sustainable safety – Newcastle Cycling Campaign

Our second policy – Protected Space

3rd January 2015 NewCycling Uncategorized

Notwithstanding roads with gridlocked traffic conditions (as also outlined in LTN2/08, when protected space is necessary for a different reason than safety) on 17 December 2014 the Committee adopted London Cycling Campaign’s Motion 3/2013 verbatim: When do we need protected space for cycling? 1. We believe ‘safe and inviting’ cycling environments do not compel cyclists to share space with high speed or high volume motor traffic. 2. Cyclists should not be expected to share space with motor vehicles moving above 20mph. 3. If cyclists will share space with motor traffic, volumes must be low. On the core cycle route network[…]

Road Safety Week – patronising and degrading – say campaigners

19th November 2014 Peter Press

Cycling Weekly (19 November 2014) Road Safety Week “patronising and degrading”, say campaigners http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/road-safety-week-patronising-degrading-say-campaigners-145560

3/5 Sustainable Safety principle – Predictability

7th November 2014 Scott News

In June 2014 we adopted Sustainable Safety as our first policy. Here we will describe the five principles of Sustainable Safety. This article will talk about Predictability and what it means. We have previously discussed Functionality and Homogeneity. We explained the need for clear classification of roads and how the difference in speed and mass of vehicles creates a need for different types of cycle provision depending on the function of the road. In Advancing Sustainable Safety by SWOV (http://www.swov.nl/rapport/DMDV/Advancing_Sustainable_Safety.pdf page 13) Predictability is described: “road environment and road user behaviour that support road user expectations through consistency and continuity in road[…]

2/5 Sustainable Safety principle – Homogeneity

28th September 2014 NewCycling News

In June 2014 we adopted Sustainable Safety as our first policy. Here we will describe the five principles of Sustainable Safety. This article will talk about homogeneity and what it means. We talked about the core principle functionality here. Whilst the functionality principle, SWOV says, aims for roads to have one exclusive function and distinguishes between traffic function (flow) and access function (residence), the homogeneity principle aims at keeping differences in mass, speed and direction of vehicles using the same traffic space being as small as possible. Functionality and homogeneity are at the basis of the categorisation of roads into[…]

Pesky subject of pavement pedalling

10th September 2014 NewCycling Uncategorized

City cycling advocates, Newcycling, are keen to find solutions to pavement cycling – one of the most grating subjects for improving cycling conditions: the misunderstanding over what cycle advocacy groups are campaigning for and how this can ultimately help other vulnerable road user groups. Pavement cycling is one of the most distracting discussions when ‘cycling at large’ is debated. Newcycling is co-organiser of the Cycling & Society Symposium (C&S), held in Newcastle, 14-16 September. One researcher, Hannah Delaney from Bristol, promises to give “An insight into cyclist and pedestrian interactions on shared use paths”. This is one reason why to[…]

1/5 Sustainable Safety principle – Functionality

30th August 2014 NewCycling News

In June 2014 we adopted Sustainable Safety as our first policy. Here we will describe the five principles of Sustainable Safety. We’ll start with Sustainable Safety’s core principle: functionality. Functionality is described in the Dutch SWOV’s fact sheet as “a hierarchically structured road network” – but what does this mean? The Functionality element of Sustainable Safety looks at the full road network and determines traffic management by categorising our roads. Typically three road types are used for this classification, attempting to describe the function and purpose of the road (to determine the design parameters). All roads must have a designation.[…]

TfL – LCDS consultation

11th August 2014 NewCycling Consultation replies

Newcycling (Newcastle’s cycling campaign, 1,400 members, volunteer organisation, constituted, formed in 2010) would like to respond to your request about views on the draft version of the London Cycling Design Standards (LCDS). Our interest in this is that we want to bring high quality cycle infrastructure to Newcastle, and we believe that a good set of (national) design standards (amongst political and ministerial will, national and local) would help achieve that. Standards are important. Comparatively to cycle-friendly countries, like the Netherlands, the UK is lacking behind in succeeding because we are still failing to focus on designing for people (over[…]

Cyclists slam road safety initiative by branding it a blame game

23rd July 2014 NewCycling Uncategorized

Newcycling, Newcastle’s cycling campaign, speaks out against a counterproductive road safety initiative, when a flyer from Road Safety GB Northeast fails to address real safety issues. Newcycling recently adopted Sustainable Safety as a campaign policy to counteract the prevailing negative approach to road safety. Traditional ‘awareness initiatives’ are typically lacking relevance and perspective: cyclists are usually asked to do all the work, whilst drivers are left to simply carry on unguarded with their rather dangerous activity. Yet the risk to cause harm, injure and even kill sits disproportionately with the driver. A flyer by Road Safety GB Northeast does exactly[…]

Road Safety GB NE & Cycling Safety – A metaphoric car crash

20th July 2014 Newcastle Cycling Campaign Uncategorized

We recently adopted Sustainable Safety as a campaign policy and said we would keep educating decision-makers on this positive approach to road safety. So when the traditional blame-gamers such as Road Safety GB Northeast have their destructive say again – we would like to remind these “safety advocates” that real safety comes from tackling root causes. In 2011 we spoke to council officers about their harmful approach to road safety (some of you may even remember Ghost Street) – but unfortunately the message hasn’t sunk in with the executive body, the council: this ineffective blaming approach now (again) appears on[…]

Our first policy – Sustainable Safety

28th June 2014 NewCycling News

At the Committee meeting on Monday 23 June 2014 we adopted our first policy covering ‘Sustainable Safety’. We want to use Sustainable Safety more, as it offers a positive attitude to creating space for cycling which is such an important ingredient in every liveable city. Sustainable Safety also tackles road safety with a can-do attitude, unlocking and enabling cycling and walking. It does that by respecting user needs and taking a look at the full road network, not just little pockets of improvements. Sustainable Safety is not immune to the vagaries of political power. We believe, nonetheless, that using the[…]