The Lothian Cycle Campaign

The Scottish Cycle Forum is the government's consultation forum with cyclist organisations and other bodies, such as councils, working to promote cycle use. The Forum has just produced a Progress Report, and even if cycle use has not risen much, the report contains a great deal of interesting material. The report is at www.scotland.gov.uk/publications - published on 9.8.2002.

The recommendations on 'Resources' are particularly interesting and reinforce several points made frequently by Spokes...

• More funding should be allocated by government to cycling.
• Councils need to be given incentives to allocate more funding to cycling projects.
• Revenue funding allocated by government to councils should include enough for cycleroute maintenance.

The report has been welcomed by Scottish Executive Deputy Transport Minister Lewis MacDonald, who said his task now was to keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, as you will see from the lead article in Spokes 83, recent Scottish Executive decisions and announcements have totally failed on the first two above recommendations (nor have they considered the third, as far as we know). Please ask the Minister about this contradiction.

Write to: Lewis Macdonald MSP, Deputy Transport Minister, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh EH99 1SP. Even better, write to your own MSP and ask them to raise this with the Minister.

See also the Diary page

Nov 17 Remembrance for Road Victims Annual UK church services, organised c/o RoadPeace Road Victims' charity. The only one planned in Scotland is in Aberdeen [01224.646429]. For more about the initiative, or if you could help plan a local service next year, contact info@RoadPeace.org or 020.8838.5102.

Dec 3 Forth Estuary Forum Annual Conference, theme "Access, Development and Promotion of the Forth". Fee for individuals £15. Details: 01383.420104 www.forthestuaryforum.co.uk

Dec 12 Public Health Matters: developing Lothian Networks day conference - free attendance, but spaces are limited. 0131.226.5050 Susan Mathieson.

Spokes map project requests volunteer help in several ways...

• Have you used the new(ish) Spokes Midlothian map? Your comments on the overall design and/or on detailed points would be very helpful for future editions. Comments on the West Lothian or Edinburgh maps are also welcome.
• Help with sales outlets is needed from people who live or work in Midlothian (ditto for West Lothian and future contacts for E.Lothian). The maps should already be in bike shops, but can you suggest other outlets such as bookshops, newsagents or tourist centres? Ideally you would also be willing to pop into the outlet(s) every so often and keep them topped up with maps.
• East Lothian Cycle Map - now expected Easter 2003. Meanwhile volunteers are needed over the winter to take areas of the map and check the accuracy of the details on the ground.

• Edinburgh Urban Alternatives www.urban-alternatives.org New organisation/website to encourage and support sustainable living in Edinburgh, particularly buying local. Spokes is concerned over the rapid trend to longer-distance travel for many purposes in life - work, school, transport of goods, holidays, etc, all of which have negative environmental implications and lead to less scope for walking and cycling, and the decline of local facilities. EUA emphasises not only the environmental aspects but also social and economic. Their website publicises local producers and relevant voluntary organisations such as Spokes.
• Bike Links UK www.cycling.org.uk, then go to Bike Links; or phone 0161.7366.366. This organisation, funded by the Ashden Trust, gives advice to community groups wanting to set up almost any cycling-based project - bike delivery services, bike art, fun days, and so on. They also have several useful factsheets in these areas, and may be able to put on workshops, including...
• Ideas for cycle events/projects
• Sources of funding for cycle projects
• Costs of cycling equipment (e.g. useful when making grant applications)
Could be specially useful to anyone living in the Lothians and wanting to set up a local cycle project, but a bit far away from Edinburgh-based resources such as the Bike Station [contact with the Bike Station for possible assistance is also a good idea].
• Planning for Cycling A monstrous tome 'Principles, practice and solutions for urban planners', edited by Hugh McClintock, an academic at Nottingham University Urban Planning Institute, who has long also been involved in local cycle campaign work. Cost £115 ISBN 1 85573 581 4 www.woodhead-publishing.com

Several members have recently copied to us letters or emails to councillors, and we are delighted to see this personal action. Spokes where possible also takes up the issues raised, particularly where more than one member has raised the same point, showing that it is an issue of considerable concern.

Recent letters include the following. If these concern you now is a good time to write as the Council is more likely to take it as a serious problem when several letters are received on the same topic.

• The state of the road surface Haymarket-Corstorphine. This is particularly serious as the road width for long sections means that the bus/bike lanes are of minimum width - and one member is arguing for a shared and widened pavement in some sections.
• Innocent Railway Tunnel lighting in very poor condition.
• Union Canal Towpath heavy dog fouling in Harrison Park area - this member has obtained a commitment from the Council's Environmental Wardens Service to patrol the area 'regularly' between 0630-2300 hours! Dog owners can be issued with an on-the-spot £25 fine. The patrols may also be useful in deterring any other antisocial activity on the towpath. The council contact is env.wardens@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Wanted: Second-hand bike locker for back garden of a tenement stair. Or please get in touch if you know source of a reasonably priced new one [under £300]. Christine MacDonald 669.2397.

SESTAR is S.E. Scotland Transport Activists' Roundtable - of which Spokes is a member. It discusses promotion of sustainable transport in the area. A manifesto is being drafted for lobbying prospective MSPs and councillors at the May 2003 council and Parliament elections. The main proposed objectives are...

• Safety as a principle objective
• A socially inclusive transport system
• Protect local communities and reduce the need to travel
• Priority to pedestrians, cyclists and buses
• Promote a healthy environment and active travel.

