Cyclenation, of which I am Secretary, is the federation of cycle campaign groups in the UK. We have issued a statement regarding some disparaging comments that have been posted about ourselves and our groups on the "Crap Cycling in Waltham Forest" blog. The person who writes this decided in 2010 that segregated cycle lanes were the way forward (they may well be in Waltham Forest which is certainly an appalling place to cycle in my experience) and has launched a number of attacks via the blog on organisations that he considers promote "vehicular" (i.e. on-road) cycling. In doing so he has made a number of misrepresentations of cyclenation, our groups and the CTC.
Here are his comments on the Portsmouth conference:-
The conference, hosted by the Portsmouth Cycle Forum and organised in conjunction with CTC, is a chance to learn the secrets of successful cycle campaigning and meet other people who are passionate about creating a cycling culture in the UK.
Successful cycle campaigning? Er, exactly where, precisely? In the sphere of transport Britain is a barbaric and backward car-sick nation. I don’t know of a single town or city in the UK which can be called cycling or walking-friendly (and if you think York or Cambridge are, that exposes the poverty of your ambition; the majority of people in those cities don’t cycle, for good reasons).
Cycling infrastructure in Britain is a sick joke, cycle parking provision is laughable, and the CTC is an ineffectual organisation which declines to face the failure which stares it in the face.
Successful cycle campaigning? Er, exactly where, precisely? In the sphere of transport Britain is a barbaric and backward car-sick nation. I don’t know of a single town or city in the UK which can be called cycling or walking-friendly (and if you think York or Cambridge are, that exposes the poverty of your ambition; the majority of people in those cities don’t cycle, for good reasons).
Cycling infrastructure in Britain is a sick joke, cycle parking provision is laughable, and the CTC is an ineffectual organisation which declines to face the failure which stares it in the face.
And on Edinburgh:-
Unfortunately not a single U.K. cycling organisation displays any understanding of how the Dutch reversed their car-sickness. If you look at the digest of what was said by Britain’s leading cycle campaign groups at the recent Cyclenation conference in Edinburgh, you will see that for them it remains business as usual – rosy optimism about the future, enthusiasm for initiatives such asPoster with message to drivers – ''give me space", and an institutionalised failure to acknowledge the importance of campaigning for the one piece of infrastructure which will begin to bring about a serious, substantial modal shift across the towns and cities of Britain: bike grids designed according to the Dutch template.
The author of this blog hasn't enabled comments, so there is no direct way to challenge the statements he make..
That's why we felt it necessary to issue the statement that you can find at http://bit.ly/hVnLeZ
We welcome a free and open debate about the best solutions to get more people cycling, more safely, more often in the UK but we do take exception when people disparage the good work our campaign groups are doing, without apparently making any contribution to campaigning other than writing a blog and without giving the organisations he is writing about a right to reply.
