Richmond Park finally closed to motor vehicles... but only for one day

Richmond Park will be closed to all vehicles tomorrow for one day only as the London Duathlon is taking place.

The event was unable to run last year due to the pandemic but now it is back with a bang and for a single day the park will be full of runners and cyclists with not a car in sight.

> Controversial Richmond Park Code of Conduct for cyclists cannot address “real hazard” of motor traffic, says campaign group co-ordinator

Social media campaigners who document the use of motor vehicles in the Royal Parks, and want to see them banned on a permanent basis, accused the park management of 'banning cars for a day out of shame'. 

The Department of Parks and Recreation, posted: "Given that The Royal Parks clearly don’t care about safety (to wit: cars in a park), banning cars for a duathlon seems inconsistent.

"I think they would be embarrassed if they let competitors see the real Richmond Park. They are banning cars for a day out of shame."

Collisions between cars and cyclists regularly occur in Richmond Park and a number of our near miss of the day clips have taken place there, as did this particularly unpleasant incident...

DRIVES YOU MAD: This sort of flagrant rulebreaking keeps happening. If you see something like this, please report it to @MPSRoyal_Parks so they at least have a clear idea of the scale of the problem. This cab driver could have driven into the path of pedestrians. https://t.co/Z5GKzEAX8v

— RichmondParkCyclists (@RichmondPkCycle) August 15, 2021

Cyclists who are not taking part in the event will not be able to ride in a large part of the park on Sunday as the roads will be reserved for the race. 

> "Richmond Park is just horribly dangerous": Drivers stream past child cycling in the park

However, they will still be able to use the Tamsin Trail and the tarmac path between Roehampton and Richmond Gate.

There's ONE DAY to go until the 2021 London Duathlon and we couldn't be more excited 🙌 This time tomorrow thousands of you will be taking to the start line to take on one of the world's biggest duathlons 🏃🚴‍♀️🏃

Sum up how you're feeling about race day using emojis 😁🤢🥳🤩😮 pic.twitter.com/KzBQUC7vmB

— londonduathlon (@londonduathlon) September 4, 2021

The London Duathlon, described as 'the UK's most stunning run-bike-run event', consists of four different distances or events for people to choose from including a half duathlon, full duathlon, ultra duathlon or a more sociable team challenge, the duathlon relay.

While tomorrow's event is unsurprisingly sold out, you can sign up for the 2022 edition here.