2013-08-03/04 - RideLondon (Freecycle/Grand Prix/100/Classic)

I think it has to be seen not as a 'cycling legacy' because that's utter tosh beyond the realms of even Boris' cretinous brain, but as a nice opportunity for a closed road race (of which we have precious little in the UK).

Perhaps people were expecting some kind of pledge to crush the car of every driver who uses a mobile phone, fails to signal, speeds, disobeys traffic signs etc..?
That would be lovely but ultimately improbable.

I don't like sykrides and all that, but it's better they exist than not, if you want the attitudes to those who cycle for transport improved.

^Nocturne one of the highlights of the [s]drinking[s/] cycling calendar.

Interesting about the Classic namestealing. That's pretty blatant.

I'd be interested in the 100 mind, depending on cost...

Ride100.. entry is £46..

hmmm....

I shall ignore it. Cycling in London is about everyday not two days of the year.

You tell them Clive

Ride100.. entry is £46..

hmmm....

And a certain amount of places reserved for people who have already done certain sportives and finished within a certain time. Way to encourage people to ride.

Jokes.

20,000 nodders all playing frogger on Boris' Blue lanes...

Hang on, so it's a skyride one day and a sportive the next?

Way to fuck things up for a sports legacy. Where are the kids races? The E1-2s the 3-4s and the women's races? Super-rare chance for closed road racing in London and these morons decide to let a bunch of rich, fat, white, middle class male nodders on it?

Super-rare chance for closed road racing in London and these morons decide to let a bunch of rich, fat, white, middle class male nodders on it?

Are you taking part then Rob :)

Greetings folks,
Would like to do the 100 mile ride, but £46 is way too steep.
I am sure between now and then there will be time to organise a Forum ride just behind, just before or day before on same route.
Oh and ditto Jacqui re London Classic - there is already a superb ride of the same name...
Peace and Love to one and all,
Tim

Maybe this is the time to persuade Boris to let us do the Marathon ride officially next year

Are you taking part then Rob :)

I'm not rich or white!

Maybe I'm an optimist but it's 354 days away and possibly has scope for change and improvement until then. At the end of the day, anything that makes more people sit up and take notice of cycling is a positive thing in my book. Too many people sit on the internet whinging, why not get in touch as a London cyclist and voice your concerns?!

Can't remember the names of cycling promotion events I first worked at around 5 years ago, Mall closed and all sorts of orgs working on stuff.
The problem with this is its the Bozza show, pure p.r and detracting from many daily issues. Hes so dying to make p.m it hurts.
Can't ride yet sorry for net whingeing MG

I agree MotherGirl.

Rather than complaining to each other on here, how about we put together a list of suggestions, requests, concerns for the Mayor?

Perhaps we can turn this event in to something which does appeal.

Hang on, so it's a skyride one day and a sportive the next?

Way to fuck things up for a sports legacy. Where are the kids races? The E1-2s the 3-4s and the women's races? Super-rare chance for closed road racing in London and these morons decide to let a bunch of rich, fat, white, middle class male nodders on it?

This^spot on

RideLondon 100 should be no different than the London marathon, in terms of number of participants, registration, entry cost, logisitics, blue-light services, co-operation from the effected boroughs etc... combining elite and club riders with the weekend warriors even charity status..

marshalling in both the olympic road races and TTs.. it felt like London missed a trick though. should have had bands on street corners, stalls, carnival spirit, but i guess it'll never feel like new york city marathon, jungfrau mountain marathon or tour of flanders for sheer atmosphere.. i'll quiz BoJo, when i next see him.

marshalling in both the olympic road races and TTs.. it felt like London missed a trick though. should have** had bands on street corners, stalls, carnival spirit,** but i guess it'll never feel like new york city marathon, jungfrau mountain marathon or tour of flanders for sheer atmosphere.. i'll quiz BoJo, when i next see him.

I felt that about the whole olympics. There is so much cool british stuff be it music, dance, performance, arts etc they could have put in the olympic park and at venues during intervals and such. It could've doubled up as a grand exhibition of culture, and made the tickets prices less painful.

