Cycling

In this post I’m going to look at levels of cycling in Tonbridge. I grew up in Tonbridge, moved to Sheffield when I was younger, and now I’m back in Tonbridge. Things in a small town of 40k people work a little differently to things in a city of half a million! Getting to work (census 2011) Of the approximately 17k people who travel to work each day (it’s that low, of the approx 40k people, 27k people are aged 16-74 and of those only about 20k are ’economically active’). ...

Each year Sheffield does a traffic count in September and October. It includes both a cordon count and an occupancy survey for some roads and also some off road cycle routes. A map of the count locations is here and here). This document describes how it works. The data collected is aggregated into 15 minute chunks. The data has been collected since 2001, I do not know what was collected before then. Summaries of the data can be obtained from Sheffield Council by writing to them (I think it should be published on their website, but until that happens I’ll publish what I have here). ...

You just couldn’t make it up. Does car parking really count as sustainable transport? The Sheffield City Region Growth Deal includes a ‘Sustainable Transport Exemplar Programme’ with £16.3m investment for five years from 2015/16 to 2021, with £3.3million in the first year. The list of schemes funded in the first year has been announced and include things like bike paths and pedestrian crossings. The largest scheme though, at £670,000, is a “Meadowhall Car Park Extension”. You read that right, a car park extension. 19% of the annual sustainable transport exemplar programme budget this year is being spent on a car park extension. ...

Sheffield is embarking on a national pilot for running light rail trams on traditional heavy rail train track. The transport authority in charge have today confirmed that tram trains will not carry bicycles at any time. The knowledge that we obtain from the pilot will enable us to understand the technical and operational challenges involved in this project so that the concept can potentially be rolled out elsewhere in the UK - Norman Baker - May 2012 ...

During the past week Sheffield City Council have approved outline designs for the Leppings Lane junction on the A61 in Hillsborough, Sheffield to reduce congestion due to extra traffic using a new Sainsburys supermarket. The design was due to be fully approved however issues raised by CycleSheffield meant that the Cabinet Member making the decision was not happy with the provision for bicycle traffic. http://meetings.sheffield.gov.uk/council-meetings/highway-cabinet-member-decision-sessions/agendas-2013/agenda-9-may-2013 The design was however approved “in principle” and the council have offered “a future meeting to look into the cyclists’ concerns”. I’m pleased that our concerns resonated with the decision makers however I’m concerned with the attitude that an adequate solution can be found at the very end of the design process after the main highway design is complete and approved.

Are these cycle lanes? Perhaps the cycle route signs give an obvious answer? If you think they are cycle lanes then you’d be wrong. These are not cycle lanes.. These ’lanes’ actually indicate areas of danger according to information presented to the Sheffield City Council Cycle Forum. As part of the Supertram project, red surfacing and white lines were introduced to indicate to drivers how to avoid the tram tracks and to guide them onto a conventional surface. ...

This was the title of a piece in The Sheffield Star newspaper this morning reporting on a petition to Sheffield Council discussed at last weeks general council meeting. I’ve written about cycle audits in the past and Sheffield’s failed commitment to conduct them. Recently CycleSheffield members were encouraged to write to their councillors and ask for cycle audits to begin ASAP. Many many people did this and I’ve heard that the council was inundated with questions from Councillors trying to get information. ...

I attended the Sheffield City Council Highways Cabinet Committee meeting earlier in the week and asked a question about a new preliminary junction design in Broomhill. A pedestrian crossing with a mid island is being introduced along with a new slip road to allow left turns. Broomhill preliminary junction design - approved without any consideration being given to people on bicycles ...

Earlier in 2013 Norman Baker, the Transport Minister, announced the £30 million Cycle City Ambition Grant. On the 15th February guidance on applications was published for the 28 cities eligible to apply. The guidance document is an amazing publication and I believe it should be a model for how transport funding is allocated. In the introduction along the report states that across OECD members there are “ambitions for cycling are growing to move cycling to the mainstream offering it as a realistic choice for quick, reliable and convenient short journeys within cities”. It supports the idea that we are “facing declining levels of physical activity together with a range of public health impacts” and that these are “influenced in part by car dependency and sedentary lifestyles” and that there is “a significant opportunity to improve integration of transport and health”. ...

Paul Blomfield, a local Sheffield MP, has recently written an article for the Yorkshire Post entitled “Tour fires starting gun for a cycling revolution”, a reference to the news that the Tour De France will be vising Yorkshire in 2014 for the Grand Depart. This is excellent news and seems to have been well received, I’m really hopeful that the tour coming back to England, along with all the recent positive (and negative) press cycling has been getting will help to increase the number of people using bicycles. Paul says that cycling has seen huge growth in Sheffield over the past decade and that a long term aim should be that cycling should be considered for all new road schemes, a view that I strongly support and have previously stated here. Unfortunately it seems that some new schemes in Sheffield still include dangerous cycle facilities. Sheffield City Council needs to do more to protect the existing cycle infrastructure from abuse, even from the organisations we expect to be protecting it. The real crux of Paul’s article is that the government should start investing in cycle training schemes. He states that cycle training helps cyclists to be safe and confident on the roads, that cyclists don’t need to stick to the edge of the road and that using the road in a confident and assertive manner will help to keep you safe.

Castle Street cycle lane is a contraflow cycle lane on a one way street in Sheffield. It has been here since March 1997 and allows cyclists enter the city centre from the network of cycle paths on the East, avoiding some big arterial routes with no cycling provision. For the past 15 years this cycle lane has been plagued by Hackney Carriage drivers parking illegally on this cycle lane, blocking cyclists access and forcing them into oncoming traffic. This has been the case for over a decade. There is a taxi rank on the pavement side of the cycle lane, taxis often fill up this rank and overflow, parking in the cycle lane, blocking the way for cyclists.

There is a cycle lane in Sheffield on Castle Street that provides access to the city centre for cyclists who wish to avoid the arterial routes that still dominate the area. This cycle lane is a contraflow lane, it is clearly marked and has a solid white line to separate it from the oncoming carriageway. There is a nearby taxi rank and for many years taxis have been using the cycle lane as an extension to the taxi rank forcing cyclists using it into the oncoming carriageway. Any cyclist who asks them to move, or takes photo’s as evidence, is met with angry taxi drivers. ...

All data and sources for the post are available here: Google Spreadsheet This morning I saw an article on the Daily Mail website Another story about a pedestrian being injured by a cyclist breaking the law. You hear the same story repeated over and over, cyclists are dangerous, a menace on our roads, terrorising pedestrians. A lot of people are talking about the danger posed to pedestrians by cyclists but facts and figures are often missing. I suspect that this issue is being discussed by the public and media because of the increased use of non-segregated cycle facilities that permit cyclists to use the same pavement as pedestrians. These put cyclists and pedestrians in close proximity which will lead to more conflict.

BikeBoost is a fully-supported cycle-to-work challenge working in partnership with employers and local authorities, to increase the number of journeys to work regularly made by bike. http://www.bikeboost.org/pages/about My employer in Sheffield has been invited to take part in Sheffield Bike Boost 2012. It involves a partnership between Sheffield Council, Bike Boost and local employers to help increase the number of people cycling to work by giving employees the chance to try out cycling to work with no commitment. Each person will be given 121 cycle training, maintenance advice and will be loaned a bicycle with tools, lights and panniers for 4 weeks.There is an optional purchase of the gear at the end of the 4 weeks.