Earlier this year, Newcastle City Council updated its proposals for High West Jesmond as part of the overall Jesmond Streets for People plans. The council signalled that it was considering other options for how the budget might be used to improve walking and cycling.

The new plans published in March are set out on the High West Jesmond Residents’ website. This blog is about SPACE for Gosforth’s input to the process, which was shared with the Council at the end of March 2019. The original scheme is (at the time of writing) still available on the Streets for People website.

In this proposal we have considered a wider area bounded by Gosforth High Street, Church Road/Station Road and Haddricks Mill Road/Jesmond Dene Road, rather than just High West Jesmond. Looking at one area in isolation would have the potential to push traffic onto other residential streets, whereas looking at a wider area helps to avoid this.

We are sharing this as a draft and would welcome any feedback on the proposal itself and on the approach taken, which we have explained below. Although we don’t have detailed costings, our belief is that what we have proposed would lead to much greater benefits over a wider area at a much reduced cost, and at the same time would minimise the impact on residents who do need to drive for some journeys.

Streets for People – High West Jesmond

The Streets for People project overall aims to enable more people to walk and cycle in three areas, each of which has a budget of £1m funded by a grant from the Department of Transport’s Cycle City Ambition Fund.

The Council’s new proposals retain the cycle lane on Ilford Road between Moorfield and Jesmond Dene Road but other than that seem to have little benefit for walking or cycling. We were surprised the Ilford Road cycle lane was included in the Streets for People proposals as it was part of the recommendations from the Blue House working group so we expected it would be funded from that budget rather than diluting the Streets for People funding.

The other new proposals were to include speed bumps on Moorfield and at the junction with Ilford Road and continuous pavement on the north side of Moorfield. Based on experience elsewhere in Gosforth (Hollywood Avenue, Regent Farm Road), we wouldn’t expect speed bumps by themsleves to make any great difference to the liveability or safety of the street. Continuous pavement is usually used along main roads so may have the opposite effect and encourate people to believe that Moorfield is to be used as a main road for through traffic.

Issues and Concerns

There is a reasonable amount of data to describe issues in the area east of Gosforth High Street, including high or illegal levels of air quality on the surrounding main roads, and high volumes of traffic, much of which is speeding, on residential streets.

This data is backed up by comments shared by residents during the Streets for People and Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) consultations. Ilford Road, Moorfield and Moor Road South are frequently mentioned as problem streets with high traffic volumes and speeding.

High West Jesmond Residents’ Group held a meeting that resulted in similar comments shown in the slide below. This we previously reported in the SPACE for Gosforth blog about the original proposals. High West Jesmond Residents also produced their own blog setting out their concerns and thoughts in a bit more depth.

These broadly align both with the data and LCWIP / Streets for People consultation feedback.

The idea of a trial also makes sense as that would allow residents to evaluate changes to determine if concerns will be realised or if proposals might be improved prior to more permanent implementation.

Objectives and Opportunities

We also have data from the SPACE for Gosforth Your Streets – Your Views survey, which gives an  indication of what people will support and shows that reducing through traffic and safe walking and cycling routes to schools could be popular.

Separately, we know local Councillors support similar aims, below from the 2018 local Council elections. These include the option to trial interventions.

Bringing these together we can come up with some objectives for this proposal before even looking at what measures might be implemented.

So, for this proposal we are aiming to meet the Streets for People objectives, reduce speeding traffic, make it safer to walk and cycle to schools and reduce traffic on residential streets.

We have also noted concerns about displacing traffic on to other residential streets and longer journey times by car.

By residential streets we mean streets that enable access to people’s homes but aren’t designated for through traffic. In the map above red lines show the routes of ‘primary distributor’ roads for through traffic including Jesmond Dene Road and Haddricks Mill Road. Orange lines show ‘secondary distributor’ roads including Gosforth High Street, Church Road and Station Road. These define the boundary of the area we are looking at, which goes beyond the current scope of Jesmond Streets for People but needs considering as one.

None of Moorfield, Moor Road North or South, Ilford Road or The Grove are designated for through traffic but all carry relatively high volumes of vehicles, many of which are currently using those streets as if they are main roads.

Analysis

Looking at a map of this area, it is noticeable how the area is already split by the Metro line and an east-west line including The Valley and the grounds of South Gosforth First School. Travel between these areas is limited to one or two options whether you are walking, cycling or driving.

To help with the analysis we have split the area into three sub-areas each with limited connectivity to the other. So, High West Jesmond forms one of these areas connecting north via either Moor Road South or Ilford Road.

We haven’t included areas west of Moor Road or The Admirals (Beatty Avenue, Sturdee Gardens, Keyes Gardens) as these are already quiet streets with little through traffic.

For each of these areas we have used Google Maps directions to determine how long it would take to travel to Blue House, Haddricks Mill and to the High Street / Salters Road junction, and what options there are for routes. All journeys to or from the area by car would have to go through one of these junctions.

For example, Google Maps gives three different options for travelling from High West Jesmond to Haddricks Mill. One via Moor Road South / The Grove, one via Ilford Road and a third via Haddricks Mill Road. At 8.30am on a Monday morning the Haddricks Mill Road route is the quickest. We have used 8.30am on a Monday so that we take account of peak traffic on main roads and as this is also when children are travelling to school.

Travelling from High West Jesmond to Gosforth High Street, two routes are equally quick by car. One via Gosforth High Street and the other via Moor Road North. Of these it would be preferable to route traffic via Gosforth High Street which is designated for through traffic rather than Moor Road North which is a residential street.

In the other direction, the quickest route calculated at 5pm on a Monday afternoon is via Blue House roundabout.

Using these calculations and a few others not shown, we can determine the quickest vehicle routes to and from High West Jesmond. These do not require the use of Ilford Road and only use Moor Road South in a northerly direction.

The map belows shows what happens when the same analysis is repeated for the areas marked out by purple and orange dashed lines. From the purple area the quickest car journeys are via Church Road/Church Avenue/Station Road to the High Street and Haddricks Mill, and to Blue House via The Grove. The orange area is the same except that the quickest journey to Blue House is via Haddricks Mill Road.

Having completed this analysis we can draw some conclusions.

1. If Ilford Road south of Rectory Avenue and Stoneyhurst Road at the Metro bridge were closed to vehicle traffic it would make no real difference to journey times by car. Some people who previously used those routes but change to using quicker routes may see their journey time reduce.
2. If the southern end of Moor Road South was made northbound-only that also would make no difference to journey times.

Continuing the analysis, making the southern end of Moor Road North south-bound only where it meets The Grove would stop north-bound traffic using Moor Road North as an alternative to the High Street, again without impacting journey times. Residents returning to St Nicholas Avenue, Belle Vue Avenue and Rectory Grove from Blue House can travel via the Grove / Church Avenue.

Making these changes would dramatically reduce the amount of traffic on the estate while making very little difference to journey times by car for residents. The one exception would be The Grove but this could be closed to through traffic between Grove Park Crescent and Stoneyhurst Road West. In this case residents of St Nicholas Avenue, Belle Vue Avenue and Rectory Grove would use Grove Park Crescent to access their properties. Although this would displace some traffic to Grove Park Crescent it is likely to be fairly small.

Reducing through traffic also makes the roads safer and more pleasant for walking and cycling, and safer for children travelling to local schools.

Proposal

Clearly any analysis like this won’t capture every consideration, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. We would also like your feedback, as described at the end of this blog, to help us refine and improve this proposal if possible.

Our draft proposal submitted to Streets for People was to use temporary measures to stop through traffic on Ilford Road, make the south end of Moor Road North one way going south, and the south end of Moor Road South one way going north. These could be made permanent if the trial is successful. The remainder of Moor Road North and South would still have two-way traffic.

We would also propose stopping through traffic at the Stoneyhurst Road Metro bridge on a similar basis along with a “school street”  on Alnmouth Drive to further improve safety for children travelling to and from school.

Possibly some of the traffic that was using residential streets might re-route via the local main road network, but given closing Killingworth Road didn’t lead to an increase in traffic on The Great North Road nor Benton Lane, the impact is likely to be minimal.

While any initial implementation is likely to use temporary materials to confirm the approach works, longer term we hope the closures might be used to introduce more greenery. A good example of how this has been done is at Ampton Street nor far from Kings Cross Station, where part of the road has been replaced by gardens with planting and seats.

Evaluation and Feedback

Looking back at the objectives, we think this proposal would do what we set out to achieve. With less traffic, local streets become quieter and more liveable and better for walking and cycling. A similar scheme at Waltham Forest resulted in increased levels of walking and cycling, and is expected to lead to substantial health benefits for those living in the area.

That’s our view but we would like to hear your feedback as well. Specifically:

1. If you live in the area, would the proposal make it easier or harder for you to travel or encourage you to travel differently?
2. If harder please do give us details of the journey that might be worse. E.g. starting street or area and approximate destination and how and when you travel.
3. Any other related concerns not met by the proposal.

The post East Gosforth – Streets for People appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

SPACE for Gosforth’s launch event 2015 at the Gosforth Hotel

In 2015, at SPACE for Gosforth’s launch event held upstairs at the Gosforth Hotel we asked local residents, what do they like about the High Street and what could be improved?

This was in the autumn of 2015, after the Council had given the go-ahead to implement its proposed ‘Red Route‘ scheme, but before work had started on the Salters Road junction. The Salters Road junction, and short-term parking on Moor Road North, were the only parts of that proposal that were implemented.

What people told us then was that they loved Gosforth High Street, that it was a great community hub with good quality independent shops and services, but also that it had too much traffic and suffered from inconsiderate parking, poor air quality, noise, and was generally a poor experience if you walk or cycle.

The Your Streets – Your Views survey gave us an opportunity to revisit this to see whether, three years later, these concerns were widely shared.

Issues and Concerns

We asked which of eleven common issues are current problems on Gosforth High Street. The answers to these questions don’t tell us, for example, how many potholes there are or how polluted the air is, both of which can be measured objectively. Rather, they show how people feel about these issues and whether they are currently matters of personal concern.

The bar chart below shows the top six responses for Gosforth High Street. You can see the results for Gosforth as a whole on our previous blog Your Streets – Your Views, Survey Results.

Too much traffic was the biggest issue recorded for Gosforth High Street and for Gosforth as a whole.

We know poor air quality is an issue for Gosforth High Street because measurements show that it is. In the most recent official figures for 2017 two out of three locations were shown to have illegal levels of air pollution, one of which was the worst reading across all Newcastle, approximately 50% higher than the legal limit. We also know from recent Council data that air pollution on the High Street is very closely linked to the volume of traffic.

Traffic Noise is also monitored. Readings can be viewed via the Urban Observatory website, with typical readings being between 70 and 80 decibels during the day. 75 decibels as about the same as a vacuum cleaner, not ideal if you want to have a conversation.

The other five issues we asked about were, in order, cycling on pavements (24%), potholes (23%), uneven pavements (22%), Pavement parking / obstructed pavements (19%) lack of dropped kerbs (6%).

At the time of the survey, the High Street had not been resurfaced so the carriageway was in a pretty poor state. Despite this, only 23% said potholes was an issue, in 8th place out of 11.

Your Thoughts and Ideas

We also asked for other ideas and comments and had lots of responses. Not surprisingly, there were more comments about the High Street than any other part of Gosforth.

Given the Salters Road junction is the most recent change to the High Street, we’ll start there.

