Theft at second Dr Bike day at LBTS

A few more bikes brought in today - though rain in the morning put off a few probably.
A couple of members of staff brought their bikes to us and left them with us as the pupils had. Come 3pm several pupils arrived to collect their bikes and shortly afterwards a teacher who discovers his bike is no longer there. Someone's had the brass neck to pick up a bike that isn't theirs - we think the culprit was with a pupil and presumably was one himself. Hopefully CCTV as the school will pick them up and the bike'll come back. Maybe peer / teacher pressure too?

Lessons learnt:
1. Running a Dr Bike type of event we need to use raffle tickets - one on bike; one to pupil and collect only against raffle ticket. And lock bikes up that aren't being worked on at that moment.
2. Pupils may be unwilling to bring bikes to school if there's a fairly strong likelihood of theft by other pupils. Certainly there's more need for decent locks and use of them by the student (and staff) body.

One of the intents of these days was to get closer to the pupils; gain an understanding of the quality of bikes and determine some of the issues that we may need to resolve. So, it's certainly helped this to some degree!

On a more positive note we had more pupils coming up saying they hadn't brought their bike in but were really interested in the next opportunity.

We'll need to make sure that the staff member gets his bike replaced with an equivalent if it doesn't come back in the next day or two.

Dr Bike at LBTS

Pim Jones did sterling work today as we worked out way through about 14 bikes, replacing brake cables; mending punctures; adjusting brake pad alignment. Most of the bikes in fairly poor condition (missing entire brakes mechanisms; wrong diameter seat post; derailleur missing etc.). Sian Kennedy from the staff commented that she hadn't seen so many bikes in the bike stands previously. I can't wait for survey results!

A positive management group meeting and we've agreed the first rides for after the Easter holidays. LBTS pupils are presenting to pupils at Crampton School on Wednesday and aiming to recruit more people to steering committee.

VNEB OAPF response submitted!

I'm not going to post the whole thing here. Suffice to say that Lambeth Cyclists demand that cycling is nurtured from the outset including Cycling Superhighway un Nine Elms Lane; Mayors Cycle Hire scheme rolled out rapidly; 100% of children getting level 2 bikeability before leaving primary school etc.

Over the Fence Guerilla & Community Gdns tour

About 25 people on the bike tour I led around Kennington today looking at existing, emerging and potential guerilla and community garden sites. Talking to people en-route and at the Oval Farmers' Market at the end, everyone seemed to have had a good time. At least a couple of people had got their bike out of winter hibernation for the ride so a good result there too! And I got to point out some infrastucture failings for cyclists locally and plug the new Pedal Power initiative. All good.
Here's a photo shortly before setting off and before a final batch of people arrived!
We didn't manage to do all the places I'd lined up so will have to organise another ride to the E&C part.

Finally...drafted the VNEB OAPF response

The Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area Planning Framework has been out for consultation. I've been meaning to comment for ages...the deadline is Monday at 5pm. This morning I drafted the response and posted it to Lambeth Cyclists committee. Useful amendments from Clare Neely already.

'Over the Fence' cycle tour of Guerilla Gardens

and Community Gardens in North Lambeth.

I'm leading this on Saturday morning. Half prepared currently. Busy day coming up I feel!

Blog is up and running and up to date

That's been an evening!