Minutes of Camden Cycling Campaign Business Meeting on 12th February 2007
Present: Jane Boardman, James Brander, Stefano Casalotti, Jean Dollimore (chair), Richard Fletcher, Meade McCloughan (minutes) and Helen Vecht.
Apologies: Anne Boston and John Chamberlain.
Matters Arising From the Minutes of the Previous Meeting
• CCC May 14th meeting: will take place at Central St Martin’s College of Art & Design, in the ‘exhibition space’, entrance opposite Red Lion Square (bikes can be brought inside).
• Hampstead Heath event: nothing in the end went forward to the authorities, but the idea to be considered again; Meade to investigate the space near car park on East Heath Rd (opposite Downshire Hill Road), following Stefano’s suggestion.
• Euston Road/Ossulston Street: Jean to write to Mike Greene about the yellow box.
Green Fair/Bikefest – Sunday 3rd June
• TfL is to provide £5,000, mainly for cycling.
• Some of this money will have to be used for: barriers, cycle parking, the cost of the LCC mail out and the stall charges for the cycling participants (previously these, including ourselves, have not had to pay stall charges, which has caused some bad feeling with other participants).
• We do not yet know whether TfL is also funding/organizing Dr Bike, as last year. If not, the cost of providing a suitably capacious Dr Bike will have to come out of the £5,000.
• Other uses for the money: Stefano has suggested free standing banners (which could either be tied to railings etc or kept stable by water-filled bases), also durable posters describing our activities. The blood pressure monitor suggestion did not meet with general agreement.
• Stefano would like to have a bike maintenance project running in a neighbouring estate in the run-up to Bikefest so that the successful participants could then demonstrate their skills and maybe even help with Dr Bike on the day itself. If TfL does not separately funding Dr Bike we would probably have to get independent funding for this.
CCC Finances
• James presented a summary of the accounts for 2006. This showed income of £1,224 and expenditure of £1,297.
• The shortfall has come about because of the maintenance classes; we need to ensure that we don’t lose too much on these in future.
*Bike Week: Saturday 16th June – Sunday 24th June*
• Deadlines for inclusion of publicity in upcoming newsletters: 12th March for the April/May issue, 14th May for the June/July one. It would be good to have some notice of our Bike Week activities in the April/May issue.
• Events: Dr Bike Saturday 16th (James); ride Sunday 17th (James); breakfast Wednesday 20th (Jane).
• We should also publicize Barry Mason’s ‘longest day ride’ which ends up at Primrose Hill.
Tour de France – 7th July
• LCC is asking Borough groups to organize rides to the Tour de France prologue on the 7th July.
• LCC wants to know from us where our ride will start from. It was agreed that the main starting point should be Swiss Cottage, with feeders coming from Hampstead Town Hall and the Kentish Town gazebo. Departure time from Swiss Cottage: 11 am, aiming to arrive at the Prologue at 12 noon.
• We should approach Primrose Hill Community Association and ask if it would like to join with us.
• Borough groups will get to hear more about the whole Tour de France project from LCC at the next Borough Co-ordinators meeting (5th March; Stefano due to attend).
Mass Participation Cycle Day – Sunday 23rd September
• This will involve feeder rides coming into central London to join a circular motor traffic free ride around the parks (exact route not yet known).
• Apparently our starting point has already been determined to be Finsbury Park (?).
• LCC will want us to distribute publicity and get the local press to cover the event beforehand.
• We should start to notify members of this via the newsletter.
• Stefano will get more information from LCC at the meeting on the 5th March.
Rides Programme
• Richard introduced his proposal for a regular unsupervised weekend ride.
• The idea would be to have a route taking in for example Hampstead Heath and Regent’s Park which would be publicized as starting at a certain time on a regular day which people could turn up to and join. The aim would be to end up a hostelry for refreshments and sociability (e.g. Spaniard’s Inn).
• Some scepticism was expressed as to how this would work without a ride leader.
• Would such rides be covered by LCC’s insurance? Putting them in LCC’s database should ensure they qualify for insurance.
• It was agreed that it would be good to develop this idea, perhaps with a number of routes (for variety).
Minutes of Camden Cycling Campaign Main Meeting on 12th February 2007
Present: as above, plus Paul Braithwaite, George Colouris, Martin Fahey, Nathan Kaczmarkski, Dominic Tinley and Jeff Travers.
Apologies: Colleen Macaulay and Mayer Hillman.
Discussion on the Benefits / Problems of Segregated Cycle Tracks
• Councillor Paul Braithwaite, a member of Camden Council’s ‘Sustainability Taskforce’, introduced himself to the meeting and outlined the study of attitudes to and experience of segregated cycle lanes which he has just started on with a view to expanding the network.
• There has been a lively discussion on the CCC newsgroup, which Jean has put onto the website, along with a very useful summary of the debate, which is available at:
www.camdencyclists.org.uk/newsitems/ccc/segregation-debate-02-07
• Paul said that he was still digesting the various views expressed in that discussion and had come along to the meeting to gather further views and suggestions as to how and where the network of segregated cycle tracks could be expanded, if that indeed what was people wanted.
• Paul then outlined some of the pros and cons of segregated routes, in turn eliciting further contributions from the floor.
• It is known that new and returning cyclists do tend to like the segregated routes. However, it was argued that these routes often give a misleading sense of security to such cyclists, particularly at junctions with other roads, where cyclists on segregated routes often encounter problems with motorists not expecting them to be there. This problem could be dealt with, for example by closing side roads, or by insisting that cyclists give way. But these solutions might not be either possible or desirable.
• It was felt that particular problems were experienced with bidirectional segregated cycle routes on the same side of the road (as in Torrington Place). If segregation were to be applied more regularly, it would surely be better to have one-way tracks on each side of the road (e.g. as in Paris, apparently). However, space constraints on many of London’s streets would rule this out (as was the case with Torrington Place). It was also pointed out that having tracks of each side of the road would then make it difficult for cyclists themselves to make right turns at junctions.
• Some members present expressed a preference for cycle lanes, i.e. green painted lanes. Others pointed out the advantages of bus lanes (provided they aren’t too busy with buses). Others were sceptical about the willingness of the new Council regime to invest in high-cost cycling schemes, and argued that we would do better to focus on non-engineered attempts to reduce traffic speed and volume. A further view was that cyclists would benefit from getting the Council to insist upon proper reinstatement of road surfaces following works – often the quality is very poor, making for uncomfortable and indeed unsafe conditions for cyclists.
• Nonetheless, it was felt that there would always be a role for segregated tracks, provided that they were well-designed and constructed, and that we should forward via Paul various suggestions for further segregated tracks to be
considered.
• The following suggestions were then made: (i) the top of Camden Street, contraflow towards Kentish Town; (ii) York Way; (iii) Bedford Square, north side contraflow; (iv) Fitzjohn’s Avenue; (v) Priory Road, NW6 – the full north-south route.
• On a related note, Jean passed round the Terry Farrell Partnership plans for the Bloomsbury area (around UCL and the British Museum). These will be discussed in more detail at a future date.
Other Business
• update on College Crescent: this was not discussed due to lack of time.
• Dr Bike: this was not discussed due to lack of time.
