by

Street Screen – the best of the Streetfilms archive

Streetfilms showcase – 7pm, Friday 6th June at Hackney Picture House, Mare Street, E8

Join us and Hackney Council on the evening of 6th June as we delve into the archive of Streetfilms – an inspiring showcase of projects and places from around the world, from the cycle friendly streets of Groningen to San Francisco via Copenhagen, Bogota, New York and more.

New York based Streetfilms have been producing short films showing how smart public realm design produces better places to live, work and play since 2006. They have become the go-to organisation for films on liveable streets, with over 8 million views of the 600 films in their archive

Tickets for the 90 minute screening are just £5 – available here. The entry price includes a post-screening drink courtesy of Steer Davies Gleave.

 

by

Register now for Hackney Cycling Conference, 6th June

Hackney Cycling Conference

9am – 4.30pm, Friday 6th June at Hackney Picture House, Mare Street, E8 1HE

We’re delighted to be supporting this year’s Hackney Cycling Conference – organised by Hackney Council in partnership with London Cycling Campaign in Hackney.

Now in its third year the conference is a great opportunity to hear from a wide range of speakers and join transport professionals, politicians, academics and campaigners to discuss the challenges and opportunities to growing cycling in London – all for just £25.

Speakers include:

  • Mary Creagh MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
  • Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney
  • Andrew Gilligan, London Cycling Commissioner
  • Klaus Bondham, Director at Danish Cyclists’ Federation
  • Bruce McVean, Movement for Liveable London
  • John Dales, Director of Urban Movement
  • Brian Deegan & Paul Lavelle, Transport for London
  • Peter Piet, Steer Davies Gleave
  • Roy Thompson, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
  • Dr Rachel Aldred, Senior Lecturer in Transport, University of Westminster
  • Jeremy Leach, 20’s Plenty For Us
  • David Dansky, Cycle Training UK
  • Lucy Saunders, Public Health Specialist, Greater London Authority/ Transport for London

You can register to attend and find more details here.

by

Towards a healthier and happier city – Bruce McVean to speak at Islington Cyclists’ Action Group AGM, 14th May

Towards a healthier and happier city: why London’s transport system needs to change 

8.30pm, Wednesday 14th May at Islington Town Hall

Bruce McVean, Founder of Movement for Liveable London will be the guest speaker at Islington Cyclists’ Action Group AGM on 14th May. His talk will consider how the way people and goods travel around the city must change if we’re to ensure a healthy and happy future for London and Londoners.

Bruce’s talk will be part of ICAG’s AGM, but is open to everyone. Light refreshments will be available prior to the talk which will start at 8.30pm (the main business of the AGM starts at 7.30).

Full details here.

by

Speak up for your high street – Tom Platt’s Street Talks presentation

Tom Platt, London Manager, Living Streets: Speak up for your high street (1st April 2014)

 

The Living Streets Speak up for your high street campaign aims to ensure councillors elected on 22nd May champion people friendly high streets following election.

The campaign proposes six practical steps councils can take to help breath new life into London’s high streets by making them more inviting places to walk and spend time.  Write directly to party leaders in your borough and ask them to take the Living Streets pledge.

by

An introduction to the Ramblers in London

A guest article by Alex Mannings, Chair, Inner London Area Ramblers and Ramblers GB trustee

The Ramblers in London are an active mass-membership campaigning organisation.  You might associate the Ramblers with group walking in the countryside however over 10% of our membership lives in London.

The Ramblers is approaching it’s 80th anniversary next year but we are still campaigning across the country for walkers rights and seeking new places to walk – for example we recently won a battle to introduce a coastal path around England despite pressure from government to scrap this.

Walking is everywhere in London; commuters walk to work and people walk for leisure in the city’s green spaces and along footpaths.  London also has a national trail right through the middle of it – the Thames Path – and has two footpaths which circle London – the London Loop and Capital Ring. Other routes include the Green Chain Walk, which links green spaces across southeast London.

However footpaths in inner London lack legal protection. In other areas of the country footpaths are protected by their inclusion on a definitive map of public rights of way. Inner London is currently excluded from this map, something we’re campaigning to change. The lack of legal protection for where we walk is evident in how footpaths can be blocked and diverted in London with little warning. Just in the last year we have led campaigns against blockages to the Thames Path in Greenwich and to the Green Chain Walk to Bexley.

As well as campaigning the Ramblers, in partnership with Macmillian, also run Walking for Health – group walks of 1 to 3 miles that aim to get people who are currently inactive out walking.  These are a crucial way of enabling people from all walks of life and backgrounds to get out, get active and improve their health.

Walking is a great way for people to interact with the city, and many short journeys that are currently made by tube, bus or taxi could be easily walked – why take the tube from Waterloo to the city when you can walk it along the Thames Path in 30 minutes past London’s famous landmarks?  Just imagine the social, economic and environmental benefits of encouraging more people to walk instead of using over crowded tubes and buses.

