Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
  • We are to get some £
  • Houns
    Full Member

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23657010

    Should annoy some of the anti cyclists out there

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    its ok ,… youll just end up with more dangerous cycle paths with roads crossing every 30 seconds

    you wonder if any of our planners have ever looked at places where this stuff actually works…….

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    The national parks to benefit are the New Forest, Peak District, South Downs and Dartmoor.

    Major improvements to 93 miles of cycle routes on Dartmoor are anticipated.

    Uh oh! what exactly do they mean by improvements? 😕
    This is fairly serious.

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    wordnumb
    Free Member

    Let’s hope the cash is used where it’s needed rather than on creating ineffective spandrels or overwriting existing infrastructure.

    organic355
    Free Member

    We

    ?

    Englandshire only isnt it?

    julianwilson
    Free Member

    Sounds great, but I had not realised this though (from the article):

    But shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said: “No amount of cynical spin from David Cameron will make up for the fact that, immediately on taking office, he axed Cycle England, the Cycle Demonstration Towns scheme and the annual £60m budget to support cycling that he inherited.

    “Since then he has axed targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads, reduced traffic enforcement, cut the THINK! awareness campaign and allowed longer HGVs.

    A one-off £94m payout looks like a bargain spend compared to the ‘savings’ made since 2010. I wounder what he would be spending were it not for the successes of the olympics, TDF’s and keeping up with Boris? 😕

    madeupname
    Free Member

    For the New Forest I imagine it will fund more leaflets showing existing cycle tracks (not joined up…) and more No Cycling signs everywhere else…

    Inevitably funding like this is spent by people who don’t ride, and only put cycle paths or signs up to access Gov’t funding (bung routes down side roads/cycle paths on pavements with constant give ways signs etc etc etc).

    Oh well, at least it’ll give Clarkson something to rant about where his road/fag tax goes…

    woody74
    Full Member

    The problem with lots of this money is it that it just goes to civil servants that spend it on lovely looking leaflets, websites, events, social media campaigns to encourage people to cycle. Instead they should just use the principle of “Build it and they will come” Put bloody good infrastructure in place and people will ride more. To much money gets wasted, just look at Bristol that is meant to be a cycling city, what have they actually built and spent hard cash on.

    pingu66
    Free Member

    Probably all trails will be tarmaced over to prevent serious injury and the rest will go into painting a 12 inch wide strip between street lights if the planning buffoons have any input.

    I didn’t realise that a massive amount had been axed.

    zilog6128
    Full Member

    Englandshire only isnt it?

    And only very specific areas of England at that. What about the rest of England/the UK? And isn’t £94m f-all in the grand scheme of things?

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    oooh goody, they will probably sanitise all the bridleways round here with road scrapings making them all nice and smooth like Chapel Gate & Brough Lane.

    +1 Woody74 – we will await the tender notices landing in the post!

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    So if they are now pro cycling, will the overrule the outrageous ban on bikes on bridleways in the Ashdown Forest?

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    there is an article (it think in the CTC mag) which implies they might resurface the SDW!

    not sure about the need for that really!

    kimbers
    Full Member

    sad really, the headline cash spend belies the cuts to cycling made to cycling since the government came into power.

    and still the clarksonites, daily failers,ukippers, telegraph etc will probably be outraged at 94 million on cycling

    would love to see some real investment in dutch style cycling in cities

    Id love a mayor to get voted in and say – Ok we will ban cars from the city centre

    bails
    Full Member

    £94m is indeed “F-all”. £94m is 0.7% of the DfT budget. But £42m of it was announced last year. So it’s only ~£50m, so more like 0.35%

    Spread the original £94m over the few years of the spending and it’s, what, ~40p per person per year, when the Dutch spend £25 per person per year and we’ve got lots to do to catch up with them…

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3840260.ece

    http://www.greatgasbeetle.com/cycling-funding-announcements-cycle-city-ambition-grant-and-cycling-in-national-parks-grants/

    They keep doing it with the LSTF money, just reannounce it and it sounds like it’s new money.

    crikey
    Free Member

    The figures I’ve seen suggest it costs between £24 and £30 million for a mile of motorway, just to put this bonanza into perspective. It’s a PR stunt using the cash from down the back of the sofa, and jumps on the ‘We’re all cyclists now’ bandwagon.

