Last night some of us heard the announcement that Edinburgh is probably getting a Cycle Action Plan, meanwhile in Glasgow there has been an announcement that the city is to become the first local authority in Scotland to introduce mandatory 20mph speed zones across the city. I wonder which will be the biggest boost for utility cycling?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Meanwhile in Glasgow...
(27 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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IAM (Movement for Advanced Drivers) says: “Everyone supports 20mph zones. As long as they are only on residential streets with local traffic and not on main roads there should not be any congestion." (??? - can you guess what was said? I think they mean fast roads should stay fast)
“Most of these zones tend to be self-enforcing and don’t need mandatory measures. It would be different if the lower limits were going into areas where there is abuse of the speed limit.”
Cyclists were not mentioned by Herald as a potential beneficiary.
As Glasgow is media centre for much of our TV in Scotland then anything that helps cyclists is to be welcomed. (ie if there was more cycling in streets they might pick up on it. Plus Glasgow has even lower car ownership than Edinburgh I think)
Posted 14 years ago # -
It's funny, the IAM are probably the most palatable of the motoring lobby but they still come out with some rubbish (or at least, some utterly car-centric rubbish, which is probably what the members are paying for!)
The problem with 20mph limits that don't include distributor roads is, obviously, that people cycling around a city need to ride on distributor roads to get to their destinations. I'm often quite surprised by how much of Edinburgh is 20mph limit, but on my current commute, for example, it only gets me through the first and last few minutes, and the bulk of the journey is up Leith Walk and then over the Bridges and down by Cameron Toll.
Bus lanes are what really save us in Edinburgh.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Posted 14 years ago # -
I agree with Dave on this, the problem is that the way the law is currently structured 20 mph Zones have to have traffic clamming, which then makes them expensive. What we really need is simply a 20 mph speed limit which is enforced, then everyone would feel safer.
Posted 14 years ago # -
It's crazy really. I'm actually quite a fan of full-width bumps (because they work) but the sane way to schedule it would be, change the limit if it needs to be changed, and then if people do not obey, look at enforcement / physical measures.
Posted 14 years ago # -
38. This view was confirmed by a number of witnesses. Duncan Pickering of the Institute of Advanced Motorists told the Committee about research it had conducted which shows that, for about 80 per cent of people who own a bicycle but do not use it often, fear of the roads is the single factor that stops them doing so. This view was noted in many individual written submissions. Ronald Stewart, for example, wrote that—
“On all of our rural roads (trunk roads as well as minor roads), speed and volume of motor traffic can be a major disincentive to cycling.”
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/ticc/reports-10/trr10-04.htm#_ftn13
Posted 14 years ago # -
Interestingly Duncan Pickering has been actively trying to recruit cycle trainers recently, the IAM is keen to see more on road cycle training.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Although to be fair the IAM have a relatively enlightened view of cycling (relatively!), I'm not sure how far we should go down the route of having the motoring lobby sponsoring cycle training...
Posted 14 years ago # -
“
Glasgow City Council has backed proposals to pedestrianise parts of George Square.
The local authority approved an £8 million to £10 million plan to remove vehicles from large parts of the area as part of a development strategy for the city centre.
All parking spaces will be removed from the square to reduce traffic in the city centre, while the east and west sides will be fully pedestrianised.
“
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/glasgows-george-square-pedestrian-plan-21445492
Posted 4 years ago # -
GCC at least has some precedent. This was Buchanan Street in 2016:
but this was Buchanan Street in about 1955:
Posted 4 years ago # -
Includes bicycle
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
The £29.5million project includes the construction of a new pedestrian/cycle bridge over the River Clyde between Water Row in Govan and Pointhouse Quay in Partick, a connection that will re-establish the historic link between the two areas.“
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19727469.govan-partick-bridge-work-start-30m-project-january/
Posted 2 years ago # -
https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2022/11/11/glasgows-urban-transport-revolution/
Overview of Glasgow's projects that aim to make city more liveable. Wish list in part as City Metro light rail seems to displace some heavy rail.Regards
Grander in scale is the proposal for a Greater Clyde Metro. The Metro proposal calls for Glasgow’s suburban railways to be converted to electrified light rail with high frequencies. Glasgow has the UK’s most dense suburban rail network outwith London, but low frequencies of 2 trains per hour make it painful to use. Compare that to the subway, where a 4-8 minute frequency means there is no need to check a timetable before travelling.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
The brutal degradation of the St Rollox works happened in tandem with the decision to level most of Springburn as a means of reducing slum housing. Having cleared the families from their ancestral neighbourhoods, rather than improve their homes, they drove a dual carriageway through its heart.
