SCR – Newcastle Cycling Campaign

Cycle City Ambition Programme 2 – summary and questions

2nd December 2015 NewCycling Uncategorized

One year on, we have a look at the Cycle City Ambition Fund 2 (CCAF2), its general content and feasibility. The CCAF2 documentation was put together by the City Council a year ago. It was approved by the Department for Transport (DfT) shortly thereafter. Newcastle Council did not contact us to collaborate or allow us to help shape the input and direction of the bid. Despite newcycling being a strong transport and cycling stakeholder we were given no involvement whatsoever in the content, quality or its ambition. Based on our experience of the last two years of CCAF1 delivery and many[…]

Our Reply – Elswick Road

14th August 2015 Infra Team Consultation replies

Re: TS/ML/E91 – Elswick Road Strategic Cycle Route As a constituted community group with 1,600 local members we respond on their behalf to the plans for Elswick Road SCR. In general we support the plans presented for Elswick Road. Though we do have some points and questions on the design: There is one a bus stop on the plan (North side of the road, near Park Close) where the cycling bypass shown uses shared space (cyclists and pedestrians), rather than the more preferable cycle bypass with clearly separated space. The positioning of the bus stop also seems as though it[…]

Gaps in the maps

27th May 2015 Infra Team Uncategorized

We’ve been thinking about transport networks, and how they constantly adapt and improve as our cities change. This is a particularly poignant question as Newcastle has fairly extreme housing expansion plans, laid out in their One Core strategy: between now and 2030, Newcastle City Council wants to see thousands of homes built out West, spreading over a belt of green land on 21 sites between Newburn and the airport. Just how will the transport system accommodate such an aggressive expansion? We understand that developers, the council and Highways England are clubbing together to fund a study to look at the[…]

Caring designs are not always sharing

25th May 2015 NewCycling Uncategorized

You reported – we acted. An observant and concerned Campaign member sent us a couple of photos and was asking – what’s happening here then? The honest answer is – we really don’t know and we would love to find out! After some considerable radio silence, Newcastle City Council have now started the Gosforth Strategic Cycle Route (SCR4) works North of Regent Centre. Spade in the ground time, cards on the table so to speak. But council forgot to share their Detailed Design drawings! All we had seen through the official process (traffic orders and technical group) was – what’s[…]

Benwell Lane TRO

26th March 2015 Infra Team Consultation replies

In general we support the council with the proposed changes as they will create an improvement for cycling along this section of road. We do have some cycle safety concerns from the design which have previously been discussed with the council, these are: The stretches where cycle lanes are provided on the right hand side (with traffic flow) of parked cars instead of being protected on the left hand side. Where the bus stop/cycle infrastructure is not as good as it could be (e.g. by Prince Philip Road, a shared space bus stop has been provided, but space would allow[…]

SCR5 – Longbenton Infrastructure Safari Cycle Ride

30th November 2014 Claire

We are cycling the Strategic Cycle Routes (SCRs). This year’s dates are listed below. All dates have been set for Saturdays, and we hope you can join us. We will meet at Civic Centre, Ceremonial Way, at 10:00am. Each tour should not take longer than three hours. Join us for all or parts of it, or meet us afterwards for a coffee. Please email us newcastle.cycling.campaign@gmail.com if you are coming so that we get an idea about numbers before the ride. 2 May – SCR 3 – Great Park 6 June – SCR 2 – West Denton 4 July – SCR 5 – Longbenton 5 September – City[…]

SCR2 – West Denton Infrastructure Safari Cycle Ride

30th November 2014 Claire

SCR 3 – Great Park Infrastructure Safari Cycle Ride

30th November 2014 Claire

Our Infrastructure Safari ride through Heaton

27th August 2014 Claire Uncategorized

This is a short account of our infrastructure safari through Heaton, code name: SCR6 Benfield. The concept of Strategic Cycle Routes (SCR) in Newcastle is well established and monies from the Cycling City Ambition Fund (CCAF) have been earmarked to build part of them. So, earlier on in the year we came up with a plan – we thought it would be useful to ride them and assess how much needs to be done to make them safe, convenient, direct and attractive while connecting places of interest such as schools, shops and employment centres. The SCR network is the backbone[…]

Warning over Great North Road plans

18th August 2014 NewCycling Uncategorized

Our warning is about the details of Newcastle City Council’s plan for the section of the Great North Road from Hollywood Avenue junction to Broadway roundabout. As a cycle route is only as good as its weakest link, we are concerned about the council design, well meaning as it is, but it creates some new dangers and leaves them unaddressed. We hope that the illustrations we have now included will help to explain our concerns further. In the absence of functional communication channels, we’d still like to get to the bottom of council’s decision-making logic: we have requested to see[…]