Showing Tag: "newcastle" (Show all posts)

Shopping

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...

Newcastle Map Quiz

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 Its from 2006 so a bit out of date, but the "hot spot" locations seem to strangely tie in with a little mental map I carry around with me entitled "there be wolves"

Building UK Cycle Infrastructure - Where it all goes wrong

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...

The Newcastle 4 C's bike ride

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 ...

Say "NO" to cycle parking?

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 ...
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The War on the Motorist is over - Sustainable Future here we come

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...

Friday - taxis and Bicycle Baskets

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...
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