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news
Jeremy Corbyn (liceensed CC BY 3.0 on Wikimedia Commons by Chris McAndrew).jpgJeremy Corbyn: Safe cycling infrastructure "a matter of social justice"
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that providing safe infrastructure for people who walk or cycle is “a matter of social justice.”
The leader of the opposition made his comments in a meeting with David Harrison from Islington Living Streets and Tabitha Tanqueray of Cycle Islington.
Corbyn, who has been MP for Islington North since 1983 and is a keen cyclist both for commuting and leisure, also backed the introduction of Quietways but said they needed to be of a sufficiently high standard to attract novice cyclists and families.
He said: “In the most deprived wards [of the borough], such as Finsbury Park, up to 73 per cent of households do not have access to a car.
“It’s a matter of social justice to provide safe, healthy routes for those on foot and bicycle.
“By creating high quality, low-trafficked routes, we can ensure that the health benefits of active travel are extended to all residents, not just those currently bold enough to ride amongst traffic.”
He said that measures needed to be taken to address the issue of rat-running motorists, highlighting Gillespie Road, where Arsenal tube station is located, and King Henry’s Walk, which links Mildmay Road with the Balls Pond Road, as areas where there is a particular problem.
He also said that major junctions in the borough, including Highbury Corner, the Nag’s Head on the Holloway Road, and Newington Green, needed to be made safer for people on bikes and on foot.
A blog post on the Cycle Islington website said that “David and Tabitha were very pleased to hear Jeremy’s positive views and vision for a healthier Islington with streets where children can play and everyone, including the young and old, can enjoy walking and cycling.”
Corbyn, who lives in the borough, has appeared on Google Street View leaving his home with his bike, and two years ago, his first Christmas card as Labour leader featured a red, snow-covered bicycle.
> Jeremy Corbyn’s bicycle Christmas card – too cool for Yule?
His comments come as dockless bike share operator Mobike confirmed its launch in Islington, a borough in which rival business Ofo is already present.
> Mobike v Ofo as Islington allows rival dockless bike share firms to compete
While the south of the borough is served by the Santander Cycles scheme, there are no docking stations north of Angel and the yellow Ofo bikes have swiftly become a familiar site in areas such as Barnsbury, the Holloway Road and Upper Street.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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24 comments
Politician speaks to cycling group. Says pro-cycling things. Suddenly the future of cycling is rosy.
I'm astonished anyone was taken in. Politicians are career liars, and JezC has never done anything pro-cycling in his career, DESPITE riding a bike himself.
He's not going to spend a single penny on cycling, and has no intention to do anything whatsoever for cycling. It's just politician's promises, the least trustworthy kind.
TL;DR, everything better -- even cycling -- when Jeremy takes over. Don't worry about paying for it, or track record of similar regimes, this time it's different ...
Next time, maybe try the R bit yourself.
If Labour win the next election Jeremy, his role as the useful idiot over, will be pushed out by McDonnell, Watson et al in a very short time. The resulting ultra left wing government will be, shall we say, interesting.
As 'interesting' as this lot kicking fuck out of the needy, and cyclists?
What are you so frightened of? At the moment a small clique of ultra-right gangsters is slowly but surely dismantling everything that protects you and me from their rapacious greed and from their friends who will turn the country into a banana republic run by the corporations.
Frightened? Not a bit. More entertained and intrigued as governments of all persuasions lumber through their terms getting at least half their decisions wrong. I've seen 19 (I think) general elections as I've pedalled through life and can't recall having much confidence in any of the winners.
The late, great Robin Day, a fearsome TV interviewer, summed it up beautifully when he revealed that before sitting opposite a politician he would ask himself why this bastard was lying.
I'm not sure anyone linked the Labour party with greatness, just corbyn with a bike and morals (caveated)...
Totally agree with that, burtthebike. Whether he is able to translate that integrity into policy when he gets elected remains to be seen.
It all boils down to who you believe; a labour guy who has never courted public approval and has voted against labour official party position many times because he has morals and beliefs, or do you believe the tories who have broken every promise they've ever made to cyclists. Even Boris Bikes were a labour initiative by Ken Livingstone. Jeremy actually is a cyclist, unlike Cameron who had his limo following him.
unfortunately you have to have a limo following you when you get quite high up in politics, firstly to keep the crazies away, secondly because you cant quite carry top secret government departmental briefings around in your panniers as if youve just bought a copy of the guardian from the newsagents to read at your desk when you get there.
What the heck is anyone doing lugging around paper copies of documents? Apart from anything else electronic docs can be encrypted. Imagine if some eejit lost the paper documents or walked around with them exposed to public view where they could be photographed (!).
I'll bet Corbyn and a lot of his generation print a lot of stuff. They didn't grow up with computers.
I agree with the social justice angle, it needs someone to mobilise support from the many that don't have a car to drown out opposition to cycle infrastructure.
Jeremy's generation INVENTED computers. They invented e-mail, Word, Excel, and all the rest. Used by the world every day and saving billions of tons of paper.
Have some respect.
no they didn't, you're a generation out, those born in the late 40s/early 50s were the next gen leading into 'modern' computing but they most assuredly did not invent computers or programming languages (Fortran 1956) or the first programmed/software operated computers.
I visit a 93 year old chap who helped design the hardware for the British Tabulating Machine Company back in the 40s and did so for the next 30+ years
So how do you explain anti-cycling Sadiq Khan? He's labour therefore he must be great? Except he's been dreadful and actually delayed or canceled cycling infrastructure. I'll bet he doesn't install as much separate infrastructure as Boris did by the end of his term. So far he's installed zero...
You must have missed the biggest upheaval within a UK political party in decades. Like you Sadiq Khan hates cycling, Jeremy Corbyn and kittens: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/20/ditch-jeremy-corbyn-bef...
Be best to ditch the lot of them and create a Bike Party, which would include both Boris and Jeremy Corbyn.
I hate cycling?
I’m convinced, got my vote
Where in Islington, core true believer heartland where the labour dominated council hasn’t installed a single meter of protected cycle lane. Jeremy, can you whip your people into shape please?
That's exactly what we want our local MP to do! John, Cycle Islington
You can dislike Corbyn for plenty of things but he IS a cyclist.
So Corbyn and Johnson have something in common!
As hawkinspeter suggests, Corbyn was talking with pro-cycling people; there's a high probability that if he was talking with anti-cycling people he would express himself differently.
I like the sound of that. However the cynic in me just distrusts politicians - they say what they think you want to hear and then end up doing something else.