IGF board member Beatrice Stude is currently in the UK and brings back insights that can also be applied to the cycling situation in Austria and Vienna. Today the second part of “Lessons from Britain”:
Lessons from Britain – Love London
How to get the election campaign back to contents, especially to topics which are important for one? And how to make sure, that the promises during the election process are defined precisely and linked to future projects? The London Cycling Campaign has shown with her ʻLove London, Go Dutchʻ campaign one way how to do this.
A few days before the mayoral election the London Cycling Campaign – LCC – has organised ʻThe Big Rideʻ to remind everyone of the needs and requirements of cyclists in the city, and their campaign ʻLove London, Go Dutchʻ. The campaign is basically a ready- made promise with a precise programm for implementation for the improvement of the conditions of cycling. LCC has lobbyied, put on pressure and … won!
The Big Ride
ʻThe Big Rideʻ, London, rain, but who cares. After all, the participants cycle for the quality of living, the independence of children and adolescents, in general the freedom to get around unharmed in the city. London should go Dutch, at least concerning the conditions for cycling. The demonstration of cycling women, men and children seems endless. Against the uglyness of the weather sheer endless batches of cyclists rode by. Even the police officers had fun. In favour of pedestrians the demonstration train always stopped at crossings. Only after half an hour the first and the last cyclists had passed under the Golden Jubilee Bridge.
The aim of the campaign is to ask the mayoral candidates to prioritise cycling and pedestrians in the future and to commit to the three key points of the campaign:
- Implement three flagship ‘Love London, Go Dutch’ developments on major streets and/ or locations.
- Make sure all planned developments on the main roads that they controls are complete to Go Dutch standards, especially junctions.
- Make sure the CycleSuperhighways programme is completed to ‘LoveLondon,Go Dutch’ standards.
The petition of the campaign is still on, by now already 37,000 people have signed. On Friday, the 27 April, one day before the ʻThe Big Rideʻ Boris Johnson also declared his commitment to this campaign. His competitors did that much earlier. LCC has reached its goal, now we will see if and how quickly the new mayor will put all this into practice.
IG Fahrrad became Radlobby Wien.
More lessons from Britain
- #1 – I vote with my bike
- #3 – Boris Bikes move London
- #4 – Cycle Superhighways
- #5 – Reclaim the streets
- #6 – Cycleparadise Oxford