Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the mailout that we sent in July 2020. If you like it, please sign up on our Get Involved section - you will be showing your support for our work and you will receive our free monthly bulletins a month before they appear here. Have a look at our first bulletin to find out more about how RPC was formed.
SHARE VALUES
And so the unplanned social experiment in Richmond Park continues – with wonderful results. The ongoing ban on cars combined with reopening most of the roadway to cycling throughout the day on weekdays has produced an environment in which every type of rider, from the most vulnerable to the highly experienced, is peacefully sharing the space together. This video, sent by one of our followers on social media, perfectly captures the atmosphere in the park at the moment. Cyclists are getting along with the business of getting along. It feels safe because it is safe. It is a success that The Royal Parks should be proud of and surely cannot ignore.
Feedback from our subscribers shows that many of you would like TRP to do more. But during our ongoing conversations with TRP, it has become clear that whatever happens next might have to occur in stages. So here we have set out for the good people who run the park how that gradual change could happen – with every type of cyclist benefitting.
The eastern roadway should be fully reopened. TRP may have hoped to reduce the number of sports cyclists by making it impossible to ride full laps, perhaps believing that their faster speeds would present a hazard to less experienced riders, particularly newcomers who have started coming to the park since the lockdown began. But sports cyclists have continued coming and they are, by and large, riding respectfully. The considerable presence of vulnerable road users shows they are not put off by their speedier counterparts. TRP should not be either.
The harmonious blend of vulnerable road users and experienced cyclists has been achieved with a minimum of supportive messaging from us or anybody else – although we have offered TRP support in this area and stand ready to do so, especially when the park is reopened to cycling at weekends.
The other justification for shutting the eastern roads was to avoid breaches of the two-metre rule, which is unavoidable on the crowded hills. But the Government is reducing distancing to “one metre-plus”, and publicly available guides to staying safe now consistently state that transmission is much less likely outdoors. Moreover, “people should not be overly concerned about passing cyclists” because the speed of movement produces a much smaller contactzzzz time than, say, passing someone walking down the street.
There is a more fundamental reason to open the eastern roadway. Traditionally, the most vulnerable road users, such as very young children learning to ride a bike, would use the quietway through the centre of the park, while the most confident riders would enjoy exercising up and down Broomfield and Dark Hill as part of their normal laps. Now the two parties have been swapped into each other’s natural environment and, predictably, it suits neither. Inexperienced riders get two big hills which many of them could do without while sports cyclists cause congestion on the much narrower quietway and have been yelled at by pedestrians for doing so. Shouldn’t TRP just let the bike traffic flow in its natural way?
The suspension of cars’ access to the park should continue for a while longer. We understand TRP is carefully considering how and when to allow motor vehicles back into the park. In theory, with social distancing down to “one metre-plus” from this Saturday, the carrying capacity of the park and its roads can be safely restored to what it was pre-crisis.
We have concerns about this. Our reasons have a lot to do with the Movement Strategy – part of which, as longtime subscribers will know, includes TRP’s goal to significantly reduce shortcut journeys made in motor vehicles through Richmond Park and its seven other green spaces. The next stage of the process is the publication in the coming days of a document which will inform specific ideas to be implemented in Richmond Park at a later date. TRP is committed to working with the boroughs surrounding the park to reduce the impact of the traffic that will be displaced once measures are decided upon and put in place. So why not trial it now to inform those discussions? The Government has recently granted all local authorities power to temporarily restrict motor vehicle use of roads to facilitate more walking and cycling. If required, can TRP draw on that legislation to do the same?
Many people have enjoyed the absence of motor cars and now favour prolonging the suspension. In a recent poll on the NextDoor community forum – not usually known for being a hotbed of cycling support – users in Kingston plumped for “ban cars” as the most popular of five different types of access restriction to the park. Could this be a small sign of a shift in wider public opinion?
People are slowly starting to return to their place of work, but many big companies are offering their employees the chance to work from home – and, sadly, there are also those who are now or will shortly become unemployed. Patterns of commuter travel will undoubtedly differ from those prior to the pandemic, so borough leaders now have a golden opportunity to find out if their roads can sustain the new normal traffic levels. Only if they can’t should TRP consider allowing through movement again, in which case we would then revisit our ideas around Intelligent Road Charging – levying a fee for shortcut journeys made in motor vehicles.
In the meantime, we would concede that cars should be allowed to enter Richmond Park at Kingston, Richmond, East Sheen and Roehampton gates, but only to access the nearest car park in order to relieve parking pressures outside the gates. The car parks at Pen Ponds, Robin Hood Gate and at the top of Broomfield Hill should remain closed to motor cars as should the roads between the four remaining car parks.
Reintroduce weekend cycling. With the return to work and school, many people are unable to cycle for fun in Richmond Park under the current rules. We don’t think that’s fair, and we would like to see TRP lift the current ban on cycling at weekends.
Restrict group riding. If the eastern roadway is reopened, sports cyclists will obviously get their laps back – but it can be intimidating being passed at speed by a group of riders, even at a safe distance. So to keep the roadway a hospitable environment for vulnerable road users, many of whom may have only started riding in the park during lockdown, we would like to see group riding restricted to mornings and evenings only and in groups of six maximum to comply with social distancing, moving up to no more than eight when social contact rules allow. We have good communication with the major cycling clubs in the area, and we can work with them to encourage their members to follow this guidance. Which brings us to our final idea...
We should have a code of conduct. Whatever happens in the next few weeks or months regarding the pandemic, the long-term goal that Richmond Park Cyclists and The Royal Parks share is to make the park an even better place to ride your bike. In the current context, that surely now means maintaining the newly established diversity of users. Keeping the suspension of cars using the park as a through route would go a long way to achieving that aim, but all of us can help too.
A simple set of guidelines for riding in the park, backed by the big local cycling clubs, would ensure that less confident riders always feel at home. To give one example, you may give enough space when passing safely, but could you give a bit more when going round a mum riding with her young child?
The code would be self-policed by you and us. In practical terms, it would mean politely approaching cyclists who you see riding in an unhelpful way and asking them to adjust their behaviour. A similar scheme in Regents Park has, in TRP’s view, improved riders’ conduct.
We would like TRP to endorse whatever guidelines we agree on. It would be a clear sign that the organisation wants to keep cycling in the park safe for all. In turn, establishing a code of conduct would, we hope, show TRP that cyclists are the most passionate and enthusiastic of all the visitors to Richmond Park, and they appreciate its value as the capital’s greatest free cycling resource.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
Thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox – and a special thank you to our many new subscribers who signed up over the past few weeks. Let us know what you think about the ideas outlined above – we reply personally to every email you send us. If you enjoyed this bulletin, please share it with your cycling friends – and if they like what they read, encourage them to sign up to our mailing list too. The more subscribers we have, the bigger our voice.
All the best,
Richmond Park Cyclists
website: richmondparkcyclists.org
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