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@skydancer
(Cross posted) report on the hammersmith bridge action:
hi
It was great to see so many people come out in support of a safer Hammersmith Bridge. There was about 50 of us there. And at such short notice on a holiday weekend with miserable weather. We cycled as a group, a peleton, over the bridge and back three times.
We met on the observation platform at the end of Queen Caroline street. Alexis, the father of 18 year old Clara, was there and talked about the horror story of his daughter. A silver car was overtaking Clara at the first pinch point going south, when a red car coming the other way swerved out of the traffic. It hit the side of the silver car which was taking avoiding action and the silver car pinned Clara and her bike to the pillar. Fortunately Clara was not physically injured.
After the ride we were joined on the platform by Clara and her mother Claude. They became tearful with emotion retelling their story. Claude said she would never ride on the bridge again, it was so dangerous.
We had discussion on the platform about our purpose, our ends and how to achieve them. The main purpose was to draw attention to the dangers of the bridge so that the LBHF might finally do something about it. A 20mph speed limit at least. A secondary purpose was to tell cyclists to hold the lane goig all the way across in a dominant position, so they would not get squeezed. As the day was cool and it was a very long holiday weekend and halfterm there was hardly any other cyclists around to show this to.
Ther was discussion as to whether we should have banners, placards, leaflets to tell car drivers and others what we are doing. Should our purpose be to cause as much disruption as possible. Should we be going around the gyratory and King street in our loops. Should this be done in the rush hour. Would the Council take any more notice?
Next time we will have longer to organise it. Later I will post some pictures on the website www.hfcyclists.org.uk . Enjoy the holiday and the boats and the street parties. And a message from Claude
Dear John,
Thank you again for this morning and thank you for the pictures!
It was really heart warming to see such nice people so concerned about our girl's well being. We had such a fright last week.
Lets hope your actions will have some effect on people's attitude towards cyclists.
Thank you to all you good people!
With all very best wishes
Claude XX
john griffiths
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