1.
Cycling in London
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Cycling in London is a popular mode of transport and leisure activity within the capital city of the United Kingdom. Following a national decline in the 1960s of levels of utility cycling, cycling as a mode of transport within London began a slow regrowth in the 1970s. Cycling conditions in the city have in recent years been found to be perceived as unsafe by cyclists. Cycling was popular in London in the late 19th Century especially during the Bike boom, the National Clarion Cycling Club first formed in London. Londons first segregated cycle track was introduced in 1934, between Hanger Lane and Greenford, although the facility was well-used for cycling, segregation was opposed by cycling organisations at the time, fearing loss of rights to ride on the highway. In 1977, the Conservative Party won the Greater London Council election, in May 1981, Labour won the GLC election, with Livingstone becoming GLC leader shortly afterwards. The following month, Livingstone announced that the GLC would accede to the LCCs demands, creating a cycling planning unit and spending at least 1% of the transport budget, £2m. In 2000, Livingstone became the first elected Mayor of London, to be co-ordinated by the TfL and London boroughs, the aims include having one in ten Londoners making a round trip by bike each day and five per cent of all daily trips by bike by 2025. In 2011 around 2.5 per cent of all commutes to work in London were by bike and this compared to other cities in the United Kingdom such as Cardiff, York and Cambridge and to cities on the continent such as Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam and Groningen. The amount of growth has varied between regions within the city, on routes such as Cheapside cyclists have been reported to comprise over half of rush-hour traffic. Plans to construct twelve Cycle Superhighway routes were announced by Livingstone in 2008, connecting inner and outer London, Livingstone lost the subsequent mayoral election to Conservative Boris Johnson in May 2008, and the new mayor promised to continue to support cycling. CS7 was criticised by rival cycling commentators and campaigners for relying on blue paint and bus lanes to protect cyclists from motor traffic, cS3 was more popular, although critics argued that much of it had existed already, and had simply been rebranded as a Superhighway. In July 2010,6,000 bicycles became available for rental from TfL under the Barclays Cycle Hire at 400 docking stations in nine central London boroughs. This was later expanded to 8,000 cycles from 570 stations, the scheme, run by Montreal-based PBSC Urban Solutions, initially covered about 17 square miles over nine central London boroughs, and included 6,000 bikes and 400 docking stations. The docking stations were spaced by 300m and mainly at key destinations, there is a charge for hire but there was a period of free use to encourage the scheme. The scheme was designed based on a feasibility study produced by German Dector-Vega, eventually, this led to significant new investment in safer cycle infrastructure for London. In March 2013, City Hall announced £1 billion of improvements to make cycling safer and easier in London, as well as to air pollution. The London Cycle Hire Scheme has been described by the deputy mayor as oozing out over London with expansion in 2014 in Hackney, Notting Hill, Hammersmith, Fulham, in December 2013, TfL published a draft map of a Central London Grid of new cycle routes
2.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
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Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is a Grade II listed public house at 145 Fleet Street, on Wine Office Court, City of London, EC4A 2BU. It is on the Campaign for Real Ales National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is one of a number of pubs in London to have been rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666. There has been a pub at this location since 1538, some of the interior wood panelling is nineteenth century, some older, perhaps original. The vaulted cellars are thought to belong to a 13th-century Carmelite monastery which occupied the site. In winter, open fireplaces are used to keep the interior warm, in the bar room are posted plaques showing famous people who were regulars. The pub is owned and operated by the Samuel Smith Brewery. The literary figures Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chesterton, P. G. Wodehouse and Dr. Johnson are all said to have been regulars. However, there is no recorded evidence that Dr Johnson ever visited the pub, only that he lived close by, at 17 Gough Square. Charles Dickens had been known to use the establishment frequently, R. L. Stevenson mentions the Cheese in The Dynamiter, a select society at the Cheshire Cheese engaged my evenings. A Tale of Two Cities was in part the inspiration for the American childrens book The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy, Randall Wright and Barry Moser, which is set in the pub. The novel takes place at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub and centers around a cheese loving cat named Skilley, who despises the thought of eating a mouse, the two become friends as the tale unfolds. The book opens with the line He was the best of Toms, the book is illustrated by Barry Moser. Wodehouse, though so many of his characters were members of posh London clubs, often preferred the homey intimacy of the pub. In a letter to a friend he wrote, Yesterday, I looked in at the Garrick at lunchtime, took one glance of loathing at the mob, the pub is mentioned by name in some of his books as well. The Rhymers Club was a group of London-based poets, founded in 1890 by W. B, originally not much more than a dining club, it produced anthologies of poetry in 1892 and 1894. They met at the Cheshire Cheese and in the Domino Room of the Café Royal, the Soviet writer Boris Pilnyak visited this pub during his stay in London in 1923. He later wrote a story entitled Staryi syr, a part of which place in the Cheshire Cheese Pub. There is a devoted to the Cheshire Cheese and the Companions of the Cheshire Cheese in That Irishman, The Life
3.