Salters Road, Church Road junction

The Council’s assessment of its 2014 consultation was presented to Newcastle City Council Cabinet on 24 September 2014 (item 7 on the agenda).   In the report it states that “a majority of respondents favoured improving Salters Road Junction, providing cycle safety improvements and not re-providing car parking on the High Street.”

It also adds some success criteria. The ones relevant to the junction are:

• Reduction in number and severity of accidents;
• Improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists;
• More reliable bus services;
• Less traffic queuing and congestion;
• Better air quality and reduced noise and pollution;
• Reduction in average journey times and improvement of journey time
  reliability;

From the comments we received it’s not entirely a success.

“The increased traffic and poor flow is unprecedented. This needs serious, rapid intervention. The changed lights at the crossroads of Church Road, Salters Road and Gosforth High St are a disaster. I lived in Gosforth from 1990 to 1999 then lived in Northumberland and returned to Gosforth in 2012. The difference, not for the better, is marked. I actually am rapidly going off living here now because it feels dirty and unhealthy. My house gets filthy in a way it never did or any house has ever done…this is certainly due to the proximity of queuing traffic right back to south gosforth from the high street and the dust and fumes from the increased road use.”

“The traffic lights at the junction of the High St and Church lane causes long tailbacks and results in vehicles belching out fumes making the air quality poor at busy periods (an example of a recently designed junction.”

“The new junction at the High Street is shambolic. This in turn has increased the traffic within the surrounding streets.”

This pretty much illustrates the catch-22 of road building. If you do something to reduce journey times then it just makes the road more attractive for driving. If it is more attractive then more people use it. If more people use it then most, if not all, of the journey-time benefits are lost and you have to queue just as long as you did before. The only substantive difference is that there is more traffic than there was before and that inevitably means more pollution.

Picture from the SPACE for Gosforth blog Zoe the Guide Dog reviews Salters Road Junction

We also had a suggestion to improve “traffic flow” but that’s pretty much what already happened so we don’t think doing more of the same is likely to make it any better.

“The high street seems to be much more congested since the Salters Road junction was redone, worsening air quality, that junction needs improving to smoothen traffic flow. ”

Only one person commented on how the junction works for walking and cycling.

“New junction at high street/ church road is worse than the old one for pedestrians and cyclists an a complete waste of money.”

More recently we know that some residents have been badly affected by the removal of the right turn to allow even more traffic to flow north-south through the junction during the Killingworth Road roadworks.

“Since the alteration to the High Street/Salters Road/Church Road junction, there has been a tremendous increase to the traffic flow on Henry Street including very large lorries. These lorries have difficulty negotiating this narrow mostly residential street. The pollution and noise created by this heavy flow of traffic has a negative impact on one’s health and well-being. there needs to be a coherent joined up plan for Gosforth that also links in with neighbouring areas so that problems are not just shunted around the city.”

Henry Street is next to Gosforth Junior Academy and Archibald First School, as well as being a popular route for children walking to Gosforth Academy. It shouldn’t be a route for goods vehicles or a place where children are expected to mix with heavy vehicles.

Traffic

Being the most common concern a lot of people mentioned traffic on the High Street. Here are some examples.

“Gosforth is ruined by the High Street being a primary road and the not being a way to bypass, and it’s getting worse and worse with all the new housing in North Gosforth / Great Park”

“The problem IMHO is fundamentally the amount of traffic using the High Street that remains the same over the last 25yrs despite it no longer being the A1 – Great North Road. The High Street remains the obvious desire line for traffic heading North out of the City Centre.”

“The real problem for Gosforth when it comes to air quality and traffic volume is the fact that the GNR and the High street is a major route into the City center. I would support ideas that leads to better/additional public transport and other policies that discourage motor traffic along this route by encouraging walking, cycling and use of public transport.”

Salters Road Junction

Also, plenty of thoughts for how to respond to this.

“Congestion charge zone starting at regent centre into Newcastle.”

“To remove rat running through the area focussed on The Grove and its associated streets. Introduce a Low Emissions Zone throughout the length of Gosforth High Street to ban polluting vehicles.”

“Suggest better traffic management including variable speed limits, average speed cameras, synchronised traffic lights or more radical measures to divert traffic from Gosforth high Street bottleneck Better traffic controls on high street.”

“There should be a co-ordinated approach, particularly to reduce commuting car traffic, by investment in more (and cleaner!) buses as well as the measures to encourage walking and cycling that you have identified.”

“Smart traffic lights have been suggested for the High Street to reduce stop-start traffic and associated pollution. When will these be installed?”

“Also put traffic lights on the high street/ Grove junction to reduce rat runs and major tailbacks in the grove.”

Charging and/or a Low Emission Zone the would certainly reduce traffic levels – quite a few people mentioned this. We’re less sure about the traffic management as those approaches are often proposed with the aim of enabling more traffic. Putting traffic lights on the entrance to The Grove would almost certainly encourage even more traffic on the Grove, opposite of what appears to be intended.

A couple of people pointed to competing views of what the High Street is for.

“Residents from North of the High Street have no benefit to slower transit through the area and will always complain about restrictions. Those living near to the High Street will always have a different opinion, focusing upon the effects of the traffic such as pollution and noise. A bypass is unrealistic so I feel that removing the desire to move through the High Street for transiting traffic is the only solution, achieved by making the transit slow and unattractive, reducing traffic lanes and making it almost bus-only. The additional space can be used for pedestrians and to improve the provision of shopping services.”

“One has to properly define ‘Gosforth’ as there are a competing mix of agenda depending upon whether one sees the High Street as a walk-to shopping centre or a drive through traffic corridor.”

“Another benefit of reducing traffic via Gosforth high street will be attracting more customers to small local businesses located there.”

In the Council’s Development and Allocations Plan Gosforth High Street is marked as a Secondary Distributor Road and a Public Transport Distributor Road. According to that plan Secondary Distributor Roads should ‘carry significantly lower volumes of traffic with fewer HGV’s than either’ Strategic Roads or Primary Distributor Roads. It also says that on Secondary Distributor Roads ‘Pedestrian and cycle movements should be segregated from traffic.’ In the consultation for the plan, we asked that Gosforth High Street be designated as a new classification ‘Retail Area Road’ so that its purpose as a local centre was prioritised, but that was rejected by the Council.

Road Danger

Quite a few people commented that they did not feel safe on the High Street.

“The high street continues to be very dangerous for all road users and pedestrians, there simply isn’t space for multiple lanes and buses and other large vehicles constantly cross the lane markings.”

“The road on the high street is awful at the moment. So noisy, so busy and an absolute danger to children. ”

“High Street pedestrian crossings are dangerous because some cars run the red lights. Also, vehicles continue to park on double yellow lines on the High Street.”

“do something about the dangerous pelican crossings on the High St, cars don’t stop”

“Traffic Enforcement i.e.Install a speed camera going South between Roseworth Cres. & Moorfield. Have cameras on traffic lights to deter the many who go through them on red. A 20mph on the high Street only.”

“Cameras on traffic lights at main junctions e.g. Regent Centre/M&S and High St/Salters Rd/Church Rd to force road-users to obey the lights or face fine + 3 points on licence. It worked well where I lived in France. Pedestrians & cyclists were safer as they knew vehicles wouldn’t disobey amber and red lights, it brought the average speed down and deterred vehicles from piling onto crossings as the lights turn red & then getting stuck, impeding other traffic.”

“Need to bite the bullet and reduce traffic on the High Street Reduce high street to 20. Penalise speeding and those going through red lights every day !!”

The good news is that the Council have issued legal orders to reduce the speed limit on Gosforth High Street to 20mph. You can access the consultation here  up to 7 May 2019.

Air Quality on the High Street

Not surprisingly there were some comments on air pollution on the High Street.

“Fix the air pollution. It’s an absolute disgrace that Gosforth High Street is so polluted.”

“In my opinion, air pollution is the major problem of all Gosforth but in particular on the high street. It gets really bad when there are many buses standing in traffic during rush hour. Air pollution is a health hazard for all age groups, but children and elderly are particularly vulnerable. Hundreds of children attending Gosforth Academy and many elderly waiting for bus on the high street are exposed to air pollution every day. Reducing traffic via Gosforth high street and replacing polluting diesel buses with hybrid/electric ones will solve air pollution problem.“

“Publish air quality results daily in big letters / numbers on an electronic board. Direct action”

Pollution graph from the SPACE for Gosforth Blog Black Friday, Smoggy Saturday

Buses

Buses were frequently mentioned in the context of air pollution.

“Reduce traffic and pollution on High Street by (i) reducing lorry traffic (ii) reducing bus traffic (most buses are rather empty outside rush hours) (iii) direct through-traffic onto other routes (iv) reduce Metro prices to encourage usage (v) promote use of Metro to cyclists by having cycle storage on carriages.”

“Low/no emission buses would make a big difference to the High Street.”

“Get rid of so many buses cutting through Gosforth high street from the north heading for the city centre. Get rid of bus lanes to ease congestion and pollution.”

“The cycle and bus restrictions on and around the High Street are making Gosforth MORE dangerous for all. The bus lanes are generally empty and create much more traffic congestion and pollution. In addition the road changes over the last few years are destroying Gosforth for residents, please stop making it difficult to get around and a more dangerous place to live.”

No car lane picture from the blog Children Want to Cycle

“The ideal scenario would involve a European style bus terminal at Great Park with trams connecting to the city centre via Gosforth high street.”

“Too many buses use the high street that don’t stop on the high street Why not re route them – also why can we have an integrated public service all buses going to town to drop off at Regient centre metro”

Low emission buses would certainly help. Making public transport less attractive e.g. by removing bus lanes or forcing passengers to get off at the Regent Centre and buy another ticket almost certainly would not.  The latter could potentially be resolved though if there is integrated ticketing at the same overall price and journeys don’t take any longer.

Graphic from the Your Streets – Your Views Leaflet

A relative lack of east-west bus routes is definitely something that can be improved.

“lack of a coherent efficient bus service (OK, plenty of services run down the High Street but not in other directions around Gosforth, there is very poor information on them, they are dirty, noisy, unreliable – why no policy for taking buses back into local authority control?).”

The Council did seek to take buses into local authority control via its Bus Quality contract but that was rejected.

“Also there should be far fewer bus stops on the high street, surely one bus stop is sufficient for a 600m long high street? I think that there should be more signs on the high street for the metro to encourage people to take the metro. Ilford Road and South Gosforth are quite out of the way and maybe some people don’t know that there is a metro there.”

Signs to the Metro would be good and easy to do, although a lot less convenient than using the bus.

“The failure to sort out the overcrowded bus stop on the west side of the High Street opposite the Brandling is a scandal, especially when there is an unused bus shelter nearby.”

This is also a relatively narrow pavement and the most polluted location on the High Street. Not ideal for people to wait for the bus.

Picture from the SPACE for Gosforth Blog Everything wrong with our High Street starts here

Pavements and Crossings

Issues with safety at the pedestrian crossings on the High Street has been mentioned many times over the years, especially where a larger vehicle in the inside lane blocks the light and another drives through the outside lane while people were crossing.

Several people picked up on a more recent change though, we believe due to Killingworth Road mitigations so that people have to wait longer to cross.

“If the pedestrian crossing on the High Street could allow more time for crossing it would reduce near-misses.”

