mayor ken all is forgiven...

dangerousjules

as much as your gummy little pug face annoys me, you today have given me a truely wonderful day in central london. having gone out at 7am this morning with a buddy and did 50miles, afterwards headed to the city to watch the peloton come through...wow...then my rare treat was to cycle on roads with no cars clogging them up...fantastic! thanks ken! xx

Big Red S

If only he'd thought to have told any drivers where they can and can't drive.

I completely forgot it was on today (lost track of what day it was), so drove home through London today (I live in north west London, ferry came in to dover).

Passed a single sign on the M20 saying that there were some road closures. Nothing else until I reach London Bridge and there's a no-entry sign across it, and a huge queue of traffic. I didn't talk to many people, but there were a lot of 'bloody cyclists' comments.

PETE Tcp

I will like Ken a lot better when TFL fill in all the potholes!

I am taking them to court next month after I hit a pothole last October and smashed my face! :twisted:

gbb

I went down to see the prologue...absolutely awesome day, the authorities and organisers must be very very happy people.

beanzontoast

Mrs Beanz and I spent the whole weekend in London and thought the whole thing was terrific. I've taken so many photos of the Tour, it will be Christmas by the time they are all sorted!

Excellent work by the police and organisers, and couldn't have wished for better weather either.

Slightly different tack - can I just add that, having seen the conditons that London cyclists commute under, I have a much better appreciation of the problems they face. Respect, guys and gals!

Spawn of Cabbie

I said that to my dad this morning who refused to accept that Ken has or will ever done anything right.

Yesterday was brilliant though!

ddraver

just that ken has actually DONE something and not just spouted statistics vaguely relating to it makes me like him quite alot

more so after this weekend...it mnakles me think taht we can pull off the olympics now!!!

now if he can just keep the bloddy dickwad that drove at 30mph down a open clearway country road and made me miss the group come past in tunbridge off the road, as aforementioned dickwad quite clearly can't drive, i ll love him for ever.......

bigdawg

no hes spouting figures again, apparently the tour made £115million for the city over the weekend...

Not sure where that figure comes from (probably the number of people having to using london transport!!) but how much does it cost to host does anyone know??

overmars

I think they paid £3million to have the tour.

ddraver

yes biddawg...but the tour de france DID actually start in london this weekend, not "some time in the future"....

i

squired

Ken has some bad points, but one great thing about him is that he tries to make a difference. He doesn't say things to make people happy, he does things that he think will improve life for people in London. Clearly one thing that is very high on his agenda is cycling, and he (along with everyone else involved) deserves congratulations for such a successful weekend. The money it generated over the weekend was no doubt huge, and it will also generate money in the form of tourism. People round the world will have seen London on TV and will plan trips from here on the back of that. They will have also seen all the interesting sights on stage 1 as well (the castles, etc), which showed that there is more to the UK than our grotty capital city!!

Rigid Raider

It's very odd how cyclists on this and other fora knock Ken Livingstone when he's the only politician who has ever had the balls to tackle the congestion issue. I'm a Londoner and I went back to London a few months ago for the day; I was delighted at how much nicer it is in central London thanks to congestion charging. This confirms my own belief that 50% of car journeys are spurious and could be avoided with a little thought and effort.

Ken makes himself unpopular and isn't afraid to do so. He will have understood why in France there is such intense competition to have the tour routed through villages and towns. I am a strong admirer of the man and this has only increased my admiration.

overmars

"grotty capital city"?

Oh well, I was waiting for someone to kick London.

bigdawg

squired wrote:

. Clearly one thing that is very high on his agenda is cycling, ..........!

Is this is good time to mention Eastway...??? :?


All things aside it was a great spectacle and good for London, Im so glad it went as well as it did. Shame we cant get a similar presence / atmosphere for the TdBritain

hevipedal

overmars wrote:

I think they paid £3million to have the tour.

