Southampton Cycling Campaign

Welcome to the website for Southampton Cycling Campaign. Here you will find information about us and our strategy as well as information about cycling in Southampton. Members of the campaign range enormously from occasional cyclists to daily cycle-commuters and their views can vary accordingly. However, all are committed to ensuring that cycling is a viable option for transport and leisure throughout the city. If you are interested in finding out more about these campaigns or can offer some support, please contact us. We meet on the second Monday of every month (except August) upstairs at the Friends Meeting House, Ordnance Road (map). Enter through the side door. Meet at 19:30 for tea and biscuits, with business from 20:00. Everyone is welcome.

Title: Bournemouth CTC Cycle Jumble
Location: Burley Village Hall
Link out: Click here
Description: Light Refreshments Available

To book a table ring Jim Hatton
01425 280 889
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2010-04-24
End Time: 14:00

Does the NHS help and encourage nurses to be healthy? A major review of health and wellbeing in the NHS was published at the end of last year. It recommended a raft of measures to help NHS staff be healthier, including making it easier to cycle. Six months on, Nursing Times would like to know whether your Trust supports nurses in living a healthy lifestyle. Please help Nursing Times investigate this important issue by sparing a few moments to complete their survey.

CTC would like to find out more about your commute to work, in order to help encourage cycle commuting by addressing barriers and improving conditions. The survey is designed for all commuters – not just those who currently cycle to work – so please invite commuting friends and family to take part. The survey only takes a few minutes to fill in and responses are anonymous. Click here to launch the survey.

Recent information from Royal Mail’s outgoing chief executive, Adam Crozier, confirms that Royal Mail plans to replace almost all of its bikes with electric trolleys that will be shipped out to neighbourhoods by van.  Adam Crozier has given several reasons for this move, all of which CTC finds spurious.

CTC believes Crozier’s assertion that posties on bikes violate health and safety regulations is untrue. Mr Crozier’s comment that the increasing weights of postal deliveries necessitates new delivery technologies ignores the potential to use cargo bicycles and tricycles, already used in other European countries and by courier companies in Britain – for instance DHL and FedEx.

CTC opposes any moves by Royal Mail to stop cycle deliveries, and instead would like to see cargo bikes and tricycles used to deliver larger weights of post.

Please take action by writing to Royal Mail’s future chief executive (as yet unnamed).  Please fill out our form, which will automatically generate a letter.  Then you can edit, print and send it to CTC’s national office.  We will collect the letters and deliver them in one load by cargo bike to Royal Mail’s headquarters on the new chief executive’s first day of work.

Please personalise your letter by mentioning at least one of the following reasons for reversing Royal Mail’s plan to phase out cycles:

•    Road safety: this plan would have dire implications for road safety by replacing cycles with vans.  As the number of vehicles increases, our roads become less safe for cyclists.  Royal Mail is legally obligated to protect the health and safety not just of its workers, but of the general public.  It appears that they have failed to recognise this when citing health and safety as the reason behind this decision.
•    Environmental: in order for the government to meet its commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it must take concrete steps to address the emissions from road transport.  As an organisation owned largely by the government, Royal Mail should be committed to working towards that goal, and replacing bicycles with vans will not help.
•    The government’s Active Travel Strategy: increasing cycling safety is a goal of the government’s new Active Travel Strategy, which government bodies such as Royal Mail should uphold.  It is possible that the government may change, but the commitments of these policies are so important to our nation’s future that they will likely stay.

Take action!

Title: Big Bike Celebration 2010
Location: Riverside Park, Southampton (off Woodmill Lane and Manor Farm Road)
Description: A day of bike-related fun for all the family. Lots of free activities and prizes to be won.
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2010-06-13
End Time: 17:00

• Prepare to be amazed by the mountain bike stunt displays
• Experience National Cycle Network Route 23
• Visit the bike shop stand for a free cycle check-up, advice and adjustments
• Take a turn on the bicycle powered smoothie maker
• Bring your bike – why not cycle to Riverside Park?
• Challenge your friends to a roller-race!
  Wierd and wonderful bikes at the try-a-bike-arena
• Join one of our friendly bike rides (click image for full details)

The latest newsletter (April 2010) is available for download in [pdf] or [MS Word] formats. Highlights of this issue include:

• Forthcoming events
• Fill that hole – with some flowers
• CTC/Cyclenation conference
• City Centre bike parking
• Proposed road traffic orders: Ruby Rd & Lyon St
• Bitterne Road West/Bullar Rd junction
• Cycling campaigning in Chile
• StreetTread – Sustrans active travel project
• Vote bike in the General Election
• IPayRoadTax.com
• Discount in bike shops

Road tax was abolished 74 years ago
Road tax doesn’t exist. It’s VED, or ‘car tax’. Motorists do not pay for the roads, we all do, via general taxation. In 1926, Winston Churchill started the process to abolish road tax. He didn’t want motorists to think a token payment gave them ownership of the road. Road tax finally died in 1937, says DVLA. Paying Vehicle Excise Duty gives no “right to the road” for motorists (or car-owning cyclists). iPayRoadTax.com products help spread news about what has become a movement.

The latest newsletter (February 2010) is available for download in [pdf] or [MS Word] formats. Highlights of this issue include:

• Forthcoming events
• February campaign meeting
• Advance notice of our AGM in may
• Thoughts on Southampton LTP with regard to cycling
• Motorbikes in bus lanes?
• Southampton city council road traffic orders
• Twenty is plenty
• Bassett rights of way
• Hamble shore path update
• CTC/Cyclenation spring conference
• Police tell children without hi-viz to walk

From: Warsashcats
Subject: CATS Campaign Update
Hello Everyone,

We are continuing to get many emails of suppport for our campaign, thank you to all of you. Sorry we couldn’t reply individually to you all. We are featured again in this month’s Western Wards Gazette so we are anticipating that this will generate further support.

As you know we believe that cyclists have a right to use the path, through long established use. We met with officials from Hampshire County Council earlier this week to determine the best way to get our rights recognised and are investigating a number of options:

1. Statutory designation of the path as a restricted byway
2. Common Law recognition of the right for cyclists to use the path
3. Designation of the path as a cycle track under the Cycle Tracks Act 1984

All of the above will take time. A quicker approach may be to seek a voluntary designation of all or part of the path, but this would require agreement from the landowners. We have been contacting landowners along the route and so far they have been very supportive – there is only one that we know of who is opposed to cyclists using the path and he also seems to be against joggers and pushchair users!

The council officers are at the moment gathering information about the route. This includes the views of the local landowners and the history of cycling the route as shown by the user evidence forms. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET COMPLETED A USER EVIDENCE FORM PLEASE DO SO and send to the Rights Of Way department in HCC.

We are also gathering what other information we can and passing it on to HCC. Related to this there was once a building along or near the path called “Captain’s Cottage”. Does anyone know where this was?

For all those who are continuing to cycle along the path can I ask you to please show consideration to other users. The last thing we want at the moment is to antagonise any of the local landowners or pedestrians who are currently being very supportive.
Also if any of you are challenged or anyone tries to obstruct or prevent you from cycling (or jogging) would you please let us know?

Thank you again for your support,

CATS

Title: CTC/Cyclenation Spring Conference
Location: Portsmouth
Link out: Click here
Description: Portsmouth is hosting the CTC/Cyclenation Spring Conference on Saturday 17th April. More information will be on our website in the New Year.

As the Forum is very involved in the Conference organisation we do hope to see as many of you as possible at the Conference – the theme is ‘Future Cycling Cities’.
Date: 2010-04-17