Gosforth High Street shut to traffic on Remembrance Sunday 2018

“The frequency of crossing times eg near Sainsbury’s seems to have been reduced making pedestrians not only wait longer but also encouraging people to take risks.”

“Third issue, more an observation: pedestrian crossing timings are totally random. Opposite Sainsbury’s is the fastest. Second best are Brandling Arms, Lloyds and at the town moor. But at Salter’s Road junction and outside County Hotel you can wait up to five minutes to get a green man. What’s that about?”

We’ve previously written about installing continuous pavement over the side streets, something other cities have done. The Council even consulted on this.

“Pedestrianize some of the side roads on High Street”

“Wider footpaths on Gosforth high St, narrower highway”

“Continuous pavements along a road so that side streets have to drive over the pavement / cycle lane to enter / exit a side street.”

“What happened to the paved crossings on side streets? Is the Council still going to do this on the High Street? I thought it was a really good idea.”

We believe work is still ongoing to confirm how this could work though with no committed timescales.

Picture of a continuous pavement  from the SPACE for Gosforth Blog Pedestrian Priority on Gosforth High Street

Other people went further than this.

“Pedestrianise the High St! Gosforth High Street pedestrianised.”

“Pedestrianisation of the High Street (I assume buses would have to be an exception), start with closing it on Sundays and build up from there.”

“We need to ‘seal off’ more of the side streets that join the High Street eg West Avenue.Remove redundant information signs that are collapsed on the pavements, especially near the traffic lights at the Salters Road junction with the High Street. Sweep the streets of litter and wet leaves which cause people to slip.” 

Picture from the SPACE for Gosforth Blog Everything wrong with our High Street starts here

We had a few comments like this more generally.

“Newcastle City Council seems to do its utmost to make being a pedestrian difficult: little effort has been made to reduce traffic along Gosforth High Street, speeding is the norm and driving through red lights a daily event and then in addition cyclists on the pavement despite all the cycle lanes that have been put in. In fact, it would seem that every possible effort has been made to discourage people from walking.”

We have certainly highlighted increased traffic on the High Street and speeding. It is hard to respond where comments are non-specific but pavement cycling can indicate people not feeling comfortable cycling on the road, no doubt partly due to the increased traffic and speeding.

On the other hand, that means there’s definitely an opportunity to improve things.

“The pedestrianisation of Gosforth High street would completely change the area. The High street would become the hub of a vibrant community. At the moment, I rarely visit the shops on the street as I do not like walking along the pavements with my young children due to the traffic, noise and air pollution.”

Lots of space for traffic

Cycling

There were lots of comments about cycle lanes on the High Street.

“The plans to make it one lane each way with cycle lanes would have been a vast improvement but the cycle lanes need to be suitable for families with children otherwise they won’t be much use. 20mph will be better too.”

“There needs to be a cycle lane on the High Street. This wouldn’t slow down traffic, as the limiting factor is actually the junctions at each end (ie Blue House to the south, and Salters Road to the north A traffic management scheme is needed for the area bounded by The High Street, Church Road, the Metro and the Town Moor.”

“I would like to see more done to make main roads feel safer for cyclists, particularly the High Street where the cycle lanes are frequently driven and parked in, and the buses are intimidating.”

“This year , I have come across three accidents on High Street (south of the shops) involving a collision between a cyclist and motorist – each requiring an ambulance for the cyclist. It’s time for better engineering on the High Street and lower speed limits so that cyclists can travel in safety.”

“Improved cycle routes. Very poor how they spit cyclists out onto roads or pavements. Also cars are almost continuously parked in the cycle lanes on Gosforth High Street (as you come from town up into Gosforth).”

“Safe cycle facilities on Gosforth high street and more cycle stands to lock bikes onto”

Busy bike racks by Trinity Church

Where cycle lanes have already been provided, they still have their issues.

“Why isn’t the section from Regents Centre to High Street a cycle lane? There is a very narrow painted cycle lane – which I don’t like using when out with the children on bikes so we go on the pavement but there’s loads and loads of room?”

“A protected cycle lane on the high st by the regent Centre”

“stop allowing cars to park in the cycle lanes eg on Great North Road approaching High street, so forcing cyclists into the traffic flow”

“Protected cycle lanes, without cars parked on them. Cycle lane on the High Street”

“ban cars from parking in cycle lanes. Entering the High street coming North is a prevalent problem. The carriageway is clearly wide enough to have both flows of traffic (single lane), parking for residents on the West side) and clear cycle lanes. I am continuously confused why this has not been done.”

Do not park where you would obstruct cyclists’ use of cycle facilities (Highway Code rule 243)

Crossing the High Street is also an issue if you want to cycle.

“As someone who commutes by bicycle on a daily basis, there are a number of issues with regards to the transport in the area. It is very difficult to cross from east to west (across the High street) and vice versa on a bicycle. Many of the junctions are not designed with bicycles in mind. What should be a simple commute from Gosforth to Benton park View in Longbenton is fraught with problems.”

While pretty much all comments were in favour of cycle facilities on the High Street one person gave a different view.

“The money spent on the unnecessary cycle paths would have been better spent improving the High Street by creating on street short-stay parking bays and more space for pedestrians.”

If this refers to the money spent on the High Street cycle paths then probably that wouldn’t add up to much more than a can of paint.

Cycling on Gosforth High Street

Parking

We didn’t ask specifically about parking but quite a few people mentioned this. For example…

“Have a large car park within reach of the High Street”

“Provide free high street parking.”

There are already three reasonable sized car parks right next to the High Street and Regent Centre is not far away. Using even more land for parking in Gosforth is likely to be expensive and counter-productive. Far better to manage what we have. One way of managing parking spaces is by setting parking fees to encourage the type of parking desired. Free or under-priced parking, for example, is likely to encourage all-day commuter parking and will make it harder for shoppers to find a space. Arguably parking prices should be increased in Gosforth to encourage turn-over and enable more people to use the same space.

Most comments though showed a desire to minimise parking on the High Street itself.

“More vigilance about speeding and parking on the High street”

“Double red lines along Gosforth High Street”

“Stopping random parking on the High Street. Eg to pick up a Gregg’s sausage roll. Enforcement of existing rules is required!”

“Remove cars from parking illegally on the Highstreet”

“A Red route but perhaps only from Spittal Terrace to Elmfield Road to placate residents at southern end of Gosforth”

“Prosecute illegal parking on High St.”

“No parking or stopping (apart from traffic lights) on High Street”

“Prosecute “stopped” cars blocking the flow on Gosforth High Street.”

“Too many cars illegally park on the high street making it difficult for driving and walking”

“I like the idea of a red Route in the High Street to stop all the lazy temporary parking. Clear messages and communication.”

A couple of comments made specific suggestions, which we can follow up on.

” if delivery trucks for the High Street has designated bags off the high street and didn’t stop on high street to unload for 15+ minutes.”

“Could Blue badge spaces on streets please be valid badge including Sundays, please? Access to High St is difficult on weekends for shopping & leisure.”

Look and Feel

Lastly, a few people suggested that the High Street needed a bit of a makeover, separate to any traffic issues.

“I personally love Gosforth high Street as a shopping area and would like it to look more attractive- bright paintwork more trees and flowers.”

“I would love to see more greenery/trees around High Street eg area outside Gosforth Gym, Ivy Road and area of pavement just to north of Loch Fyne behind traffic lights”

“The high street needs a serious clean up. It is so filthy and cluttered with signs, bollards, railings, bins, lamp posts. It should be so much nicer considering this is a well to do family area.”

“Lots of the High Street shops are great but the street itself is awful. Dirty, smelly and so loud because of the traffic, it’s hardly possible to talk especially with children. Not somewhere I like spending any time.”

The SPACE for Gosforth High Street Planter

Thank You

Thank you again to everyone who took part in our survey and provided comments. We’ve tried to include as many comments as we can about Gosforth High Street in this blog, but if you feel we have missed something please feel free to add it via the comments section below.

Other Gosforth High Street Blogs

SPACE for Gosforth has written lots of blogs about the High Street if you want to find out more. All blogs tagged Gosforth High Street can be found here.

These include:

• Zoe the Guide Dog reviews Salters Road Junction
• Everything wrong with our High Street starts here
• Pedestrian Priority on Gosforth High Street
• Gosforth Speed Cameras Make the News
• Billion Pound Issues on Gosforth High Street
• We love Gosforth High Street, but …

The post Your Streets – Your Views – Gosforth High Street appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

At the Your-Streets Your-Views survey feedback meeting at Trinity Centre at the end of January we asked residents for ideas on how to build a better Gosforth. In particular:

1. Opportunities for more trees and greenery.
2. Routes to school and how to make them safer.
3. Suggestions to reduce traffic on busy residential streets.
4. New locations for or changes to crossings on main roads.

These were the top four answers from residents in the Your-Streets Your-Views survey for how to build a better Gosforth.

To help with this we shared a few ideas from around Gosforth as examples of what has already been done.

These were:

• Yetlington Drive – No through route to vehicle traffic.
• Rectory Terrace – Narrowed junction making crossing easier.
• Ivy Road – A road hump, so the Ivy Road crossing is level with the pavement.
• Alwinton Terrace – An entrance / exit to allow cycles through a no vehicle route.
• Graham Park Road – Trees placed in the carriageway as traffic calming.
• Hyde Terrace – No entry for vehicles. Cycles are allowed.
• Station Road – A side road turned into a bus bay to allow buses to stop out of the way of passing traffic.
• Ilford Road – Pavement build-outs so it is not as far to cross the road.

We split into three groups. Residents had about 30 minutes to discuss their area and come up with ideas for what might be possible. Clearly, with such a limited amount of time these are just ideas for what might be possible rather than fully developed proposals. It does show though that there is quite a lot of potential to build a better Gosforth if the opportunity allows.

Group A – Regent Centre

1. Junction of High Street/ Christon Road/ Regent Farm Road – this should be a single phase crossing so as to reduce the risk of overcrowding in the pedestrian refuge, particularly at school pick-up and drop-off when the volume of pedestrian traffic crossing makes the refuge dangerous.
2. Junction of Regent Centre/ High Street/ Holywood Avenue – the bus exit should have its own sequence.
3. East of High Street from Marks and Spencer to Christon Road – this path should be a shared space for pedestrians and cyclists so as to reduce the need for cyclists to use the High Street cycle lane on this extremely busy section of road.
4. Reduce the retail section of the High Street to one lane, adding in off-road bus stops and re-greening with trees.
5. Re-green Regent Farm Road at the Partnership House/ swimming pool roundabout; remove the south and west section of the road around the roundabout to create a park (it was noted that the roundabout is much too large for the volume of traffic and re-greening the area could create a much needed outdoor space/ park for local residents, office workers and “commuting” children).
6. Great North Road cycle route – whilst this was generally applauded, it would be preferred to have a segregated cycle lane, off-road. It was mentioned that this route felt unsafe for children and casual users of bicycles.
7. Regent Centre carpark/ park and ride – the group differed in their approach to this. One of the group said that plans had been drawn up to renovate the multi-storey car park at a cost of £3-4m. Some in the group saw this as necessary to reduce High Street traffic and encourage bus/ Metro use. Others thought the cost/ benefit of this was not favourable as the capacity of the car park is restricted to 60 spaces and there could be better use of those funds to encourage other methods to reduce traffic congestion.