Pub
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A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer, ale and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, New Zealand, Canadian, in many places, especially in villages, a pub is the focal point of the community. In his 17th century diary Samuel Pepys described the pub as the heart of England, Pubs can be traced back to Roman taverns, through the Anglo-Saxon alehouse to the development of the tied house system in the 19th century. In 1393, King Richard II of England introduced legislation that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold, most pubs focus on offering beers, ales and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals, the owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or publican. The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s and these alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the public house, or Pub as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, the Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. A survey in 1577 of drinking establishment in England and Wales for taxation purposes recorded 14,202 alehouses,1,631 inns, Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway, in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built a system of roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old, in addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less commonly accommodation. Famous London inns include The George, Southwark and The Tabard, there is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. In North America, the aspect of the word inn lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century, alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries, the 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin
4.
Fleet Street
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Fleet Street is a major street in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall, having been an important through route since Roman times, businesses were established along the road during the Middle Ages. Senior clergy lived in Fleet Street during this period there are several churches including Temple Church. Much of the industry moved out in the 1980s after News International set up cheaper manufacturing premises in Wapping, the term Fleet Street remains a metonym for the British national press, and pubs on the street once frequented by journalists remain popular. The street is mentioned in works by Charles Dickens and is where the legendary fictitious murderous barber Sweeney Todd lived. Fleet Street is named after the River Fleet, which runs from Hampstead to the River Thames at the edge of the City of London. It is one of the oldest roads outside the city and was established by the Middle Ages. In the 13th century, it was known as Fleet Bridge Street, the street runs east from Temple Bar, the boundary between the Cities of London and Westminster, as a continuation of the Strand from Trafalgar Square. It crosses Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane to reach Ludgate Circus by the London Wall, the road ahead is Ludgate Hill. The street numbering runs consecutively from west to east south-side and then east to west north-side and it links the Roman and medieval boundaries of the City after the latter was extended. The nearest London Underground stations are Temple, Chancery Lane, and Blackfriars tube/mainline station, London Bus routes 4,11,15,23,26,76 and 172 run along the full length of Fleet Street, while route 341 runs between Temple Bar and Fetter Lane. Fleet Street was established as a thoroughfare in Roman London and there is evidence that a route led west from Ludgate by 200 AD. Local excavations revealed remains of a Roman amphitheatre near Ludgate on what was Fleet Prison, the Saxons did not occupy the Roman city but established Lundenwic further west around what is now Aldwych and the Strand. Many prelates lived around the street during the Middle Ages, including the Bishops of Salisbury and St Davids, tanning of animal hides became established on Fleet Street owing to the nearby river, though this increased pollution leading to a ban on dumping rubbish by the mid-14th century. Many taverns and brothels were established along Fleet Street and have been documented as early as the 14th century, records show that Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings for attacking a friar in Fleet Street, though modern historians believe this is apocryphal. An important landmark in Fleet Street during the late Middle Ages was a conduit that was the water supply for the area. When Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen following her marriage to Henry VIII in 1533, by the 16th century, Fleet Street, along with much of the City, was chronically overcrowded, and a Royal proclamation in 1580 banned any further building on the street. This had little effect, and construction continued, particularly timber, Prince Henrys Room over the Inner Temple gate dates from 1610 and is named after Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I, who did not survive to succeed his father
5.
