We are launching an exciting initiative which: will save you money when you buy a new bike, will mobilise Londoners to improve cycling conditions, will give you the opportunity to use your skills and channel your frustration with present conditions into making something constructive. Here is how it works: You decide to buy a new bicycle at our shop, Velorution offers you a ten percent discount on the bike, if you commit to a number of hours of voluntary work for a cause, which you [...]
If you are planning to vote in May, watch the video above and read this post by As Easy As Riding A Bike. And then ask yourself: “Do I want to be swindled and cheated by Johnson for four more years?” In essence, the redesign of the Blackfriars Bridge junction was sold as required ” to accommodate the [expectation of] hugely increased pedestrian flows.” If you don’t know this junction, note that there used to be a pedestrian crossing where you see all the people [...]
The crossing of York Way / Pentonville Road should be a “Manslaughter Scene”. One young lady has died because of the negligence of Transport for London and Boris Johnson. According to TfL’s own London Cycling Design Standards, the section of road above, narrow, narrowing and bending, requires special treatment to protect people on bikes: Chicanes and pinch-points 3.6.4 It is important to ensure that the feature is designed in such a way that cyclists are neither squeezed nor intimidated. Options include: • raising driver-awareness of [...]
What a waste! Danny takes Ranger to task: More than £2m per mile to paint parking places blue? Please don’t forget the photograph above, come election time in May.
Like London, Berlin also had a black year for cycle deaths: 11 in total, compared to 6 the year before. Berlin has half the population of London but probably three times the modal share (except when there is a lot of snow). Like in London, the biggest cause of fatal crashes are left or right turning vehicles. Kalle has the full breakdown. The map above is from the Telegraph and it shows all incidents in London in the twelve months from August 10 and July [...]
Amsterdam has installed these saddle seats over bridges. A brilliant idea; they should come with simple instructions: “If you are in a hurry, stop and sit down. Count ten deep breaths. You can now go: you will be one minute late but five years younger” If you have more time, turn them around and enjoy watching the Dutch girls riding over the bridge: Images by Sandra Hoj
Boris, you are bad for our health. When TfL favours “smoothing [motor]traffic flow” and thus discourages people from cycling, it causes more deaths, through lack of exercise and pollution, than just the poor souls killed on the roads.
Two micro guerilla gardening interventions in Milan, part of the “piante volanti” project. Via Milano Fixed
… that is driving the people insane. Both the Dutch and the English were faced with the same choice in 1970. Allow the car dominate the streetscape, or put people first. It is not coincidence that by all measures of welfare, the Dutch are better-off nowadays, having chosen Opton B(icycle). Thanks to Pedestrianise London for the link.
Here is an intervention we did last night. It is Russell Square where the segregated cycle lane has been removed. From Montague Place, bicycles are allowed to turn right but are then confronted by drivers (like the taxi in the picture), who still think that the street is one way. Some idiots even want to make a point and try to run you over. Sick of this, I have used several cones by the side of the road to erect a protective barrier. The blue [...]
München’s Mayor explains how the city has tripled the bicycle modal share to 17%. The European Cycle Federation has some data: Growth in cycling did not come at the expense of public transport which increased over the last 3 years from 21 to 22.8 %. Car use decreased from 29 % in 2002 to a remarkably low 22.9 % in 2011. (To put this into perspective, Brussels has around a 65 % car split). [These figures imply that walking, scooters and helicopters went down to [...]