Group B – West of Gosforth High Street

1. More trees on Salters Road (west side).
2. Add zebra crossings on Salters Road where there are currently traffic islands.
3. Add a protected cycle lane on Salters Road.
4. Provide for walking and cycling access from Salters Road to St Nicholas / Baronswood.
5. Reduce through traffic on Linden Road by replacing the roundabout with an arrangement where traffic heading south on Linden Road would have to turn right and traffic heading west on West Avenue would have to turn left (and vice versa).
6. Reduce through traffic on Elmfield Road by introducing an arrangement where traffic heading east on Elmfield would have to turn left at Park Avenue and traffic heading west would have to turn left at Westfield Drive (and vice versa).
7. Reduce waiting time for people who want to cross the road at pedestrian crossings on the High Street.
8. Continuous pavement over side streets on the High Street. [See e.g. this blog for how this might work.]
9. Stop through traffic from Ashburton Road to Elmfield Park.

Group C – East of Gosforth High Street

1. Pedestrianise (as far as possible) St Nicholas Avenue from the High Street to Gosforth Central Park.
2. Residents only parking near South Gosforth Metro.
3. Time-based restrictions on the bridge over the Metro on Stoneyhurst Road.
4. Remove parking near South Gosforth school.
5. Reduce through traffic by stopping vehicles accessing Rectory Terrace from The Grove.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in the survey, and those that turned up on what must have been the coldest night of the year to find out the results and discuss ideas.

If you have any thoughts or ideas to add to these please do share them via the comments below or via our Facebook Group.

The Council consultation on how to improve the city for walking and cycling runs until 8 March 2019 if you want to contribute to that.

The post Your Streets – Ideas for a Better Gosforth appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

In November 2018, SPACE for Gosforth distributed a leaflet and survey to 14,300 households in the former East and West Gosforth wards and in Parklands ward. This blog sets out some of the main results of the survey covering what you told us about how you travel, your issues and concerns, and how we might go about building a better Gosforth.

Thank you to all 704 of you who responded to the survey, and for all the thoughtful and well-considered comments. We have lots of ideas to work through that we hope to come back to in future blogs. Thank you also to the many people who helped prepare the leaflet and survey, proof-read drafts, delivered surveys to buildings the distributor could not access, typed in paper responses and assisted with analysing the results.

1. How do we travel?

In the ‘About You’ section we asked how you had travelled in the last month, giving six options. The six options were car, bus, metro, cycle, walking and  taxi.

If you were to believe some elements of the press then you might think that people are divided into separate groups some of whom drive, some of whom cycle and some of whom walk. In reality the picture is much more mixed and people, for the most part, have a choice for how they travel. In our survey over 90% of people had used three or more different ways to get around in the previous month, and almost 10% had travelled by all six different means suggested.

Overall most people walked (93%), took some form of public transport (89%) or used a car (88%). Public transport use was fairly evenly split between bus (69%) and Metro (67%). 40% of people had used a taxi and 40% of people had cycled.

Conversely, that means that 7% of people had not walked for a local journey and 12% had not used a car.

We can also look at the overlap between different modes of travel as in the Venn diagram for car, cycle and public transport (bus or Metro). The most common combination was car and public transport (46%) followed by all three modes: car, public transport and cycling (33%).

Just looking at the overlap between cycling and driving, there is a relatively well-known set of statistics from the National Travel Survey that say 80% of cyclists hold a driving licence and one in five drivers cycle at least once a month. In Gosforth, we found that 93% of people who cycled had also travelled by car and that 42% (just over two in five) people who used a car also cycled – double the national rate.

2. Issues and Concerns

We asked which of eleven common issues are current problems on your street, Gosforth High Street and in Gosforth as a whole (All Gosforth). The answers to these questions don’t tell us, for example, how many potholes there are or how polluted the air is, both of which can be measured objectively. Rather, they show how people feel about these issues and whether they are currently matters of personal concern.

The bar chart below shows the top six responses for Gosforth as a whole. We will come back to the High Street and ‘Your Street’ in future blogs.

47% of respondents picked ‘Too much traffic’ as a current problem in Gosforth, more than for any other issue. Everyone is affected when there is too much traffic, from delays, from noise, from poor air quality and from an increased risk of collisions and injury.

There are various ways in which too much traffic can be discouraged. All rely to some extent on people choosing to walk, cycle or take public transport instead of using a car. We know from the question about how we travel that the vast majority (94%) of people who drive also cycle and/or use public transport for some journeys already.

Speeding, which came second in the survey with 43%, is a criminal offence. It is also the major factor in whether a collision leads to serious injury or death, or to less serious or no injuries. If we want to help people, especially children, stay safe in and around Gosforth, one of the easiest and most important things we can all do is to drive within the speed limits.

Whereas traffic volumes and speeding can be affected by how streets are designed, potholes and uneven pavements (both on 40%) are maintenance issues. Potholes and damaged pavements can both be reported to the Council via the Envirocall website.

• Report a Pothole,
• Report a Damaged Pavement.

Fifth was pavement parking / obstructed pavements on 37%. As we said in the survey leaflet, a very high proportion of blind or partially-sighted people have encountered problems due to street obstructions including vehicles parked on pavements. The fact that so many people cited this as an issue suggests that the impact of obstructed pavements is being far more widely felt.

The sixth most selected issue was poor air quality at 36%. Air quality measurements in Gosforth exceeded legal limits and in 2017 included the highest pollution reading in all of Newcastle upon Tyne. We are expecting an announcement from the Council on their plan to clean up Gosforth’s air in the very near future.

The other five issues we asked about, in order, were dangerous driving (33%), cycling on pavements (32%), streets not child-friendly (32%), traffic noise (19%), and lack of dropped kerbs (14%). Just because these issues are of less concern overall does not mean that we should not attempt to do anything about them. Dropped kerbs, for example, will be very important for people using wheelchairs, mobility scooters or push chairs.

3. Building a Better Gosforth

We asked, which of seven potential changes would help make Gosforth a bit better or a much better (and safer) place to live and travel locally? The answers to these questions tell us what residents value and what they want to see in Gosforth.

All seven options received majority support. The most popular was more trees and greenery, with 91% of people who answered the question saying it would make Gosforth a bit better or a much better place to live and travel than now.

Safe walking and cycling routes to schools, supported by 88% of respondents, was also one of five pledges SPACE for Gosforth asked local Councillors to sign up to at the May 2018 elections. If this helps children and their families walk or cycle to and from school then it will also help to reduce overall traffic levels.

At the same time we also asked Councillors to support “Residential streets that are pleasant, safe and attractive places to live and where children can play out”. Reducing through traffic on residential streets, supported by 85%, would make a substantial difference to this.

On Gosforth’s main roads, residents also supported more/safer crossings (80%) and safe all age/ability cycle facilities (78%). Least popular of the seven, although still with support of 62%, was traffic calming.

4. Next Steps

SPACE for Gosforth’s objectives include the promotion of healthy, liveable, accessible and safe neighbourhoods. From the answers to this survey we can see there is broad support for these objectives and the changes required to make this happen. If you agree with these objectives you can join SPACE for Gosforth and follow via Facebook and Twitter.

Separately, Newcastle City Council is running a consultation until 8 March 2019 to help them “gain a better understanding of the local day to day journeys made by walking and cycling, and how these can be improved in the future.” If you are able to contribute to this you can see and like others’ comments and add your own  here. This is in support of the Government’s strategy to increase the number of trips made on foot or by cycle.

We are very grateful to the time that everyone put in to provide answers and comments on the survey and we will continue to work through these and publish the results in future blog posts. If you have any specific questions you think might be of interest please let us know via the comments section below.

As we said in the survey leaflet, the survey results will also help us identify where there are issues in Gosforth and to come up with specific proposals for addressing those issues. We have already been in touch with a number of local residents’ groups to offer to talk about what the survey results mean for their areas. If you are part of a local group and are interested in this please let us know via [email protected].

A Note on Survey Responses

In total 14,300 leaflets were distributed and we received 704 responses. The vast majority of those were via the on-line form.

Respondents were 51% female, 49% male. The chart below shows the proportion of people who responded by age. Based on the 2011 Census, these age ‘buckets’ should all be about the same size so it is clear that the views of the over 50s are well represented in this survey, less so the under 40s.

There was also a a reasonable spread spread of responses from all parts of Gosforth. In the map above, each dot represents a postcode where one or more people responded. The location for the dots are based on postcode locations rather than individual buildings.

Further Reading

If you are interested in similar data, the National Travel Survey and British Social Attitudes Survey ask similar questions nationally. The Council has also published a report on cycling in Newcastle called Bike Life.

• National Travel Survey
• British Social Attitudes Survey 2017
• Newcastle Bike Life 2017

The National Travel Survey has some interesting results including that approximately 17% of journeys under one mile and 60% of journeys between one and two miles are made by car/van. If this is repeated in Newcastle there are likely to be plenty of current car journeys that could be made by public transport, walking or cycling if those options were made sufficiently attractive.

The British Social Attitudes Survey 2017 measures how willing people are to change how they travel.

• 10% of people agree strongly that “Many of the journeys of less than 2 miles that I now make by car I could just as easily walk“
• 33% of people agree/agree strongly that “Many of the journeys of less than 2 miles that I now make by car I could just as easily go by bus”
• 38% of people agree/agree strongly that “Many of the journeys of less than 2 miles that I now make by car, I could just as easily cycle“

The British Social Attitudes survey also states that 62% agree or strongly agree that “It is too dangerous for me to cycle on the roads”.

The Newcastle Bike Life survey also shows strong support across Newcastle. For example, 74% of Newcastle residents support building more protected roadside cycle lanes, even when this could mean less space for other road traffic.

The post Your Streets – Your Views, Survey Results appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

Your Streets – Your Views

We want to know what you think about your streets.

If you live in the former East or West Gosforth council wards or in Parklands ward, you should have had a survey leaflet through your door.

You can do the survey online, or fill in the leaflet and post it back to us, until Sunday 25 November.

Please tell your friends, family and neighbours about the survey and ask them to do it too. The more people who take part, the better the picture we will have of Gosforth as a whole. We are interested in everyone’s views – no matter how young or old you are, or how you travel.

If you or you know of anyone who may have visual impairments and would like help to understand the information and/or help completing the survey please do let us know. Even if we are unable to help with the current leaflet it will assist us for future publications.

Survey Leaflet front page – Click for a larger version.

Click here for a pdf version of the survey leaflet.

Here’s some more info on some of the issues we’ve thought about:

Any questions? Just ask in the comments below.

Please complete the survey online here: 

Lastly, if you’re not already a member of SPACE for Gosforth, you can join here – it’s free!

Thank you!

The printing and distribution of the survey leaflet has been made possible by grants from East and West Gosforth and Parklands council wards. Further details on funding are provided at the end of this blog.

We’ve worked out from bus timetables that there are more than 25 stopping services travelling down the Great North road every hour, so you will rarely have to wait more than a few minutes if you want to catch a bus to Gosforth High Street or the city centre.

It is also possible to catch express buses from Brunton Lane, Regent Centre or the High Street by The Brandling Arms into the city or out into Northumberland. These buses are also used by people living outside the city to shop and use the services on Gosforth High Street.

Guide Dogs, who commissioned the research we have quoted from, want pavement parking to be the exception, not the norm. This is their campaign video.

RNIB also campaigns on Pavement Parking. They say “Clear pavements are essential for blind and partially sighted people.”

