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Zac Goldsmith says he backs LCC's Sign for Cycling pledges (+ video)Zac Goldsmith on a Brompton (source ZacGoldsmith on Twitter).jpg

Zac Goldsmith says he backs LCC's Sign for Cycling pledges (+ video)

But mayoral candidate says contentious infrastructure should undergo temporary trials
by Simon_MacMichael
Tue, Apr 26, 2016 16:31
13

Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate in next week’s London mayoral election, has pledged his support to the Sign for Cycling manifesto of the London Cycling Campaign, and has also outlined his plans to grow cycling in the capital to British Cycling’s Chris Boardman.

Branded “the anti-cycling candidate” earlier in the campaign, Goldsmith’s pledge to support the three key pillars of LCC’s  Sign for Cycling initiative comes 24 hours after his rival – and frontrunner in the May 5 election according to the opinion polls – Labour’s Sadiq Khan likewise gave his support to them.

> Sadiq Khan pledges to triple London cycle infrastructure

The three Sign for Cycling pledges, which are also backed by Liberal Democrat candidate Caroline Pidgeon, Sian Berry of the Green Party and the Women’s Equality Party’s Sophie Walker, are:

A tripling of the extent of the Cycle Superhighways programme

Creating the opportunity for every borough to have a Mini-Holland scheme of cycling and walking

To make sure ‘Direct Vision’ lorries become the norm on London’s streets.

In a statement, Goldsmith said he is “committed to achieving the three-point agenda of LCC’s Sign for Cycling campaign” and that he would “protect the cycling investment London so urgently needs.”

He said that if elected, he would “spend at least £100m a year in order to deliver more space for cycling, a mini Holland in every borough - provided communities are fully engaged in the design process - and also safer and fewer lorries.

"I am the only candidate that can promise investment in cycling,” he insisted. “Sadiq Khan’s £1.9bn experiment will pull money out of the transport network and you cannot sacrifice that amount of cash without something having to give. Investment in cycling would be put at risk."

LCC chief executive Ashok Sinha commented: “London is the winner with this fantastic news. It means that both Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan have now committed to meeting the three-point agenda of our Sign for Cycling campaign, and are promising to keep up the momentum achieved in recent years by Boris Johnson, in getting London cycling.”

Goldsmith’s qualification that local communities be “fully engaged in the design process” is one that may ring alarm bells among some campaigners.

Last month, blogger David Arditti branded the Richmond Park and North Kingston MP “the anti-cycling candidate” after he accused Enfield Council of rushing through its Mini Holland scheme and also said he did not view Cycle Superhighway 11 – backed by two thirds of respondents to a consultation – as a “fait accompli.”

> Goldsmith accused of being the "anti-cycling" candidate

Previously, he had also said that he would rip up the Cycle Superhighways if they were shown not to help cut air pollution, and in a public meeting at Richmond Town Hall at the end of April complained that he was being “positively hounded by cycle campaigners.

> Goldsmith: "I'm positively hounded by cycle campaigners"

In this interview conducted at Hyde Park Corner with Boardman, who is British Cycling’s policy advisor, Goldsmith said he believes getting more people cycling could help improve air quality in London.

Speaking about opposition to some of the cycling schemes being rolled out in London, he said: “I’m a localist, so I will always try my hardest to work with communities, with local businesses and residents to ensure that they are part of the process.

 “I think that when you develop a community, it can put the shackles up; when you work with a community, you almost always get the right outcome.

“However, the Vauxhall Bridge cycle lane is a good example of something that was bitterly opposed but is now broadly very popular, and it works,” Goldsmith added. “So the fears people had were not borne out.”

He made it clear, however, that in some situations, rather than put permanent infrastructure in place he would prefer to see temporary changes made before fully committing to proposals, or indeed backtracking on them.

He said: “I think there is a case to be made, when there is a particularly controversial scheme that’s been proposed, of using temporary planters – putting them down for a year or a few months to see how it works, to see whether or not people’s concerns about that scheme are based on any kind of reality. If they’re not then you do it properly, if they are then you think again.”

This Friday, LCC and The Times newspaper are jointly hosting a cycling and transport issues hustings that will be attended by all the mayoral candidates who have so far expressed support for Sign for Cycling, as well as Respect’s George Galloway and Peter Whittle of UKIP, neither of whom has yet pledged to it.

Zac Goldsmith
Sadiq Khan
Sign for Cycling
London Mayoral Election 2016
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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13 comments

Avatar
severs1966 | 7 years ago
1 like

I wish they wouldn't use the phrase "mini-holland". Once the infra is (badly) built, the general public might be misled into believing that this is representative of the best build that can be created, just because the word "holland" gets used. Same for all thos eplaces where lying UK councils claim there are building "Dutch-style" infra, yet it does not resemble anything anywhere in NL in design or quality.

The truth is that none of the "mini-hollands" reach a standard even remotely as good as the poorer, older (1980s) infra in the Netherlands, never mind the latest stuff over there.

We can speculate why this might be; my opinion is that the UK designers don't know or even care how to apply bike design guidelines, don't ride bikes, have never visited the Netherlands and refuse to read the (English-language) Dutch CROW manual that says how it ought to be done; and that the agencies responsible for making it happen are only mildly in favour of cycle provision in the first place.

I also wish people would stop making comparisons with Amsterdam. It is NOT the exemplar of cycle provision, and there are lots of places in NL that are a zillion times better. It sh1ts all over any UK provision, but it is actually possible to aim significantly higher

Avatar
lushmiester | 7 years ago
0 likes

It's not what they say when they want your vote it's what they do when they get it that counts. The only real indication of how they are likely to perform is past track record on cycling issues and maybe who is funding them.

