June 11 – June 19 is Bike Week
More people walking and cycling benefits everyone, whether that’s one less car in front of you, more free parking spaces, safer streets, cleaner air or savings to the NHS.
Even if you can’t or don’t want to cycle yourself, you can still help others who do. That’s why we’ve come up with Bike Week Bingo – No bike required, nine things you can do to help cycling regardless of whether you ride a bike or not. Have a go and tell us how you get on.
1. Understand the Benefits
If you already ride a bike you will probably understand how protected cycle lanes and traffic-free paths encourage more people to cycle and help you stay safe. What is less well known is that helping more people cycle benefits everyone, not just cyclists. Have a read of this article from The Times which sets out some of the ways in which different groups of non-cyclists benefit from investing in safe cycle routes.
I don’t ride a bike, why should I support measures to boost cycling?
2. SLOW DOWN!
We all need to look out for each other when we are on the roads so that we can all stay safe. Even if you have right of way, that doesn’t mean the route ahead of you is guaranteed to be clear, or that a child won’t step out in front of you from behind a parked car.
Excessive speed is one of the biggest causes of serious injuries and many people under-estimate how much difference even 10mph can make, especially for children or older people. So when you are out driving during Bike Week please be patient, control your speed and drive within the speed limits.
This SPACE for Gosforth article sets out why we think 20mph is the right speed for Gosforth’s children.
20 mph – the right speed for Gosforth’s children.
We have also published data that shows what an issue this is. 1000 Speeding Drivers – A typical day on Gosforth’s back streets & Gosforth Speed Cameras Make the News.
3. Compare Journey Times
Check your options for a regular short journey, say a trip from home to Gosforth High Street. Google Maps has a great facility where you can enter a start and end point and then choose your mode of travel.
Check Journey Times with Google.
If you drive, don’t forget to add time to find a parking space and walk from the car park. It’s about 3-4 minutes from Salters Road to the shopping centre on foot, or a bit over 5 minutes from the Regent Centre to Salters Road.
Remember the distance of your journey as you will need it for (6).
4. Try something different
If you have discovered a different option that might work for you – give it a go!
5. Take a picture
When walking or cycling round Gosforth have you found sections of road that worked well or made your journey easier? Or something that could do with improving? Take a picture and let us know about it.
You can share pictures on our Facebook site.
We are also on Twitter and Streetlife
or you can email us or leave a comment below.
6. Calculate the cost
You probably know how much your journey cost you, but do you know how much it cost society as a whole? You can estimate this using some figures calculated for Vancouver, converted here to pence per passenger mile*.
| Cost to society per passenger-mile |
Benefit to society per passenger-mile |
||
| Driving | 48p | Walking | 19p |
| Bus | 5p | Cycling | 13p |
If you want to find out how these costs were calculated, this website explains.
What is the full cost of your commute?
7. Report a Pothole
Newcastle City Council generally has a good record for fixing pot holes, but if you do spot one you can report it here:
If you are outside the Newcastle City boundaries, then you can use Fill That Hole, a website created by Cycling UK.
8. Apply for Free Bike Parking
Parking is important for cyclists too. Voluntary sector groups, businesses, shops, offices, cafés, pubs, churches, dental practices and surgeries can get free cycle parking under the community cycle parking scheme run by ParkThatBike.
Share ParkThatBike’s details with one of these groups and ask them to install some cycle parking.
ParkThatBike free cycle parking.
This is the URL if you want to pass it on: www.parkthatbike.info
9. Tell us how you got on
You can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Streetlife or you can email us or add a comment below.
Getting involved, and showing support for improving conditions for walking or cycling, is the best way to make this happen so we all can enjoy the benefits.
*The conversion of costs to cost per passenger-miles in (6) assumes an exchange rate of 1 Canadian dollar = 54p, so $ 0.56 / passenger-km by automobile = 0.56 * 0.54 * 1.6 (the conversion from kilometres to miles) = 48p per passenger-mile.
An interesting way to highlight benefits and disbenefits of various modes of travel and to get people thinking. In terms of 6. above, the direct cost to me per mile to get to work is 42p on the bus, 49p on the metro and 36p in a car. Whilst I go to work via metro 9o% of the time and there are benefits for everyone when I do, most people just look at the direct cost to their own pocket, in fact most just use there fuel costs! Also an opportunity missed in not promoting the recent ‘Walk to School’ week and ‘National Walking Month’, in May via relevant pages of the website and in particular given the name of the organisation and other promoted similar cycling schemes.
Thanks Paul. We did publicise National Walking Month and, I think, Walk to School week via Twitter and Facebook but not on the website as you say. If you are aware of a school or business or an individual in Gosforth who did something for National Walking Month then please let us know as we will be more than happy to publicise that.
Apologises Rupert but I don’t have either. Does WordPress allow Twitter website windows?
In terms of what occurred during ‘NATIONAL walking to school week’ I suspect the vast majority in Gosforth walked to school, although nationally the overall figure had dropped to 46% in 2014. Linking to the relevant Living Streets webpage and a few relevant documents on the bigger medium might have got a few people thinking, though interesting to note NCC did nothing yet again.
Interestingly, is it the fact that we walk all the time that means we seem to think we don’t need to publicise it and what the benefits are, together with the fact that funding doesn’t follow walking to anyway near the same as other forms of sustainable transport/movement. What better way in a compact city to move between neighbourhoods in a sociable, low impact, sustainable manner. Is there a NCC walking strategy? I would suggest walking doesn’t fit with many parts of the One Core Strategy?
Paul, thanks. Good idea about Twitter. I’ll see if we can have a look at that.
In case you aren’t aware, GoSmarter is the Council initiative for ‘sustainable’ travel ( http://gosmarter.co.uk/about-us ) which promotes walking. I believe they do a lot of work with schools and businesses.