Consultation Digest Issue 70: 29 September 2020: Who are we designing streets for?

Our feature photo this issue shows the star of the film “Gone With The Wind”, Olivia de Havilland, at the age of 104, see this article from the Metro in July this year, riding her bike! Well done her, but would she have been able to negotiate our streets and cycle routes? How would a tricycle negotiate all the speed cushions appearing on our streets or the bollards on many of our cycle routes? Please do respond to consultations, particularly Item 1.9, Glasgow City Council looking for views on the future Transport Strategy, to ensure that cycling, and walking, are attractive options to us all and put your views and comments on the Streets for All Glasgow Commonplace Map, see Item 1.1.

Contents

Section 1: Current Consultations

1. Streets for All Glasgow Commonplace Map, a joint GoBike, Glasgow Eco Trust and On Bikes map, please put in your proposals, comments and views
2. **NEW** South Lanarkshire Council, Have your say on active travel, Carluke, Hamilton and Lanark, online surveys, close 04 October
3. Glasgow City Council, Cleeves Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
4. Glasgow City Council, Ashgill Road (Extension) Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
5. Glasgow City Council, Ryehill Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
6. Glasgow City Council, Ruchazie Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
7. Glasgow City Council, Victoria Park Drive North Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
8. UK Department of Transport, Review of the Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, closes 27 October
9. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Connecting Communities, Transport Strategy Public Conversation Your views, closes 30 October
10. Transport Scotland, Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 – Draft public consultation, closes 21 December

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

1. East Dunbartonshire Council, Proposed Local Development Plan 2, consultation starts 19 October

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

1. Glasgow City Council speed cushion policy
2. East Dunbartonshire Council, Local Development Plan Newsletter No 59
3. Glasgow City Council speed cushion latest update!

Section 1: Current Consultations, in date order for responses

1.1 Streets for All Glasgow Commonplace Map, a joint GoBike, Glasgow Eco Trust and On Bikes map, please put in your proposals, comments and views

Back in Digest 55, Item 1.1 in early March, with a reminder in Digest 65, again Item 1.1, we alerted you to the Streets for All Glasgow Commonplace Map, an initiative from GoBike in coordination with Glasgow EcoTrust and On Bikes.

The Streets for All Glasgow Commonplace Map is still open for your contributions. We have longer term aims than the Spaces for People maps, so please do get your fingers tapping and tell us not just where social distancing measures are needed but where dropped kerbs, better crossings, segregation from motor vehicles and all the measures that could improve your cycling experience are needed. We particularly want to make cycling a mode of travel that is available to just about all members of society, young and old.

A speaker from Living Streets, the pedestrians’ organisation, used our feature photo in an online presentation she gave and she had also googled “cyclists” and found this sort of photo:

It’s a fairly standard representation of “cyclists” whereas we would prefer to see more of the sort of people shown in the photos below making their way on bikes, trikes and tandems etc:

Once we have more of your input on the Commonplace map we will then be able to take the comments forward to the City Council in a measured way to make our city a better place to live and move.

2. **NEW** South Lanarkshire Council, Have your say on active travel, Carluke, Hamilton and Lanark, online surveys, close 04 October

GoBike member, Derek, alerted us to these 3 online surveys from South Lanarkshire Council. All the details are in this issue of the South Lanarkshire View. The surveys all close this coming Sunday, so if you live, work, cycle or visit this area do please get your comments in quick! No need to give your personal details so do please help everyone in South Lanarkshire and elsewhere to be able to enjoy cycling and walking in these 3 towns.

1.3 Glasgow City Council, Cleeves Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

1.4 Glasgow City Council, Ashgill Road (Extension) Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

1.5 Glasgow City Council, Ryehill Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

1.6 Glasgow City Council, Ruchazie Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

1.7 Glasgow City Council, Victoria Park Drive North Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

All 5 of the above schemes were featured in our last Digest, Issue 69, items 1.6 to 1.11 and here is the letter of objection to all 5 proposals that GoBike submitted on 15 September.

The letter was copied to Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, who has come back to us to say that “I am aware of your concerns around speed cushions, and I will be exploring this aspect of road safety policy.”
Further to the issue of Digest 69, GoBike also had requests for further information on the proposals for Victoria Park Drive North from a local resident, who had supported the proposal for pedestrian crossings and from a member of the local Community Council.

Let’s hope that local residents get their voice heard soon and that we get liveable streets for us all. If you have any concerns about any of the proposals listed in our Digests do please bring them to the attention of your Councillors and/or Community Council.

1.8 UK Department of Transport, Review of the Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, closes 27 October

We have been raising this consultation for some time now and hope that you have all seen the blog we published last week. If you haven’t read it yet, then please do. It was written by GoBike member, Brenda, who has also written the draft GoBike response, which will be finalised and included in our next Digest; the final one before this consultation closes. It’s important that YOU, a member of the travelling public, do respond, however briefly.

