Southampton Cycling Campaign

snippets from the April campaign meeting:

* Cobden Avenue: Plans to reshape the junction at St Catherine’s Road plus a pedestrian island. Early days but if you have opinions do contact the council to express them.

* Tebourba Way: Plans for a crossing Oakley Road → Tesco; plans for a crossing at Romsey Road with cycling link to Percy Avenue

* Burgess Road: Possible cycle lane from Glen Eyre Road towards Boldrewood. Again, early days, contact the council with *your* opinions.

* Lower High Street: This is a proposed redevelopment of the lower High Street area. You can view the plan as a PDF as a PNG image. Please send your feedback to kevin.jenkin@southampton.gov.uk or write to Kevin Jenkin at the council.

* Hill lane: This is to be one of our campaigning issues for the near future—extending the Hill lane cycle lane all the way to the station and improve safety at the turning near Wilton Avenue. Please write to the council to tell them you would like to see these improvements

* Lover’s Walk: The lights are on; the common/Lovers’ Walk has been added to the “Night Scouting” scheme in which regular checks are made and defective lights recorded and repaired. The annoying boards have also gone from the path between Winn Road and Westwood Road. We are considering inviting Lin Hand and John Dyas-Slade to a meeting to try and find out more about their plans for the common and discuss how they can take the needs of cyclists into account (this might avoid a repeat of the Lovers’ Walk lighting fiasco).

Don’t forget – elections coming up in the next couple of weeks. Now is a good time to make sure your councillors know what you want from them …

Keep an eye on the events calendar: lots of events coming up in the next few months; Uni Transport Day and Enviro rock this month, Social ride in May, Bike Week in June …

Next meeting: AGM!

Latest newsletter is now online.

Dale tells us,

Work will begin to resurface Millbrook Roundabout and Dock Gate 20 in April. The works are being undertaken to make the roundabout safer and so traffic can flow more smoothly in the future. This will mean there could be traffic hold ups on the roundabout for up to four months.

See earlier articles for the Millbrook Road plans.

Daily echo reports

A RADICAL idea to handle traffic in Winchester city centre has been unveiled.

A two-day exhibition on the plan was on show in the Guildhall and attracted some 265 members of the public.

Among the ideas is the revolutionary shared space’ concept, which would see the removal of barriers between traffic and pedestrians. Traffic lights, railings, kerbstones and bollards would be taken away to make road-users – in vehicles and on foot – more aware of each other.

read the article online.

Quick rundown of some of the issues covered at last night’s meeting (from memory, if anyone else there wants to correct me, please do):
Pete Brunskill was present so we flung all our complaints at him…

Cemetery Road: used as commuter parking: pay+display meters?
Townhill Road: covered in a previous news item here
Hill lane:: crossing with Raymond Rd/the school: proposed toucan crossing. Some people (?) think toucan is a bad idea for cyclists: a zebra would be better for traffic flow, traffic awareness, plus an advanced stop box for cyclists. Also continuation of cycle lane all the way into town/the station.
Millbrook Road: plans are on a previous post. We want to make sure the scheme is not dangerous for cyclists crossing, e.g., third avenue
Romsey Road/Tebourba way:. Something happening. I can’t remember what…
Common: New no cycling signs affect most of the paths people want to use, use of Khartoum Road … addition of university paths (not technically public right of way) to cycle map?
Jury’s Inn Too many lanes?

And an update on progress of the new path from Horseshoe Bridge (none yet).

Contact your councillors to voice your view! writetothem, write to Dale dale.bostock, write to Les Coupe les.coupe. lin.hand for commons.

Jacey from cyclesure writes:

I’m e-mailing cyclists in the area to encourage you please to visit the Winchester Town Access Plan Exhibition to be held at the Winchester Guildhall on Friday 7th March 1.00-6.00 pm & Saturday 8th March 10.00am-1.00pm
and take part in the public consultation. It is very important that as many cyclists as possible express their views – especially regarding contraflows, north←→south access etc. If you can’t get to the exhibition please complete the on-line consultation:
http://www.winchester.gov.uk/winchestertownaccessplan

The questionnaire is actually at:
http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Consultation/consultationview.aspx?GUID=O82%2ftD9F27Kt2GpDLf287tNd68Dq7Ai1G5a%2bwA%2fxI%2bI%3d

Tomorrow London Road is finally re-opening to two-way traffic and we’ll all get to see how the new scheme works to manage all that estate agent traffic.

Last November we were told that the lights on Woodmill Bridge were, after two years of being “temporary” lights, to become a permanent fixture, at a cost of £100k. Now after the Council shakeup it has been announced that this decision is to be reconsidered, following trials in the area.

There is much discussion on the subject in the thread here on bitternepark.info.

Today’s article on bitternepark.info is here. As always if you have opinions on the matter, please make them known to the council. You can contact Dale Bostock at the council to express your cycling concerns, as well as the local councillors.

Hot off today’s press:

Residents, cyclists and university students said that they hadn’t been consulted and feared that the proposed scheme would put more lives at risk.

Following a two-month consultation it was decided to scrap a planned trial to switch off the lights, which was due to start shortly.

The council and police yesterday pledged to make the pathway safer, but refused to commit to improving the lighting, installing CCTV or increasing patrols.

For now, the lights will remain on and overgrown shrubs will be removed along the designated cycle path that links Burgess Road with Highfield Avenue.

The council will also look further at plans to better signpost alternative routes.

read the rest

Online petitions. Like a spreading meme…

• We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to force all local authorities to take the lead on promoting cycling by implementing a Ride 2 Work scheme

  View/sign the petition

• ‘We, the undersigned, petition Bristol City Council to reject plans to install a rapid transit bus route along any section of the Bristol to Bath Railway Path “Greenway” and wildlife corridor. The Bristol to Bath Railway Path is the most popular route in the UK on the National Cycle Network with 2.4 million sustainable journeys in the last year.’

  No, Bristol and Bath aren’t in Southampton. Or even Hampshire. Have a look anyway. It’s a superb cycle route. petition here

Meeting on Monday. Show up for free biscuits and the hottest cycling news in town.