The last week has been a great opportunity to get a feel for the transport cycling scene in London.
I have just spent several days there with Peter Bourke, my GM at the CPF, where we benefitted from the very generous assistance of our good friend Philip Darnton (and well known patriarch of English bicycle industry advocacy) who organised a series of meetings with some of the UK’s key advocates, industry figures and the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group.
I was blown away by the numbers of people choosing to ride to work despite the incredible congestion and severe lack of road space. The congestion was not just on the roads, but also pedestrian traffic. I spent a fair bit of time between meetings just standing on street corners to see how it all worked!
Above: morning commute.
Those who choose to ride in the centre of London at peak hour seem similar to those who choose to ride to work in Australian cities; young and predominantly male, clearly fearless and dressed for cycling. There is a bit more diversity with some enthusiasm for short city trips by obviously well-healed businessmen in suits. Mostly helmets seem to be worn, although they are not obliged to. There are more folding bikes than Australia, probably as they can be easily stored at home or taken into offices and on the underground.
Above: just another day on the way to the office.
There are also some stark differences, as Kevin Mayne from the ECF also pointed out in his recent blog following a three week trip to Australia. Although taxi drivers told me that cyclists are ‘rule breakers’ and ‘don’t respect red lights’ the same way they do in Australia, in London both taxi and the bus drivers in particular seem to take care to give people riding bicycles room, they don’t blow their horns at bikes and they really do seem endlessly patient when they have a number of riders in the lane in front of them.
There seem to be fewer cars on the streets of central London than in the centres of Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. Although central London congestion charging may explain this in part, the alternatives of a great tube/underground and large capacity double decker buses mean there may be less incentive to struggle with trying to move or park a car on city centre thoroughfares.
I think I now know why the bus drivers may have such a different attitude from their colleagues in Australia. I met David Dansky, from Cycle Training UK, during the week. He conducts training for Transport for London. There is a module of on-road cycling that each trainee must complete as part of their bus driver accreditation. Clearly this would give them a much better understanding of what it feels like to share the road with buses and other large and small vehicles and I can only say that I was blown away by the driver attitude I saw in these incredibly constrained environments that reflects this intimate knowledge of what cyclists are up against on the road.
Above: view of the road ahead from the top of a double decker bus.
There is a lot going on that bodes well for the future of cycling in London and the UK. Major transport infrastructure projects are finding that their cost-benefit ratios are enhanced when they ensure parallel provision for cycling is included in the scope of projects. This seems to provide a slight incentive to make the argument easier to include cycling.
Boris Johnson promised to promote a cycling champion to boost cycling’s profile. While we heard a range of views, there seems no doubt that Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor’s Commissioner for Cycling, knows his cycle routes and has taken a hands-on approach to driving major initiatives such as ‘Quiet Ways’ and ‘Connect London’. With no more space available on roads and pressure on both the Tube and buses, the City is interested in converting more trips to bikes. There are potentially 1,000km of routes available for Quiet Ways and a pilot is going to establish which routes should be prioritised for initial funding.
Quiet Ways recognise that the main transport routes are not always the best ones to boost cycling on and look to other routes that can be optimised for cycling and remove some of the conflict inherent in highly trafficked main roads.
It was very interesting to catch up with Sustrans while we were there, and they clearly have a lot of interest in many of the projects. They have gained a much greater understanding of the barriers faced by disabled travellers by working with their advocates and say this has given them a much deeper ability to suggest better environments for transport for all. There is a lot more about 'Connecting London by bike' from Sustrans here.
We were very interested to hear of the UK Cycling Alliance’s campaign that will push Conservative and Labor party conferences late this month to consider better cycling policies as they develop their political manifestos for the Parliamentary elections to be held next May. It is a big effort and they will bring out the star power of some of the Champions as well as use their relationships within Parliament to lobby for key asks. The Alliance brings Sustrans, British Cycling, the CTC, London Cycling Campaign and the industry’s Bicycle Association together for this important effort.
Above: the flyer for the UK cycling groups effort to get cycling into the party manifestos of both sides. This one is for the Conservative Party Conference.
We did our bit for Anglo-Aussie détente with an address to the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group about the current situation for cycling policy and advocacy in Australia. There are around one hundred members from Lords and the House in the Group as well as all cycling advocate groups and we were happy that Convenors Julian Huppert MP and Ian Austin MP were in attendance along with a few of the Lords and MPs. There was plenty of interest in what we are doing and parallels in terms of the need to convey the benefits of increased cycling to the broader population.
Above: Meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group in Portcullis House, London.
The day before I addressed the APPCG Boris Johnson had unveiled his plan for a massive investment in a cross city £900m 'Crossrail for bikes'. The north-south route will run for 3 miles and the east-west route will comprise 18 miles with both offering protected cycle routes through dangerous junctions.
We had a chat to British Cycling about their efforts in cycling advocacy which are more recent than the established charities like BA, CTC, LCC and Sustrans. Amazingly, their membership since 2008 has grown from 35,000 to 100,000! While it has clearly been on the back of amazing results by their elite and pro cycling stars in Olympics and Tours, the majority of these new members are recreational only and support BC’s advocacy program. Members want safer conditions for cycling!
We talked to Balanceability about their program for early stage children and the benefits of a carefully structured physical activity program at that early stage of schooling. Currently, 40% of English children can’t cycle at the age of six, and this program is often their first introduction to riding.
Above: with Maria Yates who developed Balanceability in the UK.
Since 2011 I have had a Brompton folding bike and my last meeting before we finished our London sojourn was a quick trip out to Kew Bridge to visit their factory. I acknowledge it was a bit of a pilgrimage for me and a terrific opportunity to see the largest remaining bike manufacturer in the UK. I bought mine because it was the smallest folding bike and a reasonably light weight to allow me the freedom to check it in for flights and still be under my limit. London is full of them!
Above: the Brompton 'Wall of Fame'
We are now travelling on some superb intercity trains to Brussels to spend the day with Kevin Mayne and the staff of the European Cycling Federation, before heading north to join up with our Australian delegation for a very exciting study tour where we are being hosted by the Netherlands Government to visit a number of Dutch cities and meet with some of the key people who are responsible for Dutch cycling culture.
It is not the first Australian trip to Holland, David Hembrow has been taking small groups to Holland for some time and Paul van Bellen from Gazelle Australia organised a large trip in 2011, but it’s the first where we have been able to target key high level decision makers across the country.
We have been very excited by the interest shown from across the transport and political sectors and we are especially gratified that the largest car clubs are sending some of their most senior people to also gain a greater understanding of road safety and how the bike transport mode co-exists so successfully with cars in the Netherlands.
I look forward to sharing more thoughts as our ‘Love Cycling, Go Dutch’ Study Tour progresses in coming days.
Stephen Hodge
Cycling Promotion Fund
