Category Archives: Gosforth High Street

Black Friday, Smoggy Saturday…

Since Black Friday, 25 November 2016, readings from the new air quality monitor at the Salters Road car park say the average level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2)  has been 50.3 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3) or 26% above the legal limit. The legal limit is 40 μg/m3 averaged over a year. It was high levels of nitrogen dioxide that led to the creation of the South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area in 2008. While air pollution is damaging to health, personal exposure travelling further Read more [...]

Pedestrian Priority on Gosforth High Street

New proposals for Gosforth High Street have been released  by Newcastle City Council today. These proposals include pedestrian-priority crossings on side streets, revised parking arrangements and a reduced speed limit. While the 'Red Route' plans are still officially on the table, the Council has agreed to work with SPACE for Gosforth and local business owners to see if alternative approaches can be found that address issues such as the High Street's poor safety record, air quality and Read more [...]

Bike Week Bingo – No bike required

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 Read more [...]

Gosforth Speed Cameras Make the News

The Chronicle recently published a report on the region's speed cameras asking "where are you most likely to get caught? And how many drivers paid the price for breaking the speed limit in 2015?" The answer (according to the Chronicle) was "B1318 Great North Road Blue House" - the fixed speed camera at the south end of Gosforth High Street. This was activated by speeding vehicles 4,625 times in 2015 - more than any other speed enforcement camera in the entire north east region. It is worth Read more [...]

Can protected cycle lanes be good for business?

If you were asked to name one place that's more in thrall to the car than the UK, most people would say the USA. That's why, when American cities concerned about road safety, pollution and congestion have wanted to rebalance their roads to favour healthier and less polluting alternatives, they have had to make their case in very strong terms. This has resulted in studies that show the impact of pedestrian and cycling improvements on safety as well as on travel preferences, on house prices and on Read more [...]

Billion Pound Issues on Gosforth High Street

We are all familiar with thinking about the environmental and health aspects of traffic - congestion, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, accidents, physical inactivity - but what about the economics, the actual costs of these things in pounds? And how do these negative impacts affect Gosforth High Street, as these are the issues that the soon-to-be-announced proposals for the High Street need to fix? In 2009 the UK government calculated the negative impact of transport on the UK economy Read more [...]

Everything wrong with our High Street starts here

I live close to the High Street and can typically walk its length and back in about 15 minutes, on a sunny Wednesday a few weeks ago it took me about an hour. I didn't stop at the shops or get a coffee.  No, I was blindfolded by a nice gentleman called David, accompanied by my new pal Hazel.  They weren't leading me to an execution or a surprise although both transpired in a sense later on.  David is a volunteer Guide for the Guide Dogs charity and Hazel volunteers for RNIB, Guide Dogs and Read more [...]

Pollution on Gosforth High Street – First Results

People in Gosforth are becoming more and more concerned about pollution near major roads and especially on Gosforth High Street. As we have a high proportion of older and younger residents – those most at risk from its debilitating effects – this is not surprising. On Saturday the 17th of October members of SPACE for Gosforth spent time on the High Street with a pollution monitor measuring very fine particles (PM2.5s), one of the most dangerous types of pollution. The monitor ran for over Read more [...]

SPACE tests the air pollution on Gosforth High Street

Air pollution has been in the news since our last post(1), with BBC Newsnight featuring worrying claims about the effect air pollution has on our brains(2). At SPACE for Gosforth we wanted to find out more about how much air pollution there is here. We are not aware of anyone monitoring levels of pollution on Gosforth High Street so we brought an air pollution monitor there today to try to find out what pollutants Saturday shoppers are exposed to. Watch out for our report on our findings Read more [...]

Fixing Pollution on Gosforth High Street

Gosforth High Street is one of the busiest, most polluted streets in Newcastle. It is also a busy shopping centre in a neighbourhood with a high proportion of families and older people – exactly those most at risk from the effects of air pollution. There are a number of ways to deal with these risks, falling broadly into four categories: 1) Replacing or upgrading existing vehicles to run on less polluting fuels or have more efficient engines. 2) Managing traffic flow to minimise stopping Read more [...]