Cyclists need a robust national campaigning group.

[Sore Thumb]

I have now left the CTC, I joined because I wanted to support a cycling campaigning group and also for the insurance. I just don't feel that the CTC is a feasible campaigning group anymore. Because I am also starting to do more club rides I have decided to join British Cycling.

I would still like to continue to support a national campaigning group but there does not seem to be any other organisation out there apart from the CTC. As I feel that the CTC is not really up to the task, we as cyclists need a more robust campaigning group/organisation.

Is there a group in the country that I could support? And will speak up for ALL cyclists.

 

[snorri]

Is there a group in the country that I could support? And will speak up for ALL cyclists.

There is no nationwide group, but many local groups are associated with Cyclenation, the federation of cycle campaign groups. I doubt if any campaign group would claim to speak for ALL cyclists as the needs of cyclists are diverse, utility, off-road, competitive,track, etc. etc.
www.cyclenation.org.uk/

 

[GrumpyGregry]

never gonna happen. the segregationists cannot abide the integrationists, and they all sit around hurling anathema at each other on their blogs and call it campaigning.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It's typically British ... Monty Python summed-it up in LOB - Judean Popular Front/Popular Front for Judea.
We get fcuk-all done because we're too divided fighting each other rather than putting aside our diferences 'till the enemy is slain.
So cyclists (who number many) will never have a common voice and the CTC are nowhere.

 

[ufkacbln]

The assumption is that all have the same aim.

 

[Fab Foodie]

The assumption is that all have the same aim.

Sure, but you know, if we have a go, there might be just enough critical mass in some areas of common ground to get something done ....

 

[mickle]

We do all have the same aim.

 

[Norm]

So cyclists (who number many) will never have a common voice and the CTC are nowhere.

Having a foot in two camps there, I'm thinking that we could usefully form a marriage with cyclists who choose petrol rather than human powered. There are a lot of common issues (and potential murderers) facing all on two wheels.

 

[Nantmor]

Are you volunteering, sore thumb?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

We get fcuk-all done because we're too divided fighting each other rather than putting aside our diferences 'till the enemy is slain.

We get cock all done because there is, with one or two shining exceptions, a whole bunch of knobs out there (me included in times past) who all too often think that their social media presence and narcissistic blogs (my old one included), with 20 followers all going "ra ra ra you tell 'em big boy", full of undeliverable cloud cuckooland ideas constitutes campaigning. When in fact it is just people blowing off steam but in doing so alienating the very public officials and community group leaders those of us who are trying to bring about change locally need to influence.

Some pictures of a town in Denmark and a reminiscence of a City break in Amsterdam coupled with a self fulfilling intolerance of anything short of perfection do not a campaign make. We need to start lobbying our councillors and our MP's and we need to get our local friends to do the same, and we need to find a way to start appealing en masse the ridiculously lenient sentences handed out for serious motoring offences.

Rant over. For now.

 

[dellzeqq]

I think it all depends what you mean by the word campaigning. Do you need an organisation to write a letter to your Councillor or MP? Do you need an organisation to tell you that this or that junction is pants?

The CTC isn't so much a campaigning organisation, it's a lobbying outfit. That doesn't mean the root and branch thing can't be done by somebody, anybody, you......for example

 

[Fab Foodie]

Sentencing could be a good point to start ... but it would need some mass.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I think it all depends what you mean by the word campaigning. Do you need an organisation to write a letter to your Councillor or MP? Do you need an organisation to tell you that this or that junction is pants?

The CTC isn't so much a campaigning organisation, it's a lobbying outfit. That doesn't mean the root and branch thing can't be done by somebody, anybody, you......for example

True.
But one thing I think we lack is a credible media prescence who can communicate our issues with some conviction.

 

[dellzeqq]

I think this. You're not going to make a difference all of the time. Heaven knows I've done more than my fair share of bamboozling local authorities, but sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But........it's not really about media coverage. It's about making a decent case in a polite way, and listening to what people say. A lot of the time you're pushing against an open door, as all the section 106 funding for really dopey cycle paths proves - if that crap can get built, then you've got to stand a decent chance of getting an ASL put in. Again, sometimes you come up against a council official who is anti, but it may be that this can be worked around by going to your own councillor.

My point is that no national organisation is going to do this to you. It's a damn shame that CTC doesn't publish a how-to on local stuff, but, that's the breaks. In the end you know your area, you have the smarts to think the thing through and, if you take your time you can make the case. Instead of complaining that the UK isn't in Holland, which, as Greg says, isn't so very interesting

 

[GrumpyGregry]

True.
But one thing I think we lack is a credible media prescence who can communicate our issues with some conviction.

The credibility of any media presence in respect of any issue is I rather fear in the hands of the media.

The mainstream media do not take our sort of cycling, whatever that is, seriously in the same way as they don't take our national annual cull of road users seriously. Perhaps if someone senior in line to the throne takes to two wheels and gets wiped out at Kings X our issue might get its fifteen minutes of fame. More likely the driver would get lynched though.