Memorial Ride

great idea, i'm in in whatever colour and time is decided. White seems good to me as it is not generally associated with death and negativity nor with being a 'tie-dyed' protest lobby. It would be a bold statement and would be an easy link for the press to the ghost bikes.

But it could fall into the 'bloody cyclists think they are are whiter than white' cliché. (Not disagreeing with the choice, just saying.)

I'm in favour of a weekend protest, aiming for truly huge participation, lots of media, celebs, etc. The event should be a memorial for those who have died, and be as specific as we can be about that (sadly, statistics switch most people off).

Rush-hour disruption feels too much like an aggressive response, an invitation to escalate the violence of the roads.

I will start to spread the word when we have a date decided.

I am not sure about the weekday, rush hour idea as not many people would be able to attend, I was thinking a Saturday at around mid day and along very busy streets, bring london to a standstill. I think this would bring a lot of attention both media and people wise, and would allow for the most attendents.

Discuss, then I will decide on a date within the next 3 days, dependent on peoples input.

I'm in. But during the weekend and not on busy roads. Yesterday was the first time I was back on a bike since my RTA in Feb 08. Riding around Victoria Park was scary enough but i'll do what I can.

I'm in for this providing my bike is ready in time, otherwise I'll help in any different way as I can

If this is to be a memorial ride - as in going for a ride to honour the memory of fellow cyclists - then yes, a weekend event would be best.

If it is to raise awareness of the ridiculously frequent deaths on the road, then we need to do it on a weekday rush hour with as much disruption as possible. The gist I got from reading this thread so far is that people want action, something to open up the eyes of those in positions of power to what is happening on the streets every day. To achieve that we need to do something BIG, and piss off a lot of people.

When I first open one of those threads and read the details, my first feelings are of dread, hoping the rider is OK, then that it is not someone I know, then I feel anger that it had to happen in the first place. There are many comments in those threads to the effect of "when will something be done to stop these preventable deaths".

Sadly it will take something epic to really achieve any change. Even sadder is that we will have to play the media game if we ever want to force a change. The more people who notice, the more that are affected, the better. Even if that means a few arrests for public order offences - it would just make more media coverage.

This is ultimately idle chat at this stage, but I mean what I say. All that anger and frustration that we feel when reading of another death needs to be channelled into some form of protest. And there is absolutley no need to pussy foot around worrying about affecting some people's commutes to work either. The girl killed in Oval this morning affected plenty of commutes, will there be any lessons learned from that incident, or will it be chalked up as another statistic like the rest?

I feel the anger, but I really don't see how pissing people off is going to get us anywhere good.

If it get's in the papers, in the news...can't be a bad thing? How many people that aren't cyclists know about all these deaths?

I dont think its about pissing people off, i think its trying to get the best time to get more impact on those people/media

Jonlubi for pres

If it get's in the papers, in the news...can't be a bad thing?

errr.... no? Not by fuelling the impression that cyclists are arrogant sods happy to take risks with their lives on roads they didn't pay for, getting in everyone's way, and blaming everyone else for the consequences?

That odious view is out there. I don't want to feed it.

I would definitely cycle (dressed in white or otherwise - whatever is decided) to try to raise public awareness of what goes on on the roads of London. Cycled to work for the first time in three weeks today and with fresh eyes, I can confirm the traffic is not getting any better!

Whatever the date, count me in.

That odious view is out there. I don't want to feed it.

Yes, like it or not it exists though. The only point I'm reallly trying to make is that some headlines saying something along the lines of "5000 cyclists block traffic to raise awareness of needless deaths" would be useful. MUCH easier said than done of course, but nonetheless I can't help but feel that is the direction we need to be moving in. And surely better than posting our condolences in rider down threads again and again and again. Please put forward better ideas though, I'm sure they are out there.

Yes, like it or not it exists though. The only point I'm reallly trying to make is that some headlines saying something along the lines of "5000 cyclists block traffic to raise awareness of needless deaths" would be useful. MUCH easier said than done of course, but nonetheless I can't help but feel that is the direction we need to be moving in. And surely better than posting our condolences in rider down threads again and again and again. Please put forward better ideas though, I'm sure they are out there.

I'd prefer "5000 cyclists in white parade silently through London in memory of riders killed on the roads, because no-one deserves to die for choosing to ride a bike", but that's far too long.

"Ghost riders haunt roads of death"?

^^^ There is as much danger of getting "Cyclists Dressed in White Cause Traffic Chaos".

What about BOTH options, weekend and weekday..?

My view is that you need as many people as possible. Weekdays just won't get that - not everyone commutes the same time, the same way, they have to be up at sparrows fart to get from here to there just to be ready to start the ride. What if we get a pitiful turnout? That would all be bad news.

On the other hand, if you run it at the weekend when far more people have free time, you're going to get a far more substantial turnout. People will have more time to prepare, get their clothes sorted, make their bike white, etc. We could make it official, have a planned route, get a police escort, etc.

Then off the back of that ride, when there is awareness and it worked well, you can get a guerilla ride at rush hour afterwards - only needs to be 20 or 30 bikes to make the point.

