Category: GoBike

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Almost October, time for the GoBike monthly ride – the Kilmacolm circular

 

Yes, the first Sunday of the month is the day for our intriguing and somewhat offbeat ride out around Glasgow.

Andy Preece will be leading this ride; further details of GoBike rides are on the Rides page of our website

Sunday 1 October – Kilmacolm Circular
We shall head out mostly on minor roads through Paisley, Linwood and Houston to Kilmacolm. After lunch, we’ll return to Paisley via the NCN75 path to visit a few more of the town’s attractions to be seen along the way, before continuing onwards to Glasgow.
Meet 10am Bell’s Bridge, Congress Road, Glasgow.
Ride on paths Ride on quiet roads Significant hill climbing
Rated: Go Bike star rating Go Bike star rating Go Bike star rating

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Glasgow Councillor Tour 3, part of Partick East/Kelvindale with Conservative Councillor, Tony Curtis

GoBike member, Johnston Orr, trying to cycle along the Colleges Cycle route on Highburgh Road towards Byres Road.  Note the car encroaching on the very narrow door opening zone and the car parked right across the bike lane!

On Saturday 23 September, GoBike convenor, Tricia Fort, and Johnston Orr met one of Partick East/Kelvindale’s 4 councillors, Tony Curtis, Conservative, for a short tour of the ward – but lots of discussion.  Tony is very keen that all road users obey the Highway Code and relevant legislation, behave responsibly and respect each other, follow guidance when it comes to staying safe on a bike and he is keen to get Police Scotland to address parking and speeding infringements.

Our route was from outside the bar/restaurant 1051GWR on Great Western Road at Gartnavel, up to Highburgh Road and along into Hyndland and Dowanhill. The points discussed concerning cycle infrastructure were:

  1. The possibility of a cycle link from the western end of Devonshire Terrace through to the front of bar/restaurant1051GWR; this would allow people to cycle from Devonshire Terrace along the existing footway, if it were cleared of vegetation and widened, to access Hughenden Lane or Shelley Road.
  2. The reduced hours of operation of the bus lanes on Great Western Road and the lack of any cycle infrastructure on this major artery into the city centre.
  3. Hyndland Road from Great Western Road to the top of Clarence Drive; this is a main route, as Tony pointed out, and yet there is no cycle infrastructure.
  4. The poor condition of many roads, and many cycle lanes, in the city, and in this ward.
  5. The positioning of the cycle lanes on Hyndland/Highburgh Road from Clarence Drive: currently the cycle lanes are on the outside of parking bays.  The door opening zone is too narrow, only 0.5m rather than a realistic 1.0m, and many cars were poorly parked, encroaching on the narrow door opening zone.
  6. Irresponsible parking, such as right across the cycle lane.
  7. The confusion of the signs on Dowanhill Street; had there been cycle lanes here previously?  (And why was one car parked facing the wrong way on a one-way street?)
  8. The apparent contradiction between Glasgow City Council’s policy and action on one-way streets, particularly those streets that are changed from two-way to one-way ostensibly to allow parking on both sides, with respect to maintaining access for people to cycle.  The references here are: Glasgow City Council’s Strategic Plan for Cycling, page 28 referencing their use of Transport Scotland’s design guide, Cycling by Design which states in section 5.1.5 on page 52, under Contra-flow Cycle Lanes, that “The default position should be to permit two-way cycling on one-way streets.”  This is very pertinent for areas such as Dowanhill, where two-way streets have been made one-way under new parking regulations, and for Partick, where new parking regulations – and new one-way streets – are about to be introduced.  This means some significant detours for people who wish to cycle.
  9. GoBike’s view is that cycle infrastructure should be provided where people cycle and our analysis of Strava and other cycle-counting data is here on our website.  Great Western Road, as a main artery into the city centre, has significant numbers of people cycling along it, as does Byres Road, on the edge of this ward, but neither has any cycle infrastructure.

Partick East/Kelvindale is currently the home of the most cycle-interested councillors in the city.  All four councillors have responded to our invitation to walk or cycle round their ward!  There has been a nil response from many other wards.

