London 2012 blog

Being a bit of a cycling fan, I was an obvious candidate for our Cycling and Walking Manager to volunteer me for the Newham's 'Ride and Stride' cycling and walking event held last Saturday (he was unable to attend due to his dad’s 60th birthday apparently - poor excuse).

This was an event to launch Newham’s guide to walking and cycling (taking in the Olympic Park and other interesting and historic sites) and aims to encourage walking and cycling amongst local residents.

The event (which also commemorated the date of the first known bike race which took place in Paris in 1868) started off with a quick briefing on top of Stratford shopping centre multi-storey. This is actually an excellent viewpoint to take in the Olympic Park and the developments happening at Stratford City.

Before the cycle ride:

Read more of “Newham Ride and Stride”

Last Friday I organised a meeting as part of our consultation on the Transport Plan for the Games with stakeholders interested in access, mobility and inclusion issues. Providing an accessible transport system is an integral part of our Games Transport Plan, as well as being one of the Mayor's aspirations.

For me the meeting was a valuable insight into some of the everyday obstacles that people with all kinds of disabilities have to face. Listening to issues around the difficulties of Blue Badge parking enforcement and the problem of different train platform heights for wheelchair users only reinforced to me the importance of working at an early stage with our partners to ensure these kind of problems are tackled.

In some areas we are already making progress particularly in London where all local bus services provide wheelchair access. Other specific points that hadn’t even occurred to me but important for our planning were around Pet Passports for Guide and Assistance dogs. There's also the very important issue of ensuring the network will have enough accessible toilets!

Read more of “Pet Passports? We're talking accessible transport”