Blackfriars Bridge Protest

It was a great turnout, I suspect that near 1,000 cyclists joined in on a peaceful protest across the bridge and back again that was well marshalled by the police.

It was great to not only see some many cyclists join together to protest but also to see so many cyclists with video cameras. So many I didn’t know and so many I didn’t get to talk to, obviously us usual suspects met up afterwards and had a good chat and a little bicycle ride 🙂

Lets cross our fingers that TFL listen to us this time and take a real look at the possibilities of the junction and the surrounding area. As the LCC published a very good looking plan the other day, see if you can spot the difference between TFL’s and LCC’s plan.


Heres my POV of the even in super fast forward

And some photos


9 thoughts on “Blackfriars Bridge Protest

  1. Let’s hope it makes a difference. At the end when motorists were being allowed through, there were some irate motorists who complained. Of course, the irony is that it’s mostly too many lone people in cars who clog the City every day. If London were to be made cycle friendly, many more people could get around quickly and easily without a car. Private cars need to be discouraged and permitting single occupancy is ludicrous, they aren’t appropriate for a city like London. With less motorised traffic, that dreadful roar could be banished; the pollution would go and then London could become a really wonderful place to live.

    Instead TfL seem stuck in the past, they see more motorised vehicles as the future and that means mostly cars.

    1. Sad fact of the matter is that TfL will press ahead with their unaltered plans for Blackfriars. More people will die on the bridge and at some point in the future, there will be slight mumblings from them about having to tweak the design so as to avert more deaths.

      Frankly, when an unelected, unaccountable body imposes its will upon people as TfL has done, then they need to be violently overthrown, deposed and got rid of.

      I read elsewhere that the police estimates for number attending last night was in excess of 2000.

      1. I meant to add to the first paragraph…..

        A reason that TfL are pushing ahead with this that no bike advocate seems to have picked up on is because cyclists do not pay congestion charge. They are not a revenue stream, whereas car drivers are. Even with the cycle hire scheme, which Boris and his cronies thought would “coin it in”, has failed to materialise the expected profits.

        The better the flow of motorised traffic through London, the more cars go through the tolls. The more revenue TfL makes.

  2. It certainly has made me wonder, watching this all from the comfort of the web, whether proper provison for cycling will lead to other benefits such as better behaviour by the minority (less likely to jump lights out of fear) and a slight increase in people riding if people know there is a safe route.

    LIABox makes a good point about single occupancy vehicles. This is a culture that also needs to be tackled and employers need to be move involved in, at the very least, car pooling schemes.

    1. There was a guy sitting in his car on the northbound lane of the bridge, shouting (and clapping mockingly) “Well done everybody! How selfish of you all!”

      The irony that he had driven an almost empty car into central London was lost on him.

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