Women’s Freedom Ride 2024

https://lcc.org.uk/campaigns/womens-freedom/

Our campaign is calling on the Mayor to make London a city where all women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people feel safe to cycle.

We’re calling on the Mayor of London to ensure cycling is an inclusive mode of transport that men and women use equally, across London, by 2030, by:

Addressing physical safety for women when cycling: Deliver cycling infrastructure across London that is physically safe, accessible for all riders and their bikes, and of the highest quality. This will give women the confidence to cycle, including with children, without fear of hostile interactions with motor vehicles.
Addressing social safety for women when cycling: Improve delivery, monitoring and reporting on verifiable actions to radically improve social safety for women cycling in London, working in partnership with relevant authorities including TfL and London’s boroughs.
Thinking beyond the commute: Give the same priority to local cycle networks, such as low traffic neighbourhoods and safe routes to schools, as to cycle corridors into central London.

[Music] so although today is about a fun ride in central London there is a serious message behind it it follows the publication of our report in January where that nine out of 10 women cycling in London suffer from gender deuse and aggression on our roads and 93% of them have suffered from Vehicles trying to intimidate them this is unacceptable hands up if you’ve seen our fantastically powerful video which was out in January it is the most spine chilling one minute 20 video you will have seen I heartly recommend that you look at it and some of the women who appeared in that video are here today so a big cheer to them for their bravery our petition calls for safe cycling for women and girls in London I’d like to welcome Dr will Norman the walking and cycling commissioner for London as the mayor’s representative here today to accept our ition asking the mayor to do three things one to act on our physical safety two to act on our social safety and three to provide us with local cycling networks over 5,000 people have signed this petition it’s fantastic to see so many people here it’s wonderful to see so many miles so many bikes and so many rides that came in all over London we now on average in London have 1.26 million cycle Journeys every day cycling in London has gone mainstream but I know how far we have to go and this petition reinforces that thank you for protesting thank you for making your voices heard I know that women and girls don’t feel safe cycling around London and we’re committed to continue to invest record amounts of money in our healthy and safety streets program breaking down those barriers that stop more women and girls cycling I’m committed to delivering this the mayor is committed to doing this so my commitment to you is that we’ll continue to invest and deliver safer streets and infrastructure so that people feel safe to cycle but my ask of you is to keep getting involved keep asking keep responding to consultations keep pestering counselors keep writing to MPS keep keep writing to your assembly members tell them what you want tell them the three asks in this petition they need to hear this if people don’t make their voices heard the decision makers only hear the the vocal loud minority who oppose progress we can make our streets safer we are making our streets safer but we can only accelerate and make the progress that over 5,000 people want if we do this together so thank you make your voices heard and have a brilliant bike ride