Oxford Road works to start on Jan 20th

Infrastructure works to make Oxford Road, Portland Street and Piccadilly Gardens more bus, and bike, friendly are due to start this month according to TfGM. Coupled with the work to put new tram lines along Cross Street, it looks like it'll be a busy, and tricky few months of riding around Manchester City Centre.
You can read the press release here if you're so inclined or you can watch the video thingamabob below.
Whether this is the change to cycling infrastructure Manchester needs, I suppose only time will tell but what is for sure is that it's the best the city is going to get for years to come.

Does it have the feel of something truly significant for cycling? Well, not really, its some segregated lanes and some coloured tarmac. Some lanes are routed behind bus stops, others not. And, of course, you have got to get to these facilities first of all.
But, it's something and as a glass-half-full person, it is better than nowt. 
oven that these cycling improvements are being delivered as part of a bus improvement scheme tells its own story...

@gmcycling demands space4cycling in Manchester

The name of this blog was always intended to be partly tongue in cheek. Don't get me wrong, Manchester is a great city to cycle in: lots of people interested in cycling at all sorts of levels and we're blessed with some superb terrain within striking distance of the M60. But it's not a cycling utopia; far from it.
So, what do you do about it? Well, the lovely people at Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign would like you to get out on your bike and make your feelings known. 
To coincide with the Tory party conference which started at GMEX today, GMCC is organising a awareness ride around the roads which are closed due to the conference. Starting at 6.30pm tomorrow evening (30 September) at St Peter's the space for cycling ride is not a protest and is apolitical.
It is taking place to raise awareness of the barriers to everyday cycling and to keep the issue of safer cycling on the political agenda.

If you can't make it  - because for example you'll be riding home from work in Uppermill - you can sign the petition here. The petition will be presented to members of the APPCG, Manchester City Council and TfGM.
If you have even the faintest interest in cycling in Greater Manchester, then you should sign the petition and go along for the ride if you can.
Good luck to all those taking part.

£20m funding boost for Manchester cycling

The national media are again awash today with news about funding for cycling in a number of cities including £20m for Manchester.
This is the culmination of the TfGM led campaign to secure, well, £20m from central Government to improve cycling infrastructure in the city - I blogged about it here earlier in the year.
So, now that TfGM has a few extra notes under its mattress, what are they going to do with them?

Well, the objective is to create:

"...an integrated and strategically planned network of dedicated, high-quality, newly built or enhanced cycling routes that will be largely segregated from other traffic wherever possible. These will connect employment centres, schools and leisure opportunities with each other and with the regional centre."

This means building about 56km of new lanes linking various paths of Greater Manchester to the city centre. You can read the summary document here.

All looks and sounds good on paper, we await the physical changes it will bring.

@TfGM think Saddleworth is too hilly for cyclists

Well, sort of anyway. The story goes thus:

Greenfield train station is usually a deserted place of two platforms and a ticket machine. Except for rush hour when the services between Huddersfield and Victoria bring commuters in their droves.
Bike parking facilities are rather bog standard with three Sheffield stands on the Manchester bound platform and zero on the Huddersfield side. The three stands have always been in use whenever I am forced into using the train.
Now, Saddleworth Parish Council - an organisation obsessed with Yorkshire for some reason - is asking riders to lobby TfGM to get some more robust bike lockers installed.
For their part TfGM doubts whether they'd be used 'in this hilly district.'

Copyright: Saddleworth Monthly 

The splendidly named Royce Franklin - chair of Saddleworth transport committee - thinks otherwise: 'Roads linking the major villages are quite suitable for multi-geared bikes and cycling to the station.' he said - possibly while peering over a pair of half-moon spectacles while reading The Telegraph.
Well said that man.
If you want to add your support you can email enquiries@saddleworthparishcouncil.org.uk 

Flaming June, plate spinning and bad spelling

There's been so much happening in the world of two wheels of late that I've not managed to keep all the plates spinning and keep my blog updated. Truth is, I've been enjoying the outside and riding rather than writing! Manged to squeeze in 200 miles last week!
So, by way of an update, here's a few of the things, had I been on the ball, I'd have written about recently.

Other bloggers have no trouble

The bastion of peace and tranquility that is Oxford Road, could be about to become kinder, much kinder, to us cycling folk. For the civic overlords at Manchester City Council are encouraging you, yes you, to tell them what you think of their plans in a consultation exercise. Apparently 'Dutch style' cycle lanes could be installed  as part of a revamped streetscape. Reports that this includes strategically situated bongs have not been confirmed. You can find out more about it here.

TfGM was also reportedly successful in its bid to trouser £15m for the, still annoying, Velocity cycle scheme. This is the money we all pledged our support for in a web-based clicking exercise a few weeks back. Cash in: get building.

Not to be outdone, Tory led anomaly Trafford Council has bagged £320,000 for 'paralell routes' (sic) at the A56 in Gorse Hill and Old Traffod.

And finally, that Brady Wiggin chap is no longer any good, so the Daily Mail is switching its allegiance to  Chris Froome who is just about British enough for them to support.

@officialTfGM wants £20m to deliver cycling revolution in Manchester

TfGM is bidding to trouser £20m of central government money to spend on cycling infrastructure over a two year period. The funding would also help attract other funding from the private and public sector apparently. 

And they need our help to make it happen.

Despite the fact that they have annoyingly attached a meaningless branding – Velocity 2025 which will inevitably increase in irritation when somebody decides V25 is ‘a bit snappier’ – it obviously deserves support.

You can support the bid by clicking here and then clicking the box which says ‘I back the bid’ and then clicking the other box which says ‘Back the bid’.

