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.
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.
Cycle parking is one of the topics in this Digest – the bike park inside Cadogan Square multi-storey car park (pictured, above) says something about the state of current facilities. Also, it contrasts with some of the points in Glasgow’s latest consultations; including about where cycling really sits in the transport hierarchy.
As shared paths are blocked around that big climate conference, there are question marks about whether the message on sustainable transport will get through. Drafts of two major strategies could set the tone for Glasgow in the next decade – both the Active Travel Strategy and Transport Strategy just happen to be out for consultation 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.
There is obviously quite a lot happening around Glasgow just now as well as a few consultations each for East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Argyll & Bute.
Forthcoming consultations:
Glasgow Transport Strategy: Policy Framework – following on from previous consultations last year.
Join us on the GoBike feeder ride from Strathclyde Country Park to the start of the Global Day of Climate Action march on COP26 on the 6th of November. We are riding along a safe route, suitable for all ages and abilities, at a pace where no-one will be left behind. We plan to pick up folk on the way at the following meet points:
09:15 Strathclyde Country Park Sports Centre 10:00 Blantyre Train Station 10:25 Newton Train Station 10:45 Cambuslang Rosebank Bridge 11:10 Dalmarnock Bridge Underpass 11:30 Glasgow Green McLellan Arch Noon Kelvingrove Park
At the march we plan to join Pedal on Parliament’s ‘Cycling Bloc (sustainable transport)’ where we can tell the world that THIS MACHINE FIGHTS CLIMATE CHANGE.
To help us get an idea of how many biscuits we need please visit our Facebook Event and tell us if you are going to come along.
There are six feeder rides in Glasgow, if you are coming from a different part of the city. Also, should you becoming from even further afield there should be a ride you can join. Information on all the rides being organised can be found out here from Pedal on Parliament.
Join us on Sunday, 10:00, for a 15 mile tour of the south and south-west of Glasgow. We meet at the north end of Bell’s Bridge and if you don’t know that part of the city too well or haven’t seen the changes to the cycle infrastructure or just want a bit of fresh air before the rest of your Sunday, then this is the ride for you.
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:
You’ll notice some changes to this Digest to make it quicker to read (and for your author to produce). This has been dictated by circumstances (lack of holiday cover). However, it will act as a pilot and some aspects may be retained longer term.
This slimmed down version of the Digest is based loosely on a ‘listings’ directory and removes the (usually empty) ‘Forthcoming consultations’ section. In future, if anything is forthcoming it will be mentioned in this intro, as follows.
Forthcoming consultations:Liveable Neighbourhoods pilot areas – consultation expected within the next month or so.
