Sharing the road....bus and bike survey

The Love Your Bike campaign are asking people in Greater Manchester to spend 5 minutes to complete an online survey about their  experiences of sharing the roads with buses whilst cycling in Greater Manchester.

The introduction to the LYB survey says that "comments we have received from cyclists and non-cyclists alike indicate a perception that buses make the roads more dangerous for cycling. We are concerned about the risks to the cycling community, and the potential for others to be put off cycling at all because they perceive the roads to be too dangerous because of the behaviour of other road users."

The survey has been designed to get a sense of what type of behaviour is the most problematic and how serious this issue is for cyclists. Alongside the survey, the Love Your Bike campaigners are talking to bus drivers to learn about their perceptions of cyclists as they argue that the cycling community could often do better too.  Love Your Bike wants the survey to be the start of a dialogue with bus companies and local transport authorities to make the roads safer for cyclists, to make cycling in Greater Manchester a more attractive prospect, and ultimately to get more people cycling more often.

The survey can be found here.  Please do take that 5 minutes to fill it in. The closing date is 19th March. Results to be announced by the end of May.

Cycling Mayor for Manchester ?

Biking to Work with Seattle’s Mayor Mike McGinn is an interesting short video brought to you by the New York-based transport advocates, Streetfilms.

According to the video blurb:

"When Seattleites elected a new mayor at the end of 2009, they really went for a breath of fresh air. In the general election, Mayor Mike McGinn, who rides a bike to work daily, was outspent nearly four to one. The race was very close, but with an energetic volunteer base -- and a campaign that emphasized many livable streets issues -- he pulled out the victory."

So here's a challenge for the various campaign groups working on "liveable streets" issues in Greater Manchester - can we co-operate and organise well enough to have an impact on the Council leaders and mayors in our local elections?


Interested?  Then post your comments here.

Oi! Greater Manchester. Time to sign up to the Cycle to Work Guarantee

Launched on the 28th October 2009, the Cycle to Work Guarantee is a voluntary initiative from the Department for Transport, that challenges businesses, colleges, local authorities, public sector and third sector organisations to become cycle friendly employers by making it easy for staff to cycle to and from work.

By signing up, your organisation can signal its commitment by providing the facilities and incentives to help your workforce become healthier, greener and more productive.

The 5 Guarantee Pledges are:

• Secure, safe, and accessible bike parking
• Good quality changing and locker facilities
• Offset the cost of cycling equipment and save on the tax through the 'Cycle to work scheme'
• Bike repair for cyclists on or near site
• Training, reward and incentive programmes to achieve targets for more cycling

The website has a section that lists the organisations that have committed to the Cycle to Work Guarantee. As of January 2010, Greater Manchester was not well represented. See below:

Bolton
Bolton PCT

Manchester
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
NHS Manchester
University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

Oldham
Oldham PCT

Salford
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

Stockport
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport College

If the place where you work, study, shop or play is not represented why not ask them to sign up.

Where Manchester leads, London follows ...only they seem to have forgotton about cycling!

Manchester prides itself on being the city that sets the pace. "Where Manchester leads, the rest follow" is a commonly heard phrase whether talking about the industrial revolution, computing, education, football, science or music.

Unfortunately at the Greater Manchester level this proud claim does not seem to include investment in cycling infrastructure and promotion.

Compared to other UK cities, cycling levels in Greater Manchester are very low. One reason for this may well be because of (no, not the rainfall) the low levels of investments in cycle infrastructure and cycle promotion. For the previous 3 years AGMA has invested the grand sum of £50K per year for marketing & promoting cycling across the 10 GM boroughs. Yep, thats right a whole £5K per district.  (This figure does not include officers salaries).

Contrast this with London. Earlier in January, Boris Johnson (London's cycling mayor) hosted a meeting in City Hall which brought together some of the UK’s leading bicycle manufacturers, distributors and retailers,  to discuss how the cycling industry could contribute to “London’s cycling revolution.” This meeting coincided with the announcement of an additional £300,000 of funding to a dozen local authorities in outer London to help them become “cycling boroughs.”

This followed his challenge to London in May 2009 "to get cycling" and announcement that in 2010 Transport for London (TfL) would be "investing a record £111m in cycling in London". The money would be spent on introducing the London Cycle Hire scheme, improving parking and road conditions for cyclists, education, training and promotion and the target is to increase cycling levels by 400% by 2025.

Please don't run away with the idea that I am a fan of Boris Johnson (I very much am not!) and in many ways he is only following through on earlier plans announced when Ken Livingston was Mayor. In February 2008, Livingstone had unveiled plans "to transform cycling and walking in London" which included measures that would ensure  "the needs of cyclists and pedestrians are given a higher priority on the Capital’s streets" and would make a significant contribution to tackling climate change, aiming to have "one in ten Londoners making a round trip by bike each day, and saving some 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to driving round the M25 55 million times) per year as Londoners increasingly choose to walk or cycle for short trips instead of taking their car."

