Barnet Cycling Campaign

Sunday 25 March 2012 – Save that date!

Meet at 10 AM at New Southgate rail station.

Barnet’s Great Divide Ride is a “Giro d’Juntions”, if you will. The North Circular Road (A406) is a challenging barrier to cycling to and from north London. Join us as we zig-zag our way over all of the crossing points on the A406 from New Southgate to Staples Corner. The ride will finish around lunchtime with a picnic at the secret park in the center of Staples Corner.

This a fun ride, the pace will be slow and it will be suitable for all ages. It will be orderly and professionally marshaled, so that all the family can safely make their way over some of the worst junctions for cyclists in north London.

We will take in some of the facilities provided for cyclists as part of the old LCN+ network as well. Things like this sheep gate… New developments should be better than that, shouldn’t they? It seems however that TfL and Barnet Council have entirely failed to account for the growing numbers of cyclists who want to move across the A406.

The new-look Henlys Corner was an opportunity to take cyclists into account, yet this major artery remains wedded to the 60-year-old ideas that gave us Staples Corner. It appears that not much has been learned. If the desire to make London a great cycling city is genuine, should cyclists be neglected in this way?

But even if you don’t live in Barnet…

This is an issue that affects all Londoners. Boris Johnson’s policy of “smoothing traffic flow” has been going on in Barnet for years with the result that Barnet has some of the worst accident figures of any London borough. If you want to see what London will be like after another term or so of these policies, come to Barnet. Now is the time to all stand together and let the Mayor’s office know that a cycling revolution does not look like this.

Ride with us and help highlight the failure of TfL and Barnet Council to address poor conditions for cyclists. The crossing points of the A406 are a barrier to growing cycling in the outer boroughs and Barnet in particular.

We want these junctions included in TFL’s junction review program and a commitment from the mayoral candidates that when Staples Corner is eventually developed, cycling will form part of the core planning.

LCC groups from the neighboring boroughs, as well as local politicians, will be there… will you?

We will be there because we live and ride in Barnet,  you should be there because you live and ride in London.

In preparation, we will be conducting cordon counts at some of the main junctions. More on that in a later post…

Make sure to subscribe to this site and follow @barnetlcc on Twitter to get the latest updates.

The route below is being revised but gives a fair idea of what we will do.

See you there!