Sunday 7 February 2021

TV actor's role in cycle lane backlash

 

A once well known  television star has played a major role in persuading his local council the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to rip out their experimental cycle lane less than two months after it was installed.

CYCLE, the flagship mag of national cycling organization Cycling UK, in their article entitled “Beat the Backlash”, has the details.

It appears that since Kensington yanked out their cycle lane at the end of last year, other authorities across the country are doing the same.


A pop up cycle lane in London.



CYCLE says there appears to be a country-wide backlash by a various loud minorities objecting to losing road space, but that this does not reflect public opinion.

It’s probably the motoring fraternity who consider all roads to be motoring roads, although Kensington council say they are responding to complaints from residents and businesses.

The actor - I will deny him the oxygen of publicity, even in this little blog  -  is known for "playing the quintessential, old school Englishman with his dashing good looks, cut-glass accent and thoroughly charming manner" - to quote Wikipedia.

He also has previous form attacking cycling.

In an anti-cycling article in a major newspaper some years ago he played the role of a cad berating bike riders - cad, as you may know is an old school Englishman's expression for a fellow who behaves discourteously. You and I may prefer another word from the Chambers Dictionary - twat.

He may well have been justified in complaining about an incident on the road but he couldn’t stop there. The mean-spirited tone of the piece made it clear that the very existence of cyclists on the same stretch of tarmac as himself were not to be tolerated.

Critics of cyclists  conveniently overlook the fact that motorists head the league table for clogging up roads and for dangerous and careless driving which cause serious injury and death. No cyclist has ever killed a motorist.

But this generally goes without comment because the public is so used to bad driving, whereas the cyclists who make one dodgy move get it the neck. And often we are honked at by a driver who cannot bare to be held up for few seconds. 

In his latest appearance, this time for a Sunday  newspaper  I consider so awful I will not write the name,  actor complained that “Disastrous, poorly designed and EMPTY cycle lanes have resulted in gridlock every day – and streets choked with fumes.”

Borough chiefs falling over themselves to please their VIP resident promptly removed the bollards marking out the cycle lane, ignoring opposition from BBC presenter Jeremy Vine and Extinction Rebellion protesters.

The London Mayor, Sadiq Khan waded in with criticism of the Borough, as did parents, children and teachers of a local primary school. A protest outside the town hall was to no avail. Stuff them all.

The full width of the road has been given back to the motors and the borough say they will look to provide alternative back street routes for cycling,   as if they think people just want anywhere to play at cycling rather than use the main routes to travel to the shops, school and work.

The Pop Ups were installed, you will recall, when the Covid-19 lockdown was prematurely lifted last summer. This was in response to the  thousands of people who had got on their bikes  for permitted exercise during lockdown, and who  enjoyed riding on empty safer roads breathing in the clean air as traffic pollution levels dropped. 

The  government provided two billion pounds in Active Travel Funding  and instructed  local authorities to grab road space for bikes before the filth returned.

The idea was to encourage the returning work force, wary of the risk of infection from using crowded public transport,  to use bikes instead.

The scheme was warmly applauded by cycling organisations who couldn't believe their luck and it was hoped this would lead to more permanent cycle lane installations.

Surveys showed that the majority of the public were in favour. A YouGov poll carried out on behalf of Cycling UK revealed that 61 per cent of people agreed with the statement “we should make it easier for people to cycle by building more separated cycle lanes”.

It was a nice honeymoon while it lasted.

Cycling UK is looking into whether legal action may be taken against those authorities who have removed the lanes. Don’t hold your breath.

 COMMENT

I once lived in the Royal Borough, sharing a house in cobbled Adam and Eve Mews just off Ken High Street.  There were six of us: me and another Adam, plus four Eves. I knew the borough like the back of my  hand, cycling all over London and to the countryside beyond on my training runs, and also roller skating  in Kensington Gardens.

I would ride 10 miles to Finsbury Park CC club nights in North London on Mondays and  most days ride the few miles to Cycling's offices, then in Fleet Street. Blimey, I was fit back then.

I liked  Kensington High Street, the whole area in fact. It's full of shops, cafes, pubs in the side streets. I especially liked the fashion store BIBA, now long gone,  and all the varied clothes stalls in Kensington Market, and Slick Willies, the skate shop. I still have the bright blue sweat top I bought there back in 1975!

Ken  High is a major route into and out of London, a busy residential area and so clearly it would benefit from having a cycle lane. 

It seems such a draconian thing to do to simply rip out the experimental cycle lane without first trying to resolve the pros and cons. 

This affair is a stark reminder that in Britain, planners just don't get cycling.