Readout of May 2024 meeting

The meeting took place at the Olympic Park, post Freecycle ride.

Upcoming events and support required

8/6 Fix your Ride – people allocated. 29/6 school fete – do we have sufficient support for this? Forest Gate Festival 6th July  – people allocated – need to check if there is room for outreach (KF)

Planning meeting in November – items to complete

SOP for  our group – to provide visibility of roles and to allow others to take on roles.

Ride calendar (in parallel with FYR and AAA dates if possible, to avoid calendar clashes). Ideally a range of people will lead a range of rides. We can ask people if they have a ride they would like to lead, or offer them rides which require leading. We will ask LCC for ride leader and Marshall training/youth opps /safeguarding training at the local groups meeting. Possible new rides – Cambridge – with Dunwich dynamo to Morton then back from Epping.

What is the best way to share documents? Find out if everyone can edit a google spreadsheet (JR)

Marketing

Bike flags we ordered – where are they? NC tabards – numbers and prices?Stickers?

Bicycle agony aunt – via the newsletter?

Cyclists breakfast – Greenway? Timing for this?

Infrastructure

The new Infrastructure group requires a separate mailing list – Chris Kershaw to organise.

Romford Road scheme – are the old bustops being taken away?

Salway Place – is this restricted now?

Temple Mill Lane – 97 bus bridge incident – approach:

  • letter to bus garage – who?
  • Approach TfL buses – Simon has a regular meeting with TFL buses, can we use this?

Take Action: Say YES! to the Romford Road cycleway

Newham Council are consulting on their full plan for cycleways on Romford Road. This is a long-awaited extension of Cycleway 2 to the edge of Ilford.

Artsy visualisation of Romford Road with with-flow cycle tracks on either side of the road. A mother with a pram and a lady on her phone cross the street on a zebra crossing, while pedestrians and a kid with a kick scooter use the footway.

We are delighted to see the designs are super high-quality! Continuous cycle tracks. Fully protected Dutch-style junctions. More planting and trees. New sections of 24-hour bus lane. It looks similar to the Lea Bridge Road cycleway in Waltham Forest, but in some ways (e.g. at bus stops) it’s even better!

Romford Road is one of our most important main roads, and also one of the worst places in Newham to cycle at the moment. TfL’s Strategic Cycling Analysis shows there is huge demand for people to cycle here. Now’s your chance to tell Newham Council “yes please!” to high quality cycleways.

The consultation is open until Sunday 24th March. We recommend you support the scheme, and ask Newham to:

  1. Deliver cycle tracks on Romford Road in full and as quickly as possible, without compromising on protection, width, or junction design
  2. Co-ordinate with the Redbridge to allow the cycleway to continue to Ilford town centre
  3. Future-proof the scheme for low traffic neighbourhoods on the nearby side streets, and for cycle tracks on the main roads that cross it—everyone deserves to live on a street that’s safe for cycling

We’ve posted our own response below for your reference, but remember: your own views and experiences will carry the most weight in consultations.

Newham-Cyclists-Romford-Road-consultation-response

Christmas Lights Ride

Thanks for coming to the Christmas Lights Ride! It was very busy but we managed to see all the best displays. Kudos to Robin for a quick puncture repair and photos, to Steve for leading, to Anita and Ken for marshalling, and to all for completing the ride. More photos available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rsstephenson/albums/72177720313311169/

Karen.

Everybody needs good neighbours!

Our neighbours in Tower Hamlets need support!

Many of us cycle into Central London via the Tower Hamlets cycling network.

However “Mayor Lutfur Rahman has taken the most extreme, undemocratic and dangerous decision available to him. He has decided to rip out all the walking and cycling infrastructure in Bethnal Green. “

“Save Our Safer Streets” is fighting back.

Find out more below. Can you help our neighbours?