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Glasgow Councillor Ward tour 2, Garnethill in Ward 10 with Green Councillor, Christy Mearns

The photo, taken by GoBike committee member, Peter Hayman, shows Councillor Christy Mearns and GoBike member, Tim Pearson, having just crossed St George’s Road and about to tour Garnethill on Friday 22 September.  Tim’s brief report of what was a lot of discussion and a detailed tour of the area is here: Garnethill Ward Bike Tour 22 Sept 2017

Details of all our tours are here on our website: https://www.gobike.org/campaignsconsultations/projects/glasgow-councillors-summer-autumn-2017

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An update on #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17

Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s been more than a week already since #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 and after such a phenomenal response it has mostly spent reading and re-reading Tweets, whilst staring at a spreadsheet, trying to figure out how best to put them together in to the story of Glasgow’s cycling infrastructure.

As you might expect, most of the submissions were negative.  If you’re familiar with cycling in Glasgow you can probably imagine them; pictures of potholes and flooding, of cars parked in cycle lanes, of busy roads with no infrastructure and of barriers blocking access.

Examples of bad infrastructure

Perhaps more surprising was that around one in eight of the Tweets were positive.  With so few examples of truly segregated cycling infrastructure in Glasgow, you sought them out and held them up as examples of what you need.

Unfortunately it’s not all good news.  Poor maintenance, flooding, and in some cases bad design decisions all meant that the negative feedback for segregated infrastructure outweighed the positive more than 2-to-1.

Whilst the Council might believe that they are ‘leading the way in the UK regarding implementation of segregated cycle facilities‘ the results of #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 would suggest there’s a way to go still.

So what’s next?

First up, there will be another blog post here shortly focusing on the details of some of the worst examples from #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 and how they relate to Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016-2025.

A similar approach will be taken when communicating this year’s submissions to Glasgow City Council, tying them in to the Strategic Plan for Cycling to help to identify areas which need increased focus.

Finally (for now), where specific safety issues were identified, these will be raised directly, and individually, with the Council to ensure that they are rectified.

Whilst all this is happening, the Tweets for #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 have (so far as possible) all now been added to the CycleStreets.net.  Have a browse; seeing them mapped across the city really highlights how much work people put in on the day to cover as much of the city as possible.  So thanks again to everybody who took part.

 

 

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Glasgow’s Woodside “mini-Holland” plus other schemes get the go-ahead

Cycling is about to return to St George’s Cross with the latest announcement of funding from the Scottish Government, see these articles from the Herald and the BBC.  Let’s hope it all comes to fruition:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15542741.Cities_braced_for_cycling_overhaul_after_major_cash_injection/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41309510

It’s strange but the headline in the paper edition of the Herald is less anti-cycling than on-line.  Let’s hope the motoring lobby don’t spoil it for us.

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Save the date – 29 November for the GoBike AGM, with guest speaker Anna Richardson

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”

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Glasgow Councillors tour their wards with us, Tour 1 Maryhill and Hillhead

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.

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An Introduction to the Scottish Government’s Active Travel Task Force

 