Pavement parking can also damage paving slabs, creating trip hazards and requiring costly repairs.

Arguably it is worse than that. The Chronicle has reported that Newcastle is home to four of Britain’s most dangerous roundabouts. Two of these, the most dangerous roundabouts in Britain, were Blue House and Haddricks Mill junctions, both in Gosforth.

We are still waiting for the Council to act to improve safety at these roundabouts and at other locations in Gosforth. This is the video released by the council in 2016 explaining why these junctions need to change.

Maps are available on-line showing where people have been injured in road traffic collisions. This map and the one on the printed leaflet are from www.crashmap.co.uk.

This shows very clearly that Gosforth High Street also has a poor safety record.

How can we stop people, our friends and family, being injured or killed on the roads?

Street design is key – to prevent excessive speed and to keep people and vehicles separate.

Two very effective approaches are Sustainable Road Safety from the Netherlands and Vision Zero, which originated in Sweden but has now been adopted internationally. Both approaches start from the view point that people are only human, so roads should be designed to minimise injury rather than relying on road users to always follow rules and avoid mistakes.

In 2009, Newcastle City Council commissioned a survey about how children travel to school as input to its Draft Sustainable Modes of Travel Strategy. This was one of the most striking results.

Road danger is a very real issue. In Gosforth children have reported prams nearly being knocked over and cars driving very close to children on bikes and scooters.

There is no reason children shouldn’t walk or cycle to school, if streets are designed to accommodate them and protect them from danger. This video is from the Bicycle Dutch blog showing how a Sustainable Road Safety approach does exactly this.

In the UK as a whole, children are losing the ability to travel independently, are now the least active in history, and we have record high levels of severe obesity in ten and eleven year olds. Having an environment where children can be independent and active would help to address all these problems.

Everyone should be able to travel safely and feel safe while they do so, regardless of whether they happen to be walking, cycling, driving or using public transport.

Nationally many people say they don’t feel comfortable cycling in traffic and Gosforth is no exception. Despite that, in Newcastle, currently about 7,000 return cycle trips are made daily by people that could have used a car. If these cars were all in a traffic jam it would tail back 21 miles.

It is perhaps not surprising then that the Netherlands, with it’s well designed cycling facilities, has been ranked the best country in the world for driving, and that Dutch children are the happiest in the world,

This video is about cycling in Newcastle’s twin city Groningen, where 60% of all traffic movements are by bicycle. Imagine the tail backs if all those journeys were by car. It’s quite a long video (15 minutes) but it doesn’t take long to get the idea of what it’s like.

Newcastle would be an ideal place for cycling if only there were more facilities to make it safe to do so. It is one of the driest cities in the UK, as well as being relatively flat and compact.

We’ve written about how we could build a safe cycling network for Gosforth, and about routes in Gosforth that are suitable for children and those which are not. Grandstand Road is a good example of a road with cycle lanes that aren’t suitable for children, nor for most adults. We’ve also asked the Council to prioritise clearing snow and ice from busy pavements and cycle paths.

Healthy streets improve people’s health, make places socially and economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable. The Healthy Street approach aims for streets that are safer, cleaner, quieter and where people feel welcome.

Part of this is designing streets so that walking and cycling are seen to be really good options for local journeys. Just walking or cycling to work can dramatically improve your health. According to Glasgow University, people who commute by cycle have 41% lower risk of premature death. That’s despite additional danger due to cycling in traffic. People who walk to work have a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

We have produced a summary Case for Healthy Streets, which includes links to evidence about how more active travel improves people’s health, the environment and the economy. Walking and cycling also saves money (cycling rather than driving is equivalent to a 8% pay rise). We have also asked if protected cycle lanes are good for business? The evidence says they are.

Healthy streets are also accessible for people with disabilities. You can read our blogs about our blind walk Gosforth High Street and reviewing the new Salters Road junction. The Equalities Act 2010 requires that Highways Authorities do not put people with disabilities at a substantial disadvantage compared with someone who is not disabled. We have written about how this applies to the Three Mile Inn footbridge. The same is true for the footbridge over the Metro from Hunter’s Road to Garden Village.

We are fortunate in Gosforth that most residential streets have a 20mph limit. 20mph is set to minimise the likelihood of serious injury or death following a collision.

Even at 20mph there is a 5% chance of death following a collision between someone walking and a car. At 30mph that increases to 40%, and at 40mph there is an 80% chance of death. These are average figures so for older or younger people the risk of death will be higher again. This should be reason enough for everyone to drive within the speed limits.

Using Council data we have worked out how many vehicles are being driven faster than the speed limit for a number of roads in Gosforth. The graph below is for Ilford Road. You can see the other graphs on our Flickr Album and in our blog 1000 Speeding Drivers – A typical day on Gosforth’s back streets. We have also written about Gosforth’s speed cameras.

It is also clear that most of these residential streets are being used as cut-throughs for traffic in addition to their main purpose of providing access to people’s homes. The presence of so much traffic makes it harder to make these streets safe. Some streets in and around Gosforth have barriers to prevent through traffic making them much quieter and safer places to live. For example see Yetlington Drive, Rokeby Drive or Rothwell Road (links go to Google StreetView).

Even though long term air pollution is improving, Government advice still states that “Air pollution poses the biggest environmental threat to public health.”

In the Government’s Air Quality Plan for Nitrogen Dioxide it clarifies the main source of this pollution: “road vehicles contribute about 80% of NO₂ pollution at the roadside and growth in the number of diesel cars has exacerbated this problem.” In 2017 there were 12.4 million diesel vehicles on the road, compared to less than 6 million in 2005, when NO₂ emission targets first came into effect.

The Royal College of Physicians released a report in 2016 that estimated 40,000 deaths a year are linked to air pollution  “The report notes examples [of the dangerous impact of air pollution] from right across an individual’s lifespan, from a baby’s first weeks in the womb through to the years of older age, including the adverse effects of air pollution on the development of the fetus, with emphasis on lung and kidney development, miscarriage, and increases in heart attacks and strokes for those in later life. Associated links to asthma, diabetes, dementia, obesity and cancer for the wider population are also included.”

In The Chronicle Councillor Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, has said: “I am really concerned that poor air quality is killing people in our city. We have figures that show that 360 lives are cut short every year due to poor air quality. This is not a sustainable position.”

Part of why we have highlighted the school run is because the Department for Transport has estimated that one in four cars at peak times are on the school run. It is not enough though just to tell parents to let their children walk and/or cycle. The roads need to be safe for them to do so.

All those children who are taken to school by car will be exposed to more air pollution than children who walk or cycle, even if they walk or cycle on the same polluted streets.

King’s College London have produce a video showing an experiment they tried measuring how the way we travel affects the amount of pollution we are exposed to.

The most recent official update for the year 2017 has just been released and it shows the north end of Gosforth High Street as having the worst reading for air pollution of any in the city.

The Council is now required to produce a plan to bring air pollution in Gosforth and Newcastle within legal limits within the shortest possible timescales. We should see this plan early in 2019.

If you want to find out more, SPACE for Gosforth has written widely on the subject of air pollution including:
– Air Quality Update 2017
– Air Quality Update 2016
– The dangers of air pollution – Dr Chris Stenton
– February 2018 Policy Cabinet Meeting – Air Quality
– 2018 – 10 years of the Gosforth and City Centre AQMAs
– Alive After 65 – Live Long with Clean Air
– The New Newcastle Air Pollution Plan
– No idling – make every day a cleaner air day

FINALLY…

Sunday 18 November is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Please spare a thought for those that have lost friends and loved ones as a result of a road traffic collision.

Notes on Funding / Acknowledgements

The printing and distribution of the survey leaflet has been made possible by Ward Funding from the former East and West Gosforth wards and from Parklands ward. Ward Funding is available for small scale projects that benefit the local community, which can include the sharing of information to raise awareness of issues. Details of criteria that applications must meet and how to apply are available here. Details of awards made are recorded in ward meeting minutes available from the Council website and/or available from the Council Communities team.

In December 2017, SPACE for Gosforth applied for funding from former East and West Gosforth wards totalling £959.20 and was awarded £707.03, made up of £297.13 from East Gosforth and £409.90 from West Gosforth.  More recently Parklands ward Councillors agreed to top this up by a further £307 to allow us to print and distribute leaflets to households in Parklands ward. For context the total Parklands ward budget for this financial year is £5,807. SPACE for Gosforth is also contributing additional funds to deliver leaflets to approximately 1200 addresses in Coxlodge east of Kenton Road.

As well as printing and distribution to households in the three wards, the funding will also allow us to hold a public meeting to present the results to any residents that are interested. We will share details of the meeting via our email list and on Facebook and Twitter once dates are confirmed.

The preparation of the survey/leaflet has been the result of many hours of unpaid work by SPACE for Gosforth members over a long period, and we are very grateful for everyone who has given their time to help get to where we are, and to everyone who has offered to assist in future with the analysis and presentation of the survey results.  We are also very grateful to local company Autism Works for agreeing to manage the receipt of paper surveys submitted via the post and to local residents’ groups for support in sharing the survey and encouraging people to respond.

In submitting this application our main objectives were to:
(a) share information we have gathered via a fact-sheet to provide residents with a useful resource to help understand local transport-related issues; and
(b) seek input and views from local residents relating to issues, priorities and ideas for addressing those issues.

We would welcome your feedback on whether we have met these aims and/or any offers of help or suggestions for future activities.

The original application also included a request to fund a SPACE for Gosforth banner and business cards to assist engagement at community events, however we currently do not expect that we will have sufficient funds to cover these from the Ward Funding.

A copy of the application form as submitted to East and West Gosforth wards is available here for anyone who is interested.

The post Your Streets – Your Views appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

• Consultation
• Street Trees and Bus Shelters
• Newcastle City Council Update | 8 January 2018
• Newcastle City Council Update | 9 February 2018

Newcastle City Council have published their final plans for the Broadway to Brunton Cycle Lane and construction is due to start soon in a series of phases to minimise disruption.

As we said in our review of the initial consultation, residents’ feedback showed that there was broad support, with most people agreeing with the aims of the scheme but with a number of detail points that needed addressing. In this blog we take a look at the consultation process and the changes made by the Council as a result of that feedback.

Residents’ feedback on the proposals from the Commonplace website.

The new cycle route should be suitable for residents of all ages and abilities and, apart from two short sections, the use of shared space where people walking and cycling are expected to use the same space has been avoided. The new crossings will make it easier for local residents to cross the Great North Road, especially at the Three Mile Inn where currently there is only a footbridge that is not useable for people with mobility issues.

As well as increasing the choice for how people can travel, wider benefits for the community include better health for those who walk or cycle, better air quality for everybody and fewer cars on the road for those who travel by car or bus. The new cycle lanes will also help people access local shops and potentially allow families to cycle to schools, including Broadway East following its proposed relocation to The Great Park. Current middle and high schools for children in this area are all south of Broadway and there are no alternative routes.

https://youtu.be/6ryvzvla1sQ

“Fly through” video of the original proposal produced by Newcastle City Council.

Consultation

The initial consultation, based on the City Council Transport Development Process, was via the Commonplace website at the end of 2015 where comments can still be viewed. In addition the Council held three community drop-in meetings in Brunton Park where residents could submit comments on paper forms. According to the engagement report over 900 people visited the Commonplace website with 120 attending the drop-ins.