But leaving aside my personal views of Boris Johnson at least he is actively promoting and funding cycling in London. So how is Greater Manchester planning to match this?  Well on 29th January the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) Executive will meet in Rochdale Town Hall (Committee Rooms 1 & 2). Amongst the items on the agenda is a report entitled "LTP Finance Review".

Decipher the "local authority speak" and if the AGMA Executive votes to accept this report then whilst the support for the staff posts has been continued the funding for promoting cycling, walking and active travel has not yet been provided. (Previous years budgets were £50K, £20K and £25K respectively).

AGMA has publicly stated that it wants to increase cycling levels across Greater Manchester to help local authorities meet the challenges of tackling road congestion levels, improving air quality, reducing C02 emissions and helping people become healthier. Unfortunately they have yet to commit any serious funding for cycling and walking projects.

Wherever you live in Greater Manchester, the leader of your local council is a member of the AGMA Executive. If you think that AGMA should be investing more to support and encourage people to cycle more regularly in Greater Manchester then please contact your Council leader and tell them.

Council leaders and emails:

Bolton:           Cliff Morris         (cliff.morris@bolton.gov.uk)

Bury:              Bob Bibby          (r.a.bibby@bury.gov.uk)

Manchester:  Richard Leese  (r.leese@manchester.gov.uk)

Oldham:         Howard Sykes  (howard.sykes@oldham.gov.uk)

Rochdale:      Alan Taylor        (alan.taylor1@rochdale.gov.uk)

Salford:          John Merry        (Councillor.Merry@salford.gov.uk)

Stockport:      Dave Goddard (leader@stockport.gov.uk)

Tameside:     S. Roy Oldham (c/o susan.williams@tameside.gov.uk)

Trafford:          Matt Collidge   (matthew.colledge@trafford.gov.uk)

Wigan:            Peter Smith      (P.Smith@wigan.gov.uk)

Ditch that car and walk to school once a week!

The ‘Walk Once a Week’ scheme run by Living Streets has just been awarded £800, 000 by the Department of Health to expand the scheme to at least 900 more schools across England, including schools in the West Midlands as well as Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear and Merseyside, where levels of childhood obesity are higher.

The scheme, which is currently running in schools across all London boroughs, encourages families to ditch the car and walk their children to school once a week. Children who walk to school one day a week are rewarded with a collectable metal badge for each month they take part.

Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets said:

“Increasing activity levels and reducing the risk of obesity is one of the major priorities for anyone involved in children’s health or education today.  But it’s often hard to know what actually works, and what to prioritise from tight budgets. 

“Walking to school is one of the best ways to get everyday activity into families’ lives- good for health, and making a positive difference in reducing congestion, pollution and carbon.  It’s also a great way to spend real quality time with your children.  Every school can take part in Walk Once a Week - we want even more children and families to take part this year.  Details of how to get involved can be found on our website.”

Details of which schools in Greater Manchester will be participating in the scheme have yet to be announced but lets hope the scheme is a success and that similar schemes can be developed in Greater Manchester to encourage parents try cycle with their children to school.

Integrated Transport Authority ? You're having a laugh!

On Friday 15th January, the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) Capital Projects committee voted to continue the ban on any bicycles travelling on off-peak Metrolink tram services.

The recommendation for the ban was included in the "Implications of the Carriage of Bicycles on Trams" report submitted by Metrolink Director, Philip Purdy. This was supposedly a summation of the similarily entitled report by consultants Mott MacDonald, submitted to GMPTE in April 2009. GMPTE failed to respond to two seperate Freedom of Information Act requests made by local campaigners in September/October 2009 and a copy of the consultants report was not made publicly available until 3 hours after the GMITA committee had voted! Which seems a very strange way of upholding the claim GMPTE "consults the public and other stakeholders to improve public transport in Greater Manchester."  Even stranger was that even the Committee members did not seem to have been given a copy of the consultants report prior to the meeting.

The committee voted 7~5 to endorse the following recommendation:

"a) Members are asked to endorse the decision to continue with the current policy to forbid the carriage of bicycles on trams with the exception of folding cycles which should be fully encased."

Now, the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Strategy claims it wants to encourage more trips to be made by bicycle and it considers that 2 to 5 miles is an ideal cycling distance. The GMPTE website states that: “we will continue to adopt a fully integrated approach to influencing travel behaviour with a range of measures to encourage more of the large number of shorter trips to be undertaken by bike or on foot rather than by the private car.”