More can and should be done to promote walking in London.  Cycling makes the headlines and Boris has appointed a cycling tsar, but commuting by foot is undertaken by thousands of people each day and almost every journey starts and ends with a walk. Despite this walking enjoys little media coverage and is not really mentioned by our politicians.  Walking needs to be championed, promoted and made safer – at a recent parliamentary committee it was suggested that pedestrian deaths in London were as high as cyclists.

Come and join us on a walk in and around London to see how great walking is. Ramblers Inner London area has 9 walking groups including a group that specialises in short walks (the London strollers) another for people in their 20’s and 30’s (the Metropolitan walkers) and those in their 40s and 50s (the Capital walkers) as well as 6 walking groups covering all the Inner London boroughs. You can find out more about us on our website.

by

Street Talks, April 1st – Balancing act: the roles of place and movement in creating successful high streets

The way we shop may be changing but London’s high streets are still at the heart of local communities. They are the city’s hardest working streets – having to accommodate through and local traffic while also being great places where people want to spend their time and money. Finding the right balance between those competing demands is essential if high streets are to thrive.

We hope you can join us for Street Talks on 1st April when Tom Platt from Living Streets and Louise Duggan from the Greater London Authority will be exploring the roles of place and movement in creating successful high streets.

6.30pm, Tuesday 1st April at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EJ – in partnership with Living Streets and Sustrans London

Louise Duggan has a strong track record in linking strategic thinking with effective programme development and project delivery at local national and regional levels in the public sector.  In her current role at the GLA she is responsible for delivery of £28m support for regeneration in Tottenham. She is helping deliver complex projects which promote urban renewal and economic growth by working with partners to secure physical change and support enterprise. Louise also is also leading on development of strategies to addresses the complex challenge of accommodating 1 million new Londoners while maintaining space for jobs and growth on London high streets. In previous roles at CABE Louise defined and led an innovative street design and placemaking programme. She represented CABE at a senior level, brokered multi agency agreements, and influenced national policy agendas.

Tom Platt specialises in city design and policy, with a particular interest in how people get around. In his role as London Manager, Tom oversees Living Streets’ policy and campaign work aimed at making London a safer and more inviting place to walk. Tom is a champion for 20 mph speed limits in London and has played a key role in its greater roll out within the capital.  He currently sits on the Mayor’s Road Safety Steering Group and Better Junction’s Review Group. Before joining Living Streets, Tom studied Urban Design at the JCUD in Oxford and worked as a regeneration consultant for URS. Between roles, he set up and ran his own fruit business, before selling in 2006.

 

by

Street Walk – The Clerkenwell Boulevard, 15th March

Street Walk – The Clerkenwell Boulevard with Andrea Casalotti

10.30am – 12.30pm, Saturday 15th March

The Old Street, Clerkenwell Road and Theobalds Road corridor is one of the most heavily cycled routes in London and has been identified as a key link in the proposed Central London Cycle Grid. Anyone who has walked or cycled the route will know significant changes are required if it is to become an attractive route for cyclists of all ages and abilities.

This walk will be an opportunity to discuss proposals for The Clerkenwell Boulevard, which aim to make Old Street, Clerkenwell Road and Theobalds Road safer and faster for people on bikes and more pleasant for people walking.  Some of the issues and opportunities that will be discussed on the walk are:

  • How to stop through traffic and prevent rat running
  • Two cycle tracks or one bidirectional
  • Opportunities for improving the urban realm
  • Key junctions: Southampton Row, Gray’s Inn/Rosebery Av, Old Street Roundabout
  • Reduction of traffic lights, to make cycling and walking faster
  • The Play Street Axis, from Spa Fields to Smithfield

We hope you can join us for the walk, please note that spaces are limited, please register here if you would like to attend.

by

Street Talks, 24th February – Space for Cycling: creating a mass campaign for the local elections

Street Talks with Mustafa Arif, Chair of Campaigns and Active Membership, London Cycling Campaign – Space for Cycling: creating a mass campaign for the local elections

In April 2012 Boris Johnson promised to meet the three key tests of the London Cycling Campaign ‘Love London, Go Dutch‘ campaign. Two years on there has only been limited change on the ground. Delivery of the Mayor’s ground-breaking vision relies on political leadership and cooperation from the 32 London boroughs, who control the majority of our roads.

For the local elections in May 2014, the London Cycling Campaign is organising on an ambitious, hyper-local, 646-ward basis to call on prospective councillors to promise ‘Space for Cycling‘. We hope you can join us for the next Street Talks when Mustafa Arif will outline the campaign’s rationale objectives, policy platform and operation. In particular he’ll highlight the crucial that local activists and pop-up groups can play.

7pm, Monday 24th February, upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X (upstairs bar open from 6pm for drinks, food available downstairs prior to the talk).

First elected as a London Cycling Campaign Trustee in 2009, Mustafa Arif, was appointed as Chair of a rejuvenated Campaigns & Active Membership Committee in 2011. He has board level responsibility for priority campaigns including Love London, Go Dutch and Space for Cycling and since 2013 has also served as the LCC’s Vice Chair. A computing and electronic engineer by profession, his day job, is a ‘hands-on’ management role in a boutique technology and strategy consultancy. Over the last 5 months he has also been learning to become a new dad.