Daisy Narayanan, Deputy Director for Built Environment at Sustrans Scotland, reports, in this briefing from Transform Scotland, on the activities of the recently-formed Active Travel Task Force.
“Background
In 2016, two segregated cycle routes were voted down – the second phase of the Bears Way from suburban Milngavie to the boundary with Glasgow alongside the busy A81; and the Holmston Road lane in Ayr, which was voted to be ‘ripped up’. Both provided better journeys for all and were two of Scotland’s newest substantially segregated cycling routes. In Edinburgh the city centre East-West route faced substantial opposition, and Scotland’s first ‘shared space’ scheme in Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire continues to generate heated debate. These projects brought into focus the barriers that Local Authorities and other delivery bodies face on the ground delivering projects that impact on the urban realm and status quo of drivers.
Active Travel Task Force
At the Active Travel Summit, Humza Yousaf MSP, Minister for Transport and the Islands, reiterated his commitment to the CAPS vision of 10% of journeys to be made by bike by 2020, as well as his commitment to seeing segregated, safe cycling infrastructure being delivered to help deliver that vision. The Active Travel Task Force was subsequently set up provide recommendations to tackle barriers to the delivery of such projects.
The remit of the Task Force is to identify and make recommendations to the transport minister on ways to improve delivery of ambitious, inclusive walking and cycling projects in Scotland, helping to create high quality places and communities that support health and wellbeing.
The Task Force is made up of representatives from the public sector and the third sector:
  • Roy Brannen, CEO of Transport Scotland (Chair)
  • James Fowlie, Director of Integration and Development at The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
  • George Eckton, Partnership Director of Sestran, representing Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs)
  • Derick Murray, Director of Nestrans, representing the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS)
  • Daisy Narayanan, Deputy Director of Sustrans Scotland, representing third sector active travel delivery partners (me!)
Evidence Gathering 
The Active Travel Task Force issued a call for evidence earlier this year, seeking responses from individuals and organisations on the barriers to successfully implementing high quality walking and cycling projects. The evidence gathering focused on five particular projects:
  • Bears Way, East Dunbartonshire
  • Holmstone Road, Ayrshire
  • East-West route, Edinburgh
  • Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire
  • Broad Street, Aberdeen
The Task Force wanted to receive evidence not just from people and organisations who are pro-cycling and walking, but also from those with wider concerns, and even vocal objectors to these walking and cycling projects. Fifty-five written submissions were received, along with two oral evidence gathering sessions from the Local Authorities who delivered the five aforementioned projects; consultants; and community groups both supportive and opposed to the projects.
At the forthcoming Ministerial Summit on active travel, the Task Force will present the findings of the call for evidence and work to date. The final report with recommendations on future actions will be presented to the Transport Minister Humza Yousaf in December 2017.
Main themes emerging
  • Barriers need to be identified – local, national, legislative and cultural – however, we need to remember that there have been positive steps and we don’t need to start from scratch.
  • There is a lot of ongoing work with the Planning review, NTS and STPR refresh, Climate Change Plan. The timing of the Task Force work should be integrated with these.
  • A lot of discussion on ‘active travel’ – but what does it really mean?
  • There seems to be agreement that narrative needs to change from walking and cycling to quality of life/quality of place. A powerful way to give politicians (both local and national) support would be to approach it from the public health angle.
  • There needs to be more visible leadership at both the national and local levels.
  • We need to look at future technologies with respect to urban mobility and integrated smart cities rather than assume that car ownership/the way cars are used will remain the same.
  • Community Engagement: How does one capture ALL voices? How do you reach the middle ground and avoid the loud minority groups?
  • Evidence: Stats vs. stories. Businesses need to be better engaged.
  • Processes: Transport and Planning need to be more joined up. Processes need to be simplified.
  • Standards of design and quality of infrastructure – do LAs need more clear guidance?
Conclusion
Since February, the Task Force has been in ‘listening’ mode. We have been careful not to jump to conclusions or start to write recommendations before we hear from everyone. It has been a thorough and meticulous process so far and laid the foundation for some intensive work over the summer and early autumn. The Task Force is clear that we want practical, short, medium and long term recommendations – ones that will make it easier for delivery agencies in the short term to deliver these key projects and in the long term create a transformational change.
We can all agree that without segregated, coherent, attractive and direct cycle and walking routes, we can’t unlock the clean, green and healthy transport we need.”
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Today is #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17

#GlasgowCycleInfraDay17
It’s Friday!

It’s September 8th!!

It’s #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17!!!

 

Yes, the day has finally arrived for us to take to the streets of Glasgow and show the world exactly what our cycling infrastructure is like.  Some of it will be good, some of it will be bad, and we need to see it all so we can show it to the Council and help to make ours a true Cycling City.

Keep your camera with you today and when you spot any cycling infrastructure that you want to highlight (good or bad) – or if you spot somewhere that’s crying out for infrastructure it doesn’t have yet – take a picture and Tweet it with the hashtag #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17.  Don’t worry if you don’t have Twitter, you can still take part by emailing your pictures to us at CycleInfraDay@gmail.com.

You’ll be able to watch the gallery build throughout the day by keeping an eye on the hashtag on Twitter (you don’t need an account for this – just click this link), or by following the Twitter account (@CycleInfraDay).

Remember, this is supposed to be an easy way of documenting a day in the life of Glasgow’s cycling infrastructure.  So please be sensible; don’t go dashing across busy roads to get an ‘action shot’, or exploring the collapsed section of the cycle lane along the Clyde to show the damage after the weir jammed last week.

Most importantly… have fun!

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#GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 is coming tomorrow!!

Just one more sleep until the return of #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17 to our city!

#GlasgowCycleInfraDay17

With the Scottish Government this week announcing their commitment to double the budget for Active Travel in 2018/19, making sure your voice is heard when that money gets spent has never been more important.  Tomorrow you can shout it out loud.

It’s as easy as snapping a photograph of Glasgow’s cycling infrastructure and posting it on Twitter with the hashtag #GlasgowCycleInfraDay17.

Take pictures of the good stuff, what we want more of, as well as the not so good stuff.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a Twitter account; just email your pictures to us at CycleInfraDay@gmail.com and we’ll upload them for you.

So, get your cameras ready, charge your batteries and load up your memory cards… for tomorrow we shape the future of cycling in Glasgow!