Strathclyde Cycle Campaign
Yes, the nights are drawing in so it’s time to check out those lights for your bike, but don’t forget all the things that are on from now through into September. We have told you about some of them and there is detail to follow on others, but here’s a summary – get them in your diary and get out to them on your bike: Continue reading “The nights are drawing in but lots to do as September approaches”
We have been sent the following e-mail. Please attend the event if you can and respond to the consultation to ensure that we get a good quality Queens Park to City Centre cycle route. We understand that there is some opposition to the route continuing directly down Gorbals Street from The Citizens Theatre and the developers of the land opposite the Citz. The Theatre seems happy to have buses and trucks rumbling past but does not want bikes gliding along in front of their building, while the developers apparently want to extend their ground and have private parking for the new housing on Gorbals Street! The very opposite of active travel!
“From: “Maclean, Allan (LES)” <Allan.Maclean@glasgow.gov.uk>
Date: 18 August 2017 at 12:05:54 BST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: FW: SOUTH CITY WAY – PUBLIC CONSULTATION (29 August 2017)
To: Strategic Plan for Cycling transport sub-group members
SOUTH CITY WAY (Queen Park Station to Cumberland Street section)
As you may be aware, South City Way is a proposed active travel corridor between Queen’s Park and the City Centre. South City Way was the winning project in last year’s Community Links Plus funding competition organised by Sustrans and the Scottish Government. The Council attracted £3.25m of external funding towards the scheme, with the Council also contributing £3.25m. Details of the project can be found by visiting www.glasgow.gov.uk/scw.
Two public consultation events were held during the bid stages of the competition concerning concepts for the route. Since the winner’s announcement last summer, the Council has been progressing preliminary design work for the route and designs for the Queen’s Park and Queen’s Park Station section were published last May at a public event on Victoria Road. It is now intended to publish design proposals for the next section, from Queen’s Park Railway Station to the Cumberland Street junction. Once again, a public event is planned and anyone can drop-in to speak to Council Officers, design engineers and representatives from our funding partner Sustrans. The design proposals will also be available on line at the above webpage, following the event.
Details of the drop-in event are as follows:
DATE/ TIME: Tuesday 29th August 2017 from 3pm to 7pm
VENUE: Govanhill Housing Association, Samaritan House,
79 Coplaw Street, Glasgow G42 7JG
Further consultation events will be held in the future, as the plans for new sections of the route develop.
If you require any further information, or cannot make the event and wish to send us your comments, please contact us via email at sustainabletransport@glasgow.gov.uk or by phoning 0141 287 9171.
Allan Maclean, Project Officer
Technical Services, Land & Environmental Services
Glasgow City Council, 231 George Street
GLASGOW G1 1RX, Phone 0141 287 9038
On 09 August Bob Downie and Tricia Fort met with Councillor Anna Richardson, Glasgow City Council’s Convenor for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction. Anna, who wrote the active travel section of the SNP’s manifesto for Glasgow, now aims to ensure that it is enacted, see: https://snpforglasgow.scot/manifesto/transport/ Do please read this and help GoBike hold our new-ish council to their word.
She is not only keen to resurrect the city’s Cycling Forum, which has not met since August 2016 and for which no minutes have been issued, but to ensure that it operates with a business-like focus, to pave the way for genuine improvements in cycling. We discussed the need for good infrastructure and while she recognises that bus lanes are appropriate routes to cycle for some people, they are no substitute for segregated infrastructure that people of all ages and abilities will be confident to cycle on. We hope we persuaded her that, in the interests of economy and minimising drainage issues, that armadillos, or similar, may in places be a quick and efficient way to provide segregated infrastructure.
We look forward to working with the new council, but we won’t shirk from holding them to account.
Yes, the Women’s Cycle Forum Scotland is holding its AGM at the Women’s Library in Landressy Street, Bridgeton on Saturday 19 August from 4pm – 6pm, and men are welcome too, as well as all you women out there, who cycle or wish to cycle.
See the link above for details, and do please register if you are going, but there are 3 great speakers lined up:
You may remember that last month we posted our response to Glasgow City Council’s proposals for parking restrictions within the 20mph zone in Partick. While we support 20mph as a default urban speed limit, we do not support Glasgow City Council’s piecemeal approach. We are very unhappy that parking is allowed on both sides of relatively narrow one way streets, which prevents not only cycle lanes being provided but also prevents contraflow cycling. Indeed, it seems that some streets are made one way simply to allow parking both sides.
Glasgow City Council have responded to our letter with an e-mail that:
All this is an expensive way to do what, in our view, could be done quicker by following what we understand to be the Edinburgh approach, ie a city-wide approach.
Our 2 letters and the intervening GCC e-mail text are on our Consultations page. Please read them and do comment on further Consultations, particularly if you live or work in the areas affected.
For all motor enthusiasts the Ignition Festival takes place at the SEC this weekend and it will cause disruption to pedestrians and cyclists, but great excitement to car fans.
This walkway from Finnieston is not yet closed, but will be soon:
If approaching from the east, ie along the Broomielaw from the city centre, then there is a very informative sign for you:
The map might be displayed by Friday, who knows. All this, apart from affecting your commute or leisure trip might impede access to the meeting point for the GoBike ride on Sunday. If so, we will try to let people know but, if you do intend to come on the ride and can’t get to the meeting point, phone the contact point given on the Rides page on the website: https://www.gobike.org/about-us/cycle-rides
GoBike member, Andy Winter, posted on our Facebook group yesterday about the closure of a section of the West City Way on Waterloo Street, between Douglas Street and Pitt Street, with no alternative signed. See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gobike/ If travelling east it means either using the footway on the south side of Waterloo Street, or cycling up Pitt Street to Bothwell Street. If travelling west, the roadway may be used. Flagship cycle route? Hmm.
