Cycling demonstration towns and cities...

Robspedding

Bristol has been named Britain´s first Cycling Demonstration City...Do live, work or regularly visit one of the Cycling Demonstration Towns already up and running? Have you noticed any improvements to your cycling experience? And if you were in charge what would you implement in your Cycling Demo town/city? Or is it just stuff and nonsense?

ChrisLS

...i think it is good that cycling is now being reported and written about in the media..cycling seems to be an "in" subject at the moment even a presenter on breakfast TV admitted to being a cyclist. Cycling is becoming more mainstream.

What we don't need is more dodgy cycle lanes. What we do need is a campaign to train people to cycle safely on the road, which is Bikeability ofcourse. We need more campaigns to make drivers aware of cyclists, but that said I think things are beginning to head in the right direction...

clu

I would try to encourage more local businesses to offer more facilities to enable people to have an alternative and credible choice such as to commute to work by bicycle. Such as shower and changing facilities and secure cycle stowage, I know it's not easy in some cases but it's the simple things that really do make a difference. I'm fortunate I have that, as I prefer to use my bike to get to work in place of the car.

Also I feel advertising for the cycle to work scheme could be better, as most people don't seem to be aware of it. Perhaps if more people realised that buying and owning an affordable bicycle through their employer leads to so many benefits (Better health, more money in your pocket, quicker to travel in some cases, etc...) more people would opt for a bike. This would lead to healthier, happier and more productive employees and the city/town might prosper more.

In Bristol I have noticed more people using bikes as a means of getting around in the city which in my opinion is good, but I wonder if it's more down to the cost of travelling going up (i.e. fuel prices) rather than through a personal preference.

NWLondoner

I have mixed feelings towards this.

At present you get some tw*t who puts decides on putting in cycle lanes in some of the most stupid places.

Even the goods ones are not kept clean of glass , etc..., or potholes or enforced (illegal parking).


The cycle to work scheme is so hit and miss.

My employers has it but is limited to Halfords and capped at £1000. Even then we have NO safe/secure facilities to leave your actual bike. Ok if you have a cheap commuter then fine but I would not leave my bike anywhere there.

IMHO if ALL Road users were re-educated and trained about the differences of each others mode of transport that may be a better solution. The attitude of many drivers is that if you stray out of cycles lanes you have invaded their territory. Also RLJ are a pain in the a**. They risk both their and others safety and give ALL of us cyclists a bad name.

I would encourage hefty tax breaks for employes who install proper and secure cycle storage facilities and maybe even showers.

zaynan

I think I sit in the same camp as NWLondoner - yes the cycling demo town thing is good - anything for cycling is good - or is it?..

The money put up for these schemes is a drop in the ocean of what is really needed.

We ought to remember that cycling is part of the 'answer' to congestion, pollution, sutainability etc etc. Public Transport also has a large part to play. Both needs huge inputs of capital to 'do' them properly and the money needs to keep on coming to make sure they stay good and improve/expand with demand.

The funding for Cycling demo Towns I feel allows government to sit back on their laurels and think, that's that and dust off their hands.

If we just get a whole raft of poorly thought out cycling infrastructure (can you really call road paint and signs infrastructure?) as a result (and I beleive a great deal of town/city centre cycle infrastructure is just paint and posts) then it might not be the great opportunity we think it is. I guess some might say I'm ungrateful!

HarryB

My biggest issue is that so few companies and organisations do anything to get people cycling. I work for a very large county council (Durham County Council) and they don't run the Cyclescheme. If 'the government' don't support it, why the hell should companies?

Tom Butcher

I live in Derby - I actually do some of the kids bikeability training for them which is funded by the demo town money so I've got to declare an interest. The positives are that lots of schools now have bike sheds, lots of year 6s have had training and at a minority of schools the school has got on board and you can see the difference it has made to the numbers cycling to school.

I don't really see what other benefit there has been - when our club wrote a letter of support for the renewal of the bid nobody had really noticed any difference at all but decided to support it because we thought the schools element was worthwhile and we'd rather have the money in Derby than not. There's been a lack of real involvement of cycling organisations and I know a few people are quite disillusioned because of that and other issues but I wont speak for them.

geoff_ss

It's not cycle tracks that are needed to encourage more cycle use in towns and cities so much as secure parking.

I'm in the same club as Tom though I don't have much to do with it these days but I live 10 miles north of Derby and what stops me cycling into the city for shopping is that I'm reluctant to leave my bike anywhere while I do so. I commuted right through Derby every work day, Summer and winter for over 20 years using mostly ordinary roads and cycle tracks where they were quicker and easier but I only rarely stopped off to shop because of the security issue. And as for going on my bike to go to the cinema etc ... forget it.