Sustrans
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Sustrans is a UK charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle. Sustrans works with schools to encourage active travel among students and it also works with employers and local authorities. A decade earlier, the Beeching Axe closed many British railways that the government considered underused, one such railway was the former Midland Railway line between central Bristol and Bath, closed in favour of the more direct, former Great Western Railway between the cities. Sustrans leased part of the old route with the help of Avon County Council and turned it into its first route, in the early 1980s, when unemployment rose, the organisation took advantage of government schemes to provide temporary employment to build similar green routes. British Waterways collaborated with Sustrans to improve towpaths along some canals, in 1983, the charity Sustrans was founded. It had 11 directors chosen by the existing board, the executive board was composed of the chief executive, John Grimshaw, and one of the two company secretaries. By the early 1990s, Sustrans had a number of supporters. In 1995, it was granted £43, the organisation is working to introduce Safe Routes to Stations and Home Zones among other projects. In 2015, Sustrans ran the Campaign for Safer Streets, which encouraged people to write to David Cameron to encourage him to commit to funding safer walking and cycling routes to schools, the National Cycle Network was the first project to receive Millennium Commission funding in 1995. Additional funding comes from grants and trusts, local government and income from the sales of maps. In October 2015, Sustrans released its first Bike Life report and it was a survey of residents in seven UK cities, undertaken in conjunction with local councils and transport authorities, attempting to assess the current state of cycling in the UK. It covered areas such as safety, provision of cycling infrastructure, the National Cycle Network was officially opened in June 2000, when 5,000 miles had been completed, although some routes had been open for over a decade. In 2005 the network reached 10,000 miles, in urban areas, almost 20% of the network is free from motor traffic, though these sections can account for up to 80% of use. The more rural parts of the network see less traffic and are used primarily for leisure cycling. Sustrans estimated that in 2005, the network carried 232,000,000 journeys by all classes of non-motorised users, in 2010, the figure had risen to over 420,000,000 journeys. The data collected by Sustrans to compile monitoring reports, from traffic counters and user surveys, showed that National Cycle Network usage is predominantly urban, furthermore, surveys show that only 35% of usage on urban sections of the NCN is for leisure purposes. Sustrans has opponents within organisations that wish to reduce road haulage, furthermore, it has also received criticism from members of the heritage railway movement. It has been accused of being uncompromising on route sharing, for example, an example is the planned section of the Bodmin and Wenford Railway between Boscarne Junction & Wadebridge
6.
Park
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A park is an area of natural, semi-natural, or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of areas, rocks, soil, and trees. In North America, many parks have fields for playing such as soccer, baseball and football. Many parks have trails for walking, biking and other activities, some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses and may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Often, the smallest parks are in areas, where a park may take up only a city block or less. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and may contain picnic tables, the largest parks can be vast natural areas of hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, with abundant wildlife and natural features such as mountains and rivers. In many large parks, camping in tents is allowed with a permit, many natural parks are protected by law, and users may have to follow restrictions. Large national and sub-national parks are typically overseen by a ranger or a park warden. Large parks may have areas for canoeing and hiking in the months and, in some northern hemisphere countries. The first parks were English deer parks, land set aside for hunting by royalty and they had walls or thick hedges around them to keep game animals in and people out. It was strictly forbidden for commoners to hunt animals in these deer parks and these game preserves evolved into landscaped parks set around mansions and country houses from the sixteenth century onwards. These may have served as hunting grounds but they also proclaimed the owners wealth, an aesthetic of landscape design began in these stately home parks where the natural landscape was enhanced by landscape architects such as Capability Brown. As cities became crowded, the hunting grounds became places for the public. With the Industrial revolution parks took on a new meaning as areas set aside to preserve a sense of nature in the cities, sporting activity came to be a major use for these urban parks. Areas of outstanding natural beauty were also set aside as national parks to prevent their being spoiled by uncontrolled development, in some parks or time periods with high pollen counts, parks tend to be avoided. Park design is influenced by the purpose and audience, as well as by the available land features. A park intended to provide recreation for children may include a playground, a park primarily intended for adults may feature walking paths and decorative landscaping. Specific features, such as riding trails, may be included to support specific activities, the design of a park may determine who is willing to use it
7.