Have you been to any of the 2012 Festival events, DFP?

There's been some really good stuff on (art, music, dance etc.) in parallel with the Games.

It continues for a while longer I think.

Can't remember the names of cycling promotion events I first worked at around 5 years ago, Mall closed and all sorts of orgs working on stuff.
The problem with this is its the Bozza show, pure p.r and detracting from many daily issues. Hes so dying to make p.m it hurts.
Can't ride yet sorry for net whingeing MG

Ah sorry to hear that, hope it's not much longer! I'm a hypocrite anyway, usually queen of the whingers but I seem to be turning over a new leaf lately...

I would love to put on a cycling festival. I've organised lots of awesome one day events across different mediums and types of cycling before. However, they were not in London and the logistics of doing it here seem to be so much more complicated. It would be brilliant to see events like this become more commonplace but organised by cyclists, for cyclists - that's the only way we'll get what we want and need!

Someone in my group has reminded me of what takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico - they close 40 miles of roads EVERY SUNDAY!

Visitors can use one of the free bikes (swapped for your passport) and there's loads going on. It's not a special annual event, this is what they do on Sundays. There's free bike tours of the interesting buildings on the route, free skating lessons, free yoga, free zumba, lots of live music and plenty of space to enjoy yourself.

Events such as this happen weekly, not just in Guadalajara but also in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago etc. New York does the massive 5 Boros event on 40 miles of closed roads as well as the Summer Streets event. Los Angeles are extending their route too and the next one is in October.

Well, it's good that these cities do that, but what you have to realise is that their cities are shaped completely differently from London (before someone asks 'why doesn't it happen here?'). They all have extensive urban motorway networks, and even if they close some of these routes to motor traffic, motor traffic is almost completely unaffected by these events. The Central and South American events are obviously very different from the annual LA and NYC events.

I mean, I do think it could happen here, but the mayors of the other cities wouldn't risk such events if they had a significant impact on their cities' traffic, either.

I hadn't considered that.

Have you been to any of the 2012 Festival events, DFP?

There's been some really good stuff on (art, music, dance etc.) in parallel with the Games.

It continues for a while longer I think.

Yeah, been to some of that. But I meant as part of the main event. It seemed like people who actually went to the olympics actually had to spend most of the time wandering out or staring at nothing. Also, awful awful music in intervals etc..

I hadn't considered that.

Always remember that one of London's big advantages is that the proposed 'automotorisation' of the city never happened. There were some crazy plans, like bulldozing half of Bloomsbury and building a massive motorway. When that didn't quite happen, they thought of motorway tunnels ...

In the event, only the Westway and Eastway (M11 Link Road) were partially built, along with various motorway stubs and the North Circular Road. That's almost nothing for a city of London's size and importance. It does mean that provision for motor traffic was shoehorned into streets which are far too narrow and urbanised for it, and it has also led to the problems we face today. I still think it's better than if motorways had been built according to the Bressey Plan or Greater London Plan, or the other mad plans that variously came along and were left on the shelves.

In other cities, like LA, with six- to fourteen-lane (I kid you not) motorways, how would you reverse mass motorisation? We have it comparatively easy in London.

This was the London ringways plan:
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Ringways[/ame]

And whilst on some fronts it's good we never got it (the implementation proposed wasn't the best, and had compromised so much that it could've been worse), the fundamental principle of keeping all through traffic out of an area by offering elevated road sections for mass transport isn't a bad one.

The theory of it is discussed in detail in "A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction" by Ishikawa, Jacobson and Angel.

The argument for it is quite compelling, providing the goal to shift through traffic out of neighbourhoods is achieved.

A key part of that is making nearly all neighbourhoods dead ends to motor traffic whilst still connecting neighbourhoods by foot, waterways and cycleways.

As I said... the proposed implementation (ringways of motorways) was a poor one as it left in place all of the existing road infrastructure and just expanded capacity rather than changed the mode of travel people would choose. It's an incomplete vision. So it's a good thing we never got it.

The complete vision is also hard to swallow, but there's a good halfway point to be found.

Ride the London 2012 Olympic Road Race route.

details & registration here