To publicise the consultation the Council sent letters to everyone living in Brunton Park, Melton Park and Melbury (the purple boundary on the map) as well as to statutory consultees including  local councillors, MPs, emergency services, bus and taxi companies, disability groups, walking and cycling groups (though not SPACE for Gosforth), the Federation of Small Businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association.

SPACE for Gosforth also shared a blog with some thoughts on the proposals via our Facebook, Twitter and other local social media sites.

Local councillors in the Parklands ward shared news on the proposal via the Parklands Focus newsletters, reporting in issue 41 on a meeting supported by the Council transport department that was attended by 150 local residents. Further updates were provided in issues 42 and 43.

We also know that North Gosforth Parish Council discussed this matter regularly at their meetings and met council officers on a number of occasions to discuss the entrance to the service road and other concerns. Minutes of parish council meetings are posted on community noticeboards.

There was further opportunity to comment in August 2016 when the Council sought views on an amendment to the entrance to the GNR service road north of Polwarth Drive to respond to concerns raised by residents on that road.

A separate consultation was held for the toucan crossing by the Three Mile Inn in November 2016, which SPACE for Gosforth also wrote about here. This consultation, in part because of concerns about the adjacent footbridge, was also shared widely on social media and via  two Chronicle articles: Fears over plan to ‘axe’ Gosforth footbridge crossing one of Newcastle’s busiest roads and Community is divided over plans for pedestrian crossing at key city route.

For both the cycle lane and toucan crossing a further and final stage of consultation was held on the legal traffic orders. At this stage letters were sent to those directly affected by the works (in the blue boundary on the map), residents with whom the Council had discussed plans, as well as to statutory consultees, with adverts placed on local lampposts and in the local press and on-line via the Let’s Talk Newcastle website.

Objections submitted at this stage were considered by the Traffic, Regulatory and Appeals Sub-Committee (RASC). The minutes for these meetings can be found here for the cycle lane and here for the toucan crossing. This completed the consultation process.

Design Changes

A number of design changes were made to the scheme as can be seen by comparing the initial design, available here, with the final version published on the Council website.

Two overall changes have been made. One is that the final plan does not include the original proposal to reduce the speed of this road to 30mph from 40mph, although a 30mph limit will be in force during road works. We believe the Council still intend to do this but via a separate proposal.

The second is that in a number of places the cycle lane has been re-aligned to be alongside the footpath although still in its own space. We understand this was partly to reduce costs but also helps to minimise tree loss across the scheme. It will also make it more comfortable for people cycling being further away from traffic.

The Three Mile Inn Toucan Crossing

The following plan was published as part of the consultation for the Three Mile Inn Toucan crossing to help people cross who are unable to use the bridge due to mobility issues and for those that wish to cross with a cycle. This also showed updated plans for the adjacent bus stops and a statement saying that the footbridge would be removed once the Toucan crossing is installed, though the consultation itself was only in relation to the crossing.

In this original plan, additional pavement space was included for people waiting for or alighting from buses. People walking or cycling past the bus stops would go behind this new pavement with continuous lanes unlike further south where the space behind these boarding areas is shared. Although relatively new for Newcastle this arrangement is thoroughly proven in other UK locations and in countries with more established cycling cultures.

Three Mile Inn Toucan Crossing – Original Plan

The final plans however show that the footbridge will not be removed as part of this scheme, no doubt in part due to the Keep Our Three Mile Footbridge Petition. If the footbridge requires maintenance or removal in future this will have to be funded out of general council budgets.

While the south-bound bus stop design is unchanged, on the north-bound side the separate lanes have been merged to be shared as the support struts for the retained footbridge mean there is insufficient space for separate walking and cycling paths. This appears to be an inadvertent negative consequence of the petition, although if the bridge is removed in future it would be possible to reconfigure this area to have separated space as was originally planned.

Three Mile Inn – Final Plans

McCracken Park to Polwarth Drive

This section is the most changed between the original and final plans. Comments on the original plan focused on car parking for residents living south of the roundabout, lack of (and provision of) two way cycling and access to the service road. The latter was a subject of a petition documented in the Chronicle Petition against ‘dangerous’ Great North Road cycle route to be heard by Newcastle City Council.

Polwarth Drive roundabout – Original Plans

The Council, we know, had a number of discussions with residents of the GNR service road about access. Following an automated traffic count that showed very low volumes of traffic, the Council agreed to leave this open for access but with a raised hump to slow vehicle speeds off the roundabout to ensure safety of all who might be cycling.

Traffic Volumes and Speeds on the Great North Road Service Road

The final plans also show:

• On-street parking provision south of the roundabout.
• The toucan crossing now has dedicated and separate walking and cycling paths rather than shared space and is moved slightly closer to the roundabout. This means the south-bound bus stop is slightly closer for people coming from or going to Brunton Park.
• An extension to the 2-way cycle lane to McCracken Park so people leaving McCracken Park can travel directly to Brunton Park and not have to go via the Three Mile Inn crossing.
• The geometry of the roundabout has also been changed to reduce the speeds of vehicles entering Polwarth Drive from the south.

Polwarth Drive roundabout – Final Plans

Newlands Avenue to Norwood Avenue

The GNR crossing between Newlands and Norwood Avenue is the other part of the scheme that uses shared space. This has been retained to avoid tree loss at this location that would have been required with a wider separate paths. The wiggle is for a similar purpose to route the path around an existing mature tree.

In addition, there is a new section of 2-way cycle track to allow people from Newlands Avenue to travel north directly rather than have to go south first via the crossing south of Polwarth Drive, which would have been a considerable diversion.

Newlands Avenue to Norwood Avenue – Final Plans

Brunton Lane

At Brunton Lane the shared space on the crossing has again been replaced by separate cycle and walking paths. In addition footpaths into Glamis Avenue that were shown as being removed in the original plans have been retained. The only other difference is a minor change to the west side of the crossing so people cycling are directed straight onto the service road.

Brunton Lane – Original Plans

Brunton Lane – Final Plans

Requests for change not incorporated into the final plans

Not all feedback led to changes. In considering feedback, council officers have to take account of safety and comfort of road users (especially vulnerable road users), council policy, scheme objectives and budgets. Even if a proposed change is extremely popular it still might not be accepted if, for example it might put some groups in danger or cost more than is available in the scheme budget.

The table below sets out the main requests that were not taken forward and the reasons for that decision. As a number relate to one-way vs two-way cycling, it is worth noting that in cities and countries where cycling is more established, a road this wide would almost certainly have two-way cycle tracks on both sides of the road so that people cycling always have a direct route without having to cross the road (and potentially require traffic to stop) multiple times.

Street Trees and Bus Shelters

While the formal consultation finished in March 2017 with the RASC meeting for the Three Mile Inn toucan crossing, late changes have been sought in the last few days before work is due to commence by individuals running a local Facebook group in relation to two stone bus stop shelters marked for removal and, according to their site, 13 trees of which about half would be scheduled for removal in any case due to being in a poor condition. [See Update 8/1/2017 below for Council figures relating to trees]

At this late stage we believe the Council has no duty or obligation to take these points into account. Almost certainly contracts will have been signed for contractors to undertake the work, and equipment and other resources scheduled to be ready for work to commence. Any delay at this stage could increase costs for the Council, which may need to be funded by local taxpayers.

Having said that, if it is possible for the Council to consider these points without delaying completion of the scheme or incurring additional costs for taxpayers then we have no reason to object to that. Street trees in particular are an important part of the character of Gosforth and can help mitigate a number of the public health issues suffered by residents as a result of an excess of traffic. If it is possible to retain healthy mature trees then we would support that.

Extract from the original plans

It is worth noting that both issues were considered as part of the consultation. The two stone bus shelters were specifically marked for removal and trees were mentioned by quite a few residents in their feedback mostly (but not all) in favour of retaining trees where possible.

We hope therefore that the Council will be able to present a reasoned and balanced view as to why these aspects of the scheme are as proposed so that we can all be properly informed as to the pros and cons of retaining the existing street trees and bus shelters vs replacing the bus shelters and planting additional trees to replace those that would be removed.

Lessons

Our main disappointment on this scheme is that it has taken so long from the original consultation to work commencing. With significant benefits promised, certainly compared to comparable more expensive traffic schemes, and with broad community support it should be expected that the work could have been complete far quicker. The city of Seville in Spain transformed its entire city in less time, with 50 miles of new protected all-ability cycle lanes and an eleven-fold increase in cycling.

That said, the incorporation of feedback into the scheme has clearly led to improvements compared to the original plans and we support the importance of the Council engaging with residents to seek input and support. There will always be calls for more communication and engagement, both of which we support, however we also recognise that there must be a point of diminishing return beyond which the cost of further consultation will outweigh any potential benefits.

Ultimately there is a need for leadership by councillors and council officers to learn these lessons to make sure future schemes are designed in a consistent manner both to meet best practice and to take into account known issues of community interest and concern.

Just as importantly we need leadership to create a sense of urgency to resolve issues with air quality, health and a lack of choice for how we travel that are currently designed into our environment.

Update 8/1/2018

Newcastle City Council have released a statement published in the Chronicle which clarifies the number of trees affected and, which relate to the cycle route and which are to be removed for unconnected reasons:

“We have designed dedicated cycle facilities on the Great North Road, between Broadway and Brunton Lane, in order to make the area – a well-used cycle route, including by people riding to schools – safer for those on bikes.

“As part of the development we have identified that three trees, of differing ages and quality, would need to be removed for the project. A further eight trees, while not required for the project, may also be removed for other reasons, one of these trees we consider to be dangerous due to its condition.

“Two stone bus shelters, which are unpopular with many passengers – though apparently popular with others in the community – would also need to be removed and would be replaced by shelters that include seats.

“One of the three trees that need to be removed is a very young tree that we would replant and we would then be planting two more trees for every one that is removed.

“A petition from people objecting to the loss of trees and bus shelters will be presented to a meeting of the city council on Wednesday [10 January 2018]. Work will not start until after councillors’ response to the petition has been taken into account.”

Update 9/2/2018

On Tuesday 24 January SPACE for Gosforth attended a meeting organised by Newcastle City Council in response to the Gosforth Traffic Facebook page petition relating specifically to the removal of trees and the two stone bus shelters on the east of the Great North Road.

This is the Council’s update giving a summary of actions agreed at the meeting including the opportunity for the North Gosforth Parish Council to adopt the stone bus shelters and a number of other points raised by residents during the meeting. The update also includes copies of the slides presented at that meeting.

Further information and updates are available from the City Council website for the scheme. Work on the scheme started on Monday 29 January, initially including the introduction of a temporary 30mph speed limit and application of new lane markings on the road.

Broadway to Brunton Update February 2018

A petition, organised by Gosforth Traffic, a social media community site, that challenged the removal of trees and stone bus shelters was presented to the January meeting of the City Council. At the direction of Cllr Ainsley, Cabinet Member for Transport and Air Quality, a meeting was subsequently arranged between council officers and local ward councillors, petitioners, and other community groups who had been in touch about the Broadway to Brunton scheme including Save Newcastle Wildlife and SPACE for Gosforth.

The actions arising from the meeting on Tuesday January 24^thwere:

• to have a site meeting on Newlands Avenue with local residents;
• to investigate an alternative compound location;
• to consider fencing off around the group of 9 trees on the eastern side of the carriageway in the vicinity of Glamis Avenue;
• to provide background data on collision statistics;
• to contact the Parish Council regarding the potential for an asset transfer of the stone bus shelters; and
• to consider writing to all local residents to inform them of the scheme and what would happen next.

