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Go Bike! Strathclyde Cycle Campaign
Why Go Bike?
Welcome to the Go Bike website! The campaign exists to promote cycling in the Strathclyde area of Scotland, and is active mainly within Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, and East Renfrewshire.
With the recent gales and floods in England, on top of the floods a few years ago in Scotland, when Paisley, Perth and Inverness were hit, global warming seems to be making its impact.
To help counteract this environmental threat, together with that from pollution from the all-pervasive motor vehicle, (for instance, the seven mile M74 extension, which is costed at £500 million, and includes a measly two miles of cycle track!!) we would like you to join Go Bike, subscribe to the Go Bike News email list (see join page for explanation) and help us take personal responsibility for effecting a modal shift away from the motor car, and towards cycling, walking and public transport. (See Glasgow City Council's current road proposals, including the M74 extension, East End Rat Run, Yoker Relief Road, Easterhouse Uplink, Northern Ring Road, Gartloch Getaway and Daldowie Diversion.)
Events
Go Bike holds meetings throughout the year to discuss cycling issues. See meetings for details. Anyone interested in improving cycling in the Glasgow area is welcome to attend.
Learn about our easy-paced cycle rides held each month, and what our campaign has achieved so far, by reading the on-line version of our newsletters. There are also links to other cycling organisations.
Glasgow Cycle Map
Go Bike, in association with Spokes Maps, has produced the all new Glasgow Cycle Map, launched on 20 September 2007 as part of European Mobility Week.
The map is available in bike shops and book shops.
You may order by post by sending a cheque for £4.95 made payable to 'SPOKES' to:
Spokes Maps
St Martin's Church
232 Dalry Road
Edinburgh
EH11 2JG
See Glasgow Cycle Map for details.
Subscriptions
Have you renewed your Go Bike Membership for this year? See Subscription Notice.
National & International News
Local News & Consultations
Details of the Go Bike Weekend Cycle Rides for this year are now on the Cycle Rides page.
The Glasgow City Council Core Path Plan is currently up for consultation. See Core Path Plan for details, including detailed mapping. Core Paths will be protected from inappropriate development, in the same way roads are already, making it easier to challenge planning applications that affect cycle paths and other important paths. The consultation runs until 30 May 2008 and all members are encouraged to respond.
Go Bike has received information on the upgrading of the Colleges Cycle Route in the University and Hyndland areas. New traffic calming features will be installed at an early date in the entrances to side roads, and parking controls will be altered on University Avenue and Clarence Drive once a Traffic Regulation Order has been promoted. A new cycle track linking the two sections of Turnberry Road will be built, along with the installation of upgraded cycle route signing.
A couple of recent Go Bike successes in Glasgow City Centre: after contacting the council, uprooted cycle parking in Dundas Street has been reinstated, and nearby in Cathedral Street, the bus gate signs which fell down have now been replaced.
Our friends at the Warrington Cycle Campaign have published a book called Crap Cycle Lanes, featuring a selection of poor quality cycle lanes from around the country. Buy it direct from Eye Books.
Sustrans has won lottery funding for its "Connect 2" project, which includes a scheme to "complete" the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Anderston and various links to Chatelherault and Strathclyde Country Parks in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse areas. For details, see the project's website at Connect 2 and our Connect2 page.
Go Bike has received consultation on the planned infilling of an underpass in the Cowcaddens area, under Dobbies Loan, on the way to the canal at Spiers Wharf and to Woodside. The cycle route would be replaced by a couple of pedestrian crossings across the very busy Dobbies Loan, with poor sightlines due to the legs of the M8 flyover that covers the area. As underpasses go this is far from the worst, and Go Bike will be asking for improvements to the underpass such as to the drainage. See this photo montage for details.
Work is progressing on the Springburn Cycle Route, with resurfacing, lighting and signing now in place in Sighthill Park. The route will then go up the side of the Springburn Expressway before taking Springburn Way and other minor roads to reach Stobhill Hospital.
A new cycle route is being put in connecting the Forth & Clyde Canal at Spiers Wharf to the City Centre. A footway has been resurfaced and Toucan Crossings put in across a couple of M8 sliproads where previously pedestrians had to take their chances in the traffic. However, the footway now awaits redetermination to allow cyclists to use it. The route will link to Milton Street and the Colleges Cycle Route on Port Dundas Road. Access to the City Centre is via West Nile Street.
Go Bike is currently persuing the issue of cycling through the Bridgeton Cross Bus Gate with Glasgow City Council. We hope that cycling will be allowed through the section of road linking London Road with Dalmarnock Road and James Street shortly, when the Dalmarnock Road Quality Bus Route traffic order is reviewed. The Council has found this item was actually omitted from the original traffic order.
Go Bike has also asked for a contra-flow cycle lane on the one-way section of James Street, similar to those on West Nile Street and King Street, to allow more direct access for cyclists coming from Glasgow Green.
Work continues on creating the White Cart Cycle Route, with upgrades for the junctions at Millbrae Road and Devlin Road being developed. Work on the former is progressing on site, with the latter at design stage.
Transport Scotland is promoting a major rebuilding of the M74/A725/NCN 74 junction Raith Interchange between Bothwell and Strathclyde Park. This scheme involves putting the A725 in an underpass under the roundabout and providing two cycle routes through the junction. One route connects Bothwell Bridge with Bellshill, while the other is the long-awaited implementation of NCN 74 (the Uddingston to Gretna cycle route) through the junction. However, it appears that the NCN 74 route was an afterthought tacked on at the last minute. It has the following faults:
- Indirect route taking many twists and turns
- The indirectness of the route is compounded by a loop ramp and a double-back ramp at the two footbridges
- Five Toucan Crossings in another loop to get from one side of a road to the other
- Several right-angled corners
- The "main" route through the junction as it is designed is the Bothwell Bridge to Bellshill route, not the Uddingston to Strathclyde Park NCN 74 which will easily be the more popular of the two
Many of these faults could be avoided by moving the position of one of the proposed footbridges to cross the roundabout slightly further round or taking a different route around the roundabout. Go Bike will be meeting Transport Scotland to discuss this further.
Transport Scotland is also promoting a new motorway between Baillieston and Newhouse. This M8 project will add a six lane motorway alongside the existing A8 dual carriageway, making a 10 lane monster route feeding into Glasgow. This will cause increased traffic on Edinburgh Road, due to the inevitable increased congestion on the existing M8. This is acknowledged by Glasgow City Council's proposed Baillieston to Daldowie road link, which is planned to displace some of this increase in traffic onto the proposed M74 northern extension.
There is to be a cycle route between Baillieston and Eurocentral, but this will be indirect, utilising at times muddy woodland tracks not suitable for commuter cyclists (e.g. going to Strathclyde Business Park), and will not extend as far as Newhouse. It also crosses the busy A752 and A752/A8 sliproad on the flat at Kirkwood. Go Bike has already lodged an objection to this plan.
See the Weekly List of Planning Applications from Glasgow City Council. Check to see if any planning applications give you cause for concern. If so, and they relate to cycling, let us know.