What to do about it?  Newcastle Council apparently think that retail businesses will leave if the don't get free car parking, more on that latter.  Kim Harding has suggested that the solution to getting more people on bikes is taxing car parking, I'm not so sure.

I'm convinced that the way to get large numbers of people shopping by bike is really quite straight forward.  You take places where the majority of shoppers are already walking, you make them a bit more bike friendly, you put in a few...

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Can you guess what this map shows?  Its from 2006 so a bit out of date, but the "hot spot" locations seem to strangely tie in with a little mental map I carry around with me entitled "there be wolves"

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This blog is inspired by a news article out in the regional press today entitled "Second Tyne Tunnel will transform the region, predicts project MD".  For those not familiar with this project a second road tunnel has been built under the river Tyne which until now has served as a bottleneck on the A19.  The A19 is a motorway in all but name that runs from North of Newcastle down to North Yorkshire.

 
 
Right now the new tunnel is open but the old one is closed for refurbishment, so it is still t...

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