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Rider Newsletter for Lewisham Cyclists Summer 2018 www.lewishamcyclists.co.uk

New Mayor: Time for Change? Upcoming Rides and Events Last month’s local elections have brought us a new mayor and many Our business meetings are held new councillors. A chance to shift the political will for our council to every third Wednesday at Lewisham make real changes in the borough, enabling residents to choose active Civic Centre 6.30pm All welcome. forms of transport and getting our councillors to provide safer cycling in Lewisham Rides: The new Mayor, Damien Egan, met with Lewisham Cyclists before Tuesday every fortnight: Tuesday the election. We highlighted for him some of the most crucial Totter: a short ten mile ride every barriers to increasing cycling in the borough and what we other Tuesday, which ends in a considered the best ways of overcoming these. We will be different Lewisham pub each time. continuing to develop our links with the new councillors making We meet on the corner opposite Le them aware of the council’s recently published Cycling Strategy and Delice café in for this ride. ensuring they stick to its recommendations. It includes ambitious Join us for the ride, or in the pub or targets to help people choose sustainable and active forms of both. transport, giving them alternatives to using their cars, making cycling and walking from place to place throughout the borough, Our Summer Rides programme will easy, safe, pleasant and enjoyable. include the return of our Family The flagship scheme is the A21 spine, a proposal for a safe, Rides on the first Saturday of every protected cycleway from to alongside the A21. month. All welcome. We have an e This will encourage people of all ages, and all across the borough to assist cargotrike which can seat four cycle, giving them a safe route to access all the main centres and small ones for use on this ride. facilities, previously inaccessible due to busy dangerous road Always traffic free paths or very systems. Not only this, but it will also improve these areas for quiet roads. We have taken riders everyone, helping to transform what is now a busy, polluted, often from age 6 to over 80 on these rides! fast and dangerous road, difficult to cross, dividing communities, onto a tree lined boulevard with a buffer lane providing space Other rides include a mixture of between pedestrians and the polluting motor traffic. Benefits for easier local rides up to harder and all. We need to get TfL to take this on. Work to do! hillier ones. So, do make sure that one of the things you ask of your new Full details of all these events, and councillors is support for the strategy. You can read it here more rides, on our http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s53983/Lew websitehttp://lewishamcyclists.co.u isham%20Cycle%20Strategy%202017.pdf k/rides-and-events/calendar-of- events/ We organise more rides month by month, so do check our rides calendar if you don’t see a ride here that suits you. There is bound to be one coming up soon!

Embankment Cycleway: Less polluted tree lined boulevard! This could happen in Lewisham! Lewisham Cyclists: What We Offer Weekly rides: http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s53983/Lewisha A range of rides to suit most riders. Check our website calendar. m%20Cycle%20Strateg Training: We have a qualified instructor who can offer training to suit a range of abilities from absolute beginners to experienced cyclists needing help with route planning and difficult road systems Community Cycle maintenance workshops: Help, support and tools to get you fixing your own bikes Loan bikes: We have a small number of bikes for loan More information can be found on our website or facebook group or contact us by phone or email

Ride of the Season We rode all through the cold winter. We only cancelled a couple of rides, due to ice. Short rides through Clerkenwell and the City, and our ever popular South London Parks Ride. We even got all the way up to Hampstead Heath and back!

Knatts Valley

Further afield saw us riding out to Kent, Getting ready for a Parks ride Hertfordshire. These are our harder rides, more hills, for those who want more of a workout. Winter brought a lot of mud to the wheels, rough Bike Week June 9th to 17th roads, tough on the bikes! Then in February we We are organising extra rides for Bike week this headed out to one of our favourite places, the year. There will be a Parks Ride on the opening Knatts Valley. And it really felt like Spring was Saturday 9th. Followed by our usu al Tuesday finally on the way. Beautiful day, snowdrops Totter on the Tuesday 12th. Our classic bike week everywhere, birds singing and daffodils in bud. afterworker, Lewisham Peaks Ride on Thursday And that sweep down the Valley! Glorious as ever. 14th, a bike breakfast at the Eddystone Rd railway bridge crossing on the 15th, and a London th Cycleway Ride on Saturday 16 . For details of Liveable Neighbourhoods these events check our website events page or

Facebook group. Or email us and ask. Our contact Funding for Deptford details are below.

Lewisham Council have won funding from Transport for Local People Show Support London’s £114 million Liveable Neighbourhood programme. for Safer Cycling The Deptford Parks bid by Sustrans, on behalf of Lewisham, plans to connect green spaces, schools and public transport and could see £2.9 million invested in local infrastructure. Recent consultation response reports on the CS4 route Proposals include reduced traffic on streets in North from to London Bridge and smaller local Deptford, a new north-south traffic-free route along the routes, to . Support for CS4 was former Grand Surrey Canal for walking and cycling, around 80% of respondents. We will be campaigning ‘Copenhagen crossings’ to prioritise pedestrians at side for work to start on this as soon as possible. It will roads and reduce danger from traffic, new cycle routes provide a safe segregated route along the A200 (Evelyn linking to the proposed new Bakerloo line station at New St and Creek Rd in Deptford). Those of you who already Cross Gate and new cycle parking and street lighting for the use it will know how unsuitable it is at the moment for area. slower, les experienced and less confident riders. Yet it’s In a newsletter to their supporters, Deptford Folk, the park the best link from the north of our borough into Central user group for and Folkestone Gardens, with London and Greenwich. CS4 will provide a protected whom Lewisham Cyclists have been working closely over route suitable for all riders. We will be continuing to the past year, delivering community cycle projects, monitor progress on its planning and implementation, including helping and supporting work towards this project, to ensure it achieves this. described it as: Twitter @lewicyclists “A local project for our local area led by local people. Email:[email protected] None of this would have been possible without the work Telephone: 07826559603 Facebook: undertaken by a range of people including Deptford Folk, local residents, school governors, Deptford Working https://www.facebook.com/groups/72380106728/ Histories, Lewisham Cyclists, The Ramblers, Deptford Park Website: www.lewishamcyclists.co.uk Residents Association, and Sustrans and Lewisham Council who wrote the bid. Thanks also to our MP Vicky Foxcroft, GLA Member Len Duval and local councillor Joyce Jacca.”