There's a large printed banner hanging from a lamppost at the start of Meadow Place Road opposite Tesco. First one of these I've seen. Is this a new campaign?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Give me cycle space" banner
(18 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Interesting. Big in London.
Started as LCC thing. CTC and cycle? (Forget their name*) got on board recently. Mainly focussed on English council elections as far as I can tell.
* the ones who are supposed to link up cycle campaigns.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Cycle Nation.
I believe that Space 4 Cycling is a partnership with the individual local campaigns, so maybe it's been done via Spokes?
Like SRD, my understanding is that it's concentrating on the local elections so not that relevant here this year. However it's not a bad message to have at any time. Shame it doesn't say Pedal on Parliament on the back...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Oh no, hang on scratch all that. 'Give me Cycle Space' is Cycling Scotland's campaign to ask all motorists nicely to give children cycling the space of their outstretched arms when they overtake. Not the same thing at all
Posted 10 years ago # -
My mistake. Sorry.
On why these two campaigns are so profoundly different despite not dissimilar names: http://deceasedcanine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/space-for-cycling-more-radical-than-you.html
Posted 10 years ago # -
It's a Cycling Scotland campaign. In addition to the TV adverts that some of us may have seen, individual schools can take part - in an effort to increase cycling to that school. Generally, these banners are put up in the vicinity of a school that is taking part in the campaign, along with some other media efforts to ask parents not to run over people's children and a visit to the school by a cycle stunt team. Nothing that actually makes cycling to school any safer though.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I've seen that campaign on the rear end of Lothian buses. The poster showed children cycling on a road with cars. Where I live hardly anyone lets their children cycle on the roads. A few cycle on the pavement.
So the poster showed a situation (child and car sharing road space) that simply doesn't realistically occur. I'm sure drivers were confused to be exhorted on how to act in a situation that they never come across.
It's the worst type of tokenism - paying for a poster campaign rather than actually changing the way we move around cities. And what would the KPIs be for the campaign? How could they ethically measure the average passing space given by motorists to child cyclists?
Posted 10 years ago # -
IWRATS - they ask drivers whether they remember the campaign and whether they are now more considerate when passing child cyclists. Obviously, people aren't exactly queuing up to tell an interviewer that they don't remember it and that they aren't any more careful when passing children on bikes. So, successful campaign...triples all round!
Posted 10 years ago # -
They also ask parents whether the campaign has made them more willing to let their children cycle. If I recall correctly, the results from the latest evaluation showed that they mostly weren't...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Ah the infamous "give me cycle space directly proportional tot he length of my arm" campaign.
My uncle has quite long arms and does a good King Louie impression. Assume he gets quite a lot of cycle space.
Posted 10 years ago # -
given the length of most kids arms this seems akin to encouraging drivers to perform punishment passes every time they overtake a kid. :-(
See bike think horse seems a much better idea.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"given the length of most kids arms"
I think the drivers were 'supposed' to realise that the passing distance is the distance between fingertips, but...
"See bike think horse seems a much better idea."
Yes, except (as noted previously) it's not as though drivers tend to respect horse much either!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yes, except (as noted previously) it's not as though drivers tend to respect horse much either!
True. The further through the statement the driver gets the better. We're luck if they "see bike" to ask them to get as far as thinking often seems implausible.Posted 10 years ago # -
These are up near Blackhall Primary school too. And the first thing I thought when looking at it was the same as others, "Those are short arms". I doubt many people are thinking 'fingertip to fingertip' and quite frankly that's not enough even then.
A better image would have been of a cyclist and car, with a ghost outline of the car in-between them, with "here" on the real car and "not here" on the ghost one.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I think that could be a really powerful image Focus, and would show drivers just how much space the Highway Code says should be given to cyclists.
Admittedly it might work better for countries where they drive on the right
[here] [not here] [bike]but even having: [bike] [not here] [out here] could work.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Its not fantastic but there are worse campaigns!
The message should be that I need AT LEAST fingertip to fingertip to cycle safely in. Its not a bad rule of thumb. Arms length from the kerb, arms length again. That's way more space than most cycle lanes give us.
I accept I am a bit (well a lot) of a short arse, but when I explain this RoT to kids at Bikeability, we measure up and the kids arms are usually a similar size to mine!
Posted 10 years ago # -
There's a radio version of this running (heard on XFM Scotland, ahem, Paisley today). Has a child's voice come from the left speaker only asking to watch out for kids there and 'give them cycle space'. Trust it's not running on any AM stations ;)
Keith Brown said he wouldn't apologise for investing in 'education' and cited the Nice Way Code as an example. This is better than that, but still basically a waste of money IMO.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Ad back on telly too.
Posted 10 years ago #
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