Strathclyde Cycle Campaign
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!”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!!
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!”
Today, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and a global coalition of pro-cycling organisations are publishing an open letter calling on governments attending COP26 in Glasgow to commit to significantly increasing the number of people who cycle in their countries in order to reach global climate goals quickly and effectively.
The world needs much more cycling if we are to combat climate change. Without quicker and more determined action by governments worldwide to cut transport carbon emissions, we will be dooming present and future generations to a world that is more hostile and much less inhabitable.
Continue reading “Open letter: Global coalition calls on governments at COP26 to boost cycling levels to reduce carbon emissions and reach climate goals quickly and effectively”
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.
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.
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.”
Glasgow City Council have put their planned closures of cycling and walking routes around the COP26 security cordon out for what they are calling “consultation”. The link to their Section 11 Order is here. This means that we now all have an opportunity to submit our representations or objections, giving our grounds for objection if so.
Continue reading “ACTIVE TRAVEL LANES NEEDED IN FACE OF COP26 ROUTE CLOSURES”