Fortunately as we both qualify for free bus passes now that's what we use mostly.

Geoff

oldnewbikercp

I live near Lancaster ,the only positive thing I have seen is more people about on bikes ,the rest is poor ,crap bike lanes ,antagonistic motons and poor security provision.A lot has been made of the cycleways that opened howevr they appear to be prone to mugging incidents and are also shared with walkers which is a slightly less lethal mix than with cars.

Diogenes

Darlington is a demonstration town and the local council organizes some very good rides. The road surfaces in Darlington are however atrocious. There are cycle tracks and some are better than others. The organized rides have been going on for years so are not a consequence of the status. It is a bit difficult to see exactly what they have done.

D

TheBoyBilly

I've got to say the posts from Geoff and Tom in Derby make me appreciate how lucky we are in Brighton. And it seems to be gettting better for cyclists every day.

vbc

As a regular at the South Glocs cycle forum, I got an invitation to attend the first evening forum of Bristol's CDC working group.

A lot of the Bristol & South Glocs people who will be running the programme were there plus a senior guy from Cycling England, who have their hands on the purse strings. There were some presentations and feedback groups talking about things like infrastructure and bikeability. The Cycling England guy was quite firm about some do's & dont's, particularly their distaste for 'Cyclists Dismount' and 'End of Cycle Lane' signs. They were also quite adamant about the completion of the Yate spur of the Bristol - Bath cycle path. It appears that they will probably get some quick hits running fairly quickly, such as a cycle lane up Park Street. There was also an example of the probable hire bike on show.

I hope to attend any future working group sessions, partly to represent the BUG where I work on the north Bristol fringe, so if I have anything of interest to report, I'll let you know.

synchronicity

Here in Spain, I must say that drivers are taught how to treat cyclists very well...

Firstly, drivers must moderate their speed when overtaking & allow adequate & safe room. Minimum separation distance is stipulated as 1.5m. Strangely enough, this distance is generally adhered to... but I've never had a car brush past my shoulder here... not in 3 years of cycling.

If there is no room, they are simply not allowed to overtake. No squeezing past. A group of cyclists is considered a single vehicle as it were. They cannot make partial overtaking maneuvers... it's all or nothing. This can mean they have to crawl behind cyclists at times... i.e. they just have to lump it! :P

Regarding solitary cyclists, if there is room, and it's a single lane road, they MUST move either partially or completely into the oncoming lane putting THEM in danger, not the cyclist. This applies even if it's a continuous white line! This is possibly the best rule of them all... Incidently, this law was only introduced after Spain lost 2 professional cyclists in one weekend when a car went to overtake them, aborted, and swerved back into the cyclists. (they were said to be like the next Indurains... or so said the instructor)

I don't know about the UK, but in the land of OZ, 99% of drivers would not even dream about crossing a single or double white line under any circumstances... it might as well be an imaginary wall in the road... which is stupid if you can plainly see that no one is coming towards you.

There are other rules as well pertaining to overtaking cyclists when descending windy roads (your basically not allowed to :twisted:), and that a group of cyclists entering an intersection is treated as a single unit & have special privileges in that respect...

Failure to overtake a cyclist (or group of cyclists) properly results in a €1500 fine!! :shock:

I suspect the other cycling friendly countries like France and Holland have similar road rules... I do think that in this respect, the UK, USA & OZ could learn something from them.

Driver awareness starts with driver education... you have to educate the whole society. The time for that is during the licensing stage -when it matters most (drum it into them when people are trying to pass the theory & practise tests). I am of the opinion that ad campaigns don't really function as well as they should... people already have their licenses and are unwilling to change. Sure it's a delayed effect, but then so is everything when you're attempting to change people's behaviour.

NGale

Exeter is by all accounts a cycle demonstration town....and in my view a demonstration of how NOT to do it. cycle paths finish with no reason and throw you back onto the roads, I work night shifts and it isn't safe to cycle around the main pathways by the river at night because they are unlit. the main routes through the town are still busy at night and I have nearly been taken off my bike by one of my own ambulance service colleagues! (believe me I complained about that one!)
for some inexplicable reason bollards are put in the middle of cycle ways meaning we dodge with death on a regular basis. paths are badly maintained (although I am working on that one with contacts) and some of the drivers in this city are just plain nutters when it comes to cyclists!

lloyd_bower

synchronicity wrote:

....
Here in Spain, I must say that drivers are taught how to treat cyclists very well...

I suspect the other cycling friendly countries like France and Holland have similar road rules... I do think that in this respect, the UK, USA & OZ could learn something from them.

I'd agree my limited experience of cycling in Spain, have found drivers to be considerate.

I've found NZ to be far worse than UK, both the general respect for cyclists and the standard of driving.