recommend voting for them at the election.

This is because our voting recommendation will aim to make the best possible use of the current electoral system to achieve our goal of safer roads for Londoners on bikes. The mayoral election will be run on the Supplementary Vote system. This means that voters are asked to cast a vote for their favourite candidate, and also have the opportunity to place a second-choice vote for their second choice for mayor. If a candidate wins more than half of the total first choice votes cast, they are elected mayor. If no candidate gets a majority of first-preference votes, all but the top two candidates are eliminated. Second preference votes for the two remaining candidates on ballot papers of the eliminated candidates are then counted. The candidate with the most first choice and second choice votes is elected mayor.

Under this system, voters’ first choices can be made “from the heart”, while the second should be made “from the head” – putting your favourite candidate overall in first place allows you to express the way you would ideally like the city to be governed. But the second preference vote should be given to one of the two candidates most likely to enter the run-off if you want your vote to contribute to the final outcome.

Therefore, when Londoners on Bikes makes a voting recommendation, we will recommend that our voting bloc gives their first preference vote to the candidate who has promised to do the most for cyclists. If this candidate is not either Ken Livingstone or Boris Johnson (who, given polling data, will almost inevitably be the two candidates in the run-off election) then we will recommend that our voting bloc gives their second preference vote to one of these two, to ensure that whichever is elected is aware of the need to prioritise bike safety.

This means that we will not under any circumstances be recommending two minor candidates for our voting bloc’s two votes. For that reason the candidates who are minor and who have not placed any emphasis on cycling during their campaign are likely to be irrelevant to us. If this changes, and these minority candidates begin to make serious enough pledges on cycling to compete for our first-preference votes, then we will add them to our front page.

Fantastic idea with well done website.

Thanks for that London rider, we're quite proud of it too.

We've a big flyering session on tonight, aiming to Blitz the Bridges. We'll have flyering crews out on Waterloo, Blackfriars, London and Tower Bridge If anyone would like to join us, we'll be there from 5:30pm onwards, with an experienced person on each bridge.

If that doesn't appeal, come and find us in the pub afterwards. We'll be at the Anchor, Bankside from 7pm.

If any of you reprobates are crossing Waterloo bridge, do stop and say hi!

Ha, I missed out Southwark bridge. We'll have people there too!

I don't know if any of you were watching the Mayoral debate on SkyNews or LBC last night, but one of our people got to ask a question, followed by someone else tearing into Boris about the crap cycling conditions.

We then got dragged off to have a chat with LBC following the debate.

Nick Ferrari then had a chat with us again this morning.

Did people see it? What did they think?

I didn't see it (only have free view). Is there a way to watch it on demand without paying?

It I think was shown on freeview, but who watches the news channels there anyhow?

I don't know if you can get it on demand, I'd like to watch if if you can, to find out who one of the chaps I was chatting to afterwards was!

Will try to find out and let you know!

There is a brief mention here:
http://news.sky.com/home/video/uk-news/video/16212398

cycling is the last topic they discuss in this clip

http://www.londonersonbikes.org.uk/what_just_happened_9

Londoners on Bikes makes it's Provisional Voting recomendations.

This could change following The Times/Sustrans hustings, but only if Boris has a Damscene conversion.

i haven't been posting in any of these threads much but i just want to say well done for the effort of everybody involved. I've donated to the campaign as well as sharing it with friends and it's a great idea.

Thanks ever so much for that!

Are you going to Crtitcal Mass or The Big Ride? I'm not really going to Critical Mass tonight, as I've too much stuff to carry, but I'll be about on the bridge I think, and I'll be on The Big Ride. If you are, come and find me, and I'll have a badge for you if you like :)

Any of the rest of you can have one too if you really want!

I'm heading to the Big Ride, hopefully the rain holds off!

http://www.londonersonbikes.org.uk/candidates - Londoners on Bikes now have interviews with 2/4 main candidates up, We're speaking to Brian Paddick on Monday, and are waiting for confirmation from Boris about an interview with him

http://www.londonersonbikes.org.uk/whats_missing - new page, which cycling policies are each of the candiates missing?

I found it to be quite revealing...

When is the next Big Ride or Critical Mass?