As part of a consultation I have been asked  by the LCC (London Cycling Campaign) in Haringey to give input on the following question..

What needs to be done to enable more people in Haringey to cycle?

This is because Haringey has become one of the Mayors nominated cycling boroughs and they are in planning mode as to how to achieve this..

My response is below and feel free to add. In essence I felt the suggestions to date had really missed out how to create a communtiy around cycling and how parks and off road cycling in London could be a major means of driving more folk into cycling across the board. Hopefully that comes across below.

Adam,

For people to cycle more then I think getting people into cycling when young is key. A key barrier to this is fear of taking your kids out as a family on the roads. A key opportunity is to get kids and families cycling in the local parks and green spaces. The attitude of the many parks I come across is that cycling is a danger to park users and to the environment and this is mainly due to a lack of cycle paths in parks and so pedestrian and cyclist conflict occurs. I really believe the more cycle paths in parks will instill cycling into kids at a young age and lead to more family and community cohesion.

Queens Wood is a perfect example where the Friends group do not allow cycling and have asked the Trax club to stop riding there. Ancient bye laws dictate in so many parks you cant cycle. Remove the outdated laws and create specific paths and signage to create unity and community support between differing user groups. We have seen this work effectively in the magnificent support we get in Lordship Rec from the community groups.

Taking this to the next natural step we can move to a network of off road dirt tracks in our local green spaces throughout the borough and then London. They can be small and allow kids to engage in activities after school and on weekends, The health and social benefits are enormous as we are seeing in Lordship Rec as we coach local kids in Tottenham every weekend on our small dirt BMX track as part of the club activities. This enables kids from all socio economic groups and abilities to meet in  a cohesive cycling community.

This model should  extend to the whole of London and it is what The Trax are committed to. We already have two other parks in contact with us. Once it is in place then the opportunities can be whatever we make them. Envisage a new mini amatuer racing league for London with schools competing with each other. Very shortly thousands of kids would be cycling and having fun in our green space cycling infrastructure and network throughout London. We just need some relaxed bye laws, some small infrastructure and pro-active groups like the LCC, British Cycling, the CTC, IMBA and local community groups to get behind us and make it happen.

All the best Daniel Mintz
Chairperson - The Trax Club