Following this meeting, and the subsequent site meeting we have had further correspondence by email and have responded below.

Whether or not all residents in the surrounding area will be sent a letter to provide them with a full update on the scheme?

At this point, no they will not. We will be posting information online and also providing updates to people whose email addresses we have. We will be sending out further updates about the scheme as we progress to future phases of works.

Can we use an alternative site compound?

 Yes, an alternative site compound is being used.

 What is the timeline for removal of trees?

The trees are currently programmed to be removed in the week commencing Monday 12.02.18 (weather and existing workload permitting). Even if not removed next week, all trees that need to be removed, will be before the end of February.

The sapling located in the central reserve that was identified for replanting was replanted on Monday 05.02.18. Following further investigations, another tree has been identified for removal, this tree is not being removed to facilitate the scheme, it is being removed due to structural defects making it potentially dangerous. This is a tree at the entrance to Melton Park / Newlands Ave and was identified when council arborists were on site in the two weeks following the meeting.

The survey of the central reservation trees as discussed at the meeting will be undertaken when the funding is confirmed, hopefully during the summer months and any removals and replanting, plus the east verge planting, will take place during the next planting season November 2018 to February 2019.

What information is available on trees?

Please see presentation slides attached. As noted above an additional mature tree adjacent to and south of Newlands Ave junction has been identified as being in a dangerous condition and will require removal at the same time. As discussed at the meeting, the Council will also remove the tarmac around the group of 9 trees and fence these off for the period of the works to support them.

What is the situation with the bus shelters?

As discussed at the meeting, the Parish Council are keen to explore taking on responsibility for these shelters. Since the meeting, Officers have been in touch with a Parish Councillor who was at the meeting and a briefing pack has been issued to all Parish Councillors earlier this week.

At the site meeting, residents discussed their concerns over changes to the height of crossing over Newlands Avenue – has anything been done?

Following on from the site meeting, we do intend to install the raised table at Newlands Avenue but with amendments to the design to take into account comments we have received. The raised table will now have a 14m long approach ramp that will only provide an increase in gradient from 6.3% to 6.8%. To mitigate this marginal increase we will resurface the carriageway in a material with higher skid resistance than the existing road. In addition, we will review the requirement for a grit bin in this location when we undertake our annual review of bin locations in preparation for the following winter.

Residents have concerns about the specifics of the design giving indication that people on foot or bikes have ‘priority’ as they pass over the junctions. Why is the Council providing this priority?

The type of crossing proposed at Newlands Avenue, where people on foot and bikes do have priority, can be found in many UK and European cities and elsewhere in Newcastle.  We are trying to promote a more tolerant mix of road users, where vigilance and awareness of our most vulnerable is expected and understood. Such measures help to reduce speeds and the principle of slowing motor vehicles at crossing points to and from residential areas is reasonable.

Why is the Council not undertaking an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) to remove the bus lane during the works or change the operating hours to being peaks hours only?

It is important to note that an ETRO is only an appropriate use of power if there is the intention to make the Traffic Regulation Order permanent at the end of the ‘experiment’. Bus Lanes are in place to enable buses to get priority and are generally placed in locations to enable advance access to key junctions. The review of bus lanes we’ve recently undertaken does not recommend moving toward operation only in peak hours however despite this we note your request and will give it further consideration during the period of the delivery of this scheme.

Why are bus lanes out of action?

As noted at the meeting, the first elements of work are to remove the road markings and then re-lay them. We cannot do this work in live running lanes so the lane has been suspended while our sub-contractors undertake this work to remove, and then re-apply road markings. When this is done it will have created sufficient space for us to keep the running lanes at two for the majority of the work.

What is the work you have been doing in the past week?

We have been preparing the eastern side of the carriageway for the installation of a cycleway, in line with the scheme designs. The petition and subsequent discussions have been on aspects of design and the future of the stone shelters.

Please can we have a breakdown of costs?

Please see the Finance section of the report that accompanied the Delegated Decision.

http://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/documents/s121681/REPORT.pdf

Where is the funding coming from?

Please see the Finance section of the report that accompanied the Delegated Decision.

http://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/documents/s121681/REPORT.pdf

Please can you explain the increase in costs?

 We do not agree that there has been an increase in costs. The scheme has been estimated at various stages and an appropriate contingency level given at each stage. The report referenced above outlines the cost of the scheme.

Please can you provide the data that you using to justify the safety improvements?

Data on road traffic collisions can be found here. We use an algorithm that ‘clusters’ locations of collisions and resulting injuries which enables us to understand how different areas of the city are performing in terms of road safety. The algorithm takes into account the number of injuries in different years and we use a ‘rolling’ five year average to ensure that the impact of collisions and resulting injuries are understood but that one incident in a location does not disproportionately distort consideration of ‘hotspots’. Example maps are attached that show the position before the series of changes on Great North Road took place. We have included maps that show injuries to all users of the highway network, and also those specifically on bikes.

Please can you provide details of cycle counts and locations of counters

Information is attached that shows cycle counts for the stretch of cycle route between Broadway Roundabout and Hollywood Avenue. If you would like further information on cycle count data please go to https://gis.gateshead.gov.uk/gatesheadmaps/ctf/app.html. On this website you can view an online map that shows counters and data that can be retrieved directly.

These were the slides that were presented at the meeting on 24th January

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The first ever UK Clean Air Day will take place on 15 June 2017.  On this day, people will be encouraged to run an event, raise awareness of this issue and to make some simple changes to their lifestyle to begin the process of cleaning up the UK’s filthy air.

The effects of air pollution on children’s health are becoming a matter of increasing concern. Children travelling inside cars are also at risk and Prof Sir David King (the chief scientific adviser to the UK government) recently issued a stark warning to parents.

One SPACE for Gosforth member was so concerned about cars idling by his children’s school that he designed two posters and a colouring picture for the school to use to educate children and parents about this issue.  We are privileged to publish his posters and colouring picture, and we hope that other schools and children’s groups might find it useful to encourage drivers to change their behaviour to protect children’s health.

Click on these links to download the posters and the colouring picture.  Further resources to campaign against car idling can be found on the UK Clean Air Day website.

The South Gosforth AQMA

SPACE for Gosforth regularly shares our members’ concerns on this issue as we campaign to improve Gosforth’s air quality.

We were very concerned to see levels of nitrogen dioxide visibly rose following Black Friday last year.

City Centre AQMA

High levels of nitrogen dioxide in our community led to Newcastle City Council declaring the South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in 2008.  This is one of Newcastle upon Tyne’s 2 AQMAs – the other one is the City Centre AQMA (which includes parts of Jesmond). Nitrogen dioxide levels in the City Centre AQMA are even higher than in Gosforth and also rose following Black Friday.

Levels in both the City Centre and the South Gosforth AQMAs reduced during 2017, but remain at concerning levels.

Nitrogen dioxide is not the only air pollutant that threatens public health. In 2015, SPACE for Gosforth arranged monitoring of particulates on Gosforth High Street and we were concerned to find that during our monitoring session levels were higher that the WHO recommended limit and at times exceeded the lower EU limit for safe levels.

The air pollution bear monitoring particulates on Gosforth High Street

Our concern about air pollution is shared by a number of hospital trusts (including Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital) and councils who are supporters of UK Clean Air Day.  Other supporters include leading medical organisations and charities including Public Health England, King’s College London, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Physicians, the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the British Lung Foundation and the British Heart Foundation.

Clean Air Day is co-ordinated by environmental change charity, Global Action Plan.

Chris Large, partner at Global Action Plan said: “We know that people do want to act on air pollution. But currently, they don’t know how to protect themselves and their children, or how to cut air pollution in their local area. 15th June will be a day of practical action, myth-busting and awareness-raising, so we can all breathe cleaner air.”

Top tips to cut air pollution:

• switch off your car engine whenever you can,
• leave the car at home if you really don’t need to use it,
• walk or cycle with your children to school,
• share information on cutting air pollution with others.

Click here to download the Clean Air Day leaflet.

The post No idling – make every day a cleaner air day appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

A packed Trinity Church at the SPACE for Gosforth Blue House Meeting

In our look back at 2015, the year SPACE for Gosforth was formed, we wrote that this was only the beginning and that in 2016 we had a whole year to make a difference.  What we could not have anticipated at that time was the immense difference that 2016 would bring to our community.

Something old … Gosforth High Street

A better Gosforth High Street was the reason SPACE for Gosforth was founded in 2015, and we continued to focus on the High Street 2016.

A High Street filled with hidden dangers!

We began the year by publishing an account of a walk by one of our members on Gosforth High Street to raise awareness of the challenges faced by those with a visual impairment.  Our member was blindfolded and accompanied by a volunteer guide from Guide Dogs for the Blind, and his walk revealed a High Street filled with hidden – and not so hidden – dangers.  This would be an issue for any community given that the UK has an ageing population, but it is a particular issue for Gosforth as three Gosforth schools house Newcastle City Council’s Visual Impairment Additionally Resourced Centres.

Gosforth High Street

Newcastle City Council also agreed to work with SPACE for Gosforth and local traders to improve plans for Gosforth High Street.  These improvements will take place in stages – the first stage to be agreed was improvements for pedestrians, which has recently been the subject of a consultation.

South Gosforth AQMA

Gosforth High Street is part of the South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area.  The South Gosforth AQMA was declared due to high levels of nitrogen dioxide, and is one of two AQMAs in Newcastle upon Tyne (the other is the City Centre AQMA, which has even higher levels of nitrogen dioxide).  SPACE for Gosforth began investigating this issue in 2015 and we continued to highlight the issue of air pollution during 2016 as well as other costs to the community of the negative impacts of traffic.  By contrast, research confirms that increasing cycling has a positive effect on local business.

Air pollution monitor on Gosforth High St.

During the autumn, we were able to track daily readings from the Gosforth High Street air pollution monitor thanks to Newcastle University’s Urban Observatory project.

We were very worried to note the increase in levels of nitrogen dioxide on Gosforth High Street before Christmas  – and a similar increase in the City Centre Air Quality Management Area.

This is an issue SPACE for Gosforth intends to continue investigating due to the risk to residents’ health from air pollution.

Responses to Brunton to Broadway Consultation

Further north from Gosforth High Street on the Great North Road, we also looked at the responses to the proposed new cycle route between Broadway and Brunton Lane, a proposal that received strong support during the consultation.  The graph on the left shows the reasons why respondents liked the proposals.

Despite this, there have been concerns raised relating to the introduction of a toucan crossing.  We examined the issues relating to this crossing, in particular the need for a fully accessible crossing at this point.

Something new … adding to the local debate

SPACE for Gosforth was founded to add new information to the local debate and to take action on the challenges facing Gosforth, and we did this in a number of ways in 2016.

One important local issue we wished to examine at was the issue of drivers speeding on many of Gosforth’s residential streets, so we obtained and analysed traffic counts from Newcastle City Council to provide residents with accurate data about this issue.

When  Gosforth’s speed cameras made the local news, we analysed speed camera data to show that there has been a reduction of accidents since these cameras have been installed.

East Gosforth crash map

We returned to the issue of speeding at the time of the East Gosforth Ward Survey and Priority Event, when we also examined air pollution levels and road traffic casualties in East Gosforth Ward to provide residents with information on this issues .

