Bulletin #3, October 2017

Each month, we are emailing a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is last month's mailout. 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 and why we are progressing the idea of reducing traffic in the park by charging for shortcut journeys.

Welcome to our third bulletin - and hello to all our new subscribers! Building our mailing list is a key goal as we want to reach out and speak for as many people as possible, so we are grateful to all who forwarded our last email to their friends and those who have signed up.

Thanks, also, to everyone who provided feedback to our draft guidelines for cycling on the road in Richmond Park. We have modified them in light of comments received and will be shortly putting them up on our website for all to see - and hopefully act upon.

As part of our ongoing effort to advance the idea of reducing the number of shortcut journeys through the park, we have managed to secure two meetings with local politicians. We recognise that in order to garner support for intelligent road charging, the benefits of less motor traffic must be plain for all to see. It’s not just about cyclists.

We should be able to let you know more about our progress in our next bulletin. For now, we can tell you that initial responses from local stakeholders and politicians have continued to be warm and largely receptive.  “Some things are too important to be left to politics”, more than one influential consultee has said to us.  Watch this space.

In the meantime, we are focusing on motorist behaviour in Richmond Park.  Next month we’ll be venturing off-road.

DRIVING IN RICHMOND PARK

Most of you will probably drive as well as cycle and may have driven in Richmond Park, whether to visit, avoid the South Circular or use it as a shortcut. In recent years, we have all noticed an increase in the number of cyclists using the park’s roads - and as we have previously noted, tensions between road users can rise when traffic builds.

So how can motorists play their role in sharing a sometimes crowded road space - and perhaps improve the behaviour of other road users by driving in a considerate way?

Here, we provide some simple guidelines and invite you to give us your views.

• Obey the Highway Code. In particular, remember that pedestrians and cyclists have no crumple zones, airbags or safety belts.  The vehicle you are driving could be lethal if a more vulnerable road user hits it – or if it hits them.

• Read the road ahead, look for potential hazards and adjust your driving to reflect the conditions. Slow down if necessary.

• Drive responsibly – that means only overtaking when it is safe to do so.  Try to judge closing speeds and distances well.  Leave lots of space for the user you are overtaking – in particular cyclists who can wobble and may have only a helmet for impact protection.

• We recommend cyclists ride in a group of no more than eight people, but there is no rule on this. A group you overtake could be bigger than you first thought and will therefore take longer to overtake than you expected.

• Some road users are vulnerable and more easily frightened than others. You may judge your actions to be acceptably safe but others may not. So before making your manoeuvre, ask yourself if it could cause fright or be perceived as discourteous or disrespectful. If so, hold back and rethink.

• If you need to stop, make sure you do so in a car park or a side road. If you break down, be sure to switch on your hazard warning lights.

• The courtesy crossings are there for pedestrians to safely cross. Give way if they are waiting by them. You should also give way to horse riders and deer.

• Apologise if you are in the wrong, show your appreciation when other users give way and always respect the Royal Parks Police.

This is by no means an authoritative list, but we believe that promoting good behaviour will increase motorists’ good reputation and standing in the park. So please let us know what we may have missed from these guidelines.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and have a great month riding. We’ll have another update for you next month.

And if you know any cyclists - or non-cyclists - who you think may be interested in our work, then please forward this email to them and encourage them to sign up for further updates at the website below.

All the best,

Richmond Park Cyclists

website: richmondparkcyclists.org

twitter: twitter.com/richmondpkcycle

facebook: facebook.com/richmondparkcyclists

Bulletin #2, August 2017

Each month, we are emailing a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is last month's mailout. 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 and why we are progressing the idea of reducing traffic in the park by charging for shortcut journeys.

Welcome to our second bulletin - and thank you for the positive reaction to our first monthly missive!

We’ve had so many encouraging messages in response to the concept of charging for shortcut journeys made by motor vehicles through the park. Over the coming months we will have more discussions with stakeholders and other interested parties to explore what is clearly a persuasive and popular idea.

This month, though, we are focusing on the safest and most considerate way of riding on the roads of Richmond Park. In the coming months we will look at off-road cycling and how motorists can make the park a safer place.

THE BEST WAY TO SHARE
In recent years, roads in the park have become busier. As the number of cyclists using them grows and traffic builds, tensions between road users can rise.

