Uncategorized – Newcastle Cycling Campaign

ECF Letter to governments at COP26

10th November 2021 NewCycling Uncategorized

More than 300 organisations including Newcastle Cycling Campaign have signed a letter requesting world leaders to commit to boosting cycling levels to reduce carbon emissions and reach global climate goals quickly. The letter can be found here. It calls for: “Promoting cycling in all its forms, including cycling tourism, sports cycling, bike sharing, riding to work or school and for exercising Recognising cycling as a climate solution, establishing a clear link between how an increase in bicycle trips and a decrease in private car trips reduce CO₂ emissions Creating and financing national cycling strategies and collecting data on cycling to[…]

City Centre Improvements – Our Response

14th October 2021 Scott Uncategorized

Newcastle City Council have been running a consultation on numerous changes to the city centre, including the removal of buses and other through traffic from Blackett Street. Details of plans can be viewed online at https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/our-city/transport-improvements/city-centre-improvements the consultation closes soon on Friday 15th October. If you want to provide your views please do so. We have written to the council praising their ambition, while also raising concerns and questions that exist at this stage of the schemes development. Here is our response: Regarding GH/P44/1237 Blackett Street Area and Associated Consultation Documents We congratulate the Council on pushing ahead with further[…]

Grey Street – #SpaceForDistancing

22nd August 2020 Infra Team Uncategorized

Newcastle City Council has now put in place the temporary measures on Grey Street. The changes are a huge improvement, befitting of its reputation as one of Britain’s finest streets. We congratulate the Council on the work they are doing to improve the city centre by including vital provision for cycling. We would like to see how this scheme is intended to fit into a wider network plan and hope that the Council will soon outline how it will connect this scheme to the John Dobson Street cycleway, the Tyne Bridge, the Central Station and links out to the east[…]

Queen Victoria Road – July Update #SpaceForDistancing

18th July 2020 Infra Team Uncategorized

In June we gave our opinions on the temporary scheme that the council put in place on Queen Victoria Road. Click here for that article. The council have continued to review the scheme and have now improved it. The changes have led to the cycleway now being one lane in each direction with the flow of traffic, and the installation of poles to separate the cycle lanes from motor traffic. Both these changes are great improvements. The move to with flow cycle lanes was one of our suggestions when we looked at the initial measures in June. This change makes[…]

Shopping Streets #SpaceForDistancing

17th July 2020 Infra Team Uncategorized

In a previous post we outlined recently confirmed funding and government guidance for local authorities to enable the creation of safe walking and cycling space in response to COVID-19. Newcastle council has now published the first of its plans for #SpaceForDistancing in neighbourhood shopping streets. Four of its five shopping streets proposals have been announced, leaving Shields Road in Byker still to come. You can see the plans and provide feedback by following the links below: Adelaide Terrace West Road Gosforth High Street Chillingham Road Shields Road General Feedback If you go shopping at any of these streets, we recommend[…]

Newcastle Bridge Filters #SpaceForDistancing

10th July 2020 Infra Team Uncategorized

Some good news! Newcastle City Council has announced plans to filter a number of bridges across the city as part of its Covid-19 response. Click here for their article. We welcome the news that Newcastle is to trial the removal of through motor traffic on five bridges across the city. We think these filters are a fantastic first step towards creating low traffic neighbourhoods, making Newcastle a more liveable city and enabling more journeys to be made on foot or by cycle. The five bridges will be filtered using temporary measures. The bridges are: Salters Bridge – At the eastern[…]

What do we know about Newcastle City Council’s #SpaceForDistancing plans?

10th July 2020 NewCycling Uncategorized

The Government has now announced the successful funding bids for measures to make walking and cycling safer in response to COVID-19. They state that there is an urgent need to keep people cycling: The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has had a terrible impact on the lives and health of many UK citizens, as well as severe economic consequences. But it has also resulted in cleaner air and quieter streets, transforming the environment in many of our towns and cities. And millions of people have discovered, or rediscovered, cycling and walking. In some places, there’s been a 70% rise in the number[…]

Cycling, walking and Covid-19: Our thoughts on what Newcastle can do now to help keep people safe

29th April 2020 NewCycling Uncategorized

The spread of Covid-19 and the lockdown have dramatically changed the way we live and move around our city. It’s looking increasingly likely that physical distancing is going to be with us for a while and we want to take a look at some ideas that Newcastle City Council could consider implementing now to make living in the city safer and easier. We think that these ideas could be implemented quickly and with limited resources – eg. with temporary measures such as those used in roadworks. The dramatic reduction in traffic in Newcastle appears to have resulted in considerably more people walking and cycling, whether[…]

Extinction Rebellion – NewCycling’s support statement

13th May 2019 NewCycling Uncategorized

NewCycling fully supports Extinction Rebellion and will promote any events and actions they organise, with a focus on local ones happening in Newcastle and the North East. Extinction Rebellion has three demands: Tell the truth: Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate change and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change, Act now: Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 Beyond politics: Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizen’s Assembly on climate and ecological justice This international apolitical[…]

Creating an Inclusive Cycling Network – The Main Network

26th June 2018 Infra Team Uncategorized

In the previous article we covered the basics of how to create a cycle network. In this article we will look at the main cycle network and how this can be designed using the techniques outlined in CROW. Planning the network The main cycling network should create a grid of routes around 400m apart. From CROW: Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic (page 64): Cohesion is the most elementary requirement for a main cycle network. … A simplified indicator for the extent of cohesion within the built environment is the grid size of the main cycle network. A grid size of[…]