Consultation Digest Issue 69, 15 September 2020: What price public opinion?

It was hoped that today’s Digest would be shorter than previous ones, until 5, yes 5, new speed cushion “consultations” arrived last Thursday, but we have limited the space given to them. On the topic of speed cushions and road safety, what price public opinion? See Item 1.11 for more.
We also have a new Transport Scotland consultation and a Planning Application that need your action, so do please read on.
Importantly, if the Digests are to continue, we need a production team, not just one person, who is a volunteer, to produce them. Yes, we are all volunteers in GoBike, but if you think you can help with these Digests please do get in touch, either via Slack or email consultations@gobike.org

Contents

Section 1: Current Consultations

1. Glasgow City Council, Auchinleck Avenue, Robroyston, Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September
2. Glasgow City Council, Maxwell Drive, Pollokshields, Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September
3. Glasgow City Council, Maxwell Park Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September
4. **NEW** Transport Scotland, Future Public Engagement on Major Road Projects, closes 24 September
5. **NEW** Planning Application 20/02068/FUL, Glasgow Science Centre , closes 25 September
6. Scottish Government, Town Centre Action Plan Expert Review Group, online survey, closes 30 September
7. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Cleeves Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
8. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ashgill Road (Extension) Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
9. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ryehill Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
10. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ruchazie Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
11. **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Victoria Park Drive North Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October
12. UK Department of Transport, Review of the Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, closes 27 October 2020
13. **NEW” Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 – Draft public consultation, closes 31 December

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

1. Glasgow City Council, response on Traffic Calming; their email of 01 September
2. Multiplex University of Glasgow Campus Development – September 2020 Newsletter

Section 1: Current Consultations, in date order for responses

1.1 Glasgow City Council, Auchinleck Avenue, Robroyston, Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September

This speed cushion proposal which closes this Thursday, first appeared as Item 1.6 in Digest 68. GoBike submitted this one letter of objection for this and 4 other similar proposals on 01 September.
There’s still time for you to add your voice; you might prefer the rat-running motor traffic to use the new roads that have been built rather then the avenues through the residential area? The email address to write to is LESTraffic@glasgow.gov.uk.

1.2 Glasgow City Council, Maxwell Drive, Pollokshields, Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September

Maxwell Drive appeared as Item 1.7 in Digest 68 and was included in the same letter of objection as Auchinleck Avenue.
Do email in to the address on the letter, ie LESTraffic@glasgow.gov.uk if you would prefer the cycle lanes to be upgraded, rather than half-covered by speed cushions.

1.3 Glasgow City Council, Maxwell Park Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 17 September

This proposal, covering Fotheringay Road, Springkell Avenue and Dolphin Road, featured as Item 1.8 in Digest 68 and was included in the same letter of objection as the 2 items above.
If, like local GoBike member, John, you would prefer traffic here to be calmed as a Liveable, or Low Traffic, Neighbourhood, with modal filters preventing through motor traffic, then please do write in to LESTraffic@glasgow.gov.uk, today or tomorrow, certainly by 17:00 hours on Thursday.

1.4 **NEW** Transport Scotland, Future Public Engagement on Major Road Projects, closes 24 September

2 weeks ago Transport Scotland placed adverts in the national press, and possibly elsewhere, advertising their new public engagement methods and they want our views on how they might work for us. Here’s the link: https://www.transport.gov.scot/future-public-engagement/ and, if you click on it you can see a run-through of the A9 dualling (pictured here) and details of other schemes. There is also information as to how they have kept working during the pandemic and there’s a nice picture of a member of staff working away at the dining room table with her daughter also keeping busy at her wee table. Aah, domestic bliss!
Please do have a look at this; it’s very professionally done and do fill out the feedback form. Make care, though, to download and save the form before filling it in. Filling it out online and then saving it just leaves you with an empty form!
Increasing public access to consultation on such schemes should lead to better public scrutiny of Transport Scotland, not just why are they spending so much of our money on the A9 (even with a cycle route alongside) rather than the A83, but where’s the spending on public transport and active travel?

