Councils don't give a fuck about cyclists -how to make them?

This week we have Southwark Council closing one of the main cycle routes in their area for a year, the city of London, proposing to divert cyclists out of their area, and Twickenham converting a bus lane to another roadway. -adding an advisory bike lane that even they state in their press release will be of no fucking use at peak hours -that is, school run and commuting times.

What to these things have in common?

1. Local councils that don't give a fuck about bicycles. 
2. Last minute discovery of plans about to happen.
3. Last minute objections by cyclists
4. Councils unwilling to accept they've fucked up or make any changes.

This happens again and again. Only one thing appears to stop it: large scale protests which generate negative press reports about the council and trigger the electorate contacting all their councillors.

This works because councillors need to realise that cycling facilities are not just for "a few cyclists", but are for their electorate, the businesses of the region -and for them themselves. If we get viewed as strange lycra-and-hi-viz troublemakers, we won't get anything.

This is not so much a safety-in-numbers story, as a strength-in-numbers.

The councils need to know the cyclists matter. TfL and Boris may have got this message, even if they aren't willing to do much about it. Addison Lee's management have the message, even if their drivers have different views.

Regional and Borough councils seem to have different views. The worst is Westminster, which resents the very presence of anyone on a bicycle in their area. The City seems, well, to have twentieth-century street models. They may say the road designs are "medieval", but that's no reason to put in 1995 road narrowing/pavement widening.

How to put in extra pressure on them:

• Public protest. Southwark and Twickenham could be targets here, with different reactions. Twickenham: some kind of mass protest outside the council house might be noticed.
• Southwark could be a site for some other experiment -what about an organised "bicycle bus" over the diversion at set times of the morning? If you don't feel safe going over the diversion on your own, wait until the  half hour and set off en-masse with everyone else who is doing it. A kind of critical mass for commuting. It might annoy some people trying to drive through, but as nobody is going to go out their way to cycle over Blackfriar's Bridge in the rush hour, it would actually reduce cycling traffic between the "bike buses". 

What about here in S. Gloucs? It has the Waltham Forest problem: so few cyclists that they really can afford not to give a fuck. Which is why they

• Block a bicycle only route to prevent motorbikes also using it -without bothering to mention this plan to the cycle forum.
• Propose new off-highway routes that mix pedestrians and bicycles in 3m of unsegregated pavement, so laying the way open to future "ban bicycle" rants in the local rags.
• Totally fuck up Shellmor Avenue and show they really do leave bicycles as an afterthought, no matter what they claim.

The Bristol Cyclists, they have their own issues (BRT2 anyone?), and need to focus their efforts there. Few of them would willingly come out to S Gloucs unless they were heading as fast as they could to nicer areas (over to Wales, the Cotswolds). Which means the council can get away with cycling facilities that at best suppress cycling, at worst make it more dangerous.

Fighting the battle here is -almost- a losing battle. Almost, because even if the residents are a bunch of fat-arsed car potatoes who would rather raise a petition to stop the one bike friendly thing the borough has done -a bus and bike only route- than use a bus or bicycle themselves.

If change is going to come from Bristol, it would have to come from the employers of the big North Fringe businesses. 

Returning to London, then, a nicer note to finish on: Londenneur's proposal for a cycling city plan. The vision the councils and TfL lack.

The Ring Road Path Series: Introducing the M32 Death Trap Crossing

We’ve looked briefly at the Ring Road Path already It’s one of South Gloucestershire Council’s “Flagship” cycle routes and was tagged ‘Route 7’ under the Cycling City Project. Unsurprisingly given its name, it runs alongside the A4174 Avon Ring Road from Hicks Gate, near Keynsham in the south (which is actually in Bath and North East Somerset) through to the Bristol City Council boundary in the vicinity of Southmead Hospital (near Kenmore Drive). It's called flagship because "fucking lethal in places" doesn't look so good in brochures. I

According to the Council the stated aim of Cycling City Route 7 scheme was:

to provide a continuous off-carriageway cycle route catering for both less experienced and more confident, regular cyclists, thereby improving access to important local businesses such as Hewlett Packard, MOD Abbeywood, University of the West of England and other public amenities and facilities between Emersons Green and Southmead Hospital.

Well, you can certainly end up in Southmead A&E, whether you work there or not. Notice how they don't say "leisure route". You don't see families on it on a weekend, not just because the ring-road is unappealling, but families won't get round it safely.