Ulimately for london the cycling agruement is going to be won or lost on economic arguements. The attractiveness of the city as a place to live, work and visit, health and environmental impact all have strong influence on the economics but sadly the  impact has a slow perfusion rate and a high persection of disruption, whilst waiting for the benefits to accrue.

So it requires a political commitment that extends behond one or two terms in office and curtainly beyond the political ife span of any one candidate. Cyclist and cycling needs to become a significant marginal interest to influence this and achieve it's their objectives.

Avatar
emishi55 | 7 years ago
1 like

Croydon is roughly the size of Amsterdam - though there the comparison ends.

Waltham Forest is though a source of inspiration. And unfolding all the time.

I recommend taking a cycle tour (or walking), to be shown what's been achieved so far, and with traffic engineers who have been given the possibility of throwing out stuff that's sub-standard - hopefully going on to become the vanguard in this field, previously (and still widely) dominated by those prioritising motor traffic.  

Zac sounded as if he has a good grip on transport issues (getting freight off the road and so on), though it is a shame it took him so long to get here.

Not such an easy choice for mayor then, aside from party-political allegiances, for those working for the transformation of the capital into something half resembling a civilised place, that people travel to and from on two wheels (or three) and across all zones.    

 

 

Avatar
ibike | 7 years ago
3 likes

Good news, although is feels like he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to say the right things.

You can see Chris Boardman interview the other main candidates here:

Sadiq Khan: https://youtu.be/iAojwKyN7gI

Caroline Pidgeon: https://youtu.be/1STnc3pVLpo

Caroline Pidgeon sounds by far the most convincing.

 

 

Avatar
Ramz | 7 years ago
6 likes

That's a strange and rather awkward photograph of him wearing a hiviz vest while riding a Brompton indoors. I also don't trust him, and I wouldn't trust anyone who's campaign is being run by Lynton Crosby. Crosby is the type of guy who would sell his grandmother if it would get the cycle track near his house ripped up.

Avatar
bikebot | 7 years ago
2 likes

His comments on temporary trials are interesting, as Gilligan has recently said that he would have been happy with temporary infrastructure to allow trials in places. He said the problem was TfL, which simply doesn't have that culture, everything is done with extensive modelling and planning.

That's all in the Guardian Live cycling event, audio here -> http://www.theguardian.com/membership/audio/2016/apr/06/how-can-we-get-m...

Avatar
bikebot | 7 years ago
5 likes

Jeremy Clarkson is now left to decide which one he hates least, George Galloway or UKIP's Peter Whittle. Difficult choice as he's a vocal pro-EU supporter.

I can at least partly vouch for Galloway's very soft support for cycling, he just blocked me on twitter 3

 

Avatar
ron611087 | 7 years ago
5 likes

Phrase of the month appears to be "mini-holland".  The "mini" tells us we're not getting what the Dutch have, or it wouldn't be called mini, but the politicians are being mightily coy about quantifying the phrase.

Croydon after all already has it's mini-holland:

 

Avatar
ibike replied to ron611087 | 7 years ago
3 likes

ron611087 wrote:

Phrase of the month appears to be "mini-holland".  The "mini" tells us we're not getting what the Dutch have, or it wouldn't be called mini, but the politicians are being mightily coy about quantifying the phrase.

Croydon after all already has it's mini-holland:

 

You're right to be suspicious, but in the case of the three "mini-Hollands" in Enfield, Walthamstow and Kingston (still being built) they have brought genuinely tangible benefits (unlike the sort of thing shown in the photo).

Avatar
ron611087 replied to ibike | 7 years ago
1 like

ibike wrote:

You're right to be suspicious, but in the case of the three "mini-Hollands" in Enfield, Walthamstow and Kingston (still being built) they have brought genuinely tangible benefits (unlike the sort of thing shown in the photo).

Yes, I don't take issue with using the phrase for what's been acheived. It's using it as an aspiration I have a problem with.

Avatar
Darkhairedlord replied to ron611087 | 7 years ago
0 likes

ron611087 wrote:

Phrase of the month appears to be "mini-holland".  The "mini" tells us we're not getting what the Dutch have, or it wouldn't be called mini, but the politicians are being mightily coy about quantifying the phrase.

Croydon after all already has it's mini-holland:

 

 

That is an awesome death trap.

So you get split off as the road narrows, then rejoin just as you approach parking bays, forcing you into the path of vehicles accelerating away from the speed humps.

 

Avatar
ron611087 replied to Darkhairedlord | 7 years ago
0 likes

Darkhairedlord wrote:

That is an awesome death trap.

So you get split off as the road narrows, then rejoin just as you approach parking bays, forcing you into the path of vehicles accelerating away from the speed humps.

Yes. Just to remove any ambiguity. My example was sarcastic.

Without any defined scale, any segregated facility can lay claim to being a mini-holland, even the ridiculous ones like the one in Croydon (which must stand out as having the most crap cycling facilities to be found).

My post wasn't a criticism of the achievements in Enfield, Walthamstow and Kingston, but the term mini-holland changes context when used as a metaphor for something that's being achieved, as opposed it being a goal.  With the achievement you're saying you have implemented the gold standard (NL) on a smaller scale, i.e., good, but not yet complete. When using the term as a goal you're implying mini-holland as the end-product, i.e., you're aiming for something less than what's been achieved elsewhere.

Avatar
velodinho | 7 years ago
2 likes

Don't trust either of the main candidates on this. Time will tell I guess.

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