HFCycling meeting 13/10/20

Present in Google meet:

Karen Miller

Casey Abaraonye (Chair HFCycling)

Peri Abaraonye (Communications & Management)

David Ford (Easy Ride Leader)

John Everard

Henrietta Bewley (Secretary)

Toby Hopkins (Cycle Buddies, Wandsworth LCC)

Low traffic neighbourhoods

John Everard – councils are coming under lots of pressure by motorists to remove LTN & the temporary cycle routes.

Council in talks with Brackenbury residents association and Hammersmith grove.  Council got funding from TFL for 6 cycle routes.  We don’t know which they are.

Casey – in S Fulham the council has cameras installed and working.  The council sends out PCN notices to motorists.  Traffic within the S Fulham LTN has fallen a lot – 90%???.   Non compliance rate started at 60%, now fallen to 30% of traffic – those who get a PCN. Now council looking at west side of Wandsworth road. Next they will look at Wandsworth bridge road itself.

Everywhere in the world  traffic has risen by 120 to 150%

Please write to your councillors to support cycle routes & LTN’s.  Please keep Making the case  for sustainable transport on social media. The council listens to what they hear on social media,  next door, in the newspapers etc.  We believe the silent majority want cleaner air and quieter streets, but to get them we need to be LOUD.

LCC elections & AGM etc

The AGM is on 28th October, and will be virtual.

Members can submit questions in advance.

https://www.lcc.org.uk/pages/agm-and-board-election-2020

3 LCC board members are up for election.

Neil Webster, who is standing for the board this year, has been very helpful to HFCyclists, RBCK LCC, Ealing and Hounslow.

LCC campaigners conference:

https://membership.lcc.org.uk/lcc-campaigners-conference-2020

Also online, Tuesday Oct 20th, Wednesday Oct 21st, Tuesday Oct 27th, 18:30 to 20:30.

Lots of advice, tools, tips, discussions etc.

Campaigner awards

There is still time to nominate people for cycle campaigner awards.   Lots of Categories, for both LCC campaigners and people outside of the LCC, including: Best Campaign Initiative,  Campaigner of the Year,  Streetspace Council of the Year, Best Communication Initiative etc.

Casey is nominating Ken McCosh, for Community Outreach.  He has created a wonderful series of rides.  Once a month,  Ken takes people to places we haven’t been to before, exploring parts of London many didn’t know exist, and also has a wealth of historical information about the places we visit. These bike rides have helped reinvigorate the group and are attracting more and more riders.

Weekly bike Rides

The leisurely shorter rides on Sunday are also helping to give inexperienced and older returning cyclists more confidence. These are very popular for all ages – children to people over 80. Last Sunday we went to China Town to eat cake.

This Sunday – Monthly Leisurely Ride to Greenwich. Goes through some very nice areas and a nice market at the end. Start Pekoe Mellow tea shop in Brackenbury. If too tired to cycle both ways, can go home with the bike on the train.

This ride departs from Pekoe Mellow Tea House, 22 Aldensley Road, Hammersmith W6 0DH at 10am.

We will have a local pick up from Empress State Building, Lillie Road, West Brompton, SW6 1TR at 9.30am. If you wish to join from there please confirm on the WhatsApp group or text 07975612368.

To join this ride please book here 

We are comfortable with two groups of 6, so 12 in total.  We are hoping that the rule of 6 outdoors will continue to be OK for a while.

Cycle buddy scheme with Toby Hopkins.

Pairing experienced riders with inexperienced riders over 18.  One to one.  Our own Peri took Karen on a ride to find a good route for her to cycle with her son to school.  Not the same as bikeability and cycle training which is free from local authorities.

HFCyclists would love to set up cycle buddies. If you would like to volunteer to help a novice rider, please contact cycle buddies LCC.org.uk/cyclebuddies or toby.hopkins@lcc.org.uk.  They are doing the same for K&C.  If there are enough volunteers in H&F, we could have our own group.

Please talk about this with as many people as possible,  and write about it in NextDoor, Covid response groups, parents chat rooms etc, so that the less confident riders get to know about it.