This destroyed any slim chance of rebuilding what had once been there and all done to facilitate easier car journeys from the suburbs of Bishopbriggs and Lenzie.
What was left of Springburn along with the last habitable shells of Sighthill and the Red Road flats in neighbouring Balornock and Barmulloch had a re-birth of sorts at the beginning of the new millennium. This was when they were chosen to host hundreds of asylum-seekers under the UK dispersal scheme. And so, one marginalised and downtrodden people came to replace another.
Initial tensions soon evaporated as local people came to understand just what their new neighbours had suffered to reach Glasgow. The initial healing followed by the emergence of the refugees and asylum-seekers as a thriving community has brought new life to Sighthill.
Maggie Lennon is director of Bridges Programmes which helped facilitate the integration of the new families into Springburn and Sighthill. She’s thrilled by the new bridge over the M8. “The people around here are really excited about the bridge,” she said. “What they’ve done with the landscaping and housing spreading out from the bridge is wonderful.
“
Posted 1 year ago # -
I suppose this is the sort of thing you do when you trumpet an annual active travel budget of £150m, but have no intention of ever inconveniencing a single motorist.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I don't think that's fair at all tbh. We all might wish for more on road provision, but link projects like that are vital to building a coherent network and if you're going to build them they might as well be nice looking.
Like, what, you'd prefer they just slap together some concrete and tarmac to create a basic, grey, built-in-the-60's-tier switchback? Sighthill bridge looks like the sort of thing they build in the Netherlands - more of it I say.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I like agreeing with Morningsider.
He brings experience, knowledge, insight and sound analysis to many things.
But, on this, the call goes to Yodhrin.
It’s certainly unusual - for Scotland/UK - and not ‘cheap’, but it’s much more than than a cyclepath/bridge.
It’ll seriously encourage ‘active travel’ to and from the city centre.
Posted 1 year ago # -
It is no doubt very pretty (£19m of pretty to be precise) but unless something has recently changed, for onward travel to the city centre, we'll be mixing it with traffic on a 4-lane A-road with zero cycling provision? Hmmm
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Frenchy Maybe. From Streetview, the nearby crossing is a toucan, it appears, albeit to nowhere (legally) at the time of recording (2021), and not on the desire line, natch.
As it stands, from the cycling perspective, it's a bit like building the Falkirk Wheel while having no apparent plans to reopen the canal past Wester Hailes?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Good to see there is a bit of life left in CCE yet!
I actually think this is an important project, linking a deprived community to the nearby city centre. However, it is a job half done, dumping pedestrians and cyclists into a fairly unforgiving environment on the city centre side.
I am all for beautifying the built environment, but this is a bridge over a 10-lane motorway, with an access beside a major Royal Mail depot. Something cheaper and more functional would probably do, as I doubt people are going to linger here. It's not simply a choice between some 60's hell hole and this. Concrete structures can be beautiful too.
Cash saved could have been spent on connecting infrastructure - creating a true route to the city centre.
I suppose my main point is the need to get away from seeing active travel infrastructure as a series of projects (large or small) that link X and Y. Rather we need to start with the idea of a network that allows travel throughout the city. That should be built out over a defined period of time. There are no "launches", nothing is really finished until it is all finished. Functional materials will do, so the network can be built to the greatest extent within the time and money available.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Yes
Though perhaps politicians are only interested in photo-ops…
Posted 1 year ago # -
"Something cheaper and more functional would probably do"
... which is what was there previously. I've no problem with this project per se, just the lack of joined up-ness at the south end and the apparent pretense in the PR blurb that it's an entirely new link. Maybe they're hoping people have forgotten in the 3 years of construction when there was no link (cue cyclist & pedestrian diversion on aforementioned 4-lane A-road...)
Posted 1 year ago # -
“
The final delivery plan for the City Network sets out how we'll look to add almost 270km of safer, segregated active routes for walking, wheeling & cycling to 300km of existing routes. Five phases of design & construction are anticipated by 2030
https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=30155
“
Posted 12 months ago # -
“
It's never too late to learn how to cycle!
Cllr @AngusCMillar has been taking cycling lessons to become more confident on a bike
With the emerging City Network of safe, protected cycle infrastructure, getting around Glasgow by bike has never been easier.
Hear more below
“
Posted 10 months ago #
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