Canal
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Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In the vernacular, both are referred to as canals, and in most cases, the works will have a series of dams. These areas are referred to as water levels, often just called levels. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and others water ways crossing far below. Cities need a lot of water and many canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination where there is a lack of water. The Roman Empires Aqueducts were such water supply canals, a navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river, a vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use, there are two broad types of canal, Waterways, canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds, Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans and those connected in a city network, such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy, the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok. Aqueducts, water canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals. Historically canals were of importance to commerce and the development, growth. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of burning anthracite coal, by the 1930s the company which built. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path, Human made streams A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, the water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise, examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal
8.
Utility cycling
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Utility cycling encompasses any cycling done simply as a means of transport rather than as a sport or leisure activity. It is the original and most common type of cycling in the world, Utility or transportational cycling generally involves travelling short and medium distances, often in an urban environment. It includes commuting, going shopping and running errands, as well as heading out to see friends and it also includes economic activity such as the delivering of goods or services. Velotaxis can also provide a transport service like buses and taxicabs. Utility cycling is known to have social and economic benefits. In the Chinese city of Beijing alone, there are a four million bicycles in use. As of 2000, there were an estimated 80 million bicycles in Japan, accounting for 17% of commuter trips, the development of the safety bicycle was arguably the most important change in the history of the bicycle. It shifted their use and public perception from being a toy for sporting young men to being an everyday transport tool for men—and, crucially. By the start of the 20th Century, cycling had become an important means of transportation, bicycling clubs for men and women spread across the U. S. and across European countries. Cycling steadily became more important in Europe over the first half of the twentieth century, automobiles became the preferred means of transportation. Over the 1920s, bicycles gradually became considered childrens toys, for most of the twentieth century, the great majority of cycling in the UK took place on roads Utility bicycles have many standard features to enhance their usefulness and comfort. Chain guards and mudguards, or fenders, protect clothes and moving parts from oil, front-mounted wicker or steel baskets for carrying goods are often used. Rear luggage carriers can be used to carry such as school satchels. Panniers or special luggage carriers enable the transport of goods and are useful for shopping, parents sometimes add rear-mounted child seats and/or an auxiliary saddle fitted to the crossbar to transport children. Trailers of various types and load capacities may be towed to increase cargo capacity. In many jurisdictions bicycles must be fitted with a bell, reflectors, protective rain gear is often an essential part of the utility cyclists wardrobe, especially in countries with high rainfall levels. Many different factors combine to influence levels of utility cycling, in developing economies, a large amount of utility cycling may be seen simply because the bicycle is the most affordable form of vehicular transport available to many people. In richer countries, where people can have the choice of a mixture of transport types, in developed countries cycling has to compete with, and work with, alternative transport modes such as private cars, public transport and walking
9.
