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news
Close pass in Regent's Park (LondonDynaslow via Twitter).jpgMassive support to ban rat-running drivers from London’s Royal Parks
Almost eight in ten respondents to a consultation on how people reach and move around London’s Royal Parks believe that rat-running motorists should be banned from them.
The consultation was held by the Royal Parks charity, which manages eight parks in London, and certain other green spaces in the capital, on behalf of the government, and sought to address how people access the parks and move around them.
Those parks are Bushy Park, Green Park, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent’s Park, Richmond Park and St James’s Park. Windsor Great Park is also designated a Royal Park, but is managed by the Crown Estate.
One of the statements on which views were sought as part of the consultation into the Royal Parks Movement Strategy was:
Park roads are primarily for people visiting our parks. We should seek to discourage the through-movement of commuting motor vehicles in our parks. This question correlates with the fourth draft movement principle; Our park roads are not intended to be commuter through-routes for motor vehicles.
78 per cent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, while 17 per cent strongly disagreed or disagreed with it.
In addition, 2,600 comments were received in relation to the statement, with Royal Parks saying that feedback included:
Most cars within the park are rat running through the park and not visiting the park
The need for further enforcement of speeding vehicles and commercial vehicles
The need to acknowledge the knock-on traffic effects on local streets if the park reduces existing through-movements.
87 per cent of respondents identifying as cyclists agreed with the statement, with 11 per cent expressing disagreement.
Those identifying as drivers were perhaps surprisingly almost equally split on the issue, with 44 per cent in support, 46 per cent opposed and 10 per cent expressing no preference.
Other issues that the questionnaire sought to explore were whether “changes or developments within our parks should seek to protect, conserve and enhance our parks as a top priority,” that walking should be prioritised within the parks, and that with80 per cent of visitors walking, cycling or using public transport to visit the parks, those modes of travel should be prioritised.
A number of London’s Royal Parks are heavily used by cyclists. Both Hyde Park and Green Park lie on the route of the east-west cycleway, while Richmond Park is particularly popular with road cyclists at weekends.
Plans to route a cycleway through Regent’s Park – also popular with cyclists, many of whom use the Outer Circle for training laps – and close its gates to rush-hour motorists were scrapped however after the Court of Appeal upheld a legal challenge from Westminster Council.
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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18 comments
nicmason doesn't seem to like cycling and cyclists very much does he?
He must find the generally pro cycling views and articles on this cycling website extremely galling.
I'm not sure, perhaps he just has an issue with some of the vocal minority on here who seem to believe that the ability to balance on two wheels somehow confers an unimpeachable perfection in everything one does. Or not clearly, may have that wrong.
Unfortunately for nicmason, cyclists are (at the moment) perfectly entitled to do laps around Regents Park as long as they comply with all applicable laws. Whether or not you find it annoying has no bearing on this. Most users of this site will relate to finding the actions of other road users annoying.
I wouldn't worry about there being any increase in cyclists, because the chances of it being closed to rat-running are about 0.1% given the attitudes of the residents and Westminster Council.
Yes there is a real group think on here with some users . Cyclists can do no wrong, police have got it in for us, all drivers are all after us. I try to get equally annoyed by all groups who are not me, it seems more equal.
I find I don't really care about the question of laps in Regent's Park, either way, as I have little interest in that sort of sporty semi-competitive cycling, but also haven't, as a pedestrian, ever really found peletons-in-my-way to be a problem I've encountered - certainly not when compared to the constant and relentless experience of cars being in my way. So I can't say I care either way. I suppose it depends how many such racing peletons there are whizzing round the park at any one time. Clearly if there are too many of them it will be a pain for pedestrians accessing the park. But I wouldn't find it a problem to every now-and-then have to wait for a few seconds to let some other parks user go past.
But the nonsense argument you make up above is just pathetic.
You do seem to specialise in straw man arguments. Feel free to carry on fighting enemies you invented, as that appears to be a hobby of yours.
Ah... entitlement vs consideration... how very road.cc
I don't support anyone riding inconsiderately, but also I don't think cyclists need to refrain from using a circular road which doesn't go anywhere in case someone might find their presence annoying.
Don't think there's any disagrement there.
Training doesn't always mean going fast though. Training could be a steady 50km of laps, stopping when required at crossings and junctions
I never said it was a race track, no one's suggesting it is or should be one and I don't support cyclist ignoring crossings and being inconsiderate of others anywhere let alone in a park. That's not what we are discussing though, I would welcome more pedestrian crossings in Regent's Park in any case. I don't cycle in regent park as it's bloody boring, but stopping cars whizzing through at 30+mph in order to shave a few seconds off their car journey to central london is what we're discussing here
I agree . I;m talking about this bit
l popular with cyclists, many of whom use the Outer Circle for training laps
I can sympathise with the idea that other people get in the way, and really, I should have priority in most circumstances. I'm trying to train myself out of it though
You're absolutely correct that we need to all share these wonderful public resources in a considerate and sustainable manner. The Outer Circle is a fairly unique proposition in terms of "park space" however, it was designed first and foremost as a road; so that residents of the many homes built around the edge of the park could access, there is constant access required for the Zoo, large art and culinary events are routinely staged etc and even if it were pedestrianised somehow or converted to a shared use road it simply shouldn't be a very nice place to walk and it's nowhere near as pretty as the actual park just on the other side of the fence. Cycling within the park is almost entirely banned, from memory there is only one very wide path that is shared use, so there aren't many opportunities for a peloton to be bearing down on you. I do think that the Inner Circle is probably more suitable for conversion as it's less obviously a "road", but putting an end to drivers using the Outer Circle as a rat run would benefit everybody who wants to use the park for recreational activities no end
Ok but the outer circle is also not a race track. If you go on it. (I do most days) you'll see there are very few pedestrian crossings . So if cars are removed (I'm for that) it can't then just be a free for all for cyclists in huge groups doing circuits at high speed. Ride on it fine but find somewhere else to train.
As a some times pedestrian crossing the road there I have had cyclists whip past inches from me which I find annoying.
I suppose running, playing football, rugby, tennis etc, fishing, rowing and so forth are similarly not the purpose of parks' existence
Thats a good point actually (despite your obvious need to be sarcastic)
My own local park is frequently used by large running clubs. So when I'm walking down a narrow path (sometimes with an older relative) I can be met be an oncoming group of runners or have them coming up behind me. They always assume they have right of way for some reason: a bit like a lot of cyclists .
So whats needed in our crowded lives is consideration and sharing and that would include on a pedestrianised park road.
"Plans to route a cycleway through Regent’s Park – also popular with cyclists, many of whom use the Outer Circle for training laps. " whch IMO is not the purpose of park roads. I (and again this is IMO)feel they should be mixed use pedestrian priority. So I could walk across anywhere and have right of way without pelotons bearing down on me .
We had a similar problem with Ashton Court Park near Bristol, and it was solved some years ago by putting barriers on the through road, passable by cyclists and pedestrians but not motor vehicles. Worked a treat, but we didn't have the important people who drive through the Royal parks, so I expect that the 80% will be out-voted by the privileged few.