GoBike Annual General Meeting – one week to go!

Only one week to go until the GoBike 2022 Annual General Meeting. The AGM is open to all so why not come along and join us!

This years AGM will take place at 10:30am on Saturday 3 June 2023 at the Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 3UU 

We are gathering during Volunteers Week (1 – 7 June) so join us to celebrate all the achievements that GoBike volunteers have made over the past few years!

It is free to attend and it would be great if you could book your place via Eventbrite. And please take a few minutes to have your say on our campaign review too.

If you’d be interested in joining the committee please email convenor (at) gobike.org.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

GoBike Committee

GoBike Annual General Meeting and Campaign Day

GoBike bike icon

The GoBike 2022 Annual General Meeting will take place at 

10:30am on Saturday 3 June 2023 

at the Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 3UU 

The AGM which has been slightly delayed since November last year will be a great opportunity for members and others to hear what GoBike has been up to over the past couple of years and importantly have your input into what GoBike should be focusing on over the next few years.

Continue reading “GoBike Annual General Meeting and Campaign Day”

GoBike members have been heartbroken and dismayed by the recent untimely passing of someone cycling on Glasgow’s roads. We would like to send our condolences and love to the family and friends of Emma Newman. We cannot imagine how deeply her loss will be felt – we know the grief of those who knew her will reverberate with everyone who cycles in our city and would have shared the same streets. It could have been any of us.

In light of this incident, GoBike have sent a communication to the council in a spirit of mutual understanding and in the hope that we can safeguard vision zero as a shared priority in our city, for Emma and for all those like her. We will update you when we receive a response.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The future of GoBike as a campaign is sadly currently hanging in the balance.

As a group of prior caretakers of the campaign, we hope you don’t mind us contacting you to see whether you might be able to give some time to GoBike.

We have no one actively running GoBike. The volunteers who have helped run this campaign over the last many, many years have gradually stepped back to the point where we now have no caretaker group running the campaign. We are currently in the position where we don’t have anyone to lead / chair, or to keep communications going to and from and within the campaign. Similarly, we don’t have anyone to carry out the treasurer’s role. 

Both of these roles are essential to a campaign with paid membership, and one with a good communications channel with the council and other related organisations. We have a great team keeping our consultations section ticking over, and we still have our monthly rides on the go.  However, we also need help with our social media, with campaign ideas and their organisation, and with other admin tasks.

Do you think you can help?

Continue reading “IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT”

Consultation Digest (National) Issue 10, 28 Jan 2022: The one with the carrots

In my nearly 20 years of policy work, I’ve never known a time where there have been so many major consultations live at the same time. It’s time to get busy – plus there’s the local elections on 5 May, now less than 100 days away.

Continue reading “Consultation Digest (National) Issue 10, 28 Jan 2022: The one with the carrots”

Victory as “Sustainable Transport” is added to COP26 declaration!

People with bikes line the road towards the COP26 conference. Photo: Iona Shepherd

Early on Wednesday morning, hundreds of cycling activists, campaigners and residents of Glasgow marked ‘Transport Day’ at COP26, and joined GoBike to form a line of people with bikes stretching along the River Clyde to the conference. People of all ages stood peacefully along the side of the road asking that active travel is recognised at the conference as a part of the solution to the climate crisis.

Continue reading “Victory as “Sustainable Transport” is added to COP26 declaration!”

MORE PEDAL ON COP ACTION ON COP26 TRANSPORT DAY – Wednesday 10th 7:45am – 8:45am

This Wednesday morning (10th November) from 7:45am – 8:45am we are asking people with bikes to peacefully form a line along the edge of the pavement along Lancefield Quay, stretching out from the conference for everyone attending to see. We want to remind people going to the conference on that day (COP26 Transport Day) that active travel is a part of the solution to climate change. Please come and join us!!

Continue reading “MORE PEDAL ON COP ACTION ON COP26 TRANSPORT DAY – Wednesday 10th 7:45am – 8:45am”

Join us to Pedal on COP this Saturday!

This weekend hundreds of people on bikes from Glasgow and across the whole of Scotland are joining the Cycling and Sustainable Transport bloc at the Global Day of Action on Climate Justice march on Saturday 6th November.

Join Gobike, Pedal on Parliament and everyone else from around the country who knows that safer cycling can save us, to let the conference know that sustainable transport is a key part of the solution to the climate crisis and needs to be on the table for discussion.

Continue reading “Join us to Pedal on COP this Saturday!”

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – CYCLING DIVERSIONS DURING COP26

Starting this Thursday 21st October many of our city’s most used cycle paths and flyovers are due to close around the site of the COP26 at the SEC (and wider), and will remain closed until at least Monday 15th November.

GoBike have pushed hard for improvements to the initial diversion proposals and have had a few of our suggested improvements taken on board and implemented. We are however deeply disappointed that stronger decisions were not made to keep our sustainable form of transport safe and attractive to everyone during the climate conference. This was a missed opportunity for the city to make active travel the easiest choice during a period of road closures and predicted traffic chaos around Glasgow. We outline more on that further below.

Get Ready Glasgow (the COP communications arm of Glasgow City Council) have issued the following updated map to illustrate GCCs proposed diversions.

Continue reading “IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – CYCLING DIVERSIONS DURING COP26”

GoBike petition supported by councillors at council hearing.

Our petition on Active Travel Routes during COP26 was heard at council on Thursday and we are happy to say that we have made positive moves forward on points 2 and 3 of our asks.

The chair of the committee has asked officers to engage with GoBike about the closures, and to keep councillors updated. Officers also presented some new plans to include soft segregation along some very short stretches of the diversions. We have identified other stretches along the diversion route that also desperately need protection, as well as a suggested shortening of the diversion route, avoiding one of the most dangerous stretches. We have sent this suggestion map in to council officers for review.

GoBike suggested diversion route (pink) and areas needing soft separation (green)

We expect to meet with a representative of the Scottish Government shortly to also push them to go further and we will continue to push for cooperation between the council and Police Scotland in redetermining a lane of Finnieston Street for cycling. We were told at the hearing that security measures to ensure people’s safety is paramount, yet we don’t feel that the safety of people who would usually travel by bike on a traffic free route is being afforded the same protection. We also heard that people driving will also be affected by long diversions however we responded to say that the motor traffic diversions will be suitable for all people driving, and the cycling diversions will not.

The full statement and asks we gave to the councillors at the Wellbeing, Empowerment, Community and Citizen Engagement City Policy Committee is as follows:

Continue reading “GoBike petition supported by councillors at council hearing.”