February 2000
The Newsletter of Bradford Cycling Action Group

BRADFORD CYCLING ACTION GROUP
NEXT MEETING!!!!
a new dedicated cycle route right on our doorstep!
find out about the Spen Valley Line
and discuss how we can make progress in Bradford

with David Hall,
Sustrans Regional Manager

At 7 30 pm on Wednesday 16th February 2000
At the Bradford Arts and Resource Centre
17 -21 Chapel Street, Bradford

Contents
Bradford Cycling Map
The New Council Structure and Cycle Campaigning
Our South American Correspondent
High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes just East of Pudsey
Pete the Treasurer - How to Make Him Happy...
Curves, Speed and Marilyn
National Bike Week/Millennium Festival of Cycling
Contacts

The Bradford Cycling Map

?The map will have the strategic cycling map routes [the map that you can see a section of on the BCAG website] transferred to it and we (BMDC) hope to have it back by the end of this week (11th)". If received by then it will be available for further route additions from BCAG members from next week.

BCAG members who can make it in the daytime can drop in at the following days/times to add to the master map at the Transportation Department, City Road:

Monday p.m; Tuesday a.m.; Weds all day; Thursday a.m.; Friday a.m.

Alternatively at any other time during office hours by arrangement first with Tony Magee (01274) 757418 or Steve Thornton (01274) 757424.

He (Tony) will endeavour to get all of the cycle parking facilities at City Road operational before cyclists start visiting. Barrel locks will be available for loan on request at reception ("Grippa" style stands) for those needing them

He will also provide us soon with a list of cycle shops across Bradford that have a copy of the base map only, for those finding difficulty getting into the city during the week days. A copy of the base map has also been lodged for public inspection at any time during office hours at the Planning Department, 3rd Floor Jacobs Well Building. Visitors will have to sign in on reception on the ground floor first. Cycle parking facilities exist.

A blown up map of the city centre area is to be sent to us as soon as OS are able to get it to the map makers. Martin. the mapmaker, is coming to Bradford to start surveying and riding the routes in the week commencing .21st February and we can suggest routes up until then on the base map at City Road. In the 2 weeks that they are in the district surveying we can still contribute further. We are also able to comment post-survey but the final deadline for contributions would be the end of March when it must go to production to meet the June deadline.

Tony will set up a "round table" discussion with ourselves, Martin the mapmaker, Brian Ford from the University and BMDC at any time in the week of the 21st (except the morning of 24th) please call Pete if you are interested and say when you?re free.

It is a great opportunity to make your mark - don?t miss it!!! Pete Latarche

A Cycle Campaigner?s Guide to the New Structure of Bradford Council

Basically, we elect a Council (the politicians) to decide local strategy set a budget, raise revenue, keep an eye on it all, etc. Until recently, the councillors were organised into committees and sub- committees for the detailed work. Some of our members used to go to the Transport, Planning and Design Committee as observers to see what they were up to and, sometimes, put in our ten penn'orth. Recently, pushed by National Government, the politicians were re-organised and the committees were abolished. Now we?ve got a system of Cabinet Government which we can't go and watch. It does mean some of us have had to get a life but we are coping! The Council leader (currently Ian Greenwood) became a sort of local prime minister with a cabinet of ten members. Each cabinet member has a portfolio of subjects they are responsible for. Latif Darr, recently Chair of the TP&D Committee became the cabinet member responsible for the Transportation and Planning Portfolio, which covers almost all the things that matter to us as cyclists.

In order to create a measure of accountability (and stop bored council backbenchers mutinying!) they set up a system of Scrutiny Committees which have the power to look at the decisions of the cabinet. The two Scrutiny Committees that cover transportation and planning are the Environment Committee, Chaired by Ghazanser Khaliq (Labour) and the Economic Committee, Chaired by Simon Cooke (Conservative).

The Environment Committee, among others, "scrutinises" Development Control, Highway Maintenance, Highways Development Control, Street Lighting, Traffic & Road Safety. The Economic Committee looks at Transport Planning (including Local Transport plans) and the Unitary Development Plans (which contain the crucial assumptions re. future traffic/transport developments).