1.5 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Planning Application 20/02068/FUL, Public Realm Improvement Works Glasgow Science Centre, closes 25 September

GoBike member, Brenda, alerted us to this one; it’s a Planning Application for public realm improvement works with associated alterations to the road layout and car park. Her route to cross the Clyde takes her from Paisley Road West to Pacific Drive to Millennium Bridge (the newish bridge at the Science Centre) to the cycle route along the north side of the Clyde and then points east, west and north. It’s a busy route, too, with people using the Millennium Bridge rather than Bell’s Bridge since the tube overbridge from the SEC to Finnieston Station is still closed.

The cycle route currently goes straight from Pacific Drive to the bridge; the plan is to reduce the convenience of the route! It’s not clear which guidance on cycling the planners have been following but here’s the GoBike letter of objection to the proposals.

1.6 Scottish Government, Town Centre Action Plan Expert Review Group, online survey, closes 30 September

This public consultation has been in each Digest since Digest 66, Item 1.4 and GoBike’s comment letter was submitted before the written submission deadline of 21 August but the online survey is still open. Do please complete this quick and easy survey to support moves to make our town centres people-centric, rather than car-centric.

Items 1.7 – 1.11 Traffic Calming Consultations, 5 more from Glasgow City Council

GoBike has now sent 2 letters of objection to this season’s traffic calming by the use of speed cushions. The first, covering Gartocher Road, Prospecthill Circus, Ladyloan Avenue (extension), Warriston Street and Greenfield Road, was sent in on 18 August, earlier in the day before Digest 67 was published.
The second, covering Hermiston Road, Muirhead Road, Newlands Park Area, Auchinleck Avenue, Maxwell Drive and the Maxwell Park Area was submitted on 01 September at 10:14, some 8 hours before Digest 68 was issued.
At 11:25 that same morning, a reply from GCC to our letter of 18 August arrived. The text of that email was included in Digest 68 as an extra item between 1.8 and 1.9, but is repeated in this Digest, with some comment, as Item 3.1 below.

Let’s move on to look at the next 5, which all arrived on Thursday 10 September. The standard email is used and thus we only note here how many cushions and how many bollards are proposed. The plans are also attached.
Here’s the GoBike letter of response to the 5, but please do add your view, particularly is you live, work or cycle on any of them.

1.7 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Cleeves Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

The scheme proposes:

• 1 set of 3 x 2m wide speed cushions
• 5 sets of 2 x 2m wide speed cushions
• The supply and installation of 12 bollards

The drawings are:

RS.20.69-Cleeves-Road-Traffic-Calming-Proposals
Cleeves-Road-Section-1-Btwn-Cleeves-Quadrant-and-number-195
Cleeves-Road-Section-2-Between-number-129-and-west-of-number-65
Cleeves-Road-Section-3-Between-number-77-and-west-of-Glenmuir-Drive

Cleeves Road runs past a primary school and between Nitshill Road and Glenmuir Drive, giving access to the school from both. Why isn’t this made into a car free school zone with modal filters preventing the road being used as a rat run?

Cleeves Quadrant, just to the south, was proposed for speed cushions last September, see Digest 42, Item 1.4 and GoBike opposed that move. Our alternative was to put in a modal filter, but one can only guess that motor drivers are now resorting to Cleeves Road to avoid the cushions (perhaps they do work?) or there was speeding on both roads but the City Council could only do one each year.

1.8 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ashgill Road (Extension) Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

Speed cushions were proposed for Ashgill Road in November 2019 for the area around the Recreation Centre. They are now proposed for the section running north as far as Scaraway Street.

