Future Cycling Cities

Simon Geller There were some excellent presentations on twentys plenty at the future cycling cities conference in Portsmouth this weekend. Officers and politicians from Portsmouth talked about how they got the policy through, while a conservative cabinet member from Oxfordshire talked about how they did it in Oxford. One of the key… points that came through to me was that you can’t have sustainable economic growth without bringing in sustainable transport. In Oxford the issue is that to cater for increased motor traffic you would have to start knocking down the Dreaming Spires, and the same issue exists in Cambridge. In Portsmouth the issue is the physical constraints if living on a crowded island. Twentys plenty is a key component of creating an environment where people feel safe to walk and cycle.
Had a great bike ride towards London on the Sunday as well – ended up at Virginia Water.
Route desc here:
http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_534454.html

view over Portsmouth - heading for the south downs

Progress on Upper Hanover Way

Work is in progress on upgrading the cycle/walking route on UHW - something we've been pressing for since, well since the original scheme went in really.

The centre line should be burnt off and replaced in the middle once the work is complete. (or just burnt off completely  - but I think the plan is that it will still be segregated.

The new crossing looks ready to go once the approach routes are finished.

At the moment the path is too narrow for two cyclists to cross without one going over into the pedestrian area. In the morning large groups of students walk up here to the University, presumably from the new apartments off London Rd, making cycling slow going. Also pedestrians have to cross the bike lane twice, creating conflicts.

The workman have thoughtfully put some tarmac down to make it possible to get round their containers
and into Broomhall.

This area has never worked particularly well - cyclists prefer to go in a straight line while many pedestrians seem to prefer to use the bike route. It would be better as a large shared use area so people could just veer around each other, coupled with a super-crossing so everyone could cross together rather than having the cyclists and the walkers corralled into different areas, again with different users often on the "wrong" side. 

Annes Rd/Prospect Rd Crossing

This is what the cycle lane leading to the crossing from the south looked like originally:-

No dropped kerb, just a short stretch of pavement painted red with some symbols on it.
Following some complaints, and the mentioning of some words like "Warirngton" which may or may not have had  an effect, the council have now made quite a nice job of it:-

They've left the original cycle lane as you can see but otherwise made a nice wide shared area. However, the devil as ever is in the detail. On this occasion you couldn't access the dropped crossing because a car was parked across it (the photo was taken on match day, Bramall Lane is just down the road) If the double yellows had been stretched a bit further this would have solved this problem. The other issue is that the bollards on the other side are too close together to allow HPV*'s, wide trailers etc to get through (Heeley City Farm has several of these and there are others in the area - you can see the back end of one in the top picture.) So, 7 out of 10 perhaps?

*Human  Powered  Vehicles -freight carriers etc.

Report on Birmingham RTR day

I promised a report back on this, and as I've just had the notes from Alec, the hardest working RTR co-ordinator in showbiz, this seems like a good time. I've borrowed heavily from Alec's report, but bringing out the salient points from my POV. 

The purpose of the meeting was to take a fresh look at the existing and possible future regional structure of

the CTC Right to Ride network. The ideas and discussions at Birmingham give a very good starting point for

deciding what the CTC and the RtR Network do next.

Participants

24 RtR members attended, including some who were also CTC councillors or staff.

Four main topics were discussed:

- Working at a Regional Level
- Growing an Effective Network
- Training Issues
- Communication


There seemed to be considerable support for the concept of organising the RtR network on a regional basis.
Part of this support was to do with how to deal with government structures, and another part was recognising
that support for individuals was important.
Several comments showed that people felt isolated at times.
Financial support for the network was discussed, with the possibility of part time positions being available for
regional reps, and for a discounted category of CTC membership as a campaign member.
Formalising the network a little by expecting members to attend at least one regional meeting a year had
some support. Regular meetings would also help build a necessary better alignment of views between
individual reps and other campaign groups.
A more organised method of dealing with the mass of information involved was seen as very important, as
was developing individual members various skills.
Greater publicity in Cycle magazine for RtR was another request.
Better education of those responsible for road schemes was seen as necessary, and might be made easier to
organise if CTC became accredited to one or more professional institutions in the field of transport.


The ideas and discussions at Birmingham give a very good starting point for deciding what the CTC and the
RtR Network do next. We have hardly had a better opportunity to move forward. The drive must come from
both sides to be effective. 


My key issues are that I don't feel that the RTR network is sufficiently valued by the CTC - the fact I had to fight to get travel expenses for this day is a case in point. Some of the ideas we had were - assess the value of the RTR network in monetary terms (i.e. as if we were getting paid) publish  an annual report (RTRs are supposed to provide an annual report, but we are not asked for it, so many including myself don't, and the ones that are received are read by CTC staff but don't go any further) - enhance communication with a social networking site. (We are currently using Yahoo!, which while it has improved over the years has never been entirely satisfactory)


I found this to be  very positive day, which was welcome at a time when the CTC is racked with in-fighting over the charitable trust issue. After the seminar Roger led us through the Bullring, some with bikes and some without, in search of a pub for a quick pint before heading home - unfortunately some people had to had off before we found one, but the experience was almost worth coming for in itself!