Hi,
You may have already read about our campaign, and if so, please feel
free to skip to the end! We set this campaign up after long discussions
on the Cycling Plus forum about accidents, near misses, and overtaking
that removes a layer of skin from your elbow and a layer of paint from
you bike.
And why is it that even though you've got twin lights that are brighter
than the sun, reflective and day-glo bits from your overshoes to your
helmet and you sleep with a copy of Cyclecraft under your pillow, you
still don't get seen by the guy coming out of the junction 50 yards in
front of you?
Rant over, with apologies!
At the same time someone else asked if anyone knew where to get 'I pull
out for cyclists' window stickers - similar to the ones about horses
that everyone has seen. After much hunting around, it seemed that no-one
could find them anywhere. So we thought we'd do it ourselves, and the
logo you see above is the result. large, bold and simple. Any
resemblance to me is purely coincidental!
On a more serious note, we're donating money to Roadpeace, Essex Air
Ambulance and we're supplying stickers to cycling clubs at a discount
for them to sell on for club coffers. We're also planning to donate to
the Dave Rayner Fund and the Braveheart Fund which support young racers
from Scotland (where I am) and England and Wales (where most of you
are!). Please feel free to make recommendations for any other good
(cycling related) causes.
NEWS!
Buses
Those of you in South Yorkshire will be seeing the logo of the backs of
increasing numbers of buses, thanks to Robert Sheperdson of South
Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, who seems to be almost as
evangelical as we are!
Obviously this is a great thing as we firmly believe that the more
people who see the logo, the more chance there is that we'll get the
room we need on the roads as the message drip-feeds into drivers. If any
of you are involved with fleet vehicles, whether Council Vans, Buses or
large-scale logistics, please get in touch!
Leeds Uni
The University of Leeds will be incorporating the stickers into their
Bike Week campaign, and there are several other smaller projects for the
week that we're helping to promote. The key messages we're pushing are
that cyclists need 'Road-Room' and that we need safer cycling for Bike
Week - and every other week too!
Give Cyclists Room in London!
We've been invited to the City of London Police's Bike Week Bike Show in
the Guidhall Yard on the 21st and 22nd June (Wed & Thurs), where we'll
be pushing our message out to the public alongside
-City of London Police cycle Patrol team
-Roads Policing unit
-Corporation of London
-Endura
-Evans Cycles
-Datatag
-Abus
-Immobilise.com
-CDRP (City)
-Dr Bike
-Epping forest Police
-Road Safety organisation
-Transport for London
-London Ambulance Service
Feel free to pop down and say hello! We'll not only be talking to the
public, but we'll also be having a friendly word with TfL about Bendy
Buses, and seeing if we can't work together to get the message out with
them too. Ahh, the irony of getting wedged against railing by a bendy
bus with a 'Give Cyclists Room' logo on the back! Our thinking is that
if the driver sees the logo as he turns up for work, there's more chance
of him thinking about it when he sees a 15mph cyclist 50 yards from his
next stop.
Oh yes, since we're doing this on a limited budget, feel free to bring
an extra coffee! I take mine white, no sugar (insert fluttering
eyelashes here!)
Sample Letter
We recently had reason to compose a snotty letter to a local bus
company, and we were so pleased with the result that we decided to post
it on the website (with details removed to protect the guilty chap) -
lets just say the driver will be waiting patiently behind cyclists from
now on! Please feel free to use some, all, or none of it if you have
cause to write your own. And by saying that you're 'involved in a
cycling safety campaign', I'd include reading newsletters and buying
stickers!
Blowing Our Own Trumpet!
We swithered (there's a good Scottish word for you!) about mentioning
this one, but we received the Congratulations of the Scottish Parliament
a while back. This was supported by MSPs of all political stripes, from
the Conservatives to the Scottish Socialist Party via the Greens! OK so
it doesn't, in and of itself, make much difference to the behaviour of
drivers, which is how we'd choose to measure our success, but it keeps
it on the political horizon.
Give Cyclists Room—
That the Parliament congratulates Justin Beattie of Helensburgh on
setting up the “Give Cyclists Room” campaign to promote greater
awareness of cyclists on Britain’s roads; notes that awareness is being
raised through a new website, www.givecyclistsroom.co.uk, and the sale
of car window stickers; acknowledges that the grassroots campaign has
been set up to alert drivers and cyclists alike to the fact that the
single largest cause of collisions and near-collisions for cyclists is
when other road users fail to appreciate just how much space a cyclist
requires on the road; notes that in 2004 a total of 134 cyclists were
killed on Britain’s roads and 2,174 were seriously injured, while
14,340 suffered from other injuries; wishes the campaign every success
for the future, and encourages the Scottish Executive to alert other
road users to their safety responsibilities in respect of cyclists in
any road safety information and literature.
Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter, and if you don't
want me to keep you informed occasionally about what we're up to and our
larger news stories, just reply to say "Stop hassling me!" or words to
that effect.
--
Justin Beattie
Campaign Manager
Give Cyclists Room