The scheme proposes:

• The installation of 38 speed cushions
• The supply and installation of 38 bollards

The drawings are:

Ashgill-Road-Full-view-of-proposals
Ashgill-Road-Section-1-Between-Scaraway-St-and-number-527
Ashgill-Road-Section-2-Between-number-511-and-north-of-Shillay-Street
Ashgill-Road-Section-3-Between-number-475-and-south-of-number-455
Ashgill-Road-Section-4-Between-south-of-Colston-Road-and-north-of-number-377

Look, though, a dual carriageway, and quite a gradient downhill on the left in the photo. It’s quite scary, too, to cycle down that left-hand side. The hatched lines are, presumably, to deter traffic and push it all into the right-hand lane. However, if you cycle there, won’t motor traffic simply undertake?
Ashgill Road is only a dual carriageway for this section, from the Recreation/Community Centre north to the junction with Scaraway Street, but a simpler solution, by far, would be to make the inside lanes into Covid-19 type pop-up cycle lanes. Restricting motor traffic to one lane in each direction would automatically reduce speeds.

1.9 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ryehill Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

As may be seen from the map above Barmulloch is more or less a self-contained area bounded by Broomfield Road in the west Wallacewell Road in the north, Robroyston Park in the east and the M80 in the south. Plus, Ryehill Road forms the east side of an oval circuit with Rye Road forming the west. It is the southern part of Ryehill Road, running downhill to the roundabout, where motor traffic speeds are excessive, but why can’t the whole area be treated as a Liveable Neighbourhood?

The scheme proposes:

• The installation of 12 speed cushions
• The supply and installation of 8 bollards

There is just one drawing:

RS.20.66-Ryehill-Road-Traffic-Calming-Proposals

1.10 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Ruchazie Road Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

Ruchazie Road runs north to south from Gartcraig Road down across Edinburgh Road to Cardowan Road and is quite steep in parts. Why is motor traffic using this route and exceeding the speed limit? It must be rat-running. There are alternative routes, which are indicated on street maps etc as higher up the streets category, the nearest of these being Carntynehall Road just to the west, so why can’t Ruchazie Road be closed to through motor traffic?

The scheme proposes:

• The installation of 40 speed cushions
• The supply and installation of 26 bollards

There are 8 drawings:

RS.20.65-Ruchazie-Road-Traffic-Calming-Proposals-Full-view-of-proposals
Ruchazie-Rd-Section-1-Btwn-Gartcraig-Road-and-Fettes-Street
Ruchazie-Rd-Section-2-Btwn-north-of-Loretto-St-and-north-of-Warriston-St
Ruchazie-Road-Section-3-Btwn-north-of-Morningside-Street-and-north-of-Edinburgh-Road
Ruchazie-Road-Section-4-Btwn-number-307-and-number-280
Ruchazie-Road-Section-5-Btwn-Haymarket-Street-and-south-of-Whitburn-Street
Ruchazie-Road-Section-6-Between-number-222-and-number-201
Ruchazie-Road-Section-7-Between-Cardowan-Road-and-Newington-Street

1.11 **NEW** Glasgow City Council, Victoria Park Drive North Traffic Calming Scheme, closes 08 October

The proposal from the City Council relates to the double mini roundabout in the centre of the map above and proposes:

• The installation of 9 speed cushions
• The installation of 8 bollards
• The widening of the existing pedestrian refuge islands at the double mini-roundabouts.

3 roads will be affected:

• Danes Drive
• Victoria Park Drive North
• Westland Drive

There is just 1 drawing:
RS.20.37-Danes-Drive-updated-traffic-calming-proposals-Full-junction-proposals

But, wait a minute, isn’t this just the place where, in April 2019 there was a mini Pedal on Parliament event? Yes, it was and it was organised by GoBike member, Andy. See the link for details and here’s the link to the Facebook event he set up.

