Cambridge Cycling Campaign... Catching Up?

Well I must say. This is the best thing I've heard from the campaign.

Its not actually 'the campaign', its Martin. Who is currently top cat of the campaign, and a decent chap from the three or four times I've talked to him. One of a bunch of good folk involved in the Campaign. But are they going to be able to drag the rest of the campaign group into the modern era of cycle campaigning?

Martin makes some good points re. London. Its encouraging that he wants to take cycling in the same kind of direction here (and I'm delighted he's saying a similar kind of thing I've been saying, although I've not always been as polite or eloquent about the campaigns campaigning style.)

The big questions now are whether the campaign will follow what Martin is saying, and what kind of campaigning style will go with that. I think they've been rather hamstrung of late by earlier responses to schemes like Perne Road, and while I think the kind of activism we're seeing in London is a powerful tool its rather a big step from where we are here in Cambridge right now - we've not even got a critical mass movement. 

I still maintain that as things are Cambridgeshire County Council are anything but a pro-cycling body - Labour councilors mistakenly think we're toffs, Tories think we're scummy plebs, half of the liberals don't think about us at all and recent reports show that UKIP councillors may not be the kind of folk for whom thought comes naturally. They will not give us what we need, they have no interest in us and with the current politics here we're not going to get what we need (which is continuous, safe cycle facilities going along the routes that actually link us to where we want to go, rather than all round the back streets on indirect routes to places we seldom need to reach). I maintain that as the current politics of the county fail us we need to change things, as we're now seeing happening in London. I wonder, does the Campaign still consider that stance "shouting from the sidelines and being grumpy"? Its a long road ahead, but it seems to me that London is starting down that road. Are we?