Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the edition that we sent in July 2022. 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.
IN THIS ISSUE… +++ Come to our meeting – or ride with us! +++ Improving crossing areas for pedestrians +++ Record your rides in the park to help improve safety +++ The Friends Of Richmond Park: a response from an old Friend +++
JOIN THE GANG
It’s time for our next quarterly public meeting, which will take place as usual at La Ciclista in Sheen. Come along on Sunday, July 24 from noon – as always, this is your chance to meet us and talk about what you would like us to bring up with the park’s management when we have our regular catch-up with them a few days later. Sgt Pete Sturgess from the park’s police unit will also attend the meeting with management, so if there are any policing matters you want us to discuss, then please come along. Or if you simply want to say hi and have a coffee with us, then you would be welcome to join us!
And from this month, you can also ride with us – we’ll be at the Chain Gang Cyclists’ monthly event in Richmond Park, meeting outside Colicci at 8am on the same day. Chain Gang are a welcoming, friendly and diverse group of people, and their Sunday Brunch social ride is perfect if you want to start riding with others, regardless of your ability or experience. Find out more about the event and sign up on Strava (it’s easy to set up a Strava account if you don’t already have one) and check out CGC on Instagram. And If you do decide to come along, look out for our distinctive helmet!
ROBBERIES ALERT
There has been another bike-jacking – but unlike the spate of violent incidents that blighted the park last October, this appears to be an isolated incident.
It took place on Dark Hill, near Ladderstile Gate, going towards Dark Hill on Thursday, June 2 at 4.25pm. Two people on a moped followed a cyclist, then cut in front of them and stole their bike. You can see what it looks like here.
The police have yet to identify the suspects. Officers from Operation Venice, which tackles moped-enabled crime, were made aware of the robbery but did not actively patrol the park.
In an appeal for witnesses, dash cam or bike cam footage, the park’s police said: “The suspects were described as approximately 25 years old, male, wearing a black coat, grey jogging bottoms, with a white or light grey helmet. Any information please call 101 and quote crime reference 0406215/22.”
Meanwhile, bicycles worth in the region of £10,000 have recently been stolen from several properties near to the park in the SW15 area. If you have a high-value bike in your home, Sgt Pete Sturgess from the park’s police advises you to make sure it is secured with a good-quality lock and, if possible, use a motion-sensor CCTV that sends an alert to your phone when activated.
CROSS PURPOSE
The Royal Parks’ principle of pedestrian priority is a key aspect of Richmond Park Cyclists’ approach to riding in the park. Supporting it provides a strong counter-argument to the exaggerated claim that people who cycle regularly in the park want the road all to themselves. And, of course, it makes the roadway more welcoming for pedestrians.
To this end, and with TRP’s plans for road improvements emerging from its ongoing Movement Strategy trials, we submitted ideas to the park’s management to enhance areas of the roadway where the number of people wanting to cross the road is greatest. The aim is to encourage more road users, particularly cyclists, to give way at junctions, next to gates and near car parks by creating a sense of shared space. Our ideas build on the broad outline of our vision which we submitted to TRP more than a year ago.
Here is what we suggested:
Additional and enhanced raised pedestrian crossings next to the car parks.
Zebra crossings without Belisha beacons; or a green surface on the crossing points suggesting pedestrian priority.
Signs encouraging road users to share the space, situated next to car parks and vehicle gates, to indicate the park’s roadway should be treated distinctly to a regular road..
Perpendicular fencing, which seems to narrow the road without actually doing so, thereby suggesting road users should lower their speeds.
Speed humps, if used, should have a shallower initial rise. This type of hump, known as sinusoidal, is safer as it avoids the high differential in speed between motorists and cyclists caused when approaching a sharper hump.
Symbols of cyclists painted on the road and roadside signage reminding drivers of the required 1.5 metre gap for overtaking.
We will discuss these ideas when we meet Paul Richards, the park’s new manager, later this month.
NOTE FROM AN OLD FRIEND
The leadership of the Friends of Richmond Park have declined to respond to the item in last month’s bulletin which explained why we think the highly influential pressure group should develop a clear vision for the roadway that is in keeping with their founding principle: “No concessions at all must be made to motorists who wish to use the roads of Richmond Park as a throughway.” But a former chair of the group has provided a small correction – and revealed an intriguing historical note.
Dr Richard Carter, who was chair from 2000 to 2003, writes: “You refer, correctly, to ‘the unwillingness of the Friends' leadership to clearly outline a policy on traffic and other movement in the park,’ but it wasn't always like that. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Friends were effectively taken over by a group led by the Campaign Against Traffic in the Park (CATIRP), and tried to introduce a very different attitude to traffic than by the then leadership. In 2000, we produced a manifesto which set out a series of ideas that are entirely consistent with Richmond Park Cyclists’ response to the Movement Strategy.”
Dr Carter has sent us PDFs of a couple of the manifesto’s pages, which to our knowledge have never appeared on the internet or social media, and there are indeed striking similarities to our vision, such as an internal transport service for the park. We are meeting with Dr Carter later this month, and we hope to see the full manifesto. With his permission, we hope to share it with you.
The world was a very different place two decades ago in regard to attitudes to active travel and the unwillingness to explore alternatives to motor vehicles. The time has surely come for some of the ideas adopted by the Friends back then to bear fruit – and perhaps give its present leadership the confidence to publicly support the removal of through traffic once the Movement Strategy ends in the autumn.
CAMERAS, ACTION
How many close passes and incidences of aggressive driving do cyclists encounter in the park each year? The truth is, no one knows – but we could have a clearer idea if more bad driver behaviour is captured on camera and reported to the Met police.
Footage of unsafe driving in the park sometimes appears on social media. But when the Met receive details of an incident, they usually ask that such clips are not posted, which means the incidents in these videos may not have been reported. Meanwhile, the quarterly police figures only include incidents that the park’s officers have witnessed or been called to attend. And, of course, every time you are at the receiving end of some dodgy driving in the park and you simply brush it off, as many of us do, there is no official record of it happening.
As reported in May’s bulletin, we have started to film some of our rides in the park – and in just one hour over the Easter Bank Holiday we captured two incidents that resulted in the drivers receiving notices of intended prosecution.
If you have a video camera on your bike, we encourage you to send footage of any incidents in the park to the Met police. It is easy to upload clips to their online portal, and it only takes a few minutes to fill out the form. We would also like you to email the footage to us so we have a record of these incidents. Then, at a later date, we would like to submit a Freedom of Information request to uncover how many drivers have been reported and prosecuted.
To be clear, you are significantly less likely to encounter bad driving on the park’s roadway than on typical London roads. But poor or aggressive driving makes Richmond Park’s roads less accessible to unconfident or vulnerable riders. Figures for road incidents would strengthen our case for removing through traffic, thereby making the park more welcoming for every kind of cyclist.
FOURTH TIME LUCKY
Cementing its position as the longest-running item in our bulletins, the case of the cyclist who was left with a broken scapula, a fractured shoulder and a written-off bike after a driver tried to U-turn on Broomfield Hill has been pushed back a fourth time. The court hearing is now scheduled for August 22 – a full 13 months after the incident. The driver has pleaded not guilty, and the cyclist has now been asked to appear in court. Fingers crossed that the next time this case appears in our newsletter will be the last – and that the outcome is a good one.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
As ever, thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox, and let us know what you think about anything related to cycling in Richmond Park – 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