"If you don't think [the cycling facilities are good], you should drive."

[spindrift]

Westminster Councillor Lee Rowley:

http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/10/lord-mayor-of-london-cycling-is-way-to.html

Young women are getting killed on London's roads. Not to absolve the drivers, but road designs are placing people in danger, they channel you into areas that increase the risk and TFL and Westminster Council aren't doing anything. And when people say "you people" it means they're lumping the worst behaviour of some cyclists together to attack ALL cyclists.

[urban_biker]

Indeed - perhaps we should have a national drive to work day where all the regular cyclists drive instead. The resulting congestion would make the point I think. My workplace would pretty soon run out of parking space I suspect and I imagine London would pretty much grind to a halt.

[Redlight]

Right problem, wrong solution.  I am a City Cylist (in that I cycle to and in the City).  This group doesn't speak for me.

[Julian]

Hmm.  Lee said that well over 12 months ago, in a personal not a political capacity, and was not expecting to be quoted.  I'm not sure that he was actually in charge of transport at the time (although he is now). 

We had a long chat when he did get given the transport thing about what cyclists want, and I said a) prosecutions of shit drivers, b) lots of free training and c) NOT segregated cycle facilities AT ALL, because they encourage motorists to think that we 'belong' in separate facilities and running us off the road is totally cool if we're in the 'wrong place,' so I'm afraid I might be at least a tiny bit responsible for this. 

I should mention that Lee is a good friend of mine...

[Speshact]

Interesting that you pushed cycle training, Julian, as I do most of my school cycle training in Westminster.

I'm eagerly awaiting the final Westminster 'Transport Local Implementation Plan'. The draft showed the budget for cycle training being reduced from £80k this year to £50k next year (less than the price of a Range Rover). The budget the year before was £120k I believe.

The pupils get a fantastic amount out of the cycle training and the schools I work with see this and are up for the work it entails to sign up the pupils and spend time working out how to arrange the curriculum around the absence of those out being trained.

At the start of the financial year the trainers were told there would be a 12% fee cut this year - though this was eventually put on hold for this year. If it goes ahead this coming year then you can expect that not only will Westminster have less training, but that the good trainers will disappear (and there are some excellent trainers there in my view).

The reason I'm interested in finding out the final figure is to determine whether to look to commit to cycle training there next year or whether to jump ship. I enjoy doing my job in Westminster and I'm happy to accept a relatively low income but I'm not a monkey.

In Westminster, with schools in Drury Lane for example or nestling up to the Marylebone Flyover and Edgware Road, trust me that you don't want average cycle trainers taking your kids out. I'm always happy to have councillors observe a school training session.