Prudential RideLondon – what did you think? | Wimbledon Town & Dundonald Lib Dems

Last weekend (9th and 10th August) was the exciting second annual RideLondon cycle event in London.

As part of the event, dozens of professional cyclists as well as thousands of amateurs and enthusiasts were able to cycle the traffic-free route from the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park to Box Hill in Surrey and back including the return trip through the town centre in Raynes Park, along Worple Road, and up through Wimbledon and Wimbledon Village before heading into Central London.

Despite the wind and rain on the day, it was an exciting event.

We support events like RideLondon because it can:

Help to bring our community together;
Bring more people into our town centres, helping our local shops and businesses;
Encourage people to consider cycling – at a competitive level or more casually; and
Raise the profile of our area and London nationally, as a globally exciting city that can organise such events.

Well done!

However, as local residents we have a few concerns to make sure that people always get the most from these events.

We want to know

Did Merton Council give appropriate information and consult on the traffic arrangements for the day? What about those who struggle to walk or use public transport? Furthermore, how quickly were the race barriers removed following the event?
Were the arrangements for race participants fairly distributed to allow people who live near the route in Sw19 and Sw20 to be given the opportunity to participate?
While it is a fun day – to watch or participate – and great for the cyclists to have access to a traffic-free route, what will Merton Council do now to offer better, safer cycle facilities across the borough and particularly in and around Raynes Park and South Wimbledon? A focus on some limited ideas for Wimbledon town centre, contained in the failed “mini-holland” bid from earlier this year (which Merton is still pursuing), is not a comprehensive borough-wide network that links communities and offers safety to cyclists, pedestrians and other road users. Neither is a random distribution of cycle parking racks a cycle strategy! We want to see real progress on a road such as Kingston Road and the south access routes to Wimbledon and South Wimbledon in a joined up cycle strategy. We also want to see the confused priorities for cycles and pedestrians in and around Raynes Park station on both sides of the railway improved.

These are a few of our thoughts, but we would be very keen to hear from you about RideLondon, cycle issues and others ways of making our community stronger.

Prudential RideLondon – what did you think?

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