The Underlings (aka Officers):

The Council employs officers (the bureaucrats) to do the administration, work up detailed plans for approval and deliver the policies of the Council. The officers are organisers into Directorates and Sub-directorates. It is still a very hierarchical set-up. In fact, when pressed about the consequences for officers of the political changes, one administrator said, "it doesn't affect us, everything goes on just as before".

The officers who deal with the matters of most concern to us are in the Sub Directorate of Transport & Planning - the Head of Department is Alan Mainwaring (himself a sometimes cyclist). The three senior officers of most interest to us under him are Dale Scott, in charge of Development Control (what you can build where); John Blackburn, in charge of transport and traffic and Keith Smith in charge of Highways Maintenance.

John Blackburn's dept looks after:

Transport Planning under John Firby; Traffic (Bradford North) and Road Safety under Steve Thornton and Traffic (Bradford South) and Traffic Census under Phil Sawley. The yes or no on building developments from a traffic and transport point of view in done by Brian Hunt and his team in Development Control. Finally, the important Rights of Way Team led by Steve Jenkinson are down in the Estate Roads team under a G. Marsh.

Conclusions: Our guess is that decision making will be more withdrawn, less visible and less accountable. It is likely that even more of the decision making will in fact be in the hands of senior officers. BCAG will continue to bring sweet reason to bear on the council - trying to influence relevant decisions in favour of the interests of cyclists. We meet with officers regularly and occasionally lobby on specific issues or problems we get to know about. It is usually unexciting, sometimes tedious. Sometimes moving things forward, sometimes stopping them going backwards. Sometimes not having the influence to do either. But worth doing.

It is done by volunteers, just like your selves, who also have lives to lead. The more of us there are involved the lighter the burden?.. Do come and spend a little time trying to make Bradford a better place for cyclists.
Pete Latarche

An excerpt from Trevor?s most recent e-mail- local hero doing America by bike for Marie Curie Cancer Care:

Dear All,

I'm exhausted after one of my biggest weeks yet - 564 miles (900km) in the last 7 days.

I left Huaraz and managed to find a wonderful camping spot beside a beautiful rushing river beneath some of Peru's highest mountains at over 6000m - unfortunately a thunderstorm meant the evening was spent in the confines of my tent rather than beneath the stars cooking over an open fire. We had a schedule to keep for the press - one of the reasons for my quick pace this week - and this saw us race 126miles in one day through the burning (40C at lunchtime) desert. The coastline south of Tumbes was a refreshing change and here Darwin [fellow cyclist] managed his first ever swim in the sea, absolutely loving it after initial apprehension.

After a period of cycling through vast ares of banana plantations I headed North East towards Cuenca, the road now beginning to climb, the air so thick and moist I almost had to chew on it as I breathed. I was filthy and soaked in sweat as I came to a halt that night, a local farmer and his son offering me accomodation in their humble home that night. I showered in their 'bathroom' - a stream just 20m from their door and then helped them cook a potato and pasta soup which I was happy to offer them money for. That night they marvelled at my little radio and the son chatted excitedly with me. I slept on the stoney, dirt floor beneath my mosquito net in their single roomed house as the two of them slept on a wooden bed, balanced on bricks, beneath a sheet which hung from the ceiling to keep off biting insects. They were wonderful people, with virtually nothing in the way of possessions, happy to invite a stranger from a far-away country into their home. They seemed happy, content with what little they had and displayed so much affection and respect for one-another - perhaps we could learn!!

The next day was a real nightmare; an absolute killer. The rain was soon falling and the road - which was often mud - climbed in stages before dropping slightly again and again and again. I had to climb to over 2700m before dropping into Cuenca and was soon cycling through wet cloud which reduced the visibility to just 10 or 15m. I was absolutely exhausted after a very hard week but when the road finally did begin to descend and I cycled out of the cloud, the scenery was magnificent, illuminated by a wonderful, golden sunlight which spilled out form behind broken dark clouds.

