October 2013 – Newcastle Cycling Campaign

General responses to traffic orders

30th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

First rule, if in any doubt, ask! Just contact us PRE-POLICY STATUS Please note that this page is a live document. It is aimed at council engineers and anyone designing cycle infrastructure in and around Newcastle, Tyne and Wear. It is our experience with council officers that has helped us put together this webpage. Watch out for policies that will result from this informal page. Our policies, once developed and agreed, will be listed here. Principally speaking, we are in agreement with UK design guidance CID LTN 2/08 and would like design engineers and planners to use it to a[…]

The Dutch are coming

29th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

Newcastle’s Banqueting Hall will “turn orange”, as Dutch officials will teach the region on the subject of designing transport inclusively for the bicycle at a conference chaired by Christian Wolmar on 5 November. An excellent learning opportunity has been organised for city bosses: the ‘Love Cycling Go Dutch’ conference series is coming Newcastle. Cllr Nick Forbes has confirmed his attendance. The conference has been pulled together collaboratively, including a huge effort by many volunteers, by the Dutch Embassy, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle University and Newcycling. Part of the conference is a highway design get-together between Dutch and local council engineers[…]

Campaign urges city chiefs to show support and learn from abroad

27th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

After Newcycling’s warning to council bosses, the group now offers solutions too. The Dutch Embassy and its partners including Newcycling invite decision-makers and practitioners to a one-day conference of learning from the Dutch, chaired by Christian Wolmar. An excellent learning opportunity has been organised for city bosses in the form of the ‘Love Cycling Go Dutch’ conference. Cllr Nick Forbes has confirmed his attendance. However the general sign-up rate by Newcastle Councillors is low. The Cabinet functions of Children Services (Cllr Kingsland), Investment and Development including Transport (Cllr Bell), Communities (Cllr Stephenson), Adult Services (Cllr Dunn) have not confirmed attendance.[…]

Workshop sessions – briefings

27th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

Back to event page click here Back to programme page click here 1. Reducing road danger and sustainable safety • Divera Twisk – SWOV (Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research) • Ton Hummel – Principal Road Safety Engineer What is sustainable safety? This concept is largely unknown in England so Divera Twisk from the Dutch National Institute of Road Safety (SWOV) will explain what this concept is, its key principles and how it became the approach to achieve road safety in the Netherlands. Ton Hummel, currently working in Bristol will give his practitioner’s’ viewpoint. They will facilitate a discussion with[…]

Think Bike Workshop – Love Cycling Go Dutch

27th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

Invite-only event – Dutch and local council engineers will discuss different approaches to bike infrastructure design and planning. This workshop is part of Love Cycling Go Dutch. How can Dutch principles for bicycle-inclusive road planning be used for a Newcastle traffic situation? That is the objective of the Think Bike workshop. In Newcastle the bicycle connection from Town Moor to the city centre will be investigated, with a focus on the viaduct over motorway A167 and the roundabout of Claremont Road and the slipways of the motorway. Location on googlemap 08.30 Observation of rush hour at the roundabout of Claremont[…]

Love Cycling Go Dutch Newcastle Conference Programme

26th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

5th November 2013, 9am – 5pm Chair: Christian Wolmar, Transport Journalist Back to event page click here 9.00-9.30 Registration and refreshments 9.30-9.50 Welcome • Councillor Margaret Wood – Lord Mayor of Newcastle • Fred Olthof – Head of Economic Department, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands • Councillor Nick Forbes – Leader, Newcastle City Council 9.50-10.10 Keynote Speech • Lynn Sloman – Transport for Quality of Life 10.10-10.30 How cycling became a top political priority in the Netherlands • Jan Ploeger – Provincie Zuid-Holland 10.30-11.00 Refreshment Break 11.00-11.20 The Economic Benefits of Cycling • Philippe Crist[…]

Mark reports from Sydney

25th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

Sydney : Going Dutch down under This story is part of our youReport series. We picked this up on twitter. Another one after Bruce McVean from Liveable London. Oh, twitter, what would bike campaigners do without you? This time it’s Mark Wagenbuur – you can read his excellent blog Bicycle Dutch or follow him on twitter @BicycleDutch. Mark kindly gave us permission to use the two photos… holiday snaps from the Down Under, not from his native Netherlands. And if that’s not enough, there is a full blog post on his website A trip to Sydney, Australia. Mark’s tweets accompanying[…]

Getting to the core of 1Core (cont)

20th October 2013 NewCycling Consultation replies

If you were put out by the 300+ page document, but were prepared to read something, here it was: Cycling pp138-141, click here. Read more about the 1Core here CORE CYCLING POLICY Introduction The core policy, above, reads okay at first sight and is no doubt well-intentioned. To avoid later queries and possible heartache, we’d really like to ask what “wherever [sic.] appropriate” and “promoting cycle improvements” means. And we note that Newcastle, after some to-ing and fro-ing, now once again agrees with us that the city centre North-South route (aka ‘Great’ North Cycleway or Atkin’s red route) is[…]

Communicating and Debating Ambition and Changes

20th October 2013 Claire Uncategorized

As part of the delivery arrangements of the City Cycling Ambition Funded (CCAF) programme, a Stakeholders Group has been set up and met for the first time on 18 September 2013. Its aim is to communicate the CCAF vision and plans to a larger audience and involve groups and local communities at an early stage. The stated role and responsibilities of the group are to: – maintain the vision of ambition – disseminate comments from local groups – inform technical and management groups – champion the programme within communities Unlocking the bicycle makes a liveable city – but this simple[…]

Warning sent to Newcastle City Council

20th October 2013 NewCycling Uncategorized

Newcycling has warned the council they would become negligent if no action is taken soon. At a Council Cabinet meeting with a focus on transport, held in public on 9 October, the group’s chairwoman went on record to hold Pat Ritchie, Newcastle’s chief executive, to account and ask her to get behind their own council transport policies to avoid the “London scenario”. Like most local authorities London has been ‘encouraging’ people to cycle for decades. Cycling in London, for this reason and others, has doubled in the last ten years making it the envy of other transport authorities. However this[…]