A TfL consultation is currently taking place where it is possible to see the roads in London affected by the Olympic Route Network (ORN).

The shock of the news is of the sheer length of the disruption. After all, many of the VIPs and athletes will already be housed in the Olympic Park. However, events will be taking place all over London. Such as mountain biking in Hadleigh Farm, Essex.

More bad news

The Olympic Lanes will also effect delivery trucks which will need to complete more deliveries between midnight and 6am. As well as bus routes which will need to be redirected during the games. Not least of those affected are pedestrians, who will be losing 51 zebra crossings.

Why ban cyclists?

The reasons quoted for banning cyclists include making carriageways too narrow and hazardous. Nothing too new to seasoned London cyclists. Of course, the danger of having to merge with the remaining congested traffic isn’t a particularly comforting thought.

How will everyone else get to the events?

It is estimated that 25,000 marketing partners, 28,000 journalists along with 18,000 athletes and 11,000 officials will be transported along the Olympic routes.

The question of how the rest of London will reach the events has yet to be answered. Provision for cycling at the games has also come under criticism. The Olympic Park has a mere 2,200 bike parking spaces. Which would accommodate a tiny fraction of visitors. Additional space will be provided in locations including Victoria Park. Which is a short walk from the Olympic Village.

Organisers expect around 5% of visitors to arrive by bike.

When I met with David Dansky from Cycle Training UK last week we got a chance to talk about the work they are doing in Lambeth. What I heard sounded very promising. At least if the initial success is anything to go by.

With more than half of all cycle fatalities on London roads involving a collision with a goods vehicle, Lambeth council approached Cycle Training UK to create an awareness course for HGV drivers. There was also an awareness course created for cyclists where they are encouraged to take further training.

The course for the drivers begins by asking the drivers about any incidents they have had with cyclists. This invariably leads to plenty of “why do they jump red lights” discussions. They are then asked what sort of behaviour they would like to see from cyclists. The question is then reversed and they are asked what they think cyclists would like to see from HGV drivers. It is usually at this point when drivers begin to understand the difficulties we cyclists face on the roads and how standing next to a 7.5 tonne vehicle can be off-putting. The drivers are also given basic level training on bikes.

After the driver awareness course is over there is a complete reversal in attitude. It changes from anger and wanting to get cyclists off the road to a far more sympathetic position with understanding and awareness of the dangers cyclists face. This translates to more courtesy on the roads and of course safer conditions for everyone.

The initial feedback from the drivers and their companies has been very positive. Transportation companies such as Veolia have praised the scheme and continue to use it. Lambeth council has been extremely supportive and they have made it compulsory for all their drivers. Camden council are also getting on board.

This council funded scheme could be the solution everyone is desperately searching for. Whilst statistical evidence is still unfortunately lacking due to the fact it has been running for less than a year all the signs are looking good. Cycle Training UK are now looking to expand the scheme and roll it out across more London boroughs. For that they will be needing the support of TfL.

See also:

• 7 mistakes you are making with your cycling and how you can correct them
• Two visions for the cycle superhighways
• Boris seeks to close the HGV inspection unit

Best of the web is a London Cyclist monthly series that highlights the best cycling content from around the web. We go out there and find all of the best bits so you don’t have to!

This months London Cycling News

It has been an unbelievably busy month news wise. Let’s go back to the 4th of October when a cycle route from London to Paris was announced. It is hoped the majority of the route will be off road. More good news came from the Peak District which is due to receive £1.25m of extra funding from Cycling England. It is the national park nearest to most of England and already boasts great cycling.

It’s not all good news however, the cycle superhighway we have been told is only going to be 1.5 metres wide at some points. Far from the optimal width for cycling. The bigger disappointment has been the Mayor’s Transport Plan which set a pretty meagre target of 5% of journeys done by bike by 2026. Finally the Cycle to Work scheme has been expanded and wants to offer a guarantee to employees that when they arrive at work they will have all the facilities they need.

It has been a busy month petition wise. There has been the 3feet2pass petition, the Sustrans petition to put cyclist safety first and the rally to tell people to write to their MP and stop Boris from closing down the HGV inspection unit.