Protected cycle lane on the Great North Road

Another issue we examined was children’s experience of cycling in our community.  We began by looking at safe cycling routes for children when we applied the research of Dr Rachel Aldred of Westminster University to our local cycling routes.  We found that while Gosforth does have examples of routes that are safe for children to cycle, these do not link together to form a coherent network and many streets are unsuitable for children.

We were also able to give an insight into how children see their school run in March, when we were privileged to be given permission by Archibald First School to publish a letter written by some of their pupils describing the near misses they have experienced on their way to school and requesting that parents drive safely around their school.

In April several local schools took part in The Big Pedal, a challenge to encourage children to cycle safely to school.  We reported on the results at the end of the first week and at the end of the Big Pedal, when three Gosforth headteachers all commented on how much their pupils enjoyed travelling by bike.

A close pass at the Regent Centre

We also looked at the Safe Overtaking petition, a parliamentary petition for a safe overtaking distance, and published a YouTube video clip showing a close pass near a Gosforth primary school.

The petition closed with 23,834 signatures, however the Government responded that it does not currently have any plans to change the legislation.  This is concerning as many of our members have shared their experience of suffering close passes when cycling in our city.

Electric bike in the park

Also in April we organised a taster session of Electric Parks in Gosforth Central Park.  Despite torrential rain, this session proved popular and one resident even arrived before the session began as he was so keen to try the bikes.  “Just brilliant” was the verdict of our members who collected the bikes from the Cycle Hub!

SPACE for Gosforth would like to see more events like this in Gosforth and we were pleased to see Go Smarter to Work organising an event in December at Trinity Church.  We also created the Bike Bingo Card for Bike Week.

John Dobson Street

2016 also saw the opening of Newcastle’s flagship cycle route on John Dobson Street, and we were impressed to find that the improvements have humanised a street that was previously inhospitable for both pedestrians and cycling.

Newcastle / Amsterdam

During the media debate following the opening of the John Dobson Street route Newcastle was often compared with Amsterdam, so we looked at what the two cities have in common.  We found that while both have iconic bridges, lively nightlife and great architecture, there is much we can learn from Amsterdam as it has higher numbers of cyclists, higher driver satisfaction and a much higher GDP.

Something borrowed … working with others

Crash Map for Station Road

In January SPACE for Gosforth members met East Gosforth Councillor Henry Gallagher on Station Road to investigate residents’ concerns about proposals for parking, which were felt to be a possible danger to cyclists.  The plans were later withdrawn and other plans included as part of the Haddricks’ Mills proposals (more on these proposals below).

We ended January by holding a talk with a guest speaker, Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones of Newcastle University, about the City Futures project, which looked at what Newcastle might look like in 2065.

Monitor on the High Street

Following our air pollution monitoring on Gosforth High Street in 2015, we held a joint meeting in April with the Tyne and Wear Public Transport Users Group on air pollution with guest speakers Professor Margaret Bell and Dr Anil Namdeo from Newcastle University to explain this threat to our health.

The Netherlands is an inspiration for Almere Consulting

Finally in November, we held a meeting with Tom Bailey of Almere Consulting as our guest speaker to introduce his Garden City Guide to Active Travel.  Tom created his Guide after realising there was a gap in design standards for new large scale developments – and with so many new estates planned for Newcastle and its neighbouring communities, this was a gap that urgently needed filling.

Something Blue … Blue House Roundabout, Jesmond Dene Road and Haddricks Mill

The Blue House roundabout

In April we looked at the North-East Combined Authority’s survey on the future of transport in our region.  NECA’s vision of the future for Gosforth became clear in July when plans for “improvements” to the Blue House roundabout, Jesmond Dene Road and Haddricks’ Mill roundabouts were published.

The proposals for Blue House

All three proposals caused outrage throughout the Gosforth Community and beyond, particularly Blue House, which would have had a devastating effect on Newcastle’s iconic Town Moor.

The iconic Town Moor cows

SPACE for Gosforth objected to these proposals on these grounds and due to the risk to public health,  and because the proposals would not work.  We wrote an open letter to the NE Local Enterprise Partnership, who were contributing funding for the proposals and later received this reply.

Protest ribbons on the Little Moor

As SPACE for Gosforth believed that improvements for pedestrians and cyclists were needed at all three locations, we arranged a public meeting at Trinity Church to discuss alternatives.  We thought it was important that our community must not only say what it did not want, but also what it did want.

SPACE for Gosforth public meeting at Trinity Church

The result of the unprecedented community rejection of these plans led to a public meeting organised by Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle Central, and also attended by Catherine McKinnell MP (Newcastle North), Cllr Ged Bell and Graham Grant (Head of Transport Investment).

Chi Onwurah MP speaking at Trinity Church

Following this meeting SPACE for Gosforth was invited to join the Blue House Working Group. Information about the group can be found on the Blue House Working Group website, and we have also blogged about the first, second, fifth and sixth Blue House meetings.

Graphic Representation of the 2nd Blue House Meeting

The future of Blue House will continue to be decided during 2017, and we set out a series of measures of success for both policies and for people movement against which the final plans (when published) can be judged.

Poor planning at Gosforth Business Park

Shortly after the Blue House public meeting, plans were submitted to North Tyneside Council for a development on Gosforth Business Park which illustrated how planning can influence the type of journeys we make. We were very concerned to find that these plans made no reference to the nearby South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area and were likely to increase traffic in the AQMA.  With many other nearby developments planned, planning will remain an issue of concern in 2017.

And 2017?

Looking back on 2016, we are amazed at challenges our community has faced and are proud that we have added to local debate and have taken action to improve road safety and air quality in our community.

But these challenges will continue in 2017 – please join us to help make a difference!

The post SPACE’s 2016: some things old, new, borrowed and BLUE appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

The following series of questions we believe are essential to how people move around safely in our community.  This is our request:

Congratulations on being selected as a candidate for the Newcastle Central constituency.

SPACE for Gosforth is a volunteer led constituted community group which aims to promote a healthy, liveable, accessible and safe neighbourhood, where:
1. Walking and cycling are safe, practical and attractive travel options for residents of all ages and abilities.
2. Streets are easier and safer to navigate for residents or visitors with limited mobility and for residents or visitors with disabilities or conditions for whom travel is a challenge.
3. There is good walking and cycling access to local community destinations including schools, shops, medical centres, work-places and transport hubs.
4. Streets are valued as places where people live, meet and socialise, and not just for travelling through.
5. The negative consequences of excessive vehicle traffic including injury and illness from road traffic collisions, air pollution, community severance, noise pollution and delays are minimised.

We would like to hear your views on our aims, whether you support them and, if so, what would you do to help achieve them?

In addition, our members would like to hear your response to the following:
1. What is your position on increasing the proportion of the transport budget spent on walking & cycling?
2. Do you see better infrastructure for active travel as a priority in our area?
3. How would you champion walking and cycling in your role as a Member of Parliament, if elected?
4. What do you think the main barriers to active travel are locally, and how should they be solved?
5. How would you propose to reduce air pollution in our constituency (a defined Air Quality Management Area) and what would you do to lead the change?

We would very much welcome your response to the above questions and please feel free to contribute to debate on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/space.gosforth/

SPACE has emailed the following candidates:

Newcastle Central

• Conservative Party: Steve Kyte
• Green Party: Peter Thomson
• Labour Party: Chi Onwurah
• Liberal Democrats: Nick Cott
• UKIP: candidate to be announced

Newcastle North

• Conservative Party: Duncan Crute
• Green Party: Alison Whalley
• Labour Party: Catherine McKinnell
• Liberal Democrats: Anita Lower
• UKIP: candidate to be announced

The deadline for the delivery of nomination papers to the Returning Officer is Thursday 11 May 2017 at 4pm.  We will email any new candidates when they are published.

We will publish responses from candidates as soon as we receive them.

Special thanks to the Scottish campaign “I walk I cycle I vote” for helping with the succinct questions and have also published a briefing sheet which has many pieces of information that are appropriate for the rest of the UK and Gosforth.

The post General Election 2017 appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

The month of May is Living Streets National Walking Month and with your help we want to build a map of all the different ways in which the streets of Gosforth could be made better for walking.

We’ve included some examples and ideas below. If you know of somewhere in or around Gosforth that could be improved for walking please add it via the comments section and tell us where it is, what the issue is and/or any suggested solutions. We will add your ideas to our interactive map over the course of the month.

There are a number of ways in which streets can be made better for walking. For example:

• By making it easier to cross busy roads or other ‘barriers’ to walking such as railway lines or rivers.
• Local improvements focused on areas where lots of people walk e.g. around schools or shops or where people work.
• Changes that help children, older people or people with disabilities.
• Reducing traffic speeds – e.g. by having narrower traffic lanes and/or tighter corners – or reducing traffic volumes.

Barriers to walking

In recent posts we’ve written about improving the High Street for pedestrians, issues faced by the visually impaired and a plan for a more accessible crossing on the Great North Road, and there are plenty more places to look for inspiration.

Living Streets have written a document Creating Walking Cities – A Blueprint for Change that says we should design ‘healthy streets; that are accessible and inviting to everyone, including disabled and older people, so everyone can enjoy walking and spending time there’.

Transport for London in their Healthy Streets Guide include the following indicators for ‘healthy streets’ including being easy to cross, having shade and shelter, places to stop and rest and where people feel safe and relaxed.

The Local cycling and walking infrastructure plans technical guidance and tools released alongside the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy on 21 April also contains a long list of ideas for improving streets for walking, including how to determine and assess a walking network. The technical guidance says that walking routes should be attractive, comfortable, direct safe and coherent.

The ‘Who is the pedestrian?’ diagram at the top of this post was taken from an illustrated Charter of Pedestrian Rights drawn by Edgarseis, an illustrator and designer for sustainability, political participation, community-building, urban transport, and related projects.

The Charter sets out that as pedestrians we should have the right to:

• Cross the street calmly and safely
• A city that fits my needs
• Adequate public transportation services
• Organised urban centres
• Socialize in public spaces
• Play in the streets
• Suitable street furniture
• Spacious sidewalks
• A health environment and enjoyment of the space
• Walk calmly on the streets

Wider Benefits

Walking isn’t just good for your health. Living Streets have published research on the Pedestrian Pound that found that ‘Investing in better streets and spaces for walking can provide a competitive return compared to other transport projects; walking and cycling projects can increase retails sales by 30%.’ and that ‘Many car journeys are short and as the volume of goods purchased is small, these trips could be made on foot.’

It is also more than just being about transport. Wikipedia defines ‘placemaking‘ as creating public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness and well being. The Project for Public Spaces says ‘Great public spaces are those places where celebrations are held, social and economic exchanges occur, friends run into each other, and cultures mix. They are the “front porches” of our public institutions – libraries, field houses, schools – where we interact with each other and government. When theses spaces work well, they serve as the stage for our public lives.’  They also have lots of advice for what makes great public space.

Your ideas

Please use the comments section below to tell us your ideas for how we can make Gosforth’s streets better for walking. Please try to be as specific as possible. E.g.

• What improvement is needed? E.g. slower traffic or safer crossings
• Where specifically is this needed? E.g. outside a school, or on a particular street
• If you have an idea for how the improvement might be achieved e.g. a zebra crossing or tactile paving.

You can also rate your walk on the Living Streets Website to help them build a national picture and potentially win a family city break.

The post National Walking Month – May 2017 appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.