Once in Cuenca I found a hotel room with double bed, TV, private bathroom (with hot water, soap and loo roll !!!!!) and breakfast included for just 1.40 pound per night - one advantage of travelling through a country in economic crisis! I'm exhausted and really need to rest but still have so much to do before I leave here tomorrow bound for Quito where I hope to have a bit of a birthday bash - all I need are a few friends!!

Will be in touch soon!

TREVxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Trevor Lund?s web page is at:
member.ctinets.com/~sdgreig/trevorlund
there?s a link on the BCAG web site?s links page...

HIGH OCCUPANY VEHICLE LANES SOMEWHERE EAST OF PUDSEY...

It may be that you?ve heard of the High Occupancy Vehicle lane that was implemented on the dual carriageway Stanningly Bypass, Leeds. One of the two lanes is reserved for bikes, motorbikes, taxis, buses and cars with two or more persons inside. The results of the this experimental scheme are...

· journey times for vehicles in the HOV lane, down 4mins · journey times for vehicles out of the HOV lane, down 1min · average vehicle occupancy, up from 1.4 to 1.9

This is impressive - a scheme which gets people to share cars actually speeds up all the car drivers? journeys (and at the same time puts a bit less into the atmosphere, perhaps even creates a little bit of sociability, and less traffic for bikes to cope with).
Steve (with help from the urbancyclist e-mail list)
- if you want to add yourself to the urbancyclist e-mail discussion list, upon which I enjoy lurking, send a blank e-mail to:
urbancyclist-uk-subscribe@topica.com

Happy New Year from Pete, the Treasurer...
(Bob the Builder says ?Happy New Year? too..)

At the November meeting, the Group confirmed that the subscription year should be the same as the calender year. So year 2000 subs are due!!

The "normal" rates are:£5.00 waged or large private income £2.00 unwaged or low waged (self defined)
Except!
The December meeting confirmed that anyone who joined BCAG after National Bike Week 1999, that is after 20 June 1999 could pay a one off reduced subcription of £3.00
So, if you joined after 20th June 1999 you pay £3.00 if waged or on a large private income.
The women's Cycling Group and BCAG have a cross membership scheme - membership of WCG makes you a member of BCAG. WCG members should pay Julie Ratcliffe. If you are paying to BCAG, please make cheques out to "BCAG" and bring it to a meeting, put it in the BCAG mainbox at the Bradford Resources Centre on Chapel Street, or give it one of the officers (Mike Healey, Pete Latarche) or post it to 10 Ruskin Avenue, Bradford, BD9 6EB (please mark the envelope BCAG).
Many thanks, Pete

Curves, Speed and Marilyn

Roads are designed to encourage speed in foolish places. Twice this only slightly-used year I?ve been cycling round a large roundabout when a car has sped onto the roundabout behind me at a considerable speed, overtaken, and then exited with millimetres to spare in front of me when I was clearly signalling that I was continuing round the roundabout. Sweeping curves onto a roundabout encourage absurd speeds. The designers seem to have been working on designs taken from the shape of Marilyn Munroe.

As a pedestrian I?ve noticed that the curves on the new- ish trading estates by Forster Square Railway Station are so wide that they tell the driver - DON?T SLOW DOWN! So they don?t and pedestrians run for their lives. Now Advance Stop Lines and traffic lights do help (as I regularly experience at the Forster Square roundabout), but at many road junctions and roundabouts these are unlikely ever to be put in. Judging by the design of some recent trading estates in Bradford it seems Road planners have not yet got beyond the simple (and impressively stupid) idea that throughput of cars is all that matters - hence the curvy, speedy, scary, junctions that cyclists and pedestrians have to cope with. I guess when they?ve been a few fatalities such a junction might, just might, get altered.
Steve

BCAG Contacts:

Secretary - Mike Healey Bfd 602394 (eves)
Treasurer - Pete Latarche Bfd 482176) e-mail pyotr@legend.co.uk
Bikerights editor Steve Carr Bfd 734723 e-mail smcarr@zetnet.co.uk
BCAG meet every third Wednesday at 7.30pm at the Resources Centre on Chapel St.,
Bradford

Acknowledgements: Green Party Web site for graphics - www.greenparty.org.uk