Tonight’s Cycle Forum meeting was a tour of the bike routes in the town, instead of just talking about them. Eight of us braved the rain, and got very lucky staying dry on the ten mile tour of the town.
Category Archives: routes
Sustrans: Free Your Bike
Sustrans is offering you a free information pack to help you get out and about by bike. We are the charity behind many practical and groundbreaking projects including the National Cycle Network, over 12,000 miles of traffic-free, quiet lanes and on-road walking and cycling routes around the UK. 75% of you live within two miles of the Network so why not use it to get to work or school, the shops or just for exercise and fun?
To claim your free information pack about cycling in your region simply complete the online form.
New signing on West Park Cycle Route
I spotted some new signposts riding home from work yesterday. They are ‘finger’ type signs with timings rather than distances. They are being put in on the town centre to West Park route, which seems to now be called “West Park Cycle Route” ( the name is on a green background). There’s one on the railings at the Greenbank/Bondgate junction (18 mins to West Park), one at the turning into Craig Street (13 mins to West Park (I’m not sure who timed these, but it takes me far less than five minutes to cycle along Greenbank Road)) and one at the Craig St/Hollyhurst Rd junction (12 mins to West Park, and also 1 min to the hospital). At each junction, there is a corresponding arrow pointing toward the town centre.
(Personally, I go down Reid Street as the junctions are much nicer at both ends…)
New signs are badly needed on the various routes around the town as existing signs are either missing or turned around to point the wrong way. These new signs look much sturdier than the old design, and the posts are square so they can’t be turned around.
I believe that each of the radial routes will have a different colour (West Park being green). I like the idea of being able to tell someone to get to my house by following the green route until they reach North Park and then follow the orange (?) route.
Signposting the West Park route from town could also help ease any “antisocial” cycling in the Pedestrian Heart, as Police and Wardens will be able to tell kids playing on their bikes on the steps that they can follow the arrows to get to the 4X track.
I’d like to see the signposting extending to include points of interest, like supermarkets and local shopping centres.
Has anyone else seen any other new signposts?
Positive 2008 with Best Designs from DofT
Let’s start 2008 on a positive note, by sharing a document recently passed on to Darlington Cycling Campaign for consultation. It is the Department of Transport’s collection of good designs for cycling infrastructure, and contains a remarkable number of examples of the kinds of design we advocate for Darlington.
Until we received this document, we were lead to believe that such things as cycle lane priority at crossings with roads was a dream only possible in Denmark, Holland or Germany. But there it is, on the cover of the document, a junction in Cheltenham.
If you’d like to read the whole document, you can download a PDF version here.
You can also download a Word version of the Cycling Campaign’s response here.
We look forward to seeing some of these fine examples in our Cycling Demonstration Town in 2008.
Happy New Year to you all!!
Jan Gehl for Darlington (on a Bike)
As Darlington approaches the end of the 6 month trial period for cycling in the Pedestrian Heart, and the final year of Cycling Demonstration Town funding, there are some crucial decisions about to be made about the future of cycling in the town.
Small town (UK) thinking (of which there is much here and around the country) says that cyclists are not popular, dangerous, anti-disabled etc etc. National thinking, leading experts in the field, and best European practice says that cycling in the Pedestrian Heart should only be a first step towards less car access to the town centre, and much much more public transport, cycling and walking access.
Copenhagen urban planner Jan Gehl confronted similar problems 40 years ago – before today’s best practice was developed. Indeed, many argue that he has been personally responsible for much of today’s progressive transport/urban planning thinking.
He has advised London, and even Wakefield and Castleford, in the past. Surely it is time for him to come to Darlington. Can I suggest that, should the Cycle Demo Town monies not run to bringing him here, and we get a silly decision on Ped Heart cycling, we invite him to join a mass protest ride through the town – along with members of Cycling England, who have so generously funded cycling in Darlo?
Thanks to John Wetmore from across the pond for directing us to this interview he carried out with Jan Gehl in London. John is a great pedestrian advocate – and friend of cyclists. You can see more of his american public broadcast videos here.