Month: August 2019

Freecycle Feeder Ride – Stratford to Bank

Photo by Ian Gray (thanks Ian)

This is always the biggest family ride of the year with many people coming from outside London to take advantage of the freecycle cycling carnival in Central London, with no traffic. It was our task to ensure that the participants were guided safely through the streets leading to the Freecycle and bring them back after the event

This year we changed the route to include the Olympic Park, Victoria Park, a short section of the regents canal and quiet way 13, from Broadway Market to Shoreditch and on to Moorgate and Bank. Families gathered, their bikes were checked, tyres pumped, emergency contact forms filled and everyone was made to feel welcome. As usual we saw some interesting vehicles, including a scooter, a child trailer and a rider with a large sound system on his back. There were a number of children on their first or longest road ride, who were asked to ride at the front to set the pace, the youngest was just four years old.

The weather was fine and the ride passed very smoothly, apart from coming across a seemingly continuous running race in Victoria Park. Our excellent team of marshals worked hard to ensure that the riders were safe, had fun and arrived at the Bank to join the thousands of people on bikes enjoying a traffic free London, perhaps this is how London will look in future.

More photos here – thanks as always to Robin Stephenson.

Readout of meeting of 29 July 2019

We started with an evening ride from Forest Gate around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We saw the newly opened section of the Greenway before moving on to Crate for refreshment and a short discussion.

  • Michale Barratt, TfL’s Development Impact Manager, told us he was having discussions with Newham Council’s Network Management team and we agreed to maintain contact (whilst being wary that this department had a done little in the past to promote cycling in Newham). This initiate should benefit pedestrians , site workers, the less able as well as those that cycle.
  • The disappointing backtracking by Newham Council in respect of theBrowning Road bridge (see previous post). This issue gives greater urgency to our efforts to link with other like minded groups promoting a better environment and better neighbourhoods for Newham.
  • We will give feedback to LCC that scheduling the Freecycle in August made it difficult for us to provide marshals for the feeder ride.
  • We discussed forthcoming events on 22 September (Car Free Day) and 5 October (Bike from Boleyn).
  • We will seek discussions with Newham Council over the defective scheme for the junction of Greengate St and Barking Road.
  • We noted that staff at the Financial Conduct Authority found parking in Startford so cheap compared with Canary Wharf that commuting by car had increased.
  • We discussed the possibilities of hiring and/or hiring out a cargo bike.

Our next meeting will be 30 September – details to be confirmed.

Arnold

Browning Road Bridge

Many of you will have seen on Social Media that LBN have backtracked on the Browning Road Bridge experimental scheme that was due to start last week, after a protest took place by drivers who use the area.

We have written to the Mayor and the Cabinet Member for Highways and Sustainable Transport to express our concerns.