So how can cyclists play their role in sharing a sometimes crowded road space? And could riding in a considerate way improve the behaviour of other road users?

Here, we give you an easy list of guidelines and invite you to give us your views.

Obey the Highway Code. In particular, that means overtaking only on the right (unless passing stationary or queuing traffic), negotiating roundabouts correctly and allowing as much space for overtaking a fellow cyclist as you would like a passing motorist to leave for you.

Always look for potential hazards ahead and adjust your riding to reflect the conditions. Slow down if necessary.

Some road users are vulnerable and easily frightened. You may judge your actions to be acceptably safe but others may not. So before making your manoeuvre, ask yourself if it could cause fright or be perceived as discourteous or disrespectful. If so, hold back and rethink.

If you need to stop, make sure you get off the road.

Riding in a group? Stick to around eight people. It makes it easier for cyclists and motorists to safely overtake.

The courtesy crossings are there for pedestrians and horse riders to safely cross. Give way if they are waiting by them. You should also give way to and deer.

Apologise if you are in the wrong, show your appreciation when other users give way and always respect the Royal Parks Police.

Ride a well-maintained bike and carry a spare inner tube, tyre levers and a pump or gas cartridge. If you see a fellow cyclist by the side of the road who may need any of these, you could make his or her day by offering to help!

This is by no means an authoritative list, but we believe that promoting good behaviour will increase cyclists’ good reputation and standing in the the park. [delete when it goes on website>] So please let us know what we may have missed from these guidelines.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and have a great month riding. We’ll have another update for you at the beginning of September.

And if you know any cyclists - or non-cyclists - who you think may be interested in our work, then please forward this email to them and encourage them to sign up for further updates at the website below.

All the best,

Richmond Park Cyclists

website: richmondparkcyclists.org
twitter: twitter.com/richmondpkcycle
facebook: facebook.com/richmondparkcyclists

Bulletin #1, July 2017

Each month, we are emailing a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is last month's mailout. 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 future bulletins a month before they appear here.

Hello, and welcome to Richmond Park Cyclists’ inaugural bulletin!

Firstly, thanks for your patience. As you are one of the scores of people who have signed up on our website, you have probably asked yourself what we have been up to. The answer is, quite a bit. We’ve set up a not-for-profit bank account with three of us as trustees, making our organisation a little bit more official. And following the publication of The Royal Parks’ draft report into traffic levels, and subsequent meetings with park stakeholders, we have decided to promote a clear, sensible idea to improve visitors’ experience of Richmond Park.

The idea is Intelligent Road Charging. We believe it will complement the park’s status as a National Nature Reserve, help promote it as a space for public recreation and sport (which are among the charitable objectives of The Royal Parks) and benefit every user. For all these reasons, we hope you will want to get behind it.

If you like the idea of Intelligent Road Charging, please forward this email to anyone - cyclists and non-cyclists - you think might be interested in supporting it. But before you do that, you will probably want to know more about the concept. So here’s some background to Richmond Park’s relationship with cyclists and the events that led to us forming Richmond Park Cyclists.

HOW WE BEGAN

Richmond Park is run by The Royal Parks. This charitable body regularly consults with stakeholder groups that represent the diverse types of park users and the Metropolitan Police. These meetings help shape the way The Royal Parks runs Richmond Park.

For years, The Royal Parks and the Met have sought ways of improving how they communicate with the cycling community. Reaching out to cycling clubs was only scratching the surface as most bike riders are not members of a club. So some of the cyclists who attend these meetings contacted a number of their cycling friends and acquaintances to form Richmond Park Cyclists.

In essence, we are a partnership that represents all types of cyclists - young and old, commuter or competitive, able-bodied or disabled - to the highest level of Richmond Park’s authorities and stakeholders.

This, for the moment, is our organising committee.

Paul Harknett – Former Chair, London Dynamo
Duncan Adamson – Slipstreamers' Coach
Peter Cunliffe – South Western Road Club
Derek Griffiths – Kingston Wheelers
Tim Lennon – Richmond Cycling Campaign
Justin Levene – Weir Archer Academy and Get Kids Going
Marina Lim – Commuter
Martin O'Sullivan – Deputy Head of Turing House School
Martin Winter – Twickenham Cycling Club

We welcome more support, so please get in touch if you would like to help out.

