Support Mini Holland

Hello I live in Walthamstow where we've just started a trial of the £30 million Mini Holland scheme which aims to encourage cycling and walking.

This first stage involved road closures to make residential streets better for cycling. As you can imagine, this has caused a lot of motorists to kick RIGHT off. They got all organised and started a petition and have been on the news and it's been pretty depressing from the point of view of a cyclist as there's a noisy, angry minority dominating the debate.

So to redress the balance I've started a Change.org petition in support of the scheme. Would you mind signing?

http://www.change.org/p/waltham-forest-council-we-support-mini-holland-in-walthamstow-2

If you want to see the petition against it is here:

http://www.change.org/p/london-borough-of-waltham-forest-council-stop-mini-holland-in-walthamstow

Thanks very much

Garry Lemon (AKA mongrel on this forum but due to vbulletin migration issues am locked out of my account at the moment)

The local rag seems to be blaming cyclists for every traffic jam in East London at the moment, the reporting has been awful.

yeah and my fear is that the voiciferous anti crowd have made all the running so far, being interviewed, getting a petition up etc. Important for supporters to organise a bit better.

Stupid thing doesn't seem to submit. Motorists are probably DoSing it. :P

Keep trying! And do share as well thanks mate.

Signed and shared. God, these pea-brained, car-dependent bores really hate the idea of people enjoying their own streets, don't they? "You want to make things better for everyone? Oh, no, no, no, we can't be doing with that, down with quality-of-life! Free petrol for all schoolchildren!"

you should see some of the local facebook groups - genuinely a bit frightening:

Signed

It's true, you'll not be saving the NHS money.

Everyone knows that long term trends aren't a thing.

My fav comment....

absolute joke bikes make no contribution to up keep of roads yet they ride around no lights, helmets jump through lights yet cars are being punished again for bicycles

Is it actually a good initiative?

Cycling bingo full house here

1 Attachment

Is it actually a good initiative?

Overall, yes. There are things that will inevitably be watered-down or altered as a response to local pressure and time/cashflow constraints but generally speaking the Waltham Forest bid is mostly down to modal filtering and traffic calming. It's really not a herald of the end of the world.

Bit late....

Signed. I live in Walthamstow village and you wouldn't believe the level of opposition there is from some local businesses and the knuckle dragging petrolheads who use these residential streets as their personal racetracks.

And I live there also; well in Whipps Cross.

Can I suggest we calm down . I don't think the local opposition is as anti cycling as you suggest. The opposition is also about a perceived lack of consultation. There is some truth in that.

What's interesting I that this is a pilot to see what might work. So please don't make it a cyclist's versus petrol heads conflict.

A lot hangs on this .

I think it's unfortunate that this has turned into two opposing petitions. But I felt I had to start one. There's a small group of loud, angry residents who were getting media coverage and hundreds of names on a petition totally unanswered.

There is a battle of hearts and minds going on right now, and my fear is that people in the media and people inside Waltham Forest Council - which I know has a lot of anti-cycling sentiment inside it - would begin to reconsider if all they see is opposition.

I've tried to keep the wording of the petition as inclusive as possible - because it is an inclusive scheme for everyone in the borough. And couldn't agree more that a lot hangs on this. That's why I felt I had to get the supporters' voices out there. Would be devastated if we let this slip through our fingers because we didn't stand up for it.

Well, you know. This is a cycling forum so you're bound to see pro-cycling rhetoric here.

The comments on the "we support" petition itself for the most part seem quite well-balanced, between normal humans on foot with families, and cyclists, which is nice.

A lot of councils (including mine, also a Mini-Holland bid winner) are going to be looking to Waltham Forest to see how this trial works out. I'm very glad they're carrying it out - a lot of opponents are saying "well, do you have any evidence this will work?" and then getting upset when the council takes steps to gather data to find out if it will work or not. It's a shame.

I note that my barber has signed the anti petition. This will not alter my choice of hairdresser.

Now you've got me worried that I've inadvertently suggested that it should.

Part of the idea behind Mini Holland is that it's supposed to make life better for local businesses as well as residents, not to cause people who want to walk safely around their home regions to avoid going into certain local businesses so that they can punish them for being worried about changes. I'd never recommend that people avoid businesses that are worried about these changes, and I'd hate to be posting things here that suggest in any way that's what I am recommending.

Our street just about falls into the Village/Mini-Holland catchment. We recently had a residents association meeting with a couple of chaps from the council responsible for delivering the scheme, and a local cycling campaigner. All the residents (mostly non-cyclists) were really receptive and enthusiastic to the potential improvements the scheme could offer, it would be a real shame if they are now dissuaded by the negativity surrounding the trial.

Fuck, I signed the wrong one.

Sign the proper one, but put "Sorry, I'm a penis" in comments.

Fuck, I signed the wrong one.

car-fancying scum!

https://www.change.org/p/change-org-offer-a-simple-way-to-unsign-a-petition-on-change-org/responses/10902

Done