Opening Up High Petergate

At a recent Executive Member for Transport meeting, approval was given to introduce an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order on High Petergate. In effect from last Tuesday, the order allows pedal cycles to be ridden from Bootham Bar to Duncombe Place during the footstreet hours (between 10.30am and 5.00pm) in order to improve safety and convenience for cyclists. Cycling is already permitted at other times. You can read more about the decision on our blog.

The experiment will be reviewed after 6 months after which a report will be put back to the Executive Member for a decision on making it permanent, amending/extending the experiment, or even abandoning it depending on circumstances.

The Campaign would like to encourage its members to contact the Highways department and provide feedback on your experience during the trial, which can be done by emailing highway.regulation@york.gov.uk.

Beelines for the University of York

We’ve recently started working with the University of York to improve the network of cycle routes within their two campuses. Brian Deegan (leading street design engineer and the man behind the Manchester Beelines amongst other things) has been kind enough to share his Beelines method with the cycle campaign. We’ve had a couple of meetings with the University transport team and next week we are joining them for a cycle around campus to assess what works and what doesn’t. The University is keen to work with the cycle campaign and we are hopeful that we’ll be able to contribute to some real positive change in this area of York. We anticipate that there will be opportunities for interested members to get more involved in this project further down the line and we’ll let you know when we have more to report!

February Social

We had hoped to kick off the year with our first pub quiz, unfortunately Storm Ciara had other plans and prevented many from making it. We have kept the questions firmly under lock and key though so we can restage the event in the near future. We’d also like to salute those of you who braved the storm to come and join us for a pint and chat instead.

Better Infrastructure Group

The “Better Infrastructure Group” (or BIG!) is the technical heart of the Campaign. The group works proactively setting out our vision for improving cycling infrastructure in the city based on best practice examples from the UK and around the world. We also work reactively by submitting responses to planning applications made in the city and consultations from the council and major city stakeholders.

If you’re interested in being part of BIG, register your interest to start receiving emails about opportunities to get involved – there’s no commitment at this stage!

How would you spend £500k on cycling in York?

Following the council’s decision to put aside £500k for cycle infrastructure improvement in York, the BIG group has been thinking about how to optimise the way this money is spent. A couple of weeks ago we met up with decision makers at the council to share our ideas. You can read more about the meeting in our blog and if you’d like to contribute your ideas to the discussion then please do consider joining the BIG group (see above).

Terry Avenue Disappointment

In late January we heard the disappointing news that Terry Avenue will be closed to cyclists throughout the flood alleviation works, forcing the hundreds that use it every week to find alternative routes. Whilst were disheartened by this news, we’ve not given up and are instead now focusing on what can be done with the proposed diversions to mitigate the risks. The Environment Agency’s latest plans are being presented at the council’s planning meeting in mid-April and if passed it is likely that work will start early this summer. We’ll be providing feedback on the latest traffic management plan when it becomes available. You can find out more on our website.

Cycle to Freedom ride

Save the date! We’ll be setting off on our annual ‘Cycle to Freedom’ ride with the fantastic charity Empowered People on Sunday 3rd May. Both disabled and able-bodied cyclists will be welcome to come along. This year we hope to ride out to Newton-upon-Ouse and enjoy pizza on the green when we get there! We are planning the route now and we’ll put details and booking information up on our website soon.

In Other News

We’ve launched our new Instagram account, follow us at @YorkCycle.

In January York Civic Trust released the results from their 2019 Transport Consultation, in which unsurprisingly 88% of commuters said congestion was a problem. The biggest desired change of commuters was to increase the number of journeys they made by bike with 34% saying they would like to do so, even though cycling is currently the third most common mode of commuting at 15%.

We welcomed proposals from the Council to cut out unnecessary car journeys through the city, and proposed a Ghenitication of the city centre.

We also spoke at the Council Executive meeting which agreed funding for MyCastlegateway, where we confirmed our support for the proposals, saying that we have engaged with the consultation in good faith, but expressed disappointed with the proposed car park which in our view is unsustainable & undermines the Council’s aim to achieve a zero carbon York by 2030.

As Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis hit we once again asked for people and local news outlets to share flooded routes using #YorkCyclingFloods. We were also amazed by this new web app by Richard Lane that uses river levels and data from the hashtag to estimate which routes are flooded nosearmy.com/isitflooded.