The Long Way Round - M25 Run

Ride-outs & Events
41

Not interested in the ride (or cause) in the slightest… but fair play to shaman for the way he’s handled this… Some of the responses have been more than a little off IMO.

I suspect you are being tarred with the same brush as some of your more aggressive, and frankly selfish campaign mates dude.

As shiver said, this obviously isn’t a popular cause here so maybe the best thing to do is drop this and get involved with some other topics… You’ll find it’s much less agro when not talking about the parking thing.

42
  • bloody 1…

talk all you want about NTBP here fella…anyone else who dosent support the cause can p1ss off onto another thread about their ohh so awfull experience with the no swearing ban…See chop…?..see what i did thre? i number 1 in piss:cool:…

smiled

43

Bottom line is that Westminster coucil are the biggest bunch of thieving b*stards! Did you know that they make far more money from parking charges than council tax; and its a ridiculous ratio. They are also the only London council that offer no free day parking to disabled badge holders, given that I have a friend that I often take out who is severely disabled in a wheelchair, they are essentially depriving him of the opportunity to enjoy the city given that disability payments do not allow for the ridiculous costs of disabled parking. I agree that WC charging bikes may be the thin end of the wedge and I am glad you guys did something to try put an end to it but you are fighting a losing battle. You gave it your best shot but at some point, you have to graciously accept defeat or else as others have pointed out, you may incur other consequences on all of us bikers. What I would suggest is that you keep an eye on WC consulations, they are required by law to consult on parking changes, and when next they do, you encourage us all to respond.

44

Boring. :doze:

45

i havent read all rhis thread, but this is about biking and the benefits and of course Freedom, and some of you are slaggin it off? Wheres the sense in that? Yr bein over by policeing and councils etc and all u can do is slag this thread rather than stick together, but wot the fuk i am going to australia so i hopefully wont come back

46

I’m scared to post a reply on this thread incase I turn into a scapegoat!
Truth to be said Shaman has handled all the “rudeness” well. The swearing does not help with the reputation of this community at all whether you support this thread or hate it.

In my own opinion, I think if you work up London 99 percent of Bikers will be able to afford the £1 charge and is a fair price to pay for an entire day. What my concern is the way you have to pay for it. If my mobile phone stops working, loses charge, breaks on the day etc etc-Is there any other option to pay for it? I personally think they should have parking machines for bikes where you can enter your Reg into the machine for the day but using the same coin system as any other machine.
Also, I would not agree with charging bikes in councils across the country where congestion and parking isn’t that much of a problem as the City of London.

47

I think they will do it, wot ever we do or say, £1 now dont think it will be £1 next time, more like £3.50, and going up all the time, once its in place thats it, then they will put it up like every thing els. get rid of 10,/ 20 mps, and save the world:D

48

…the protest doesnt seem to have put many to distruption once it became regular. tfl decided to divert the buses, with no loss to time. most people got used to it and made different arrangements. seemed to die a slow and embarrassing death, very pitiful turn out, more bike cops than protesters at times.
i understand the arguement, have paid once to park, have forgot to pay once, got a ticket, and blamed myself…dont park there if you dont wanna pay, “simples”

49

we can ride into the busyest city in the country, not pay congestion charge and park all day for a £1… you wingers should try what my work collegues do every day. My manager lives a mile from me so almost identical route:

His journey time is 1hr - 1hr 45 depending on time etc. Mine is 35 Max, any time any day.

Petrol roughly the same.

£10 congestion verses my £0.

£35 to park all day against my £1.

50

Yeah but thats not fair Leon, what we should have is a zero charge for everything because we ride bikes and are saving on congestion. So what we need to do is cause congestion so people understand that we are not happy that way they will understand our plight and agree that we are being made an example of by charging us these exuberant prices to park.:hehe:

51

The problem with that argument PJ is that there is no opposite argument, for this sort of argument to be realistic, there must be an opposite side. There is no opposite side to that. There is no, oh if we don’t cause anyone else any fuss, they will give a toss about our parking costs.

So the argument that we turn people against the idea of not supporting free bike parking, is a failure, because they were never behind the idea in the first place. At best they were indifferent, but most of them probably didn’t even know.

At least this way they know, whether they now support it or not, is irrelevant, because they didn’t and wasn’t going to be supportive before the disruption, so the disruption caused them equals absolutely zero to the actual cause.

