Posted by Tom Bailey on Wednesday, November 9, 2011,
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... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Wednesday, November 9, 2011,
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 Its from 2006 so a bit out of date, but the "hot spot" locations seem to strangely tie in with a little mental map I carry around with me entitled "there be wolves"  Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Monday, November 7, 2011,
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... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Monday, October 10, 2011,
I'd never heard of this lot until a couple of years ago, they are the body that unites the various local bike campaigner groups around Britain. They went a bit haywire on twitter last night and posted a (drunken?) rant against various people around Europe:  Is this what happens to you when you spend too much time cycling in Traffic? Quite Odd really. Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Monday, September 5, 2011,
This blog post stems in part from a chat I had with Cllr Ed Hodson the Cabinet member for transport in my neck of the woods, which has already on been described in Karl McCracken's blog. Although Cllr Hodson was probably not a natural political proponent of cycling, he did at least know what a set of panniers was.
I'd put Cllr Hodson's age as mid to late 60's, which means that he would have been born in the late1940's and grown up in a Britain where bicycle modal share although in decline w... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Tuesday, August 9, 2011,
blog
This
week's installment comes to you live from the South of France. To
set the scene I'm currently sat on a campsite on the Argens River
which looks kinda like an American trailer park with trees, except its
around
1/3 each Dutch / French / English with a few Belgians and Germans
thrown
in. The Dutch sit at the top of the pecking order with the biggest
caravans and most sophisticated bicycles, with the English and French
underneath holding each other in polite mutual contempt. I've b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Thursday, July 21, 2011,
Next week myself and Karlonsea are off to see the Transport Officer Head Honchos for North Tyneside. We met the Councillor and Cabinet member for Transport a few weeks back, but these are the guys who really run things. In North Tyneside you are to some extent pushing at an open door with this sort of thing. Although the Transport Engineers are as car centric as anywhere else there are plenty of Council transport officers who know what a Dutch Roundabout is and are genuinely interested in ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Tuesday, July 5, 2011,
Relations between cyclists and bus drivers have their comic moments, as well as downright scary moments. This morning I had to put up with what I'd call a pointless and scary overtake from two buses whilst in one of Newcastle's "no-car" lanes approaching a set of (red) traffic lights. Yes they didn't actually hit me, but they gained nothing from overtaking, I got a scare and then had to manoeuvre around them 100 yards up the road. Just part of the day to day "treat me like a cockroach" exp... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Wednesday, June 29, 2011,
A few months ago I became embroiled in the design of a section of Newcastle Council's new "red" cycle route which runs through the city centre to the Tyne Bridge. The experience left me very disillusioned with the way that this sort of stuff is done, but at the same time convinced that the solution to getting things improved lies at a political level not in arguing with junior council officers on the ground. This gets technical but bare with me.
The "red" route is pretty low quality and... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Thursday, June 23, 2011,
I've always been slightly unclear about what the "4C"'s bit means something like Council Chiefs City Cycle ride or something like that. Anyway it happened last night, I went along and a BBC "Man on the Telly" (who's name I forget, sorry) was there so it should make tonight's TV news Up North.
The idea started out as a ride between the Town Halls of Newcastle and Gateshead organised by Newcastle Cycle Campaign. Over time the idea of going to Gateshead got dropped and it settled down into a ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Isobel Bailey on Thursday, June 23, 2011,
I have cycled to school today and it was wet but it was still fun! I like cycling to school a bit.
 Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Tuesday, June 21, 2011,
One would think that a company that runs a fleet of very distinctive branded trucks, and uses the slogan "We care because our name's on it" would ensure high driving standards. Surprisingly I often see Warburtons trucks parked on double yellow lines and exhibiting what some might call a general "drive it like you stole it" approach to using the highway.
Take this morning for example. Warburtons truck PL03 CUV overtook me by passing to the right of a traffic island on the approach to a ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Monday, June 13, 2011,
Last night I cycled across London on my way from meeting an old friend for a few beers to Victoria Coach Station (many thanks to Karl McCracken for the Brompton loan). Aside from a few wrong turns in Whitehall which I suspect took me far too close to Downing Street for comfort I went through Parliament Square past the Palace of Westminster. I was expecting Parliament Square to be a car sodden mess that in any civilised country would be pedestrianised. But what really shocked me was that sinc... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Thursday, May 26, 2011,
The Coast Road Cycle Path
The Coast Road (A1058) is the 8 mile direct route between "The Coast" (Whitley Bay & Tynemouth) and Newcastle City Centre. Opened in the 1930's it was designed to serve suburban housing estates being constructed by the seaside and take a stream of traffic into the City, at the time there would have been very large numbers of cyclists using it. In the 1970's large sections of it were "upgraded" to grade separated dual carriageway. The planners at the time inten... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Wednesday, May 25, 2011,
I am slowly arriving at the conclusion that in a lot of cases when cycle campaigners around Tyneside are offered more cycle parking they should say "no thanks, please spend the money on something more useful". This sounds ungrateful, counter intuitive, perhaps downright silly? My thinking is as follows: 1/ In all my many years riding a bike I have never failed to find somewhere to park, there is always a lamppost railing or convenient bit of street furniture. If numbers of bicycle users go ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Tuesday, May 24, 2011,
Last night I went along with Bill Dodds to a meeting at Newcastle Council where we as the Newcastle Cycling Campaign are being "consulted" and asked to give our input to the Tyne & Wear bid to something called the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
Bill is in fine fettle right now being chair of the West Gosforth Labour Party, given the change in regime in Newcastle. I'd been gently winding him up earlier in the day suggesting that we propose that the bid focus its efforts on getting risk ha... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Saturday, May 21, 2011,
I know, I know, lets get this out of the way...... If you want hand crafted bike baskets delivered to your door direct from Assen the man to go to is http://hembrow.eu/bicycle.html If you want to hear about how cycling is in the Netherlands and could be where you live, explained in plain english, look at http://hembrow.blogspot.com/ . What you find here is clearly completely different. No connection at all, honest. Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Friday, May 20, 2011,
So, made it through the week. Three Bicycle Baskets sold, one to our neighbour Pam which I went round and fitted to her Giant last night after work. A bit of shuffling the straps around and adjusting the angle of the brake levers and job done. Two now on their way to Portsmouth and Chelmsford via ebay and royal mail. A hint of nervousness pervades, will the post office lose them, will the recipients like them etc etc. It'll be fine, I'm sure? This week I've managed to report 6 taxis for d... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Bailey on Wednesday, May 18, 2011,
Riding a bicycle around Tyne & Wear can be alarming at times but always fun. As well as running the Tynemouth Bicycle Basket Company I'm also one of the key contacts for the Newcastle Cycle Campaign www.newcycling.org.uk (plus having a rather boring day job which I won't mention). Not sure where this blog will go..... Continue reading ...
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