1.9 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Connecting Communities, Transport Strategy Public Conversation Your views, closes 30 October

GoBike received this email from the City Council on 21 September and your input is requested:

“Hi,
Glasgow’s Public Conversation on our transport future is now live and will run to the 30^th of October. All of the different ways you can participate can be found at https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/connectingcommunities

We would really appreciate if you could take part and also circulate the information to your colleagues and the people that you work with. As the more comments we receive, the greater we can understand what transport issues really matter to the people that live and/or work in Glasgow. There are different ways to participate, to join in the conversation on social media, to read the background information or to take part in the public online events. So please do.

Different ways to participate

• Survey. This will probably take about 20mins to complete and is a mixture of multiple choice and open questions. None of the questions are obligatory and you can skip as many as you want. We can send you a Word version of the survey questions, and a Freephone number is available to take people through it over the phone.
• Transport simulator. This game asks about your transport priorities, and what trade-offs you might be willing to make. It has been designed to be fully accessible for keyboard navigation and screen readers.  

Join in the conversation on social media

• Facebook https://en-gb.facebook.com/GlasgowCC/videos/664348064502551/

–      Twitter https://twitter.com/GlasgowCC/status/1308028504370491392?s=20

–      Use the hashtag #GetAboutGlasgow

Read background information

• Public Conversation document sets out the background to the consultation and the council’s proposals for how to tackle the issues and develop the transport strategies. This document is viewed as a fully accessible pdf.

–      A summary leaflet can be downloaded here

To take part in the public online events
Sign up to the webinars below

• A New Vision for Transport and our City 23^rd September 10am-12pm  
• A New Vision for Transport, People and Place 7^th October 10am -12pm

Thanks very much. Take care. Stay safe.
Regards,
Derek
Derek Dunsire
Group Manager – Liveable Neighbourhoods
Transport Strategy“

The survey is a dream, designed for active travellers’ support. Do enjoy completing it.

1.9 Transport Scotland, Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 – Draft public consultation, closes 21 December

This Scotland-wide public consultation was in Digest 69 as Item 1.13, so you may check it out there. We’ll have more on this one before the closing date.

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

2.1 East Dunbartonshire Council, Proposed Local Development Plan 2, consultation starts 19 October.

See Item 3.2 below.

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

3.1 Glasgow City Council speed cushion policy

See Item 1.7 above for an acknowledgement from Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, that she will look at the City’s speed cushion policy.

3.2 East Dunbartonshire Council, Local Development Plan Newsletter No 59

LDP Newsletter 59 – September 2020 was received on 25 September and contains details of the forthcoming public consultation on the Local Development Plan 2, which starts on 19 October.

3.3 Glasgow City Council speed cushion latest update!

Just in, this afternoon, from the City Council, and further to Item 3.1 above, this email – read on past the standard stuff to the last paragraph – a glimmer of light:

“MESSAGE SENT ON BEHALF OF KEVIN HAMILTON, HEAD OF ROADS, NEIGHBOURHOODS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Dear Ms Fort,

Thank you for your enquiry dated 1^st September 2020 regarding the above proposed schemes.

I can advise that this section within the Council is focused on reducing injury accidents throughout the city. The section has limited funding and resources available to implement traffic calming schemes and in order to make sure these resources are directed at the locations with the greatest potential for casualty reduction, a site risk assessment is undertaken for each request. This process assesses the location against criteria including the history of injury accidents, measured vehicle speeds and the presence of any local amenities such as being close to a nearby school or nursery.

Whilst I appreciate your concerns regarding our proposed traffic calming schemes and note your suggestions for each location, I can advise that your suggestions would involve the re-design of roads, introduction of traffic signals and the promotion of Traffic Regulation Orders as well as a host of other measures. The provision of such measures would involve considerable costs and resources, both of which are unavailable to this section, and I am unable to consider their introduction at this time.

Notwithstanding the above and following discussions with the city convenor for Sustainability and Transport, Councillor Anna Richardson, it should be noted that this Section will seek to introduce alternative forms of traffic calming as oppose to speed cushions from next financial year onwards, subject to available funding and resources.

I trust that this clarifies the current situation.

Kevin Hamilton
Head of Roads
Neighbourhoods And Sustainability“

_______________________________________

With that bit of good news, that’s it for a fortnight but do please respond to:

• South Lanarkshire Council’s surveys for Carluke, Hamilton and Lanark.
• Glasgow City Council’s Transport Strategy
• The Highway Code consultation
• Plus, do keep contacting your Councillors and your Community Council