Click the pic & print the .pdf! bikethestrike.co.uk #bikethestrike
Bike The Strike London! Who needs the Tube anyway?
Know someone who’s facing another nightmare day ‘off’ the Tube on Thursday? Well, you could give them a little nudge: print-off the picture here and leave it on their desk!
Have a picture of you or a fellow commuter with the picture? Send it to us, it may even be included in our next circular!
Well, I Didn’t Know That:
• There are more cyclists in London with 3rd Party Insurance # than there are taxis in London
• The average journey in London is less than two miles (including the school run!)
• The UK’s annual expenditure on cycle infrastructure is less that £2.50 per person, per year
• Vehicles injure more pedestrians on London’s pavements than cyclists on London’s roads
• Helmets and high-vis are extremely rare in cycle-friendly Amsterdam and Copenhagen
Amazing huh? Well, try this lot for a sort of ‘Bonus round’ (thingamajig):
• The UK is only one of four Western European countries that doesn’t have the ‘strict liability’ law to protect cyclists and pedestrians. Strict liability encourages more careful driving and cycling, because a cyclist would be deemed to be at fault for crashing into a pedestrian
• Toxic pollutants (including those from vehicular exhaust fumes), contribute to 4,000 Londoner’s deaths per year. The effects of fumes are worse inside a car, than whilst cycling alongside one
Dutch analysts have also studied the cost benefits of mass cycling in reducing traffic jams, pollution and road maintenance costs and boosting health. They found that the economy made a 35p profit for every mile travelled by bike instead of by car (C/o The Times).
# Looking for 3rd Party Insurance? Membership of the LCC includes the superb ‘London Cyclist Magazine’ (quarterly), as well as weekly updates on events and within our community. Subscriptions start at £19/year and membership is open to cyclists and their families of all ages and abilities.
15+ minute commute from an onboard camera, C/o Velo London)
What’s It Like, Commuting By Bike?
Safe, confident riding comes from a little time spent in the saddle. In this film, the cyclist crosses one of the busiest parts of London whilst following all road rules (just like the majority of London’s cyclists). See for yourself!
Some quirky data from this clip:
• 5+ minutes before the bicycle is amongst any moving traffic
• 14+ minutes before anyone overtakes the bicycle
• Vehicles overtaken by the bicycle: all except 3
(the bicycle passed 2 within 60 seconds, the last 1 vanished without trace!)
• Red lights stopped for by the bicycle: all
• Pedestrians ignoring red lights: numerous
• Vehicles passed during this clip: too many to count (guesstimate: hundreds)
• Vehicles ‘sacrificed’ during this clip: one at 10:35 (apparent overheating)
Top Tips for your first commute from our friends over at Road.cc
‘Bike The Strike’: How To Participate
There’s a time in every Londoner’s life when a daily commute on public transport simply get’s too much to bear. When there’s a Tube, Bus or Rail strike, it’s even worse than usual.
Of course, we have the solution: go by bike! With the advantages of improved health, a greater connection with our City and of course the ability to go exactly where you wish, cycling is tough to beat. Also, what you invest in your bike lasts a whole lot longer than a monthly pass: even if you only cycle for the Summer, you’ll almost certainly save enough to pay for the bike in full.
Cycle2Work Professional. What will you spend your £5,000 on?
Paying for your bike is the area most people trip up on. It’s really easy to say ‘go and buy a bike’. However, if you’ve just moved to London (and handed over most of your savings to an teenage estate agent), changed job or moved house, you might not have enough left over to buy a bike outright. Or the locks to keep it secure. Or wish to borrow the funds (even if your Oystercard does go on plastic…).
The Cycle to Work Scheme was launched as part of a governmental ‘green initiative’ to help with just that. People in full time employment can take advantage of a salary sacrifice over twelve months. For most, this means that as long as you expect to be employed where you currently are for at least a year, you can devote a portion of future income to this tax free mechanism and save up to 42%. What’s not to like?
Cycle2Work Professional is our version of the Cycle to Work Scheme. It allows you to access £5,000 immediately (rather than the usual £1,000 available elsewhere). To keep it simple, all you need to do is to select the tickbox in our Shopping Cart and fill in the details. We’ll send your Employer all the necessary paperwork digitally, whilst we prepare your new bike and accessories for you.
With the next Tube strike as inevitable as delays from ‘leaves on line’, ‘the wrong kind of hot/cold/wind/other’, all whilst being squeezed like you’re in a can of sardines. Isn’t it time you reconsidered your transportation options?
These are the 2015 daily travel costs. (C/o Londonist)
Where have we seen this before? (C/o The Guardian)
bikethestrike.co.uk
Tube strike: The deal which rail unions rejected:
Flabbergasted that the Strike is ‘on’, the Tube is ‘off’ and not 100% sure what all the ‘life balance’ stuff is all about because you’re too busy working? (just like everyone else!!!)
Well, for the latest updates as offered to Tube folks and rejected by their unions follow these links:
BBC News: Click here
The Telegraph: Click here
The Wharf: Click here
12 tips for a first-time cycling commuter, from the BBC
Cycling & Personal Health:
Cycling burns around seven calories a minute. Taking a bike from Waterloo to London Bridge via the South Bank for instance, will take about 40 minutes and burn around 275 calories. Read more from Treated.com here.
Calorie burn information for the longest ‘legs’ on the tube (walk/jog/cycle)
The tube undoubtedly saves time when going from/to the outer reaches of the city. In the centre meanwhile, that variance between getting the tube and cycling starts to get much smaller.
Calorie burn information for the shortest ‘legs’ on the tube (walk/jog/cycle)
Undeterred:Overwhelmed:
Click the pic & print the .pdf! bikethestrike.co.uk #bikethestrike
Leaflets produced for the public by the RMT state that one of their objectives is a “flat-rate increase for all staff that keeps pace with increasing living costs, such as rent and house prices.”
Various responses from the unions in recent weeks include claims that the unions themselves are ‘just doing their job to get the best deal possible for their members’.
There’s a better way to a work/life balance
This, at the expense of the very service their members are supposed to provide. Whilst one ‘ground is undeterred, the other is overwhelmed. Where is the balance for the rest of London?
Is it a vision of the future? (glasses?) Is it a bike? (maybe?) Who knows? It is printable, we know that much!