My record for participating in protests is small and eclectic. In fact, until yesterday, I'd only demonstrated twice: once against an illegal land war the Middle East, and once for more bike parking at St Pancras International.
Did these protests make any difference? Well, at St Pancras in 2007 the PR department took fright the night before the demo and installed a few stands pronto. We still invaded Iraq though. Make that 1-1, then.
But there was a small protest yesterday (right) at 4pm outside the Crown Prosecution Service in Ludgate Hill, just by St Paul's, to draw attention to the way the law conspires to protect drivers who kill cyclists. Sadly, it came at the end of a week that had seen two, possibly three, more cyclists killed on London's roads.
I was one of the thirty or so who gathered to deliver a statement to the CPS. Booksnake's Flickr page carries the full statement, photos, and more links.The BBC recently picked up, rather belatedly, on ghost bikes: those white-bike memorials left permanently chained to railings where a cyclist was killed.
Sometimes though there are no railings or any other place to put a ghost bike, as at this spot on Queen St, just north of Southwark Bridge. Here, courier Sebastian Lukomski died in 2004 at the hands of a tipper lorry driver. He is commemorated by a brief message in yellow on the pavement (right). We passed it on the way home from Ludgate Hill.
It may take a lot more yellow and white paint before the message gets through.