One of our members has forwarded this invitation for us all:
Since the launch event on 23 February, we’ve been busy with technical surveys and initial design work for the redesign of Byres Road.
A series of public events will be taking place in August to share different options. Everybody is welcome – we need input from as many people as possible to guide us to the right solution.
Please come. And please share this invitation!
More information in the flyer and text below….
What’s this about?
There’s a new Byres Road coming… funding of £9m has been allocated through the Glasgow City Region Deal to make Byres Road a great place to be. Work will start on the ground in late 2018. We have until then to do the design work – with public input – and get the necessary consents in place.
How can I get involved?
During August 2017 there will be a series of design events where we’ll share different options to balance pedestrians, cyclists, buses and traffic — and to make Byres Road a better place for everybody.
This is everyone’s opportunity to reshape Byres Road as a world-class street for businesses, residents and visitors. Come and have your say.
Drop-in design days on 14-16 August are our big focus. Initial design options will be on display, with the design team there to hear your thoughts. This is your opportunity to shape the future of the street!
Monday 14 August 1pm-7pm Hillhead Library
Tuesday 15 August 1pm-7pm Hillhead Library
Wednesday 16 August 1pm-7pm Hillhead Library
Inclusive design workshop on Monday 7 August is specifically for disabled people, elderly people and those with long term health conditions. It will be held in an accessible West End venue on Monday 7 August. Please book in advance via Glasgow Disability Alliance: admin@gdaonline.co.uk or 0141 556 7103.
Business breakfast on Tuesday 15 August is for anybody who runs or works in a business on or near Byres Road. Drop in between 8am and 10am for a chat with the design team – we’ll be at The Hill, 94 Byres Road. Help shape the proposals so that they are good for business!
To find out more about the project….
Check out the exhibitions in Hillhead and Partick Libraries for more information.
Facebook.com/ByresRoadCorners has lots of informative posts and debate.
Contact us direct at byresroadcorners@gmail.com or 07900 334110.
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Glasgow City Council are currently consulting on a Traffic Regulation Order to introduce a mandatory 20mph speed limit in a significant number of streets in Partick, see https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18127 This follows earlier proposals to “manage” parking, which introduced some new one-way streets. Unfortunately parking is still being allowed to a significant extent on many streets, to such an extent in fact that the Council refuse to allow contraflow cycling on these streets. This is despite contraflow cycling on one-way streets being the default position in the design guide the Council uses, Cycling by Design! Further details on our Consultations page and our Design Guides page. Our letter of support for the 20mph proposal includes our concerns: GoBike Partick 20mph support with concern 100717
We have also responded to on-line consultations for Glasgow City Council’s proposed Mini-Holland scheme (details were on view on 23 June), the Green Party’s ambitious proposals to update their active travel policy and the future of the Walk, Cycle, Vote campaign. We have supported a minor proposal from Glasgow City Council to control parking on Havannah Street/Duke Street. See our Consultations page for details.
We now need to hold them to it! You can read the Strategic Plan here. Here’s the text we were sent by Glasgow City Council:
| Pedal power for Glasgow as city council wins transport award for cycling |
| Glasgow City Council has been awarded for its achievements in cycling at this year’s Scottish Transport Awards. Organised by Transport Times, the annual awards is now in its 15th year and recognises excellence, innovation and progress across all areas of Scotland’s transport industry. Glasgow was shortlisted in four categories, winning Achievements in Cycling for its Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 – 2025. Glasgow’s award was received by Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction. Several key cycle routes including the West City Way (safe route largely segregated from traffic from Kelvingrove Park to Central Station) and the South West City Way (2km of urban segregated cycle route linking Pollokshields to the City Centre via the Tradeston footbridge) have been introduced. New developments already underway include the South City Way, a £6.5m segregated route from Victoria Road in the south side to Merchant City in city centre. The council project won the Scottish Government’s first ever Community Links Plus funding competition, attracting £3.25m funding. Key outcomes to date from the implementation of Glasgow Strategic Plan for Cycling include: |
We have received this news about the redesign of Byres Road:
“What’s happening with Byres Road?
We may have been quiet since the launch event in February, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening!
Technical surveys
We’ve been using our enforced silence (due to elections in May and June) to do essential survey research. A busy street like Byres Road is full of things we have to accommodate: underground pipes and cables, subway tunnel, buses, traffic and lots more besides.
All of these things are ‘constraints’ that we have to design around, and we need to know what we’re dealing with before starting to work with you, the public, to redesign the face of the street. We should finish that work in July.
Now that the elections are over and technical surveys are nearly complete, we’re almost ready to kick off our public engagement work again. But to avoid conflicting with the holiday season, we’ve decided to wait until the school holiday season is over before organising any public events.
Library displays
So, for now, we’ve put up a display in Partick Library, containing the giant map of Byres Road from the February launch event with 200 people’s comments. It’s a fascinating insight into Byres Road today, and people’s aspirations for it in the future.
The display will be moving up to Hillhead Library later in a few weeks’ time – we’ll let you know when.
Design events in late summer
Once the schools return in August, we’ll be holding a series of public design events, continuing on into September. We’ll use these to test different options for the street with you.
Dates will be announced next month in another email update like this – or you can keep up-to-date on Facebook (@ByresRoadCorners).
Over the summer we’ll also be engaging with the local business sector and specific user groups like disabled people, taxi drivers, bus companies and so on.
Overall timeline
The overall timeline for the project (see title pic) gives you an idea of what will happen when over the next couple of years. You can see it at the Partick Library display too.
Thanks for your patience. We’ll be in touch again next month!”
Please check in to the Facebook page (@ByresRoadCorners) to get direct updates.