Month: September 2015

Newcastle Great North Road worries over missing safety audit and debate

Press

A road safety audit (RSA) has still not been made publicly available (see 1), leaving a campaign group worried and uncertain about fair process. The group understands that the RSA’s objective “is to ensure that the road safety implications of all Highway Improvement Schemes are fully considered for all users of the motorway” and should attach “great importance to the improvement of road safety” (refer to 2) and Great North Road should not be an exception. The relevant highway standard goes on to describe that “Road Safety Auditors must examine the overall layout of the Highway Improvement Scheme. All users[…]

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Newcastle Broadway / Great North Road

Press

Newcycling.org remain disappointed with the quality of design at Great North Road, from Broadway roundabout to Regent Centre. There are many flaws in the design, creating not just discomfort but introducing new dangers for cyclists. This is against any road design practice which would seek a constant improvement and would not accept a worsening for vulnerable road users. Katja Leyendecker, chair of newcycling.org, says “It’s great that Newcastle is now doing things and have put the spade in the ground. But it’s a shame the quality of their design and the safety details are so low grade when the potential[…]

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Five years and counting

News

Our chair writes: In our normal daily lives, we often forget that power is in the equation. It’s through its absence (rather than its presence) that we feel it the most. We formed the Newcastle Cycling Campaign five years ago to address an imbalance in power, and with that the imbalance in our spatial attribution and acknowledgement of day-to-day cycling in our city. We want to see its ‘needs and musts’ debated. We wish it to flourish and mature. After five years, surely it’s time to ask ourselves: what have we achieved? What did we want to achieve? Have we achieved[…]

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