Category Archives: noteworthy

The cycling potential of UK towns

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A new tool to help identify where the best places are to invest in cycling has been launched by consultant Steer Davies Gleave.

The cycling potential index aims to provide an objective measurement of cycling potential by scoring three attributes of an area: its hilliness, socio-demographics, and length of journey to work trips.

The index can provide results at different levels of spatial detail, such as an entire urban area or a neighbourhood. You can download the paper for more information on how the index was calculated, along with the full rankings of the 47 towns and cities that were surveyed.

Reducing car use by promoting cycling – how is Darlington doing?

Posted on by Posted in cars, children, infrastructure, inspiration, noteworthy

In his excellent blog, David Hembrow posts to a story about how many of the ten most likely measures to decrease short car journeys made in towns involve promoting cycling. (I’m reproducing the list below, but you should click through to his blog, as he provides links to real life examples of each measure.)

Here’s the list, with bike-promoting measures highlighted:

* priority for cyclists at traffic lights
* make a town impossible to traverse by car (segmentation)
* providing good and safe bicycle routes
* improve accessibility of schools for cyclists in comparison to motorists
* decrease number of parking places
* parking at a fee/higher parking fees
* maintenance of bicycle parking facilities
* free/high-quality bicycle parking
* delivery services
* promote independent cycling by children

As you can see, six of the ten measures involve promoting cycling.

Now for a fun game. How many of these measures have been implemented in Darlington?

Priority for cyclists at traffic lights? No. There still isn’t a single Advanced Stop Line in the whole town. At some tucan crossings in town which are not signalised (i.e. not synchronised with other lights to promote traffic flow) there are very long waits when there’s no reason they couldn’t change straight away.

Make a town impossible to traverse by car (segmentation)? No. Though it is impossible to traverse by bike, if you still to “safe” routes.

Providing good and safe bicycle routes? There are now some safe cycle routes (such as the ETC, the Riverside Route, the black path) but they often require indirect routes, have missing sections, require dangerous road crossings, are ungritted in winter or have long sections which would feel unsafe in the dark.

Improve accessibility of schools for cyclists in comparison to motorists? Increasing the numbers of children travelling to schools by bike has been one of the major successes in Darlington. However, this has been through soft measures like bike training, reward schemes and easy infrastructure like covered bike parking. I don’t know of any schools where measures have been put in place to actually make it easier to get to a school by bike than by car.

Decrease number of parking places? Not in public car parks, though I think new building schemes have had the parking spaces limited. There are several resident only parking schemes around the town centre periphery.

Parking at a fee/higher parking fees? The hourly parking charge has recently increased in council car parks, though parking is free after 9pm, all day parking is still very cheap and the 3 for 2 offer is, I think, still running.

Maintenance of bicycle parking facilities? What bike parking facilities? There are some sheffield stands scattered about, but parking when quickly calling in to the town centre or visiting a school or other building is still very poor.

Free/high-quality bicycle parking? See above. Also, where is the secure parking for commuters to the town centre?

Delivery services? Pretty much all the supermarkets offer deliveries for internet shopping, and some offer the chance to have shopping bought in store delivered. Is there scope for an enterprising person to offer a drop-off point in the town centre for people to leave their shopping and then deliver it later in the day?

Promote independent cycling by children? There has been a lot of promotion of cycling to school, but is there any to encourage children to cycle to their friends’ houses, to after school clubs or the cinema? If they did, would there be secure parking available or safe, legal routes?

Have I missed any brilliant schemes? Car use in Darlington has supposedly fallen, but how much of that is down to the recession or limited to the school run? How much more could it be reduced with the above methods?

Helmet hair and perspiration prevent women getting in the saddle

Posted on by Posted in cycling in Europe, infrastructure, inspiration, noteworthy, stories 5 Comments

New research commissioned by Cycling England has revealed that two thirds (64%) of women say they never cycle and just 2% cycle every day.

Men are still three times more likely to cycle than women. Today’s poll suggests that the perceived effect of cycling on appearance, together with a lack of confidence in cycling on the road, is behind this gender imbalance.

Women are three times more likely to cycle indoors on an exercise bike (14%) than to work (4%). When it comes to cycling to work, it seems that fear of being anything less than well groomed in front of colleagues is an off-putting factor. Among 18-34 year old women:

* 58% wouldn’t want to arrive at work sweaty
* 50% would be worried about getting wet in the rain
* 38% wouldn’t want to have to carry a change of clothes
* 38% say there is nowhere to shower at work
* 27% would be concerned about ‘helmet hair’
* 19% wouldn’t want colleagues to see them without make-up or stepping out of the office shower.

What the research fails to consider, however, is just how ethno-centric such perceptions are. When attitudes are compared to those amongst women in cycling-friendly cultures, concerns about helmets, showers and sweating miraculously disappear – because they are simply not needed.

The study contrasts with a film and photography project currently underway in Darlington and in Bremen, Germany, which explores the attitude of teenage girls to cycling in both communities. Cycling is highly popular – and seen as fashionable – in cycle-friendly Bremen. Most girls in Darlington lose interest in cycling by the time they are 15 years old.

Attitudes and infrastructure appear to be strongly connected – good, safe cycling infrastructure that offers car-free routes most of the time means that cyclists can travel at their own pace, and not have to battle with motorised traffic. Attitudes to cycling change as a result. When teenagers in Bremen were asked how they deal with rain, they replied “we use an umbrella, of course“.

Contested Streets – Copenhagen

Posted on by Posted in inspiration, noteworthy, Pedestrian Heart 3 Comments

I’ve just finished watching this fantastic ten minute film about traffic in Copenhagen. You should watch it too:

Here are some notes I jotted down while watching it, to give you a flavor:

* Commuting traffic: 1/3 bike, 1/3 public transport, 1/3 private car
* Very few helmets
* Normal clothes, including skirts
* Baskets
* Some fantastic bikes!
* 4 lane road, with heavy traffic, reconfigured to take space from cars to give to bikes – same capacity as before, but slower and safer
* About five minutes in, pedestrianised shopping area – with bikes!
* Removed car parking, to create a “people street”
* Pedestrian-priority street – open to pedestrians, bikes and cars – two way for bikes and people, one way for cars – a mix of users, cars go really slow. Less rigid on pedestrians or car streets, now mixing them safely
* Bike investment is small money compared to cars investment
* Do it a bit at a time; never have a big plan to switch from cars to people, because you’ll lose the election – people will think it’s impossible, but it isn’t.

[Found on the cycleliciousness blog.]