"This month's mass was ridden as a tribute to Elizabeth Webb, a nursing student from Guy's hospital. Elizabeth was killed at the junction of Burdett Road and Mile End road on Friday 24th September at 1.00 pm. The incident involved a 38 ton lorry turning left from Mile End Road into Burdett Road. Elizabeth was 21 and has a twin sister Angela, they were both student nurses at Guys Hospital. She was travelling from halls of residence in Devas Street to the City University to submit a project paper.

The ride started out in sombre mood as we handed out flyers explaining that we wanted to ride to the site of Elizabeth's death to meet her father who was waiting for us there. We rode pretty much directly there, with a police escort, and hardly any delaying at all, all in a nice large group of around 250 cyclists.

The ride up Mile End Road was predictable long and dull, but pedestrians around seemed pleasantly surprised to see us - it's not often (if at all) that we ride that far away from the "centre" of town.

When we arrived at Burdett Road, just near Mile End tube station, Elizabeth's father was waiting for us, and a couple of LCC folks (Mark, a thoughtful member of THW) were handing out candles in small holders for the assembled mass to light and hold aloft. It was a heart warming sight on such a sad occasion to see 250 cyclists holding candles in the air in tribute to a fellow rider. After a few minutes, the police asked us to move out of the junction, but they then realised that however the junction was cleared it would take a good 5 minutes at least, and that it was best to leave us to sort outselves out. A minute's silence was ended by a massive ringing of bells, blowing of whistles and horns, and whooping."

Elizabeth's father, sisters and many of her friends had made the journey to the site and were waiting there for the cyclists to come along Mile End Road from Waterloo, finally arriving at around 7.30 pm. The candles and holders were laid in the road where Elizabeth fell, making a small temporary shrine and Elizabeth's family held hands in a circle around them.

The motorcycle police who usually accompany critical mass events were extremly patient allowing us time to converge on the site, and only after fifteen minutes of closing the junction entirely did they ask us to allow just one lane of the MER to be opened. Unlike one local policeman who tried to move on the mass of 250-300 people as soon as it arrived, and was politely ignored.

Eventually we, and Elizabeth's family were left to our thoughts, and a period of silence followed. Around 45 minutes later we rode away having closed Burdett Road for the duration.

To be fair to Gwyne, following the tragedies he has tried to keep us up-to-date with the investigations etc. into the deaths. But because of the nature of these things information is hard to come by. Basically, the police will not release details about current investigations until after the inquests and neither of these will take place until the new year.

But, the fact that the above mentioned meeting is happening, and much more importantly, that we have been asked to attend a separate conference with The Cycling Officer and a representitive from the Traffic Director for London's office means that someone is taking notice at last.

This is real progress, and I believe it is because some of you have written the letters I requested in the separate mailout last month.

In my limited experience as co-ordinator I have found the Traffic Director for London's office notoriously ambivalent toward cyclists. They spout lots of good slogans, endorse campaigns, say nice things to Central LCC but, I believe, really regard our groups as a pain in the arse. Up until this year they, and the borough have regarded our campaigns for for a cycle lane and even the most basic cycle facilities on the Mile End Road as futile, a complete non-starter of an idea.

BOSTON, Nov. 9 Bill Clinton declared war on poverty. Janet Reno declared war on Microsoft. Now Click and Clack, the hosts of NPR's "Car Talk," have declared war on cell phones - specifically, driving while talking.

"It was bad enough when people were shaving and putting on lipstick while driving," said co-host Tom Magliozzi. "But now they're trying to dial the psychic hotline while changing lanes at 65 mph!" Tom and Ray Magliozzi also write a nationally syndicated column "Click and Clack Talk Cars," which runs in 300 newspapers. It was a column they wrote in mid-September on cell phones that helped form the battlelines, resulting in a barrage of e-mails and many thousands of letters.

"We received a question from a guy who wanted help in finding a phone to use in his 1995 Lexus LS400," said Ray. "We told him we could help, but wouldn't because we're opposed to the use of cell phones in cars for anything other than emergencies. We said it's immoral, unethical, inconsiderate and downright stupid." Unlike their usual advice -- which they say is, "unencumbered by the thought process," the brothers have plenty of facts to back up their position, including a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It showed people talking on cell phones while driving were four times more likely to be in a crash than the average driver, about the same risk as driving drunk.

"When you're trying to merge onto the highway between a moving tractor trailer and a truck, your brain is performing a complex mathematical calculation. I think most people know they can't do that and have an intelligent conversation at the same time," says Tom. "Because every one of us has had a near miss with a jerk holding a cell phone up to his ear."

They further reported that a 1997 study published in the New England Jounal of Medicine found that talking on a phone while drving qualdrupled the risk of an accident and was almost as dangerous as being drunk behind the wheel. They wrote that the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn began fining drivers in September under their cell phone driving ordinance.

The positive response to the anti-cell phone newspaper column was so overwhelming that the brothers followed up by offering a free "Drive Now, Talk Later" bumper sticker to anyone who wanted one. We're still getting thousands of requests a week," said Doug Berman, the show's producer. "We ordered 30,000 of them to start with and thought that would last a year, but they were gone in weeks. It's clear that people are getting tired of getting cut up by some guy talking to his broker!"

The brothers' Internet site (www.cartalk.cars.com) is filled with studies and stories showing the dangers of talking on a cell phone while driving.