    I like the idea that they’ve proposed park and ride schemes for cyclists, to allow us to use public transport for the last part of our journey…

    plyphon
    Free Member

    It sounds a lot but 94m is **** all.

    For contrast the marketing budget for a government initiative I read about recently was £150m

    trying to find the article but alas it eludes the googles today

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    I like the idea that they’ve proposed park and ride schemes for cyclists, to allow us to use public transport for the last part of our journey…

    Better to spend the cash on old fashioned guards vans so we can take out bikes with us rather than coming home to find just a frame chained to a bike rack.

    scottfitz
    Free Member

    there is an article (it think in the CTC mag) which implies they might resurface the SDW!

    not sure about the need for that really! wouldn’t it be better spending it on new cycle trail rather than bridleways that already have funding for maintenance?

    bails
    Full Member

    sad really, the headline cash spend belies the cuts to cycling made to cycling since the government came into power.

    and still the clarksonites, daily failers,ukippers, telegraph etc will probably be outraged at 94 million on cycling

    Quite. One of the comments on the BBC is along the lines of “So only 2% of people are cyclists, but 100% of taxpayers are paying for this? OUTRAGEOUS” 🙄

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    I think I’d like to know a bit more detail before I decide if this is a “Good”, “Bad” or “Nil Benefit” thing TBH.

    For starters £94m sounds like a big sum, but have they stated over what period of time that funding is to be spent? And is this the standard swizz of re-packaging existing funding plans as “New” how far will this money really go? and just how was the figure arrived at?

    Keep the figure under £100m because that’s the sort of nice round number where UKIP mouths start to froth and it gets all “Bongo Bongo land” but it’s got to be upwards of £75m so that it doesn’t sound like a derisory sum… it’s a PR driven number, not based on any assessment of need or where it might actually get spent IMO.

    Which organisations or bodies are going to be selecting projects and doing the spending?

    I heard briefly on the radio this morning that they are coupling this funding with proposals to “relax planning regulations” to allow local authorities greater freedom to improve cycle provision… That just worries me TBH as it’s essentially;

    “Here’s a pot of money and less restraint / controls on how you spend it”

    I’d rather hear that a proportion of the money was going towards developing some specific guidance for planners / transport engineers to incorporate cycling infrastucture into all their future work rather than cycling provisson being seen as a separate piece infrastucture to bolt on to already Gash road layouts…

    I can see some of this money magically making it’s way into local authorities budget for general roads maintenance and being used to fix potholes, justified on the basis that cyclists use the roads too and will also benefit from fewer craters… It’ll happen somewhere, just wait…

    Ultimately as great as this announcement sounds, it all seems a bit aimless.
    Is this money for improving cycling infrastructure? Promote cycling as transport or as a leisure activity, Sporting funding to create more Hoys, Wigginsis and Pendltons? Funding for campaigns to improve general road user’s awareness of cycling safety issues? educaion for cyclists, Eductation for drivers? what is it actually for?

    £94m for “cycling” doesn’t tell us much…

    They never described DfT funding announcements as “Money for Driving” before. Bicycles are simply part of the UK’s general “transport mix”, why do we need specific funding? I’d rather just know how they are going accommodate cycling across all their plans than a one hit wonder funding announcement with no actual idea what they’ll be wasting the money on…

    Still Dave’s on board so it must have been thought through.

    yunki
    Free Member

    I reckon most of that £94m could be accounted for by the Sustrans Exe Trail which is currently having a magnificently engineered bridge built to cross the tidal River Clyst..

    There are also going to be a few more bridges I guess on the new Sustrans route that has been started between Bovey Tracey and Mortonhampstead (and beyond?), plus miles and miles of surfacing

    kimbers
    Full Member

    this is my favourute comment from the BBc article

    engineer-neil
    2 MINUTES AGO
    Only one thing worse than a cyclist on the pavement, and that’s a cyclist on the pavement with a filthy dog in tow, stopping for nothing except to s**t where people walk.

    !!!!?????????!!!!!!

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    It ain’t new money which is a sham (e)

    As far as the South Downs go all they really need to do is open up the footpaths and leave us to it I reckon.
    Most of the SDW is paved, rather gravel stretches now anyway so all that’s needed in reality is a few more Farmers unable to get to their fields and they’ll shove another load of gravel down for us.
    The SDW has become a bit of an A road as it is with the increasing number of both Walkers and Cyclists using it, we’ve certainly gouged out our own path haven’t we.

