Cycle the Bears Way with GoBike on Sunday 07 February

Bears

GoBike’s ride this Sunday includes the Bears Way, A81 Cycle Route.  The route has been the subject of lots of opposition from local motorists and numerous articles in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald, including one on page 5 of today’s issue, reporting that a car driver drove into another car parked in a parking bay apparently because of the cycle way on the other side of the road! (For some reason the article does not appear on the website.)

20mph speed limit for Glasgow – under threat of very slow implementation.

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Glasgow City Council’s Sustainability and the Environment Policy Development Committee meets on Wednesday 03 February to consider the report instructed from Land and Environment Services (LES) following the petition submitted last year requesting the implementation of a 20mph speed limit for most of the roads and streets within the city.  Hopefully, if you live in Glasgow, you signed the petition, which was set up by one of our GoBike! members.

LES have now submitted their report to the committee and it falls far short of the remit they were given!

The original remit given to LES is here and the full report for the committee is given here The 20mph report is Item 3 on pages 71 – 76 (yes, Councillors get a lot of reading!).  (You will see that Item 2 is the latest draft of The Strategic Plan for Cycling, which you might find of interest.)

We have now written to the committee members to request that they ask LES to meet the terms they were instructed to report on.  Our letter is here: SE Pol Dev Cttee letter 310116

If you care about the 20mph limit being implemented within the next few years, rather than over 40 years as per the current programme, please write to the councillors on the committee, particularly if one of them represents your ward.  They are listed at: http://glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/committee.asp?bodyid=8&bodytitle=Sustainability+and+the+Environment+Policy+Development+Committee

 

Edinburgh: proposed Cycle Way under threat! Please act!

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Today’s Herald (30 Jan 2016) contains this article on page 9: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14241308.Cycleway_will_put_us__out_of_business___warn_Edinburgh_traders/

GoBike! has replied to the article to quote reports that trade for these businesses will increase, not decrease, with a cycle way outside, see: GoBike Letter Herald 300116

In the Glasgow area it was the A81 Bears Way cycle route that has been threatened and now in Edinburgh, it is the radial A8 route along Roseburn Terrace and up to Haymarket that is under threat.  These are the very sort of cycle facilities we need to have if we are to increase cycling and active travel to the aspirations set out by our politicians and others.  If you want to see cycling increase where you are, please write in to the Herald today!

Bears Way, A81: GoBike! letter in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald, please support

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Motorists in Bearsden and Milngavie have been vociferous in their opposition to the Bears Way A81 cycle scheme and it was agreed at this month’s GoBike! committee meeting that we would write to the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald in support of the scheme.  It’s not a perfect scheme, but it’s a brave step by East Dunbartonshire Council to put a segregated route down a main road, ie where people cycle, rather than shunt us off to a circuitous side road route.  It’s also imperative that the scheme continues, both northwards to Milngavie Railway Station and south to the Glasgow boundary.

Our letter was in the edition published yesterday, 28 January, but it seems that letters are not regularly included on the paper’s website.  Our letter is here on the News page of the GoBike! website and here is a pdf of both our letter, as published in yesterday’s paper plus an interesting one from a motorist, who now sees that parked vehicles are slowing him down!  Hurray!  MBHerald letters 29th January2016

If you live, work and/or cycle in the area and support the scheme please write to the M&B Herald; this issue is not going away and those who oppose it are sure to be sharpening their quills and filling their inkwells right now to get their views into the editor.

Do you walk or cycle? Then vote! The GoBike Hustings on 16 March will help you decide.

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Elections for Holyrood are on 5th May, and to help you decide who to vote for we have an impressive array of prospective MSPs lining up to take part in our Hustings, with chair Pennie Taylor on Wednesday 16th March, 7:30 pm, at the Admiral Bar on Waterloo Street.  Speakers confirmed so far are:

  • Patrick Harvie, MSP, Green Party
  • Robert Brown, Liberal Democrat Party
  • Sandra White, MSP, Scottish National Party
  • Cat Boyd, RISE

We are awaiting responses from both the Conservative and Labour parties, but these are the people who, if elected, will be deciding how our money is spent and if we want good cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, we need to let them know.

Please put the date in your diary now, and tell your friends and colleagues.  We’ll be posting more information on how to register to attend (we think it will be busy) and even submit your question for the panel in advance.

 

Knightswood: GCC propose a ban on parking at road junction

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Not before time, Glasgow City Council are proposing a ban on parking at the junction of Priory Road and Knightscliffe Avenue, just opposite the Aldi and M&S Stores just off Great Western Road.  Our letter of support to this sensible move is here on our consultations pages.  The consultation is open until Friday 22 January, so please do add your support to this move in the right direction.

What to do next Sunday? Cycle Glasgow with GoBike!

 

Wondering what to do next Sunday, the 10th day of Christmas?  Come along to the GoBike! ride, Sunday 3rd January, 10am from the north end of Bell’s Bridge and explore some of the new, and not-so-new, cycling infrastructure in the south of the city, see: https://www.gobike.org/about-us/cycle-rides

The picture shows Councillor Alastair Watson, not quite on the bike, at the grand opening of the South West City Way, which runs past Scotland Street School.