Friends of the Earth
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Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 74 countries. FOTE main mission was to lock up and prevent further development of nuclear energy and their first employee was Amory Lovins, who kicked off FOE in the UK. It became a network in 1971 with a meeting of representatives from the U. S. Sweden. For further historical details, see articles on the national FOE organizations, FoEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns. The executive committee of elected representatives from national groups sets policy, in 2016, Uruguayan activist Karin Nansen was elected to serve as chair of Friends of the Earth International. Friends of the Earth considers environmental issues in their social, political and their campaigns stretch beyond the traditional arena of the conservation movement and seek to address the economic and development aspects of sustainability. Originally based largely in North America and Europe, its membership is now heavily weighted toward groups in the developing world, in addition to the priority campaign areas Friends of the Earth International has a number of other campaign areas which are active internationally. S. The groups and activists at all levels also carry out educational and these are conditions of remaining a member of FOEI. The national groups work on the issues affecting their own country. In turn, the local campaigners can work on local, national and/or international campaigns, the member organization in a particular country may name itself Friends of the Earth or an equivalent translated phrase in the national language, e. g. Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Earth, Amigos de la Tierra, Friends of the Earth International is supported by a secretariat based in Amsterdam, and an executive committee known as ExCom. The ExCom is elected by all member groups at a meeting held every two years, and it is the ExCom which employs the secretariat. At the same meeting, overall policies and priority activities are agreed. Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé,1971 The Meat Atlas is a report on the methods. The publication consists of 27 short essays and, with the help of graphs, the Meat Atlas is jointly published by Friends of the Earth and Heinrich Böll Foundation. Rock musician George Harrison became associated with Friends of the Earth after attending their anti-nuclear demonstrations in London in 1980 and he dedicated his 1989 greatest hits album, Best of Dark Horse, to Friends of the Earth, among other environmental organisations. Jay Kay, frontman of the jazz group Jamiroquai, is known for donating a part of the profits earned from his album sales to Friends of the Earth and Oxfam. Dominique Voynet, who ran in the 1995 and 2007 French presidential elections in the les verts parti, thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, has publicly supported a number of Friends of the Earth campaigns
10.
Cycling UK
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Cycling UK, formerly known as the Cyclists Touring Club or CTC, is a charitable membership organisation supporting cyclists and promoting bicycle use, it is the largest such organisation in the UK. It works at a national and local level to lobby for cyclists needs and wants, provides services to members, and organises local groups for local activism, prior to April 2016, Cycling UK operated under the brand CTC, the national cycling charity. As of January 2007, the president was the newsreader Jon Snow. Cycling UK promotes cycling in the UK, and had about 68,000 members in 2016, Cycling UK works to encourage more people to take up cycling, to make cycling safer and more enjoyable, and to provide cyclists with the support and resources they need. Its activities vary from road safety promotion to the provision of organised cycling holidays, Cycling UK does not focus on competitive cycle sport, since that has its own organisation, British Cycling. In 2015, Cycling UK received funding of £1million for their social outreach project, Cycling UK is organised at district level, with Local Groups organising cycle rides on Sundays and during the week. In 2008, the CTC Charitable Trust launched the Cycle Champions programme and they recruited Cycle Champions within the community to work towards these goals as volunteers. Locally based officers advised on the establishment of clubs and the application for funding, the members magazine, Cycle, covers subjects including ride reports, product reviews and legal and technical advice. Members benefit from public liability insurance, which is extended to cover rides organised under the auspices of Cycling UK Local Groups, Cycling UK is currently a member of the European Cyclists Federation. Cycling UK believes that UK cyclists should continue to be free to decide whether or not they wear cycle helmets, and campaigns to keep the UKs laws as they are. Cycling UK says that this is putting too much emphasis on cycle helmets makes people think that cycling is much more dangerous than it actually is. Cycling UK believes that health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks, Cycling UK also feels that the real risks faced by cyclists, such as excessive vehicle speed, are often forgotten when all the discussions concentrate on cycle helmets. Cycling UK reviewed the current Highway Code before it was published, Cycling UK is a founder of the Slower Speeds Initiative, an unincorporated association dedicated to reducing traffic speeds on all roads. CTC works with such as Transport 2000 and Sustrans, and has charitable offshoots, the CTC Charitable Trust. Cycling UK was founded at Harrogate, in Yorkshire, on 5 August 1878 by an Edinburgh medical student, Stanley Cotterell and its headquarters were wherever Cotterell happened to be living. It had 80 members, all men, the first woman, Mrs W. D. Welford, joined in 1880. In 1883, the Bicycle Touring Club was renamed the Cyclists Touring Club to open membership to tricyclists, membership rose to 10,627 and CTC opened a headquarters at 139-140 Fleet Street in London. Members, like those of other clubs, often rode in uniform, the uniform was a dark green Devonshire serge jacket, knickerbockers and a Stanley helmet with a small peak
11.