Manchester's Love Your Bike campaigners have estimated that approximately 90% of the Greater Manchester population will be within a 2.5 mile cycle ride of a tram station when the new Metrolink services are completed. An ideal distance to encourage people to "integrate" a cycle and tram journey and yet the current Metrolink cycle carriage policy even bans the carriage of a folded Brompton bicycle (dimensions are only 58.5cm high x 54.5cm long x 27cm wide) unless it is fully encased.

Compare this with the dimensions of a typical double buggy pram which even when folded are much bigger at 104cm high x 39.5cm long x 74cm wide (See this example).  People can travel on all tram services with an unfolded double pram buggy. It would also appear to be permissible to attempt to travel on all tram services with golf caddys, a double bass (cased), skis and a wide range of other bulky and heavy items.

One group of cyclists that are inconvenienced by the GMPTE's continuing hostile attitude to integrating tram and cycle journeys are the St John's Ambulance - bicycle ambulance volunteers.  Based in Altrincham they regularly have to travel to Heaton Park to provide volunteer first aid services for a range of events. If they were allowed to take their bicycle ambulances on tram services then it would be a good example of an "integrated" transport system: Cycle to Altrincham tram stop, travel to Heaton Park tram stop and then cycle into and around the park.  Because of the current bike ban they need to hire a truck to transport their bicycle ambulances to Heaton Park!

Perhaps the full GMITA committee meeting on 12th February may wish to ponder the meaning of the word "integrated".

The non-magnificent 7 councillors included 3 Conservatives and 4 Liberal Democrats. If you think people should be able to combine a tram journey with a folded Brompton (not fully encased!) at any time or maybe even take their bike on a tram (off peak) for example on a Sunday morning to get easier access to the countryside then please do send a (polite) message to one (or more) of them.

Conservative
Dylan Butt (Trafford - Hale Barns)     (dylan.butt@trafford.gov.uk)
Ian Macdonald (Salford - Worsley)   (councillor.macdonald@salford.gov.uk)
Michael Winstanley (Wigan - Orrell) (M.Winstanley@wigan.gov.uk)

Liberal Democrats
Richard Knowles  - Chair (Oldham - Saddleworth South)  (richard.knowles@oldham.gov.uk)
David Sandiford (Manchester - Didsbury East)   (cllr.d.sandiford@manchester.gov.uk)
David White (Stockport - Davenport & Cale Green) (cllr.david.white@stockport.gov.uk)
Craig Wright (Stockport - Marple North)   (cllr.craig.wright@stockport.gov.uk)

The 5 Labour group committee members argued against the ban and voted for a deferment. They then voted against the ban. These were:
Jim Dawson (Salford - Swinton North)  (Councillor.Dawson@salford.gov.uk)
Andrew Fender (Manchester - Old Moat) (cllr.a.fender@manchester.gov.uk)
Peter Scott  (Stockport - Reddish North)  (scottsclp@aol.com)
Eunice Smethurst (Wigan - Abram)    (E.Smethurst@wigan.gov.uk)
Alan Whitehead (Tameside)                (c/o victoria.fletcher@tameside.gov.uk)


See also this MEN article GMPTE's 'dirty tricks' over bike ban on trams. 


and also David Ottewell's blog:  Metrolink bike ban ‘disgraceful’

Leading by example.....

Good to hear that Manchester City Council leader, Richard Leese was out and about on his bike last week...

This from "The Leader's Blog"

"Back on my bike this week for the first time since Christmas and a frighteningly close view of the cracks and holes that have appeared in the road surface along my normal route as a result of frost damage. Our Highways people are out inspecting the whole road network and will be putting a remediation plan together but an early estimate is that the extra repair work will cost at least £650,000.

The total additional cost of the freeze is likely to be well over a £1M but we won't be increasing Council Tax or cutting other things to pay for it. Manchester has followed a prudent budget course for many years keeping Council Tax increases to at or below the rate of inflation and making sure we have adequate reserves to cover occasions just such as this."

I am glad to hear that the Highways officers are out and about checking the roads but as an earlier post on this blog has highlighted there is a lack of consistency across Greater Manchester on the criteria used to decide which potholes will be repaired. (See When is a 'pothole' actionable?)

Manchester's criteria for deciding when to repair a pothole is 30mm (eg the pothole must be at least 30mm deep) which is not bad when compared to Salford's (50mm) but not as good as Wigan's 25mm.  Perhaps the new GM Integrated Transport Authority could take on the task of standardizing the size of potholes that cyclists have to avoid!

If you are out and about in Manchester and spot a pothole why not drop a line to "Environment on Call" - you never know they may have missed one!

Environment On Call can be contacted by:
email: contact@manchester.gov.uk
tel: 0161 954 9000
or via the Manchester City Council website reporting form.

Happy pothole spotting!

The criteria used by the 10 GM councils: 50mm (Salford), 40mm (Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford), 35mm (Rochdale), 30mm (Manchester),   25mm (Wigan).
Photo credit: Crumspall Labour blog (October 2007).