Strathclyde Cycle Campaign
Anna Richardson, SNP Councillor for Langside and Glasgow City Council’s Convenor for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction (including all things cycling), has confirmed today that she will speak at our AGM and Public Meeting. Continue reading “Save the date – 29 November for the GoBike AGM, with guest speaker Anna Richardson”
Further to our letter to all Glasgow Councillors in June, our first tour took place on Friday 15 September 2017, with Councillors Jane Morgan, Maryhill ward, Labour (in yellow above) and Martha Wardrop, Hillhead ward, Green (behind GoBike committee member, Alasdair Macdonald). The photo above was taken on Striven Gardens, where leaf-fall and parked cars, plus mis-placed bollards further along can impede good cycle access.
We were able to discuss many items on the tour, such as cars parked in bike lanes, the need for dropped kerbs to facilitate access for bikes, as well as prams etc, plus the need for good cycle infrastructure on Maryhill Road. Details of the tour, as well as the map of the route are shown here . It was an excellent way to get our message across to two councillors and we look forward to meeting other councillors over the forthcoming weeks.
We have been sent this invitation. Please get yourself along if you live or work in Clydebank or travel along the affected route:
Hello,
You have received this email as you might be interested in the proposed changes to the A814 Glasgow Road/ Dumbarton Road in Clydebank. This area is included within the Connecting Clydebank project. Further details on the project can be found on the Council’s website – http://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/business/regeneration/clydebank-town-centre-projects/connecting-clydebank/
Following a public consultation on the sketch design in December 2016 and the feedback received from the community, the Council together with Sustrans have been progressing the design. A Final Draft Design has now been produced and we want to share this with all stakeholders and get your views on the proposals.
You are therefore invited to a drop-in consultation event to be held on Tuesday, 12th September 2017 between 3pm and 8pm in Clydebank Town Hall. Just come to the venue at any time between 3.00pm and 8.00pm – officers will be on hand to discuss the project and answer any questions you may have and get your feedback on the proposals.
Details of the event are on the attached flyer. Leaflet Sept Consultation Final Please share this within your wider network of contacts.
I hope you can make it along.
Regards, Davina
Davina Lavery, Regeneration Officer
Regeneration, Environment and Growth, Council Offices, Garshake Road, Dumbarton G82 3PU, 01389 737597 or 07815 705755, davina.lavery@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Our friends in the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain are holding their AGM in Glasgow this year, see: https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/news/2017/07/20/save-the-date-embassy-agm-in-glasgow-16th-17th-september
The weekend is full of cycling safaris developed by our very own Andy Preece as well as lots of cycling discussion and activity plus a get-together for food and drink.
The event is being held at the Whisky Bond, co-locating with Cyclehack which starts on Friday evening.
Sunday 3 September – Lanarkshire Circular
To round off the longer summer season rides we will take a trip into the countryside to the south and east of Glasgow, taking in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Glassford. We will then ride around some woodland paths in Chatelherault Country Park. After lunch at Chatelherault’s café we will move on to Strathclyde Country Park and the new cycle infrastructure at the Raith Interchange. From Uddingston there will be an opportunity to return to Glasgow along NCN75 or to take an alternative route to see some of the new motorway-related cycle infrastructure around Baillieston, followed by a return into Glasgow along Edinburgh Road.
Meet 10am Bell’s Bridge, Congress Road, Glasgow.
Rated: 
As an added, delightful extra, Jimmy Keenan, is offering soup, sandwiches and blethers at his home in Uddingston. If you wish to join him towards the end of the ride please help him to know how much bread to buy in by e-mailing him at: jadeekee@hotmail.com
Raith Interchange cartoon by @cartoonsidrew
One of our members has sent in this link to a reasoned article from today’s Guardian:
Yes, the nights are drawing in so it’s time to check out those lights for your bike, but don’t forget all the things that are on from now through into September. We have told you about some of them and there is detail to follow on others, but here’s a summary – get them in your diary and get out to them on your bike: Continue reading “The nights are drawing in but lots to do as September approaches”
We reproduce below the submitted text of a Herald newspaper Agenda item, written by GoBike member, Bob Downie, and published in the Herald today. It is just possible that the car owning populace of the land might not like this article, so if you agree with it then please get your letter of support into the Herald now! Bob has written the item in a personal capacity but we are pleased to publish the views of GoBike members if they are generally in line with our aims. The printed text, as in the Herald, is given here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15483256.Agenda__On_street_parking_should_not_be_at_the_expense_of_cycling_infrastructure/
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“When on your bike, how many times do you hear the phrase “get off the road!”, followed by a barbed statement along the lines of “roads are for cars and you can get your toy onto the pavement”? The answer is more often than many of us would like. Being the mature adults that we are, we sadly shake our heads and cycle on. It is to be hoped that the holders of such ideas will in time pass on to the great motorway in the sky, and be replaced by a younger generation more used to the idea that one’s transport mode depends on the journey, walking, cycling, driving or public transport as the circumstance dictates. We can dream.