A WAY FORWARD

In December 2014, long before Richmond Park Cyclists formed, Zac Goldsmith MP held a public meeting in response to concerns he had received from constituents regarding the tensions between cyclists and motorists in the park. Such was the strength of opinion on both sides that the Richmond Park MP confessed to being nervous about the atmosphere that might have developed.

He needn’t have worried. The 250 attendees listened to the panel, which included representatives of the Royal Parks, Met Police, as well as councillors, stakeholders and traffic experts. And the biggest applause of the evening - which came from cyclists and non-cyclists alike - was in response to the idea of charging drivers whenever they use the park as a shortcut.

Judging by the public’s reaction that night, implementing the concept of road charging in Richmond Park would be warmly welcomed by a good proportion of park users.

TOO MUCH TRAFFIC

Paul Harknett, who would later set up Richmond Park Cyclists, became part of the working group that Goldsmith convened on a number of occasions to pick through the various ideas proposed at the meeting.  Meanwhile, the Royal Parks carried out a traffic survey to gauge the level and types of motor traffic in Richmond Park.

A draft report from the Royal Parks published in March confirmed what you, as someone who visits the park, would probably have already suspected: there is too much unnecessary traffic. Depending on the time of the week, between 68 and 91 percent of motor vehicles in Richmond Park are using it as a shortcut.

AN INTELLIGENT SOLUTION

Given the public support at the Goldsmith meeting for levying a fee against motor vehicles using the park as a shortcut, and the subsequent traffic statistics revealed in The Royal Parks’ report, it is clear to us that road charging is an idea worth exploring.

This is how we believe Intelligent Road Charging could work.

Drivers who have parked - either to have a walk, a run, a bike ride, a cup of tea or enjoy any other activity in Richmond Park - would pay nothing. But motorists simply passing through who enter and leave the park within a set time period would pay. They would not be excluded, but they might be deterred.

Details of motor vehicles that use this private road as a through route would be logged by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) - a technology which is readily available to authorities these days. If the drivers of these vehicles do not register to pay, there would be a penalty charge. Displaced traffic - journeys that take place outside the park - is already accommodated when the gates are closed, including morning and evening peak periods in the winter, which shows there is capacity on these roads.

The London Congestion Charge has been running for more than 14 years. Transport for London has developed a sophisticated, cost-effective and easy-to-use model that, in our view, could be rolled out in Richmond Park. We will be engaging with The Royal Parks, park stakeholders, the three bordering London boroughs and Zac Goldsmith MP to explore how such a system could be most fairly deployed.

The advantages of Intelligent Road Charging are clear. It would:

*Reduce pollution and congestion in the park, which is an official National Nature Reserve

*Create a calmer atmosphere

*Make the roads safer to cross (for pedestrians and deer)

*Create an emptier road space that would be safer to enjoy by genuine park visitors

*Attract more people out of their cars and onto bikes. Women, children and disabled riders who are put off cycling by traffic and speeding cars (the draft report shows a significant number do this) would be offered a more welcoming environment

*Create revenue for the underfunded and overstretched Royal Parks which could be invested in the park and spent on its upkeep

THE NEXT STEPS

Intelligent Road Charging would take legislation to implement and could not be rolled out without proper consultation, so at this stage we are looking for as much support as possible. We believe the idea deserves broader consultation and support because it would improve the park for everyone - not just cyclists. So if you like what you have read, please forward this email to your family, friends and acquaintances - regardless of whether they cycle or not - and encourage them to sign up to our mailing list so they can receive our updates.

There are many other more cycle-centric issues we would like to tackle, so if you can spare the time to help run our organisation, do get in touch by dropping us an email.

One of the areas we would like to have an impact upon is rider behaviour in the park. Unsafe and disrespectful cycling - even though it is practiced by a small minority - can create friction and hostility on the road and pathways that we all enjoy, so we aim to minimise such conflict by drafting advice for courteous riding. We hope all our supporters will see the value in following the advice, and that they will politely ask fellow cyclists to modify their behaviour if they see obvious transgressions. We know only too well that some motorists are prone to poor behaviour too, and as drivers ourselves we will also draft guidelines for driving in the park.

GET IN TOUCH

Thanks for reading. We welcome any feedback, so please email richmondparkcyclists@gmail.com with your comments - good and bad. We aim to get another update out in a month’s time. Until then, enjoy your cycling - and we’ll see you in the park!

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Headline photography provided by
Andrew Robertson