Bicycle theft
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Bicycle theft is the crime of stealing a bicycle. According to the International Crime Victim Survey, 56% of bicycle thefts across 17 countries were reported to the police, according to an estimate from the NCVS there was an estimated 1.3 million incidents of theft of or theft from bicycles. Bicycle theft has increased in recent years, according to the British Transport Police, theft and bicycle damage has grown 67% between 1999 and 2005. Although many bicycle thefts occur by offenders looking for financial gain, Joyriders, Joyriders steal bikes for the sole purpose of riding the stolen bike for entertainment and will generally abandon the bike after using it. Most of these offenders are male and under the age of 16, acquisitive, These thieves steal bicycles for financial gain and usually to trade it for cash or goods. Those looking to steal bikes can use a variety of different methods in order to do so. Lifting, If the bike is locked to a structure such as a small sign or tree. Cutting, A thief may use a cutter, hacksaw. Picking, A thief may pick a lock that has a keyhole, a sucker pole is a pole that appears to be safe to lock a bike to, but can easily be dismantled by bicycle thieves. It may be a sign, fence, or bike rack that ends in the ground or pavement, such poles are never secured to the base, in Chicago,252 bicycles were stolen in this manner in 2012. Another source says thieves can easily take the bike in as little as 10 seconds, in plain view. Bicycle theft is a crime committed commonly in cities, areas with high population. One can prevent bicycle theft by avoiding using bicycles with quick release wheels, furthermore, one should use a strong U-lock to secure their bike. One should only lock their bike to sturdy structures and should not leave the bike in one place for too long, the way in which the bike is locked to the structure is also important. It is important that a wheel and the frame of the bike is locked to a structure so that a thief cannot steal a wheel and leave the bike, a former London bike thief recommended small and stiff d-locks, as they are hardest to cut. Danish bicycle VIN-system Bicycle parking rack Media related to Bicycle theft at Wikimedia Commons
12.
Transport for London
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Transport for London is a local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London, England. Its head office is in Windsor House in the City of Westminster, the underlying services are provided by a mixture of wholly owned subsidiary companies, by private sector franchisees and by licensees. In 2015-16, TfL had a budget of £11.5 billion, the rest comes from government funding, borrowing, other income and Crossrail funding. On 21 January 2016, it was announced that the responsibility for franchising all of Londons inner suburban services would be transferred from the DfT to TfL. This transfer will take place as current franchises fall due for renewal, TfL was created in 2000 as part of the Greater London Authority by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It gained most of its functions from its predecessor London Regional Transport in 2000, the first Commissioner of TfL was Bob Kiley. The first Chair was then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and the first Deputy Chair was Dave Wetzel, Livingstone and Wetzel remained in office until the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor in 2008. Johnson took over as Chairman, and in February 2009 fellow-Conservative Daniel Moylan was appointed as his Deputy, TfL did not take over responsibility for the London Underground until 2003, after the controversial Public-private partnership contract for maintenance had been agreed. Management of the Public Carriage Office had previously been a function of the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London Group Archives holds business records for TfL and its predecessor bodies and transport companies. Some early records are held on behalf of TfL Group Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives. After the bombings on the underground and bus systems on 7 July 2005 and they helped survivors out, removed bodies, and got the transport system up and running, to get the millions of commuters back out of London at the end of the work day. Those mentioned include Peter Hendy, who was at the time Head of Surface Transport division, and Tim OToole, head of the Underground division, carrying open containers of alcohol was also banned on public transport operated by TfL. The Mayor of London and TfL announced the ban with the intention of providing a safer, there were Last Round on the Underground parties on the night before the ban came into force. Passengers refusing to observe the ban may be refused travel and asked to leave the premises, the Greater London Authority reported in 2011 that assaults on London Underground staff had fallen by 15% since the introduction of the ban. In an effort to reduce sexual offences and increase reporting, TfL—in conjunction with the British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police Service, TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position held by Sadiq Khan since May 2016. The Commissioner of Transport for London reports to the Board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities, the body is organised in three main directorates and corporate services, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. This network is sub-divided into three service units, BCV, Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines. JNP, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, SSL, Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines
