Ride programme – spring summer 2013

We have just finalised our programme of rides for the coming few months.  The rides are open to riders of all abilities, young or old, fast or slow.  Each of the rides is guided by an experienced, trained ride leader and will move at the pace of the slowest rider.  These rides are all about seeing the city and its surrounds in a different way and at a relaxed pace.  Why not give them a try?

The first ride  is the Bluebells Ride and Walk on Sunday 12 May. It starts at 10am at The Good Companion pub on Eastern Road. The ride uses cycle paths and country roads to travel up the hill and round the back through Purbrook to bluebell wood for a walk through ancient woodland.

Download the full ride programme here.

Boris and Arnie go biking

The next meeting for PCF is on Thursday 9 May at St Lukes Church Hall, next to Charter Academy, starting at 7pm.

RASPBERRY PI ON A BIKE

On the agenda this time we have guest speakers Rich Boakes and Craig Snyder from the University of Portsmouth. They’ll be talking about their ‘Magic Bike’ which uses sonar and a Raspberry Pi computer to detect passing vehicles and how close they are passing.

YOUR VISION FOR CYCLING

Following on from Mayor Boris Johnson’s Vision for Cycling in London, we want you to tell us what should be the cycling vision for Portsmouth. So get your thinking caps on!

There’ll also be a roundup of events for Bike Week in June and an opportunity to have your say.

Note: access to the hall is from the car park entrance in Greetham Street – map here.

Cyclenation achievements 2012 – 2013.

• Cyclenation kept the UK Cycling Alliance, UKCA, together when it was in danger of falling apart. Without this, the co-ordinated approach that led to the Parliamentary Enquiry would not have been possible. For the time in many years the national cycling organisations are speaking with one voice.
• Another successful Bike Week was held with a link up with Samsung. The 2013 event runs from 15 to 23 June.
• Cyclenation worked with the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Bristol and Manchester campaigns as well as Cycling Scotland on delivering a series of three conferences. These followed from a conference organised jointly between the Dutch Embassy and London Cycle Campaign.
• The annual campaign conference was in Bristol with some innovative ideas from the local group that helped to ensure a memorable event.
• Web site development has been the major project this year and it will be fully re-launched shortly after the AGM.
• Cyclenation won funding for a national publication, Cycling in New Developments, addressing a gap in advice that many groups have identified in their dealings with development control.
• The board continues to visit as many groups as possible and the offer to visit is always there.
• Cyclenation conducted a fundamental review of its development plan.
• A policy paper on infrastructure was produced this year for local groups to use for campaign development.
• The major campaigns are a twin track approach with one broader theme: a campaign for cycle friendly communities, and a more specific campaign on one way streets.
• In the coming year the board will need to focus on building capacity, work with the other members of the  UKCA to agree on what we do following the parliamentary enquiry and report, and encourage groups to maximise the new opportunities for local campaigning.
• The existing board was re-elected “as is” (including Jayne Rodgers from Portsmouth). There is a vacancy for one co-opted Board member. If you are interested in helping please get in touch.

Cycling parliament

The formal part of the meeting was followed by a Cycling Parliament where issues relating to cycle campaigning in the UK were discussed with a view to developing ideas for activities in the coming year. Priorities include representation, the provision of services & tools,  running conferences & Seminars and providing information to member groups. Campaign themes include building a nation of cycle friendly communities and two way cycling in one way streets. Cyclenation will be issuing guidance on assessing the Economic and Health benefits of cycling using the World Health Organisation’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for Cycling and Walking.

Get Britain Cycling Summary & Recommendations

The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG) released their Get Britain Cycling report today.  The report follows a six-week long inquiry hosted by the APPCG at the Palace of Westminster earlier this year calls for 10% of all journeys in Britain to be made by bike by 2025.  Some of the headline recommendations made to enable this goal include:

• More of the transport budget should be spent on supporting cycling, at a rate initially set to at least £10 per person per year, and increasing as cycling levels increase
• Cycling should be considered at an earlier stage in all planning decisions, whether transport schemes or new houses or businesses
• More use should be made of segregated cycle lanes, learning from the Dutch experience
• Urban speed limits should generally be reduced to 20 mph
• Just as children learn to swim at school they should learn to ride a bike
• The Government should produce a detailed cross-departmental Cycling Action Plan, with annual progress reports.

The summary and recommendations of the report can be read here: Get Britain Cycling Summary & Recommendations.

If you’d like to see the recommendations of this report implemented then a good first step would be to fill in the e-petition on the Number 10 website:

Promote cycling by implementing the recommendations in the ‘Get Britain Cycling’ report.

PCF Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Portsmouth Cycle Forum Committee will be this Friday (12th April 2013).

The proposed agenda for the meeting is linked below.  If there is anything else you think the committee should be discussing then please let us know via our contact page or our facebook group.

If you are interested in what happens at our committee meetings and would like to come and see for yourself then let us know. We’ll try to fit you in if we can.

PCF Committee Agenda 12 April 2013

Mayors vision for London

Cycle routes named after tube lines, better cycling infrastructure and increases to cycle parking at mainline stations are some of the proposals in the Mayor of London’s Cycling Vision which was released in March.

The Vision has been developed in consultation with cycling groups with an accompanying budget of £913m. The vision focuses on high-quality segregated infrastructure, including a central East-West route.

New routes parallel to and named after Tube routes, such as the ‘Bakerloo Superhighway’ will be built, as well as ‘Quietways’ using back-streets. In addition, ‘mini-Hollands’ are proposed for outer London, with redesigned town centres, cycle hubs at railway stations, and a cycle route to central London.

The document points to the success of ‘filtered permeability’ in Hackney, where streets have been transformed into high quality cycle routes through closing roads to motor traffic, but retaining cycle access.

Plans for new infrastructure will also focus on junctions – where 75% of cycle casualties occur and some 20mph limits will be introduced.

Other measures include a new ‘Superhub’, with space for thousands of bikes to be parked and hundreds of hire bikes available, which will be constructed at one of the mainline stations. The cycle hire scheme will also be extended, increasing the number of bikes available to 11,000.

Thus is breathtakingly ambitious plan – particularly compared with the national picture. The document can be downloaded from www.london.gov.uk/publication/mayors-vision-cycling.

Northern Road Bridge

If you’ve been hibernating over winter (and why not!) you might have missed the work on Northern Road Bridge in Cosham. Nobody is questioning the need to replace an ageing bridge over the railway line, but it is vital cyclists’ needs are considered when road works are being planned.

When we found out the road over the bridge would be open for buses, taxis and minicabs, with cyclists having to get off and walk with pedestrians, we queried this with Portsmouth City Council. The project team have been very willing to discuss our suggestions, including monitoring traffic flow to see if cycling could be allowed. They’ve also said they will consult with us on the best layout for the permanent cycle lane markings.

We’ve also discussed allowing two-way cycling in Cosham High Street, which has been turned into a one-way system. This is ‘temporary’ but we need to make sure that if it does become permanent then cyclists needs are catered for, avoiding making life difficult for those wanting to travel the ‘wrong’ way. Portsmouth City Council have committed to meet with PCF and discuss the future of the temporary one way system before the bridge works are completed.   We’ll keep you up-to-date with any news.

The reports from the chair and treasurer were both accepted without change.

• Read the report from the chair
• Read the report from the treasurer

Unfortunately the chair of the forum, John Holland, has decided to step down from the role after many years of unstinting service. Happily, John whill continue to serve on the committee and work to improve the lot of cyclists in the city. Portsmouth Cycle Forum owes John a debt of gratitude for his hard work and wise direction. Very many thanks John.

The committee for the coming year was then elected, the new committee members being:

• Chair: Jon Spencer
• Vice Chair: Hilary Reed
• Treasurer: Roger Inkpen
• Secretary: Pamela Wilkie
• Committee members: Chris Cheetham, Mike Dobson, Steve Franklin, John Holland, Joe McGannan, Tim Parker and Jayne Rodgers

The full minutes of the meeting can be read here.

The other business of the meeting covered:

• Mayor Boris’s recently announced cycle strategy for London (view the presentation);
• The progress of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund in Portsmouth;
• A report on our ongoing infrastructure campaings.

The meeting benefitted from the presence of Councillor Jason Fazackarley, the cabinet member for traffic and transportation in Portsmouth. Amongst other things Jason has promised to take a bike tour of Portsmouth with members of PCF to help him understand which roads and junctions don’t work for cyclists. That should happen sometime in May.

Many thanks to everyone who came and I look forward to your support for the coming year.  If you are a member of PCF please don’t forget to renew, and if you are not a member why not consider joining.  The subscription is only £5 and we strive to provide a representative voice for all cyclists in the city.  Payment can be made on-line or cheques (payable to Portsmouth Cycle Forum) can be posted to: Joe McGannan, 27 Thurbern Road, Portsmouth, PO2 0PH.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 14 March at Eastney Community Centre in Bransbury Park, starting at 7.15pm. The first three quarters of an hour will be given over to our Annual General Meeting where we will elect the officers and committee for 2013/14.

We aim to make the Forum as accountable and democratic as possible, and invite members to consider joining the committee. Executive meetings are generally held once a month to discuss relevant and topical issues related to the Forum and cycling in general.

After the AGM we’ll be catching-up on events local and national including the Local Sustainable Transport Plan (LSTF).

Just as importantly, annual membership subscriptions are due for renewal at the modest fee of £5. This fee helps to pay running costs for the Forum including insurance for events and rides. The Treasurer will be taking subscriptions on the night. Cheques should be made out to Portsmouth Cycle Forum. Alternatively payment can be made on-line or cheques can be posted to: Joe McGannan, 27 Thurbern Road, Portsmouth, PO2 0PH.

Portsmouth Cycle Forum AGM Thursday 14Mar13 AGENDA

Chairmans annual report March 2013

Annual General Meeting MINUTES 8 March 2012

The video makes a great job of showing the inadequate and poorly thought out infrastructure cyclists are presented with.  Now we need to get some of the decision makers to watch …