In places the path is OK. Yes, it could be wider, no, it’s not well lit or very well signed, it’s not swept very often, it gets covered with broken glass, it doesn’t get gritted in the winter, and yes it’s a shared use path so it’s used by school kids, joggers and dog walkers who occasionally seem to forget that it’s also used by cyclists but, it’s better than nothing and like we’ve already said you need to cherish the left-overs

The Ring Road path does have a few serious flaws and it's time to look at these in a bit more detail, starting with one of the major flaws. In fact it’s so serious that if nothing is done about it it could quite possibly become a fatal flaw. Probably the only reason it hasn't is that s gloucs have done so little to encourage cycling that it doesn't get used much.

Remember Sustrans? The Bristol based charity that has its roots in the first project to turn a disused railway line into one of the most highly used and certainly most highly prized and loved off-road paths: The Bristol Bath Railway Path, otherwise now known as National Cycle Network Route 4 or NCN4 for short. It’s a great route and it is crossed by and links to the Ring Road Path. Those first route builders were not some council planning department, they were cyclists who knew what was needed: a safe route with safe crossings.

Sustrans developed the National Cycle Network and produced a fantastic ‘Best Practice’ Guide’ for Council’s who are building or creating cycle paths. Most Councils have a copy and use it. We wonder if anyone in South Glos has? We doubt it. If they do it'll be used as bog paper in their loo, the one with a photo of the M4/M5 interchange on the door to keep you happy until the paper is needed.

The Sustrans Guide
contains lots of useful practical advice, all of it sensible, it’s clearly been put together by people who ride bicycles, have a fucking clue and provides an authoritative. step-by-step guide for any vaguely competent highways engineer or planner. Read it and you think how could South Gloucestershire Council fuck up so badly. And yet fuck up they do. Without the need for any guide to ‘Best Practice’ they are quite happy to lead the way in developing new and innovative ways to deliver Worst Practice. You could write the "Soglocs manual for cities shit for cycling" and sell it to other councils.

Turning to chapter 5 of the guide -which the traffic planners may not have got as far as in their arse-wiping yet, is a section on how important it is for cyclists on a segregated path (even a shit narrow one) to get over roads alive

Continuity is essential to the popularity of any cycle route, therefore the proper resolution of junction features is critical for its success.. not only must junction details provide a safe solution, but they should also exhibit due regard for all types of road user. In particular, the quality of detail and the level of priority given to cyclists and pedestrians must reinforce the perception that they are welcome in the area

Which brings us back to the Ring Road Path, Cycling City Route 7. You see, there are several junction features on the Ring Road Path that do not exhibit due regard for all types of road user. Especially not cyclists and pedestrians. Not only do they not make you feel welcome they make you feel at best unwelcome, at worse whether you are going to survive the next twenty sections. Worst of all several of them actually create a significant hazard for cyclists and pedestrians who are led there believing they are following a safe and properly designed cycle route. One is quite literally a "death trap".

The Ring Road Path meets the M32 motorway. M32 Junction 1 at Hambrook.



The junction has been extensively modified (the Council would have you believe “improved”) since it was built in 1966 and it has now become a multi lane nightmare, with some separators and bridge leftovers to amplify the problem. And now they are widening it some more, they say "to help public transport", when they mean to get a bus lane in without taking any space from the fat lazy bastards who create the traffic jams and should be on the fucking bus, while showing cyclists how we don't give a fuck about them. For some reason that doesn't appear on the diagram or in the consultations. It should have.


More soon.

S Gloucs: Cities Shit for Cycling

Citizens! The new Times "Cities Fit for Cycling" campaign targets councils like that of S Gloucs.

Unfortunately our council could not support any of the objectives of the campaign, especially that bit about providing useful infrastructure. As far as the council is concerned y\the only role of cycling infrastructure is to keep people on cycles out the way of cars -and if there is a conflict, the bicycles lose. 

For that reason, we, the People's Cycling Front of S Gloucestershire have some artwork to donate to the council, their own logo that they can stick on the vans that block bike paths.

Some people might think "will not the council be embarrassed by this?"

S Gloucs council doesn't give a fuck about bicycles. We know that because we have seen photographs of the new Great Wall of Filton! Until one of our campaign units has visited the site we can not confirm that it is real, but if it is, it actually makes the path with a 50cm dropout look good. At least that one could be ridden on a mountain bike. 

Until that coverage, enjoy our new logo. Before any outsiders complain that the word "shit" doesn't join up with the rest of the sentence, compare it to S Gloucs cycling farcilities before slagging of our graphics.