    What they need to do is open up routes like The Hangers Way/Shipwrights Way etc.. Simple fix at a teeny proportion of the budget, no need for anymore “no cycling signs”

    We know “call me Dave” is a fraud, a spin Doctor for the Pleb Set.

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    £94 is enough to annoy the idiots.

    but it’s not enough to actually build anything helpful.

    (it might be enough to do *some* good, but it’ll just get spent on ‘campaigns’)

    40mpg
    Full Member

    According to the local rag (Southampton, re New Forest cash),

    The initiative includes plans to make roads safer for those on two wheels

    Apparently the New Forest cash will be spent on creating a ‘cycle centre’ in Brockenhurst. This will consist of cycle hire (of which there are at least 2 already) and some kind of ‘Boris bike’ scheme to allow people to take bikes from one tourist hotspot to another, choosing to leave the bike there or continue with another.

    So:
    Nothing to make cycling safer
    Undermining existing hire businesses
    What appears to be an unnecessary and possibly an unworkable bike scheme

    Nice one, Government 🙄

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    On a more positive note:

    Our local cycling campaign in Newcastle and the local branch of Sustrans have had input into this.

    Basically the city had to put together a bid that outlined what it would do with the money, and also commit some of their local authority budget as well.

    In Newcastle’s case they plan to create an “Active Travel Centre” and provision for seven cycle routes through the city that the campaign have been pushing for.

    We’re pretty excited to be getting the money and the Cycling Ambition proposal that was put together sounds good on paper. So it is really just down to whether the council can deliver on what they have set out.

    *cautiously optimistic*

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    Another positive note, apparently this includes the Pedal Peak District plan, which takes the old railway bike trails in the Peak District and adds sensible links so that the Monsal Trail and High Peak/Tissington Trail join up, and so that the various trails are joined to actual towns (Buxton, Matlock, Stoke, Sheffield). Just a recreational thing, but they are great for family rides, and it is nice that they are going to be sensibly joined up to towns, rather than having to drive to the middle of nowhere to cycle them.

    http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/transport_roads/transport_plans/transport_funding_bids/pedal_peaks_phase_2/default.asp

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Been doing a bit of “fire-fighting” in the good old local news comments section.

    Usual bollocks about road tax, red light jumping, blah blah predictable blah… but this line of argument was a new one on me:

    Lynda: people are struggling to live so how could they possibly afford a bike ???

    Amy: A bicycle is one of the most affordable forms of transport there is

    Lynda: not when you have to make a choice to eat or pay your bills

    Me: If people are struggling to eat then isn’t it a GOOD thing to support a really cheap way for them to get out to work? The only transport cheaper than cycling is walking and not everyone lives close enough to their work to walk.

    Lynda: and what if they cant work..

    Me: If they can’t work then a bike still provides a very affordable way for them to get around.

    Gav: If you have to choose between eating or paying your bills, why on earth would you try to finance a car?

    Perhaps I’m naive but I don’t really get where she is coming from. To me she is saying “I’m breadline poor – so why are you wasting money trying to provide me with an essentially free transport option that improves my mobility and job prospects?”

    I mean obviously she’d rather the council just personally handed her the 5.6 million quid – but I don’t think that’s quite how the local authority budgeting works.

    bigjim
    Full Member

    And isn’t £94m f-all in the grand scheme of things?

    three miles of motorway I believe.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    I’ve thought of what they can spend it on.

    More signs.

    You know those “Cyclists must dismount” signs? They’re there because of the dangers of crossing a road occupied by cars.

    Anyhow, my brainwave to make it safer for everyone is a sign reading “Motorists must get out and push their cars over this dangerous intersection”.

    Brilliant, eh? Reduce the carnage by at least 0.000001%. 🙂

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    As epicyclo says ^^.
    Got a nasty feeling that most of this money will go on a few more random splashes of paint down a gutter, a few “Cyclists Dismount” signs and possibly a load of leaflets telling everyone about their 1 mile of cyclepath.

    Said pro-cycling measures will be put in place by a bunch of civil servants who last rode a bike when they were 11.

    I hope I’m wrong, I bet I’m not. 🙁

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    I hope I’m wrong, I bet I’m not.

    So get involved?

    Join Sustrans. Volunteer your time.
    Join your local cycle campaign.
    Lobby your councillors and MP.
    Push for proper cycle facilities.

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)

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