2012-09-22 Car-free Day at Cat & Mutton Bridge (Broadway Market)

The London Cycling Campaign in Hackney is proud to present Hackney's Car-free Day for 2012, which will be taking place on and around the Cat & Mutton Bridge (south of Broadway Market, E8) on the 22nd September, from 9am to 6pm.

Please join us for this annual celebration of car-free urban living. Car-free Day, as part of European Mobility Week, is a big event in Europe, where Spain, for instance, has 394 events registered this year.

Background:

We have organised or helped organise Car-free Day events almost every year since 2001, and we have always taken care that the events took place where we wanted a project for change to be undertaken. Back in 2001, our target was the Shoreditch one-way system, which was partly returned to two-way operation a year later. A more recent success is Goldsmith's Row, which the Council turned into a motor-free street last year, and where we held Car-free Day in 2010.

This time around, it is our campaigning ambition to have a bus-and-cycle-only filter introduced on the Cat & Mutton bridge and to enable the route of the eastbound 394 bus to be re-routed along Andrews Road. The latter would permit Broadway Market to be expanded into the space between Ada Street and Andrews Road. We are hoping that it will be possible for London Buses to test this operation on the day. (The 394 bus currently has a split alignment between Ada Street (eastbound) and Andrews Road (westbound), which prevents expansion of the market, and without reducing motor traffic in Andrews Road it will not be possible to re-route the bus.)

Look forward to seeing you there!

Detail of the car-free area (NB buses will continue to travel through there):

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Bump

Ha, thanks, Richard. We might also have Kirby along as a mascot:

http://www.volkerhighways.co.uk/en/about-us/safety-first-always/safety-campaigns

How is that bridge the "Cat and Mutton" bridge? It's at completely the other end of the street.

http://broadwaymarket.co.uk/history.php

The Cat and Mutton pub [...] was named after the Cat and Mutton bridge over the Regent's Canal - coal barges on the canal were called 'cats', the mutton speaks for itself.

(It used to be a drover's route.)

This sounds like it will be a really good day and a very worthwhile event too.

If it wasn't also Bermondsey Street Festival that day I would be there will bells on.

Good work Oliver.

What do you get as a thank you for helping?

Stab proof vests?

I'll just stick this here

https://www.facebook.com/events/363189477090587/
Camden celebrates car free day 2012 in style this year, with a stunning cycle fashion show on Friday 21 September. Bayley Street, Camden WC1B. Two blocks from Oxford street.

What do you get as a thank you for helping?

Stab proof vests?

Coffee and cakes from the market, as far as our modest funds permit.

Bump. The Cat and Mutton Bridge car-free day happened. People seemed to enjoy the occasion. The market operated as normal. Volunteer stewards let the 394 buses through, and the bus drivers drove with great care and civility in the presence of pedestrians on the carriageway. One driver, in a City Sprint van (perhaps he had stolen it?), threw a wobbly and angrily chucked the barriers aside in order to maintain his accustomed short cut. Apart from that, no problem. and the event demonstrated what it was intended to demonstrate, ie that you can cut out this rat run without the sky falling in.

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