TRO's - Speed Reductions

A little birthday present for me  from the council  - proposed reduction of the speed limit on A57 Manchester Rd from Cutthroat Bridge to Rivelin and on A61Penistone Rd through Greno Wood. Rivelin Rd 30 mph section to be extended slightly.

Setbacks to Sustainable Transport

This week we participated in two major campaigns.

The cycling world is alarmed to hear that the government plans to abolish Cycling England - we know that cuts are coming but when is has been shown that investment in cycling, which costs very little, has a cost benefit ratio of 5:1 (for every pound you spend you get five back) we had hoped that the con-dems would show some sense. We've written to Nick Clegg about this (having the Deputy PM as your MP could turn out to be handy) and plan to follow this up with a visit  to his surgery in November. We have heard, however (but not in writing) that the bikeability cycle training programme has been safeguarded

We were also alarmed to hear that the PTE had decided to cancel the planned trial of bikes on Supertram, following a negative response from Stagecoach that exaggerated the difficulties of allowing bikes on board, and played down the benefits. We won't this rest here, but we are getting a little tired of getting the run-around from the public transport operators. Stagecoach are the custodians of a system that was built with public money and should be operating it for the benefit of the community.  Meanwhile  another branch of the Stagecoach empire, East Midlands Trains, has been raising hackles by cancelling the buffet on London trains and running a trolley service instead and are still threatening to close the station footbridge to non-rail passengers.

This weeks meets

Cyclesheffield meeting last night - good to see that the new structure is taking hold and people are are starting to take responsibility for their areas. Tonight I'm off to talk to Sheffield District CTC about campaigning issues , and tomorrow it's the Green Party meeting to talk about 20's plenty. Busy week!

Cycle Tracks Order

got this today:-




CYCLE TRACKS ACT 1984 – SECTION 3
CONVERSION OF EXISTING FOOTPATHS TO SHARED FOOTPATH/CYCLE TRACKS AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS;
1. GLEADLESS AVENUE TO  HOLLINSEND ROAD
2. BOWDEN HOUSTEADS WOOD


I've written to support these useful little links. 

Sheaf Valley Park & elsewhere

Some changes have been made to the proposals for this new park behind the Station. This now includes a shared use footpath between the Station tramstop and Shrewsbury Rd. This isn't quite the flat route alongside the tram tracks that we were looking for, but it will be a welcome addition to the rambling collection of leisure paths that was first envisaged.

In Hillsborough some restrictions on waiting on the back streets around Holme Lane are proposed. we support these.

Right to ride discussion list

I've unsubscribed from the CTC's Right to Ride discussion list. I wonder whether anyone will notice? The reason  is that I have become increasingly frustrated with the quality of the posts.People readily go off-topic, use it as a soapbox for their personal opinions, discuss the same topics over and over again - the CTC's proposed change to charitable status has dominated it recently, not really a lot to do with campaigning. There is no moderation and the Council member with responsibility for the Right to Ride network is one of the worst offenders. The whole thing is a mess - there is some feeling that setting up a network of individuals rather than groups was a mistake in the first place. My options seemed to be, resign as a Right to Ride or just unsubscribe from the list so I chose the latter and I feel better already. There is still some value in the RTR network but it needs to be radically reformed if it is going to reach its potential.

Baslow Rd

Don't believe this one - a proposal to raise the speed limit on Baslow Rd (Totley to the city border) to the National Speed Limit (60mph) following the cock-up over the bus turning circle.

To re-cap on this one - the landlord of the cross scythes at Totley wanted to get the bus turning circle outside the pub moved because he wanted to do B&B and didn't want his guests disturbed by nasty noisy buses. The council, without doing any proper consultation, obliged and provided a turning circle and lighting all the way up to it. CPRE quite rightly objected, saying this was an extension of light pollution into the Peak District. Meanwhile, the pub went bust so there was no need to do this work after all. The lighting is being taken out - tend of thousands of pounds of public money wasted - and the only benefit to the travelling public was the reduction in the speed limit, which the petrolheads at the council now want to remove. Derbyshire CC has implemented 50mph on all its A-roads in the Peak district, and Sheffield ought to be matching this if it is serious about road safety.They also want to install an electronic warning sign so speeding motorists know when a bus is turning - with a lower speed limit there would be no need for this further expense.

 I've objected of course, and you can too - write to eric.wilson at sheffield.gov.uk quoting ref TR/36/0