Besides which, if such an argument held any water at all, then no one would ever protest about anything because of the disruption it would cause other people. No one would ever strike, no one would ever march, no one would ever work slow or work to the strict rules.

The funniest part is that protesting, by its very nature, is designed to disrupt the lives of other people, to bring home the plight of those protesting…that is what it is about…yet when bikers do it, they need to explain it…to other bikers.

I think the battle has been lost, it was lost in the courts, the only place it could have been won, and I personally think a lot of that was to do with the way in which people reacted, especially those like Leon…oh, it is only £1 or less, so what, it doesn’t matter.

I might save this thread and resurrect it in 5 years when we are all paying the exact same amount to park in London, when it is costing us £8-12 a day to park and ask those people that thought it didn’t matter whether it matters now, and whether they feel stupid for not fighting against it when they had the chance.

Of course we know your position PJ, the ultimate I am alright jack attitude of the great british public…it doesn’t affect me, why exactly would we give a toss about anything that doesn’t directly effect us…and to that there is no easy answer.

52

But you can’t protest about £1 because that might turn into £10??? no court/council will listen to that. What is to stop people protesting in 4 years time if they propose to charge the same for bikes as cars? if that happens I would be right out there as it doesn’t sit right with the other charges (congestion/polution etc)

Right here and now, protesting that we should get it all completely free is wrong and causing other road users trouble becase were winging over £1 makes no sense to me what so ever. The more car drivers that respect us bikers, understand the troubles we have in protecting ourselves and our bikes and are on our side the better for everyone. Making them sit in traffic because we refuse to pay £1 when they pay more like £25 (parking + congestion) will get thier backs up and give the whole biking community a bad rep IMO.

PS I don’t pay for parking anyway so won’t effect me but I bet you a pint that in 5yrs time it is still less than 25% of what a car has to pay which I would still find reasonable

53

I always loved this quote and it exemplifies exactly what I dislike about the great british public and their detesting any sort of protesting that disrupts their daily lives…

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

With regards to the charges by Westminster, I think it’s a bloody cheek for a council to ask people to pay for a service, yet lift it’s hands up and say “don’t look at me… not my fault” when bikes get nicked…

54

No so an alright jack attitude but an attitude that is realistic in current life. Please explain to me the benefit of riding round the M25 spending a day on one of the worlds most borring roads causing wear and tear to my beloved bike and using about £20 worth of fuel, not causing any congestion to promote a cause that has been badly executed and dealt with in an amateur manner?

I did state that i hoped they would win their campaign but when you have people running it that clearly wanted to p1ss people off and use the NTBP group to do this it was always going to fail. Aim the issues clearly at WCC, stage a demo at a time that would disrupt WCC not the general public that are paying far more than your average bike user.

I agree it will more than likely rise in a few years time but then doesn’t that apply to all things in life?

Now if they consentrated on actually getting secure parking for the charge then they will recruit more people to fight for them. To aim it purely at the charge i think is short sighted. It has been said in previous threads that members of the NTBP group would be happy to pay the parking charge if they had somewhere safe to lock their bike to but they glossed over this and based their anger on the charge. With the amount of bikes being stolen daily from the city of London surely they can base their whole attack on WCC around this and make them agree to security measures for the charge they are asking for.

But to aim your anger at the motorist who pays so much more to just get into the city is bad leadership.

55

Also, if the nob heads rode around the capital and used their resources to take photos - which would have then been marked up, pointing out failures & improvements in the capital, this would have worked much better in front of the people who have the power to make a change.

Alternatively, you could piss everyone off, including the 2-wheelers

56

So what’s the solution? Should we all just go out and protest about anything whether it affects us or not? Seems a bit daft to me.

But they take responsibility for car thefts?
When was the last time you saw some car drivers protesting about having to pay to park?

57

No just sit there and wait for others to change things…

Society only progresses when people act together, not individuallistically…

If you agree with something on principle, then yes you should go out whether it affects you or not! For example I’ve taken part in student demonstrations after finishing uni… Why should it just be the students out in force?

58

we got so used to the shit thrown at us that we not even notice the smell anymore ;)why is it daft to protest for things you believe in?

EVERYTHING affects EVERYONE at some point, wether is you or somebody you care about, you should always wave your right to protest and not let them keep your head down in apathy.

59

It’s not!!! Most people don’t believe it is unfair to ask us to pay a bloody £1 for a whole days parking in the capital!

60

Exactly. The money these guys spend on fuel for their protest rides would probably pay their £1 a day for the whole year!