It’s becoming traditional at FMFT to round up some of the news that’s been going down (as the kids are saying) on a Friday. We’re big on tradition, so here we go again, with a London theme.
Taking our cues from the sun we’ll start out in the East where cycling is doing pretty well. The wooden track for the Olympic velodrome completed, putting the venue well on target to be the first one completed for the games.
Slightly more down-to-earth, Tower Hamlets has won three of the five main awards in the London Cycling Awards. At all levels it seems that East London is the place to be for cycling this year.
City-wide the story is just as positive. The Boris Bike scheme is due to be extended this week to casual users, so anyone with a credit card will be able to use the bikes on a whim, rather than being pre-registered. This should further extend the success of the scheme as tourists and people who don’t see themselves as regular cyclists can take advantage of the bikes. I’m sure that there will be a renewed outcry from those who think it’s simply dangerous to ride in London as at least one report is already claiming that 13 accidents requiring emergency services in the first two months is shocking. Obviously any incident that leaves someone injured is a bad thing but the list of accidents doesn’t seem to point to anything that can directly be attributed to the Boris Bikes as opposed to the usual risks of being on London streets. There are yet more calls for helmets to be provided (which presumably would have been most useful when a docking station was knocked over by a car onto a child, causing head injuries) and similar safety measures which somehow ignore the freedom to take your own risks, or to use the bikes spontaneously.
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