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Last night some member of PoP where throwing about ideas and we came up with the Sir Chris Hoy Cycle Highway Network. This morning I have had a couple of phone calls from the Edinburgh Evening News who are keen to get behind the idea. There will be a photo call at 2.45pm outside Robbie's (corner of Iona St and Leith Walk) if you would like to come along.
Obviously if this idea is to work, then the infrastructure has to be Gold Standard, anything less would be a disgrace.
Anyone who can make this please come along! Bit short notice, but strike while the iron (or gold) is hot...
So sorry I can't be there. As longtime forumists know, I moved house rather than cycle up Leith Walk everyday! Have fun everyone.
I'm afraid I couldn't make it but thank you for getting on to this.
Will try to be there
Hoof of approval for the idea, but alas I'll be at the work.
Sorry, I'd make it if I could - have to give a presentation at 3:30pm (and need to get ready etc). Sorry :/
Will be there +1, will shout out on twitter
Bad time for a lot of folk I'd say - I too will be at work and in core hours I can't even claim a late lunch or early finish...
I would just like to point out the time was not my decision it is given by the EEN, it is also moving towards being at the back of 3pm, which is in the nature of these things.
Don't worry if you can't make it, just tell everyone you can about the idea and lobby your councillors to do something about it... ;-)
I'll try and be there. Take a break from dissertation writing :)
I didn't say it was your decision.
Like others will be stuck in work.
But sending my support mentally.
I'll be in a team meeting. *joy*
I'd definitely second what Kim said about letting your councillor know you support this. The feed back we've had is that they really do take notice to emails and letters on these subjects - probably more than anything else
Hope it goes well - I shall be stuck at the dentist's (beats Kirst's team meeting...)
Kim - What is the latest on the timing?
"Dear Cameron Rose,
After the success of the Pedal on Parliament and the great job done by the breakfast bike ride, we've had a great year for cycling following the tour successes as well as the London 2012 campaign.
We want to ensure that there is a good and safe future for cycling in Scotland and to that end the Pedal on Parliament organisers have come up with the following idea: http://pedalonparliament.org/a-golden-legacy/
The Sir Chris Hoy Cycle Highway Network. I think this is a fantastic idea and would love it if it was something you felt you could get behind.
Sincerely,
REDACTED "
all I could do in the 5 mins between this deadline and the next!
Brilliant idea from the PoP marketeers!!!
I heard on Twitter that people were moved off Leith Walk as a car wanted to park in the space they were occupying...
@(name removed to protect the innocent)
'EEN bike lane photoshoot moved off Leith Walk so car can park in space where we were posing. How ironic'
Although the people in the car didnt make it at all obvious, they had a disabled permit, and the space we were in was permitted disabled parking.
Im sure if they'd just told us that, we'd have moved a lot sooner.
Cycle Super Hoyways? <groan> I wonder if he'll eschew the rival bids by Glasgow & Edinburgh to tour in an open topper and call for decent action on better road design and management. Then perhaps take an idea from Lance Armstrong and have a ride with Chris and Dave/Graeme for anyone who wants to join him.
[Devil's Advocate]
Susatrans already provide a cycle network which receives government funding and we would not wish to fund competing networks which are aiming to do the same thing*
[/DA]
Yes, I know they're not the same idea. You kow they're not the same idea. Politician sees easy get out.
Nice publicity for the issue though, definitely a good idea attaching Hoy's name to the whole thing. Would be even better if he got behind it, but I suspect modesty may prevent him saying, "Yes, let's have a fab cycle network, and name it after me me me!"
Indeed - we're really talking about urban networks which is where the Sustrans NCN falls down (unless a nice railway line goes somewhere convenient). It's a bit confusing because we're talking 'nationwide' as in 'not just Edinburgh' but that can be read as 'nationwide' as in 'goes across the nation a la NCN'. Must find a way of clarifying that.
We're currently toying with something combining POP postcards, Olympic stamps and gold postboxes to try and put the pressure on councillors on this one.
I need to get myself back in the fold...
please do :-)
Worth pointing out that the response I had on "why the new Leith Walk won't feature any significant improvements for cyclists" included the gem that people can just use the Water of Leith cycle path instead...
From the PoP page:
"In Edinburgh – Chris Hoy’s home town – there’s a huge opportunity to revamp Leith Walk with safe, separated cycle lanes ... it appears that City of Edinburgh Council won’t even consider this as an option."
So what's the plan? How are we going to get this sorted? We had 1/3 of the councillors at the bike breakfast, and lots of words said!
To do list:
1. Ideally we need to meet each-and-every councillor, individually, and make sure they understand why they need to support this.
2. We need to protest and raise publicity for this issue. PoP style!
3. We need local residents to write to their councillors to demand the same things - door-to-door leafleting/talking might be a start? Show them the choices.
4. We need to think of responses to the most obvious issues people will ask (e.g. parking).
5. Plan B: Direct action? (but I generally would prefer to keep it positive and "Pedal on Parliament"-like). If someone else is seriously injured or killed then maybe a switch in strategy wouldn't be unreasonable - but I'm still preferring the positive vibe from PoP :)
When's the deadline for all this? - I've not really got a handle on the 'process' the council are going through. How much influence can we really have - has a unit in the council already got plans and are just waiting for the "consultation" to finished before starting?
Should we have fall-back demands (e.g. lower speed limits)? So we can gain something from this work.
There's two elements - the longer term, national one (Glasgow's got a lot of catching up to do...) and the short term opportunity of Leith Walk.
For Leith Walk how hard would it be to organise something like a flash mob of cyclists (dressed in Team GB kit? Bradley Wiggins sideburns?) up Leith Walk? Or even to build a guerilla lane? You might struggle to make an impact during the festival though.
I know Greener Leith are doing a lot of the groundwork on this so they're definitely the people to talk to...
@lionfish - on the question of parking, here's a post on how cycleways and parking can coexist http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/cycle-tracks-and-on-street-parking/ (following some discussion here earlier)
Thanks sallyhinch!
The festival etc was partly why I was asking about what the time-scale is for council decisions...
The page you've linked to makes sense. For Leith walk I guess the summary would be: Traffic isn't heavy enough to need dedicated bus lanes, but do need space for bus stops (so buses can pull in off the carriageway).
A two-way bike-lane on one side might be the most efficient use of space (it wouldn't even need to be the width of one lane!).
So what date would be good to organise around? I guess just after the end of the festival (I should prob go find my diary :) - but ~31st August?
edit: or is that too late - I've no idea how much time we have...
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