Author: Tricia Fort

There’s an exciting line-up for our AGM this year.  After a brief AGM, when we hope to get lots of people to volunteer to help with our campaigns, we are starting the run-up to the 2016 Holyrood Elections, which of course will be followed by the 2017 Local Government Elections, by looking at what sort of policies we want to see put in place.

John Lauder, Director of Sustrans Scotland, will outline how Sustrans has developed over the years and is now well to the forefront of good cycling infrastructure design, working with Transport Scotland and local government to deliver the modal shift required to make us a healthier nation.

Dave Brennan, GoBike member and Pedal on Parliament spokesperson, will outline how Pedal on Parliament has brought thousands of us on to the streets of Edinburgh each year to tell our politicians that we want more and better cycling infrastructure.

The AGM will be held on Wednesday 18 November 2015 at the Admiral Bar, 72a Waterloo Street, Glasgow.  Doors open 7pm, AGM 7:30, Guest Speakers 8pm.  Here’s a pdf of the flyer shown above: reduced GB! AGM ’15  Please circulate this to friends and acquaintances and get them to come along.

In this campaign GoBike is also working with Sustrans, Pedal on Parliament and many other active travel groups in Scotland under the umbrella of “We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote“.  There’s a new website coming soon, but in the meantime please look at the new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/walkcyclevote

Further to our recent request for more information on this scheme, which we agreed in principle, we have now been sent a detailed plan of the proposed segregated cycleway for Clyde Place, with improvements to both the George V and Glasgow Bridges.  This is, with some reservations, a good scheme, and we have responded to confirm this to the City Council.  The detailed plan and our letter may be seen on our Consultations page: https://www.gobike.org/campaignsconsultations/consultations

Glasgow City Council have informed us that the diversion route for the closed Polmadie Bridge, on the north side of the Clyde in Glasgow Green, is to be upgraded.  The rough, narrow track down the bank from the car park is to be surfaced to a width of 3m with tarmac.  There is also the potential of a planter being placed at the top of the bank to prevent car parking blocking the track.

The placing of this tarmac, which, we are told, will happen soon, does mean that there must be a diversion of this diversion for a short while!  The preferred route is option 1 and we hope this is the one that will go ahead.

We are grateful to one of the Sustrans embedded employees within the City Council for discussing this with us.

We had a query on on Facebook to ask what is happening at the southbound exit of the Clyde Tunnel.  As of yesterday, 01 September, when these photos were taken, the southbound car exit to Govan Road had been closed to allow Govan Road to be resurfaced and kerbed under a one-way traffic system.

There are, or were, two routes out of the cycle tunnel: the first is as shown above, using the pedestrian/footway gap in the concrete wall separating the road tunnel exit from the cycle and pedestrian and then going along the footway, bumping down into the road and over to the westbound carriageway at the gap in the new central reservation, where the photo shows a cluster of cones level with the front of the bus.  This approximates to the route most cyclists have taken when exiting the tunnel to go west.

The second option is to continue on the cycle path up to Cressy Street, as shown on this third photo, to get onto Govan Road going east or to use the gap in the central reservation opposite Cressy Street to get onto the westbound carriageway.

The final solution?  When we had the meeting with Andrew Brown and Steve Gray from Glasgow City Council on 10 August, their proposal, as reported in the post of 14 August, was for cyclists to cross Cressy Street, continue on a narrow, shared footway and then use 2 push-button toucan crossings to get to the opposite, ie westbound footway.  We told them at the meeting that this was impractical and since then they have gained agreement that cyclists will be able to use the Fastlink bus lanes in this area.  We await further details.

GoBike!

If your members are having difficulty then they can use the direct link below:

https://www.glasgowconsult.co.uk/KMS/dmart.aspx?strTab=PublicDMartCurrent&NoIP=1

Regards

Steven Gray, Steve.Gray@glasgow.gov.uk

Land and Environmental Services

If the link doesn’t work, please contact Steve direct, e-mail: Steve.Gray@glasgow.gov.uk

DON’T FORGET TO RESPOND TO THIS CONSULTATION BY GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL

The City Council uploaded the consultation version of the Strategic Plan for Cycling to the website: www.glasgow.gov.uk\consultations  and here’s a shortened/up-to-date version of the text of the e-mail they sent out in June:

“MESSAGE SENT ON BEHALF OF ANDREW BROWN

PROJECTS MANAGER, LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Glasgow City Council is in the process of developing its Strategic Plan for Cycling 2015 -2025. Initial consultation with key stakeholders has taken place and a draft plan has now been developed.

In order to assist in finalising the plan, a wider consultation exercise is now underway and feedback will be accepted until 4 September 2015.

A copy of the draft Strategic Plan for Cycling 2015-2025 is now available to view on our website at:

www.glasgow.gov.uk\consultations

The above site contains a feedback form which can be used to submit any comments on the draft strategy.

If you require any further information regarding the consultation process, please contact my assistant Allan Maclean on 0141 287 9038.

Andrew Brown

Projects Manager

Land and Environmental Services

Glasgow – UK Council of the Year 2015″

Consultation has been opened on a proposed 2-way segregated cycle way on Clyde Street, the busy 1-way street along the south side of the River Clyde.  We welcome what looks to be an extension of the Tradeston Route, but the drawings do not contain sufficient information for us to fully comment and we have thus requested more information.  You can see our letter and other information here: https://www.gobike.org/campaignsconsultations/consultations

There is plenty of time for you to comment; consultation closes on 21 September.  You can see Glasgow City Council’s consultations at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4216

Our colleagues at the Bike Station are organising a Bike Breakfast for commuters and others in Glasgow, with food and other goodies to emphasise Bike to Work Day.