• Spokes 83 has an article on the need to ensure full bike/tram integration from the very outset in Edinburgh tram proposals. We've just heard that Greater Manchester PTA has agreed in principle to include bike carriage in phase 3 of Metrolink, the Manchester tram system. It will not allow this in existing phases 1 and 2, despite lobbying by the Manchester Cycling Campaign who believe it is quite feasible with minor changes. Their report Cycle Carriage on the Metro is available at www.gmcc.org.uk.

• 'Survey of Cycling in Scotland' New publication by the Scottish Executive. Free summary [research findings 149/2002] at www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch or 0131.244.7560. The full report costs £5 from the Stationery Office Bookshop, 71 Lothian Road EH3 9AZ. 0870.606.5566. Some interesting points...
• The survey shows a slight decline in bike use 1997 to 2001, in contrast to the increase shown in the Cycle Forum Progress Report (which was over a slightly earlier period). Also, the survey results are based on opinion polling, whereas the Forum report used Scottish Transport Statistics data.
• The full report also suggests (table 2.1) rising bike ownership in urban areas and declining ownership in rural areas, although it is still slightly higher in rural than urban. This ties in with the point we have often made that cycling in many rural towns is higher than in the big urban areas, but is rapidly declining - probably because of the increasing danger on rural roads and the lack of consideration to cyclists by most rural councils (with a few great exceptions such as Dumfries & Galloway). Unfortunately the Scottish Executive has not taken specific steps to maintain the higher cycling traditions of rural areas.

The Scottish Executive consultation on stage 1 [Edinburgh-Tweedbank] of the proposed Borders railway is now over. We were particularly pleased to see two excellent references to cycling in the submission by the Campaign for Borders Rail, as follows...

6. Local Journeys within the Borders. "... Within Midlothian the stations at Eskbank, Newtongrange and Gorebridge should be located to maximise accessibility by sustainable means (walking and cycling), not to provide the largest possible carparks."

7. Maximising benefits to the Borders economy. "... Cycling is an area where we don't think that the potential has yet been fully recognised. At present there is no comparable area of Scotland, with hundreds of miles of quiet roads through pleasant hill country, which is accessible by rail within one hour of the capital city. The Borders would therefore be uniquely placed to tap into the day cycle trip market from Edinburgh, provided the right sort of trains with plenty of flexible space and stations, which properly access the countryside, are provided. ..."

For more information on CBR, or to join, phone 01450.375787 or see www.bordersweb.net/borderrail. CBR's full submission is also on their website. By joining CBR you will not only support them, but will be informed on future chances to make your views known to relevant bodies, so that you can contribute in an effective way to restoring a Borders railway - and a bike-friendly one!

Organisations such as the Association of British Drivers and many other motoring lobbyists have over the years frequently written to the press quoting research by the Transport Research Laboratory which they misrepresent to suggest that speed is involved in only a very low proportion of motor vehicle crashes. At last the TRL has decided it is time to correct these distortions. The following article is from TRL News, September 2002. Please use it to reply to any further misrepresentations you see in the media. Note that the bold highlighting is by Spokes and does not appear in the original.
 

"Speed and accidents - let's put the record straight!

There is a vast amount of evidence demonstrating the strong link between vehicle speed and road accidents. So why does material keep appearing in the media suggesting the effect is small?

The issue is so important we feel it is time to reiterate the true position. In the 1990s a number of police forces conducted a limited trial of an experimental accident reporting system. The results were reported clearly in TRL Report 323 but they have frequently been misquoted.

Speed increases the impact of many of the factors which contribute to accidents. For example, "aggressive driving" or "driving too closely" are both much worse at speed. Such factors were recorded in the system separately from speed; but speed plays a big part in their effect on accidents. The system also allowed speed to be recorded in its own right. The total effect of speed on accidents is obviously the sum of both types of factor.

Misunderstandings in the press appear to have resulted in two ways. First, speed identified as a separate factor in its own right was present in 15% of accidents, not the 7.3%, or lower figures, that are often wrongly quoted. Secondly, the 15% is only one part of the total effect of speed on accidents. When allowance is made for all of the other speed-dependent factors, the contribution is, we believe, much greater.

This means that speed is far more important in causing accidents and increasing their severity than the misquoted figures suggest. Importantly, other TRL studies have directly examined the relationship between speed and accidents. These are summarised in TRL reports 421 and 511. They avoid the inevitably subjective judgements associated with studies of contributory factors which, for example, involve estimating what an appropriate speed is in each situation.

• Studies of individual drivers have examined how drivers' speed choice affects their likelihood of accident involvement. Accident records of more than 10,000 drivers were related statistically to their observed speeding behaviour. These showed clearly that accident risk rises the faster a driver travels: at 25% above the average speed, a driver is about 6 times as likely to have an accident than a driver travelling at the average speed. (the article includes a graph here, which didn't copy properly).
• Road-based studies looked at how speeds on a given road affect accidents occurring there. Several hundred thousand observations of vehicle speed on almost 300 roads of different types were related statistically to the numbers of accidents on those roads. These showed clearly that the faster the average speed of traffic on a given type of road, the more accidents there are. Injury accidents rise rapidly as average speed increases, if all else remains constant.

These studies together provide extremely robust evidence of how speed affects accidents. They are large-scale studies, of real traffic on real roads, involving rigorous statistical analyses. The conclusions are unambiguous. Remember, 10 people die and 100 are seriously injured on our roads per day. Improvements in driver behaviour have the potential to cut these statistics dramatically; reducing drivers' speeds will play a vital part in this."

Further info: enquiries@trl.co.uk [Marie Taylor, David Lynam]