C+ this month had a piece on Ken's great cycling vision which promises streets of gold for London cyclists whilst elsewhere will fight to stay "safe"
This quote says it all in C+ and seems to suggest that C+ is not quite "anti-car in the capital"
C-plus wrote:
Bikes.. pedestrians .. public transport. The only thing that does't fit in with Ken's vision is the car
Ken, as reported previously, has announced a £500m scheme .. with bike hire along the cycle routes , which he plans to build to enter central London, Bike zones/cycle to school routes and 20 mph speed limits for cars on these mostly residential zones ... along with some shared walking paths on a regeneration/landscaping project.
He also plans to include somewhere to park the bicycles at stations despite the fact that Cross Rail want to ban bicycles from its new tube line :ppopcorn: (also per C+ on the same page...
Boris - a keen cyclist is scathing and believes Ken - who is not a cyclist and who uses a gas guzzling taxi per the paparazzi
- has been stampeded into some waffly scheme. He points out that his bike hire proposal is only one third of Paris's Velib scheme and thus could not hope to deliver according to potential high tourist needs. Boris claims Ken has not even begun talks with all the London boroughs to achieve all this , whereas he, Boris, has been in talks for the past 8 months and seeks to deliver a scheme from a cyclist's point of view - with the intent of protecting bikes from getting stolen. increasing safety measures and training, as well as remaining sympathetic to the needs of the chap behind th wheel of a car
In the meantime though - everyone else has to go to
hell given the fights to protect current cycle routes.
[list]
1. MM's sisters are engaged in a Manchester congestion charge fight. One of them is tackling the plans to remove a cycling path used by all in their local environment. The public transport improvement plans seem to want to use this track for a tram track.
The locals want to keep the now attractive walkway/bridle/cycle path there. OK so it used to be a railway line before Beeching .. but it's now a well used network of routes without traffic around the suburbs there.
2. (from C+ article). Sustrans flag ship cycle route - Bristol-Bath is under threat. It seems they want to let buses use it. 250 attended the meeting and hundreds more waited outside. 95% of the voters in the local press's opinioon poll voted against this plan. Sustrans founder says
Quote:
he does not think Central government will support the scheme unless there is shown to be a measure public support
hope for Manchester then as the public vote consistently against the planned charges in every opinion poll there
3. In Norwich - the county council passed a motion to allow lorries to use a cycle lane during the rush hour - on a 6 month trial ..
Local cyclists are protesting there.
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