From the blogosphere

• Cozy Beehive has a hilarious article on the assblend bicycle saddle.
• Cyclelicious have cleverly and hilariously criticised the new Audi advert.
• Carlton Reid has a great review of the X170 extreme sports video camera.
• Londonist has an amazing interview.. with me!
• In Copenhagen they wonder: How can we make life hell for cyclists?
• The Guardian asks: Why is it so difficult to take your bike on the train?
• Wired discusses the success of the Complete Streets Concept and how the road is split equally between the different road users.
• CyclingTips recommends using baby wipes for bike cleaning – is there anything they can’t do?
• Real Cycling has recommended a great route around the Peak District

Best of London Cyclist

• We have ran our first competition and got our first winner!
• We have discussed how to find and plan the perfect cycling trip in the UK.
• How to pick good clothing that will keep your feet warm.
• How to pick a good cycling jacket along with some recommendations

Bargain bin!

• There is various good discounts out at the moment in the bike shops both Evans and Wiggle have 20% off their bike lights. If you haven’t got one already then pick one up while there is discounts.
• Evans also have 15% off Rainwear.

I’ll leave this month behind with this great video from Danny. I just hope everyone enjoys their daily commute as much as this:

After sliding my credit card into a payment machine and parting with £3 of my hard earned cash the above bike is mine for 24 hours. This may soon be the reality for Londoners and visitors to London alike who wish to explore the city by bike or simply get to work.

This is all based on the way the cycle hire scheme, run by Bixi, works in Montreal which is what yesterdays news suggests will be the basis for the London Velib. 

How the cycle hire works in Montreal

• After putting your credit card into a pay station there is a $1000 hold on the card. Upon returning the bike the hold is released
• A 24 hour hire costs $5
• Alternatively to save money you can buy a 30 day pass for $28 or annual subscription for $78
• You can have a dedicated user card  (Currently no plans to integrate with Oyster card)
• The 3-speed bikes used in the scheme are said to be theft proof, costing around $2000 a piece and contain a GPS chip that will make the bike unusable to a thief.
• You can check the location of the cycle hire stands by checking an online map or consulting the map at the station

Controversy

On paper the scheme looks great as always however, there is of course controversy. The main body of this stems from the £140million cost associated with the project. That money will cover both the installation and the operation of the scheme for 6 years (All profits going to TfL). The bikes themselves should cost £7.2million if you consider a cost of $2,000 a bike and 6,000 bikes.

Velorution, a fellow cycling blog, took a quick look at the numbers and worked out that the cost of the scheme will be around £7,000 per extra daily cyclist, an expensive price tag.

This money could of course potentially have been spent elsewhere – the so called opportunity cost. Uses that spring to mind include new bicycle lanes, more bicycle parking or as a guardian reader suggests as grants to small businesses to provide shower/changing facilities and bike storage.

There is also some question of the practicality to London’s cyclists. As a frequent cyclist myself I can think of few scenarios, saving for a post night out dangerous cycle back, that it would come in useful. Then again I am not in their target audience of rail commuters and bus passengers. This brings another question to mind – why will there be no docking stations close to rail terminuses?

Despite all the controversy I look forward to the summer of 2010 and giving the new bikes a spin.

The list of flaws are outlined in the article as follows:

1. The Purple Eagle is a ladies’ bike. So why the men’s saddle?

2. The components are rubbish and made out of the biking equivalent of a supermarket own-brand. The derailleur, gear shifts and more are made by a brand that sounds like Shimano but isn’t. It’s even written in the same font.

3. The brakes are made from plastic, rather than more expensive aluminium, and so will flex and bend, wasting energy.

4. The handlebar stem is the old “quill” style (instead of attaching to a steerer tube it fits directly into the headset and screws onto the forks), rather than an a-head stem.

5. The rear derailleur is hooked onto the axle, rather than bolted straight to the frame, making it almost impossible to adjust the gears properly.

6. The cheap plastic pedals will “simply fall apart before long”.

7. The rear wheel was badly out of true.

8. The front wheel wasn’t round, and was wobbling about the place as if the bearings have already gone. Apparently this shouldn’t happen on a decent bike until you’ve done at least 1,000 miles.

I think you are much better off paying around £100 – £150 for a second hand bike as I did with my Marin San Alselmo which is worth around £600+ new (Check out our negotiation tips for more on this)

I also predict that soon enough you will see even cheaper Chinese bike imports though the quality of these has yet to be proven. In China you can pick up an electric bike, which is extremely popular, for around $290 (£175).