The LCC's Love London, Go Dutch campaign

[lydia_forster]

The Love London, Go Dutch campaign has now launched – the London Cycling Campaign’s (LCC) vision for a liveable city where people can walk, cycle and run without fear. The campaign is called Love London, Go Dutch because we want to make our streets as safe and inviting for cycling and walking as they are in the Netherlands where 47% of journeys are made by bike and foot.

The campaign is a response to the deep worries that existing and potential cyclists have about safety, and is calling for the next Mayor to take a radical new approach to street design. To illustrate what could be done the LCC has produced a range of innovative designs showing how three public spaces could look for a safer London:

· Parliament Square: www.lcc.org.uk/pages/parliament-square
· Olympic Park: www.lcc.org.uk/pages/olympic-park
· Blackfriars: www.lcc.org.uk/bf

LCC chief executive Ashok Sinha said, “There’s a real danger London will be left behind by other global cities such as New York, Paris and Amsterdam if the next Mayor doesn’t look beyond outdated solutions that always favour motor traffic over cyclists and pedestrians.

“We’re calling on the next Mayor to provide safe and convenient bike lanes on main roads, safer passage for cyclists and pedestrians across roundabouts and junctions, and more people-friendly streets where people work, shop and live.”

LCC want the new mayor to prove their commitment to Love London, Go Dutch during the next Mayoralty (2012-2016) by doing the following:

• Implementing three flagship Go Dutch developments on major streets and/or locations;
• Making sure all planned developments on main roads that they control are redesigned to Go Dutch key principles, especially junctions (www.lcc.org.uk/pages/key-principles);
• Ensure the Cycle Superhighway programme is completed to Go Dutch standards.

So far the Love London, Go Dutch petition has been signed by TV presenter Lauren Laverne, indie band Franz Ferdinand, culture writer Alain de Botton and design guru Stephen Bayley.

The campaign is sponsored by Brompton Bicycles and Bywaters, and supported by the Dutch Embassy.

If you are in favour of the campaign sign the petition now at www.lcc.org.uk/go-dutch!

 

[dellzeqq]

http://lcc.org.uk/pages/parliament-square bus stops?

 

[Richard Mann]

http://lcc.org.uk/pages/parliament-square bus stops?

Traffic lanes instead of bus lanes on the bridge also struck me as a retrograde step.

I think at least one of the main roads needs to be closed (there's too many junctions too close together), but which? Victoria Embankment?

 

[dellzeqq]

I'd use the word 'backward', but I suppose 'retrograde' is better, wot wiv you being a perfessional and all, Richard.

I think you're right about junctions, though. It would take an extraordinary effort to phase the lights to avoid a complete snarl-up. And, yes, the LCC seems blind to the merits of the bus lane, the very thing that succeeded in making cycling so popular where LCN+ failed so completely.

You may think this is a bit of a diversion, but, for me, the problem is that it makes space more rather than less privileged. Westminster Square has been about the imposition of order since the rookeries were cleared (and probably before that) and, just recently we've seen a long-lasting protest set up. There's a symbolic difference between a bus lane and a cycle lane which the LCC hasn't grasped. This scheme looks like a bit of a land-grab.

 

[Gooner Mad Dog]

Anything is better than it is right now, work just off parliament square and is probably the worst area in my commute, traffic conflicting with tourists, buses, bikes and taxis stopping for fares. Compared to other cities, London's parliament sq and focal point is as inviting as any junction on any motorway a complete mess of traffic confliction, anger and stressed Londoners.
I would pedestrianise the lot ( buses only ) likewise with Regent St, Oxford St. Most other cities do it in Europe....

 

[Richard Mann]

Anything is better than it is right now, work just off parliament square and is probably the worst area in my commute, traffic conflicting with tourists, buses, bikes and taxis stopping for fares. Compared to other cities, London's parliament sq and focal point is as inviting as any junction on any motorway a complete mess of traffic confliction, anger and stressed Londoners.
I would pedestrianise the lot ( buses only ) likewise with Regent St, Oxford St. Most other cities do it in Europe....

If it were based on footfall, then the road to close / narrow severely would be Bridge St.

One virtue of closing Victoria Embankment (or Whitehall) would be that the need for two+ queuing lanes each way on Bridge St would disappear.

But pedestrianising the lot would work too.

 

[dellzeqq]

I've never quite worked out which is the strategic route. Northumberland Avenue, which is often completely rammed, doesn't seem to go anywhere except, perhaps, as a route from soutwest London to the West End. It's used a great deal by taxi cabs, and there's a number of bus routes down it, but, for my money you could red tarmac the lot and let everything else come down the Embankment.

That wouldn't reduce the amount of traffic going down toward Millbank, but it would, perhaps, make the junctions a little easier to work.

 

[style over speed]

Over 5000 signatures on the petition so far apparently, I've been collecting signatures from commuters a couple of mornings and the response has been overwhelmingly positive… only two people refused to sign, someone who said they worked for "the council" and one who said he was an urban planner
90% + aren't LCC members which surprised me, a few BC members and saw a couple of FNRTTCers

 

[dellzeqq]

I'd suggest that 5,000 is a pretty poor return for an organisation with more than twice that number of members, and some pretty sophisticated communications. Put it this way, it's less than the number of cyclists using CS7. If the spending you're after is in the region of £200 million, then that's a cool £40,000 per signature. At a time when £1.7bn is being knocked out of the TfL budget and borough councils are laying off social workers in child protection. Electorally it's a nothing, and if the point is to bring pressure to bear on the mayoral candidates, the LCC had better get the additional 95,000 signatures they need to make it significant in pretty short order.

And, once again, I'm really, really surprised by the poor take-up on the Times petition. The effort the paper has put in to it has been extraordinary.

I've a feeling that cycle campaigning in London might just be fading. The LCC's drive to double the membership failed despite the great increase in cycling - or, put another way, the proportion of cyclists joining the LCC has fallen. The Blackfriars Bridge flash rides faded away. Despite huge publicity, the crowd demonstrating at Kings Cross number approximately a dozen. The frenetic pace of campaigns launched by the head office has left the borough organisations a bit behind, but, more importantly, they've tried to link an instant petition to a long haul campaign and, setting aside my doubts about the campaign, that's just plain daft..

This winter's figures will, I think, demonstrate that those routes that have achieved critical mass have not seen the traditional cold weather slump in numbers. The confidence and demographic range of cyclists seems to be increasing at the very time that newspapers and the LCC suggest that cycling is invariably fatal. It may be that there's been a massive contagion of contentment, not to say happiness. It may be that, within zones 1 to 3, we've won, and that, for all it's limitations, we should be savouring the victory.

 

[Titan yer tummy]

I went out canvassing for signatures at Waterloo stn this evening. It wasn't really possible to grab the cyclists so I concentrated on pedestrians. I was surprised at how many signed. There were about half a dozen of us and I guess I got about 100 signatures in an hour. I didn't check but I presume the others did similar.

Whilst 600 signatures is not that many in the great scheme of things I found the responses from almost all I spoke to very positive. Once they realised that we weren't doing the charity begging bit people happily stopped and signed. Several walked passed at first and then realising what they were being asked turned back and signed up. However I was constantly being tackled about the behaviour of cyclists at red lights and pavement cycling. I have said here before, and been shouted down for it, that I strongly feel that this is a major impediment to us getting the support we need.

I see on the LCC website that they have collected about 17k signatures at present. I must say that this doesn't seem very many.

TyT


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Manifietso]

I think it is a great campaign. In Coventry they have gone Dutch. Right idea, wrong Dutch city!