However, even enlightened urban car owners consider that they have an absolute right to park on the street outside their property. As a campaigner for improvements in the cycling environment in Glasgow, I keep bumping up against the refusal to install any cycling infrastructure because it could only be built at the expense of on-street parking. This factor, possibly more than any other is the primary reason why we do not, and possibly cannot, have good quality, protected cycle lanes in our fine city.
The desire to park on the road close to one’s property is perfectly understandable, but let us step back and ask the fundamental question, what is a road and what is its function? The online Oxford English defines a road as “a wide way leading from one place to another, especially one with a specially prepared surface which vehicles can use”. The Collins dictionary offers “a road is a long piece of hard ground which is built between two places so that people can drive or ride easily from one place to the other”. However, the most important definition is the Road Traffic Act 1988 which states “a road physically should have the character of a definable route, with ascertainable edges, and that leads from one point to another to enable travellers to move conveniently from one point to another along that route”.
The essence of all the above definitions is that a road is constructed route that people can use to travel by vehicle from one place to another, the RTA of 1988 adding the term “move conveniently”. What is conspicuously missing from any definition of “road” is that it is a place to store your priv2ate property. Now call me picky, but what is a car if not private property?
It thus seems that we cannot have the network of safe, connected cycle infrastructure in Glasgow that we so urgently need, because of the priority given to allowing people to store their private property on the public road. I have no fundamental desire to stop parking where there is room to do so without impeding traffic, but cyclists are every bit as much traffic as are motor vehicles and it is wrong to deny them safe, segregated routes by preferentially prioritising parking. Glasgow, like all urban areas, needs a cycle revolution. The pent-up desire is huge but until safe infrastructure is created the desire will never be satisfied for the many would-be cyclists intimidated by sharing roads with motor vehicle.
So, on-street parking is fine, but should be given the lowest priority and allowed only after the needs of all traffic, including cycling, are satisfied. Roads are routes to travel on and not places to store personal property. I say, “Get the parked cars off the road” and allow the cycle traffic to flow.”
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We have been sent the following e-mail. Please attend the event if you can and respond to the consultation to ensure that we get a good quality Queens Park to City Centre cycle route. We understand that there is some opposition to the route continuing directly down Gorbals Street from The Citizens Theatre and the developers of the land opposite the Citz. The Theatre seems happy to have buses and trucks rumbling past but does not want bikes gliding along in front of their building, while the developers apparently want to extend their ground and have private parking for the new housing on Gorbals Street! The very opposite of active travel!
“From: “Maclean, Allan (LES)” <Allan.Maclean@glasgow.gov.uk>
Date: 18 August 2017 at 12:05:54 BST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: FW: SOUTH CITY WAY – PUBLIC CONSULTATION (29 August 2017)
To: Strategic Plan for Cycling transport sub-group members
SOUTH CITY WAY (Queen Park Station to Cumberland Street section)
As you may be aware, South City Way is a proposed active travel corridor between Queen’s Park and the City Centre. South City Way was the winning project in last year’s Community Links Plus funding competition organised by Sustrans and the Scottish Government. The Council attracted £3.25m of external funding towards the scheme, with the Council also contributing £3.25m. Details of the project can be found by visiting www.glasgow.gov.uk/scw.
Two public consultation events were held during the bid stages of the competition concerning concepts for the route. Since the winner’s announcement last summer, the Council has been progressing preliminary design work for the route and designs for the Queen’s Park and Queen’s Park Station section were published last May at a public event on Victoria Road. It is now intended to publish design proposals for the next section, from Queen’s Park Railway Station to the Cumberland Street junction. Once again, a public event is planned and anyone can drop-in to speak to Council Officers, design engineers and representatives from our funding partner Sustrans. The design proposals will also be available on line at the above webpage, following the event.
Details of the drop-in event are as follows:
DATE/ TIME: Tuesday 29th August 2017 from 3pm to 7pm
VENUE: Govanhill Housing Association, Samaritan House,
79 Coplaw Street, Glasgow G42 7JG
Further consultation events will be held in the future, as the plans for new sections of the route develop.
If you require any further information, or cannot make the event and wish to send us your comments, please contact us via email at sustainabletransport@glasgow.gov.uk or by phoning 0141 287 9171.
Allan Maclean, Project Officer
Technical Services, Land & Environmental Services
Glasgow City Council, 231 George Street
GLASGOW G1 1RX, Phone 0141 287 9038