A short issue as the festive season approaches. Glasgow is still following up its Spaces for People projects with Traffic Regulation Orders, including Royston Rd and Cambridge St. The latter looks better than last year’s proposed plan but there are still questions about how the council, and its partner agencies, follow guidelines and share information. For example, compare the Cambridge St/Cowcaddens Rd junction in the TRO and Avenues Plus plans. Both Pitt St and Raeberry St TROs and the Avenues Plus consultation finish tomorrow.

There’s an early Christmas present for some tenement dwellers as more Bikehangars are installed in parts of the city.

1: Current Consultations

1. Cowcaddens Road & Dobbie’s Loan (Avenues Plus)

2: Consultation Feedback

1. New Bikehangars for Glasgow
2. Glasgow Active Travel Forum
3. South Lanarkshire Cycling Partnership

3: Proposed Traffic Calming/Traffic Regulation Orders

1. East Dunbartonhire TROs
2. Glasgow City Traffic Calming/TROs
3. North Lanarkshire TROs
4. Renfrewshire Traffic Calming

1: Current Consultations
(in date order for responses)

1.1: Cowcaddens Road & Dobbie’s Loan (Avenues Plus)

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: The length of Cowcaddens Rd from Cambridge St to Caledonian Uni. A section of Dobbie’s Loan between N Hanover St and Canal St.
Subject: Part of the Avenues Plus project, which also covers Duke St/John Knox Street and S Portland St (which had a consultation event in May 2022). Cowcaddens Rd and Dobbie’s Loan both link to N Hanover St and have a joint consultation. The plans for Cowcaddens Rd look promising, especially the radical redesign options for the Port Dundas Rd junction (in featured image at top). The Dobbie’s Loan plans also add two-way protected lanes (especially useful for students at Glasgow Caledonian Uni and its nearby halls). However, the lanes stop short of the trunk road junction, which leads under the M8 to Craighall Rd and Port Dundas. The boards include an updated Avenues phasing map (now with Block D added). A very short notice consultation event took place on 31 October.
Website links: Consultation landing page, survey, boards (PDF), plans (PDF), 3D panoramas and 3D fly-through videos.
Deadline: 25 November 2022.

2: Consultation Feedback

2.1: New Bikehangars for Glasgow

Council: Glasgow City.
Area: The following postcode districts: G3, G4, G11, G12, G14, G20, G31, G40, G41, G42, G44 and G50.
Subject: The latest expansion to Glasgow’s on-street secure bike parking. A letter from Glasgow City Council was put through doors in the areas near the new locations. As with previous rounds in the last few years, these are Bikehangar units by Cyclehoop (who run the service to rent out spaces). They’re usually positioned on the road or pavement build-outs. Installations at 70 sites are due to be done by mid-December 2022.
Website links: Cyclehoop’s Glasgow announcement page.

2.2: Glasgow Active Travel Forum

Council: Glasgow City.
Subject: GCC give with one hand but take with the other. A GoBike member’s enquiry about the ATF got a response about its role helping develop the Active Travel Strategy and other projects but then this:
“All of our ongoing projects involve engagement and consultation at specific stages. There is also now an Inclusive and Accessible Design Forum, which provides certain user groups with the opportunity to feed back on inclusive design issues in projects.
We therefore do not propose to continue with the Active Travel Forum, and will update the website accordingly.”
This is disappointing for all the groups who were involved with the ATF during Anna Richardson’s time at the council. GCC do offer a small olive branch:
“We are giving consideration however to occasional information-sharing and feedback events with communities and stakeholders on our overall progress on active travel, and will consider resources for this in 2023. We recommend you continue to engage with the Council’s active travel project development via engagement exercises and consultations, and we thank you for your continued support of active travel policy and project development in the city.”
However, this doesn’t allow for the networking and planning that voluntary groups and other organisations could do through the ATF.

2.3: South Lanarkshire Cycling Partnership

Council: South Lanarkshire.
Subject: Happily, while Glasgow stops its forum, South Lanarkshire Council is restarting its cycling partnership later this month. There’s a change of chair (following a retirement) and South Lanarkshire’s first Green councillor, Kirsten Robb, will join.

3: Proposed Traffic Regulation Orders

3.1: East Dunbartonhire TROs

Areas: Bearsden, Bishopbriggs, Milton of Campsie, Kirkintilloch and Torrance.
Subject: Orders to redetermine footways and parking restrictions (including near the Bearsway).
Website links: East Dunbartonshire TROs (at foot of Roadworks page).

3.2: Glasgow City Traffic Calming/TROs

Areas: City-wide.
Subject: TROs – Cambridge Street links Sauchiehall St to Cowcaddens Subway station (via the Cowcaddens Rd underpass) and beyond to Garscube Rd. The TRO sets up a move from the current Spaces for People layout towards a permanent Avenues layout (a.k.a. Underline Phase 1). Last seen in Digest 101, Item 2.2, it seems there have been changes in the TRO (but the previous ‘CA’ plan is still linked on the Avenues webpage?). The southern end seems to keep the bike-only lights across Renfrew St. Also, the lane is continuous across Hill St. However, it still breaks at the pedestrian crossing and has the big ‘shared space’ gap at the northern corner with Cowcaddens Rd (which doesn’t show crossing from Avenues Plus plans, above). These may be due to accessibility concerns raised by blind people at the council’s Inclusive and Accessible Design Forum. It has only met a few times but GoBike hasn’t made it to all of the meetings.
Pitt Street (a.k.a. ‘Holland St Avenue’) links protected cycle lanes on Sauchiehall St (Avenue) and Waterloo St (West City Way/Connect2). This TRO only sets restrictions but the council’s plans for Pitt St (PDF) are shown too. Also, we got a detailed response from the council’s Sustainable Transport team justifying their decisions. Deadline: Friday 25 November 2022.
Raeberry St – Mount St/Simpson St junction with local one-ways and a cycling only restriction (part of Connecting Woodside). Deadline: Friday 25 November 2022.
Royston Road – another Spaces for People route, which links Royston and Blackhill (including the proposed new prison site). Deadline: 14 December 2022.
London Rd – East City Way phases 6 & 7, past the velodrome (as seen in Digest 113, Item 1.4). Hopefully in time for the UCI Cycling World Championships in August 2023. Deadline: 16 December 2022.
The 20mph Zone (Carmunnnock Rd) and Barras North (Calton Village Development) TROs were made on 3 November (to come into effect on 16 December).
Traffic Calming – Linkwood Dr, Drumchapel; Wardie Rd, Easterhouse. 
Website links: Glasgow City Proposed TROs, Glasgow City Proposed Traffic Calming Schemes.

3.3: North Lanarkshire TROs

Areas: Throughout North Lanarkshire.
Subject: Order to introduce timed or total parking restrictions on streets in over a dozen towns and villages.
Deadline: 14 December 2022.
Website links: North Lanarkshire Live Consultations (also links to Boundary Commission Scotland review of UK Parliament constituencies).

3.4: Renfrewshire Traffic Calming

Areas: Kilbarchan, Houston, Howwood and Kilbarchan Road, Bridge of Weir.
Subject: “We are looking for feedback on the potential traffic calming measures prior to a final report being prepared.” Also, there is a consultation on guardrails at a junction in Howwood.
Website links: Renfrewshire village traffic calming proposals and Bowfield Road/Midton Road junction, Howwood (‘Have your say’ page also links to Boundary Commission Scotland review of UK Parliament constituencies).