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The city of Brighton and Hove is doubling the number of streets with a 20mph limit. Previously in force only in the city centre, the restriction will now apply to roads in the north, east and west.
The Green-controlled City Council agreed on March 4th to extend the limit. ‘Phase 2’ focuses on residential streets, while most of the main arterial roads – such as Old Shoreham Road, New Church Road, Ditchling Road, London Road and Lewes Road – are proposed to remain at their current speed limits.
The programme will be rolled out over the next two to three years, with 20mph limits introduced in the Phase 2 areas in the summer. Consultation on Phase 3, which will cover outer areas such as Portslade village, is expected to begin later this year.
Brighton & Hove City Council says that the new limit is better for cyclists: “it leads to a reduction in road collisions and the severity of casualties, improves in the quality of life of local neighbourhoods and encourages more walking and cycling for local trips”. Local cyclists agree, with Duncan Blinkhorn of Bike Train telling the BBC: “Anything that makes the roads safer and feel more civilised and calmer is a great thing for the city, for cyclists but also for everyone else.”
See the full map of affected streets.
London and Birmingham have their own bike shows: now, so does Manchester, with the Bike & Tri show returning to the city this weekend.
To be held at the Manchester Central exhibition centre (formerly GMEX), the two day event hosts exhibitors such as Boardman Bikes, CTC and Planet X bikes. Though the event is perhaps geared more to the performance cyclist and that peculiar class of nutter known as a triathlete, there’s a sprinkling of interest for the everyday and touring rider.
Two organised rides will run out into the Cheshire countryside – one 42-miler, one 80–miler – and there’s free secure bike parking at the venue. Chris Boardman and Olympic champion Joanna Rowsell will both be appearing at the show.
Find out more at the show website.
After months of debate, Cambridge councillors have finally agreed to replace car parking spaces on a residential street with bike racks.
Like many streets in the historic centre of Cambridge, Thoday Street in Romsey has a high proportion of residents who don’t own a car. One such resident approached the Cambridge Cycling Campaign, saying:
“Our family do not own a car, cycle everywhere (including my 14 mile round trip to work) and yet we cannot park our bike and the trailer we use for our young daughter outside our house! We must manoeuvre bikes round a muddy path or past the cars a metre from our door and through the house to our garden.”
The Campaign persuaded the County Council to trial replacing two car parking spaces on Thoday Street with two sets of bike racks. Councillors initially had mixed views as to whether to make it permanent, but after a follow-up survey showed that 61% of residents were in favour, the County Council has agreed to take the scheme forward.
It will now be subject to a formal consultation. Meanwhile, local councillor Kilian Bourke has said the change could be repeated on other nearby streets, telling the Cambridge News: “If other people in Romsey want to explore this option in their terraces, I would be happy to talk to them.”
Cambridge Cycling Campaign says that, by providing better bike parking, a ‘virtuous circle’ ensues where fewer people need car parking. As it explains on its blog:
“More secure, more convenient cycle parking raises the status of bikes and will mean that they get used more often. These small factors add up and when combined with better cycle routes and lower speed limits help open the option of cycling to more people. The result is less car dependency, less congestion and ultimately less demand for car parking space.”
Transport for London has announced £200m worth of improvements at 17 junctions and other dangerous roads across the capital – plus major schemes for Elephant & Castle and the IMAX roundabout at Waterloo.
The announcement brings the total number of new schemes to 52, with 33 cycling improvements announced last week.
The northern roundabout at Elephant & Castle will be remodelled to accommodate separated cycle lanes, plus wide painted areas when crossing lanes at the roundabout. Public consultation will start later in March. At the IMAX roundabout, meanwhile, improved cycle routes will be joined by better interchange facilities at Waterloo station.
The London Cycling Campaign has welcomed the Elephant & Castle announcement. Chief executive Ashok Sinha said:
“The Elephant & Castle is a terrible place for cycling and walking, and totally out of tune with what a modern town centre in a world-class city should be like. It's fantastic news that it is going to be redeveloped, and a golden opportunity for the Mayor to show he really means it when he says he wants the capital to be second to none for getting about by bike.”
However, LCC also pointed out that TfL’s recently completed flagship scheme at Euston Circus fell well below expectations, with traditional Advanced Stop Lines rather than full protected cycle lanes. The Elephant & Castle scheme, says LCC, needs to provide “genuine protected space”.
As well as the two major schemes at Elephant & Castle and Waterloo, nine of the 17 smaller schemes have a significant cycling component:
The other eight are more general safety and congestion schemes. They are: Croydon Fiveways: Major work to reduce traffic congestion in the local area and support growth in Croydon's metropolitan centre. Brent Cross/Cricklewood: Creation of new road layouts and public spaces in the area to support new development and improve access to retail, dining and leisure facilities. Mill Hill Circus: Work to reduce congestion and improve journey time reliability in the area. Purley Cross Gyratory: Improvements to the the quality of public realm and better access through the area for bus passengers and other road users. Woodberry Down: Scheme to deliver safe, reliable and accessible road improvements to support new housing development in the local area. Thornton Heath Ponds: Focused on improving the quality of public realm around Thornton Heath Pond. Trinity Road/ Burntwood Lane: Work to reduce congestion and delays at the junction of Trinity Road and Burntwood Lane. Tulse Hill Gyratory: Shorter-term scheme to improve road safety ahead of a longer-term scheme to address concerns about the operation of the gyratory.
The Chair of London Councils' Transport and Environment Committee, Councillor Catherine West, said: “These schemes will better address the needs of all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, and have a positive impact on the quality of life for residents.”
There’s no shortage of cycling challenges on the web, usually tied up with fitness – cycle every day for a year, beat your ‘personal best’, ride 50k, 100k, 200k. But here at cycle.travel, we think we’ve finally found one that appeals to us: coffeeneuring.
The rather uncomfortable portmanteau word is a nod to ‘randonneur’, the long-distance amateur cycle sport. The idea is simple: in seven consecutive weekends, you must ride your bike to seven different coffee shops, and have a coffee.
That’s it.
The idea was hatched in the famously coffee-centric city of Seattle by local cyclist Joe Platzner, of Seattle Randonneurs, and then taken up by Mary Gersemalina from Washington DC. Mary added 19 rules to the challenge, saying:
“I invented Coffeeneuring and built a rather long set of rules around it, in part because randonneuring is a sport with many rules and because there is such irony in creating rules around a simple activity like riding your bicycle to a cup of coffee. On closer examination the rules basically boil down to ‘ride your bike at least two miles to a cup of coffee and take a picture.’ ”
But if you do want to follow the rules as written, they’re not too onerous: weekends only, minimum two miles, maximum one coffee shop per day, and take a photo. Hot chocolate, tea, and “apple cider” all count, though sadly the latter is simply US English for plain apple juice. Check out the full rules at chasingmailboxes.com.
The US 2013 Coffeeneuring Challenge ran in October and November, with 125 cyclists taking part – many of them recording their rides on Twitter with the hashtag #coffeeneuring. Only one of the participants was from Britain, but since cycling to a tea room is such a long-established British tradition, we can see this taking off over here.
Should you need inspiration for your rides, you can of course use our journey-planner and city guides to plan a route. We would also heartily recommend patisseriecyclisme.com, an entertaining directory of cycle-friendly cafés around Britain.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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