At 150 million spent on tourism in London over the weekend because of the TdF it was cheap............
I add my thanks I stood in T Square on Friday bursting with pride at what London had done and how the people of London responded.
I stood on Constitution Hill on Sat and took 421 photos (and that's what's left after some were deleted). It was a dream come true.
To Ken and all his team, thank you from the bottom of my heart...............

Rigid Raider

Quote:

"Is this is good time to mention Eastway...???"

FFS Eastway was a miserable windswept rubbish dump. The Olympic facilities London will get will be a hundred times better than this.

*Bangs head in frustration*

bigdawg

thats the problem, other than maybe getting a velodrome the replacement facilities are not as good as eastway or non existent...( I do agree it was a windswept dump but what other facility in london caters for road, mtb & cyclo cross racing on a regular basis?? - and it was our windswept dump!)

Even BC realised this recently and were desperately trying to arrange meetings with the, rather elusive, olympic comittee, and getting people to write to the OC to try and do something about it as follows:

- There has been no consultation, no attempt made to identify the needs of the cycling community based at Eastway.
- The plans are not suitable for cycle sport outdoors
- There is no off-road competition permitted within the constraints of the scheme applied for, so there can be no guarantee or planning condition made for it unless the scheme is rejected
- The road circuit is unsafe and does not allow for large fields to circulate
- Its layout is uninspiring, being pushed right against the A12 in the shadow of a large building
- The facility is cut in two by the A12 which brings noise and air pollution
- There is no possibility of safe concurrent running of road and off-road sessions of any kind
- The area made available for a legacy replacement is unsuitably small and in a marginal position
- No amount of ‘design’ prior to a subsequent detailed application for legacy can alleviate the absence of land area being made available in the outline application for the cycling facility in legacy phase
- Users were made promises and given numerous assurances about the vailidity of a legacy before they willingly gave up their facility to make way for the Games. The scheme now applied for in no way matches those schemes that were outlined and does not even come close to replacing the road and off-road cycling which made Eastway so successful as the base of a thriving community of people doing Olympic sports in Inner East London.

gbb

squired wrote:

Ken has some bad points, but one great thing about him is that he tries to make a difference. He doesn't say things to make people happy, he does things that he think will improve life for people in London. Clearly one thing that is very high on his agenda is cycling, and he (along with everyone else involved) deserves congratulations for such a successful weekend. The money it generated over the weekend was no doubt huge, and it will also generate money in the form of tourism. People round the world will have seen London on TV and will plan trips from here on the back of that. They will have also seen all the interesting sights on stage 1 as well (the castles, etc), which showed that there is more to the UK than our grotty capital city!![/quote]

Perhaps the greater city is grotty, but i was extremely impressed with the state of the areas around the circuit, from the start, way past Buckingham Palace, the parks, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, the tube stations etc etc.
Yes, i guess a lot of effort has been put in and perhaps it doesnt always look that good.
Despite the crowds, i didnt even see that much litter, and there arent even any bins to speak of !!!!
I thought it was magic .

Bigdawg..(i hope thats right)....tube fares cost me about £7 each for a ticket covering all routes, all day.
In the scheme of things, not bad at all.

proto

I really enjoyed wandering around central London on Saturday. Sort of how a city should be, being able to enjoy the facilities without everything being compromised for the sake of the evil motor car. Just maybe, support will grow for banning them from city centres. How have we let it happen that cars take priority over people?

bigdawg

the tube thing is a bit if a grudge with most londoners/commuters, we're constantly told to use the tube and the buses theyre really great, but travelling to london on a regular basis, even once a week becomes uneconomical - Id love to get the train in and ride round london, but that would actually cost me and my g/friend about £30 a time, as opposed to £10 door to door if I drive...?! :? Oh and driving is actually quicker too.

Anyway enough of that, they were saying on the news last night that they hope to get the tour back within the next 8 years... And theres me thinking I was never going to see that again in the future...