First you have to establish the message, without causing grievance, so that people associate the white bikes with some sort of solidarity - this gives them meaning to the masses. Don't give them a meaning of "Bastards made me late for work! And for what? I never killed a cyclist, how dare they criticise my driving!" Once people have more idea about what a ride in white means, that meaning will translate better via the press if there were subsequent actions. And ghost bikes would have more meaning etc.

Journalists are always dying for a story. There are easy spin-off articles about ghost bikes and the stories of the people killed, which would be likely to drop out following a successful ride.

Make it a weekend, make it in the afternoon/early evening, make it peaceful and polite - wave the car drivers past, don't block roads etc. and it'll carry a lot more weight in the long run.

most of these tragedies are happening during rush hour in the week.
the people responsible are generally not driving their trucks or their cars half concentrating on their electric shaver or lipstick on a saturday afternoon down oxford street or up regent street.
public transport strikes and the likes of critical mass work because they inconvenience and cost. when a big business realises that half their work force are late repeatedly not because they got up late but because of an outside force they take note. then give them a chance to vote or to help it stop and you will have a friend, a reluctant friend but a friend. just a thought.

sorry if i missed something.

Its been done before... http://www.londonfgss.com/thread16235.html
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread10802.html

theres got to be some experience here ^^- some advice ?

and this needs updating ... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111774383407256236339.0004573cc64c2ebbbafd1&ll=51.527115,-0.094757&spn=0.10039,0.264702&z=12

and this needs updating ... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111774383407256236339.0004573cc64c2ebbbafd1&ll=51.527115,-0.094757&spn=0.10039,0.264702&z=12

A huge proportion of those cyclists were killed by HGV i'm truly shocked.

This girl at Oval and the map of killed cyclists in london has been a real eye opener for me, as a new member of this forum I am shocked but truly proud to be a part of a forum that comes together over such terrible news.

I really hope this ride goes ahead and will do my up most to help in any way.

As others have said this is a great idea and would have to be done right to get good publicity, I think good publicity is the key for BoJo to do something.

Although it would be harder for everyone to get to a midweek rush hour would be best to capture attension, and white dress also.

I think what would grab even more attension is for everyone to walk in the roads with their bikes rather then riding them. Maybe this isn't in keeping with the message of riding safely, but at first we would want to grab as much media attension as possible; maybe someone knows of a legal reason not to do this but it would definately get more media coverage.

Thoughts?

this is a quote from 'dear boris enough is enough' thread

I think a coordinated approach is important. Maybe if we encouraged people to write a personal letter to Boris we could collect them up and deliver them in bulk during one of these protest rides.

I think this is a great idea and probs should be how the ride ends

I'm going to write to my MP and see if I can get him on board. He's Mark Fields, if anyone else lives in Westminster / City of London, he's your man. Kate Hoey is the MP for Vauxhall, which I think contains the site of the latest accident, if anyone lives there, they should definitely write to her.

I think if we maybe had a name for the ride, we could invite / get people to support it more easily. I think TfL might be interested, and of course LCC / CTC. Any other people we could approach?

And it goes without saying that I'll be on the ride.

BTW, walking down the road wheeling bikes is ok if we're a "proper" (i.e. policed) protest, otherwise the po-po might want a word or two. I suppose it's the same thing with the other memorial rides -- lots of RLJing and blocking, but they turn a blind eye to a certain extent.

You know an excellent way of bringing attention to the whole HGV / cyclist deaths issue would be to use the Mayor's Skyride events... Just a though

It's funny, I've only just found this thread, but I've been developing more or less exactly the same idea recently (I doubt I'm the only one!), and beating myself up for not getting my act together to start organizing it. A couple of thoughts:

Would it be possible, or worthwhile, to coordinate this with similar rides in other cities? Maybe not for the first one - there's not much time - but massive, eye-catching, coordinated protests in cities like London, Paris and New York would be hugely newsworthy.

Much more manageable would be to coordinate with all the other cycling forums we can find (most of the ones I know are very London-centric). Better still, get people from different forums, groups, etc., involved in the organizing, so that they feel like it's their thing - more will turn up that way.

What about branding? I thought about calling the event 'The White Ride' (I've googled it - there's nothing else using the name), and - given sufficient time and resources - coming up with a basic website (people take things so much more seriously if they have a website) with a mission statement, faqs, and possibly pages for riders who've been killed (depending on what their families want).

And yes yes yes to celebrities. The famouser the better. Let's invite all the famous British riders we can think of, and Jon Snow, and Boris, and David Cameron, and Agyness Deyn, and Madonna, and - didn't Lily Allen have a song about riding her bike in London?

Oh, and I'm in favour of doing it at the weekend - and presenting it as a celebration of cycling as well as a protest and a memorial. Tea_bee's point is a good one - if the initial ride makes a big enough impact, all future rides will be associated with it. And - although I hope no one will ever be killed again - a (slightly more disruptive) white ride in the wake of every fatality will probably do much more than the ghost bikes to bring this to people's attention.

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread24718.html