The bid backing boxes

Happy clicking.

Manchester: cycling utopia?

Buried in this article from this week's Cycling Weekly is the stat that Manchester has seen an increase in cycling to work of 25 per cent between 2001 and 2011.
Can't argue with that can you? Well, maybe.
I'm always a bit skeptical of statistics presented in percentages - maybe its working in PR makes you cynical about these things.
The real questions relating to 25 per cent are: from what number did the count start and how does Manchester compare to other cities.
More broadly than that, is there a coherent plan to sustain the growth and, if there is, what objectives is that plan moving toward. Put another way, what does a successful cycling strategy for Manchester look like and how will its success be measured. 
You can find TfGM's Interim Cycling Strategy here on the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign website - there's even a picture of Manchester's most famous cyclist on page 33. The Interim strategy sets out the city's vision for cycling.

Interim: always tends to be a bit shite

Interim suggests that this strategy is going to be overhauled and I'm pretty sure consultation is on-going although there's no reference to this on the City Council's website.
There are many bold words and a series of targets in the document as I'm sure you'd imagine but I think we all know that the result will be slow, incremental change backed up with headline figured like 25 per cent increase which make it seem like we live in a cycling utopia.

Manchester's bike infrastructure mapped: a challenge to @officialtfgm

Remember the humble A-Z? They were wonderful weren't they? Well, they might have been but I'm probably being a bit nostalgic which is not like me so I'll stop, straight away.

The yoot of today wouldn't know an A-Z if it came up to them and asked for directions to The Albert Hall because, as you well know dear reader, in the world of smart phones, interwebs and electronic thingamajigs of fantastical ability, the printed page's days are numbered - just like the pages themselves.

The idea is that having electronica do your mapping, it'll be better, more accurate and put you at the centre of your world - rather than have Jerusalem or Goodison Park there.

Digital mapping allows you to see the world in a different way and it lets you see Greater Manchester's cycling infrastructure in a way that you never usually can: in its splendid fractured entirety.  

If there ever was a case for a literally and figuratively more joined up approach to cycling, then this image is it.

There are three types of 'bike lane' marked on here: trails (dark green), dedicated lanes (lighter green) and bike friendly roads (dotted green). I'm not blaming the map maker (calling them a cartographer doesn't seem right really) here but these categories hide a multitude of sins. A trail is usually a bridleway or a path which cars don't use - through parks for example. Dedicated lanes seem to be just that, roads where lanes are fitted in leaving the euphemism of bike friendly roads which, if you look closely includes such belters as Bridgewater Way between The Uniteds and Hulme, Portland Street and Oxford Road. Hardly friendly.

Wouldn't it be great if there was an organisation which could make sense of all this, close gaps, link lanes up, make them good.  That would be truly original and thoroughly modern. 

I know this isn't fair but look what Copenhagen has achieved - surely the birthplace of the industrial revolution could do better?

Step forward TfGM, your challenge awaits you.

Manchester Bike Hub is go!

So, the hotly anticipated Bike Hub cycle parking facility has received its official launch and it has now become clear how much cycling infrastructure you can get for half a million quid.
What you get is 200, bike spaces, lockers for some users, showers and an Edinburgh Bike Co-Op outlet.
The facility which is in the basement of City Tower in Piccadilly Gardens, will be open from 6am to 8pm and will cost users £100 or £200 per year for membership.
While I think that any investment in cycling facilities is a good thing and should be applauded, you do have to ask yourself if this will really encourage new people to take to the road and commute to town on their bikes.

Presumably the on-foot exit/entrance 

After all, this is what this facility is all about: getting more people to ride bikes to work.
Consultation was undertaken last year on this infrastructure which I remember responding to.  It was a classic case of consulting on a pre-agreed plan as what we've ended up with here is pretty much what was described by the questions of the consultation.
So: card access, mechanical advice on-site, showers and undercover spaces is what it's all about.
There may be a little bit of 'build it and they will come' about the Bike Hub but at least it is there and we can see if it does have an effect.  Will more people take to the streets or does it just offer an alternative for existing cyclists?
It'll be interesting to see how well this small step works out when it opens properly on November 12th. 

Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign

Last night I took myself along to the monthly meeting of the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign (GMCC) to get a feel for what it's all about and how they are going about trying to make Manchester a safer and better place to ride.
My initial impression is that you couldn't really wish to meet a nicer and more dedicated group of people.  But there is also a formidable knowledge and steely determination which, to their enormous credit, has not been blunted by years of, let's say, missed opportunities from the civic powers in the region.
These are the battle-hardened cycling infantry striving to influence cycling policy for the benefit of existing and would-be cyclists from Altrincham to Staly-vegas and the campaign deserves your support.
It seems I went along at quite an critical moment in the development of cycling policy in our region. Also in attendance was a representative of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM): the newish name for the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) changed to reflect its new powers as provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) formerly the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).  As you would expect with the public sector involved, it is a superb example of an Acronym Rich Environment (ARE). 

Greater Manchester: doesn't Oldham look like Australia

TfGM were there to seek input into their new over-arching cycling strategy which, as I understand it, will guide the policies and ultimately infrastructure with which we'll ride on for the next 15-20 years.  Regardless of what may have gone before, you have to credit TfGM for approaching cycling advocate groups to help draft the strategy rather than presenting a document as a fait accompli.
So, there you have it: GMCC lovely bunch of two-wheeled enthusiasts trying to make Greater Manchester a better place to ride and TfGM seeking input into a strategy to guide the next 20 years of cycling in the region.  All in all a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Ride safe