Local residents, “road users” all, were, and are, looking for a zebra/pelican crossing here to enable everyone to get to the park safely, to get to school and nursery, and everywhere else, safely. Andy told me at the weekend that when he was collecting his youngest child from nursery last week and the child was on the back of his bike, they met a woman in a wheelchair trying to cross the junction. There wasn’t room for the bike and the wheelchair on one of the central pedestrian refuges at the same time – at least this might be addressed by the proposals.

Here are the proposals put forward at the time, developed by the Glasgow Eco Trust:

Here again, is the GoBike letter of response to the above 5 schemes.

1.12 UK Department of Transport, Review of the Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, closes 27 October 2020

We are still working on this but we have a blog almost ready to publish that details the major points so that you, yes YOU, can submit a response. Please do.

1.13 **NEW” Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 – Draft public consultation, closes 01 December

When searching for details of Item 1.4, the Transport Scotland, Future Public Engagement on Major Road Projects consultation, this item was seen and it seems to be very pertinent to those of us who cycle. Here are some words from the Transport Scotland website:

“Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 ends on 31 December. Although Scotland’s road casualties are at the lowest levels since records began, to achieve the further 50% reduction in People Killed and Seriously Injured by 2030, as recommended by the United Nations and the European Union, a step change in road safety delivery is required. In response to the above challenge and in partnership with the road safety community and key stakeholders the Scottish Government has developed this draft Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 to strengthen Scotland’s position as a world leader in road safety, out for public consultation from 8 September until 1 December.“

Whoever wrote that surely can’t have cycled through Glasgow when it’s busy! It doesn’t seem too safe, does it? This is one we all need to feed into and we will be publishing more before the closing date.

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

A round zero this fortnight.

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

3.1 Glasgow City Council, response on Traffic Calming; their email of 01 September

On 18 August GoBike sent this letter to the City Council objecting to 5 traffic calming schemes. The email reply below was received a fortnight later on 01 September just a few hours before our last Digest was issued and, although we included the words, we did not make any comment. Here’s the email again, with some underlining by GoBike and comments below:

“I can advise that this section within the Council is focused on reducing injury accidents throughout the city. The section has limited funding and resources available (1) to implement traffic calming schemes and in order to make sure these resources are directed at the locations with the greatest potential for casualty reduction, a site risk assessment is undertaken for each request. This process assesses the location against criteria including the history of injury accidents, measured vehicle speeds and the presence of any local amenities such as being close to a nearby school or nursery.

I can further advise that in our experience, cushions with a width of 1800mm or less have little impact (2) in reducing the speed of vehicles travelling over them. Previously, this has led to complaints by local road users (3) following the installation of cushions as they consider them to be ineffective. It is therefore our intention to propose cushions of no less than 1900mm and no greater than 2000m for all future traffic calming schemes, depending on the available width of the carriageway.

I can also advise that the Local Transport Note for Traffic Calming (LTN 1/07), which gives guidance on the design, effectiveness and installation of traffic calming measures, states that “Distances between cushions, or cushions and the kerb, should not generally exceed 1200mm, (4) with 1000mm as an ideal maximum. These dimensions are designed to deter drivers of small vehicles from attempting to drive in the gap.” Whilst we would always aim for 1000mm, the gap between cushions and the kerb is likely to differ at each location depending on the available width of the carriageway.

Whilst I appreciate your concerns regarding our proposed traffic calming schemes and note your suggestions for each location, I can advise that your suggestions would involve the re-design of roads, introduction of traffic signals and the promotion of Traffic Regulation Orders as well as a host of other measures. The provision of such measures would involve considerable costs and resources, both of which are unavailable to this section, and I am unable to consider their introduction at this time.(5)

I trust that this clarifies the current situation.

Kevin Hamilton
Head of Roads Neighbourhoods And Sustainability”

GoBike responses:

1. Funding within Glasgow City Council is curious and it has been impossible to ascertain any cycling and active travel budget, but it seems there is not sufficient money to make our streets suitable for use.
2. Our letter of 18 August commented that in 1998, soon after the introduction of speed cushions, a width of 1.6-1.7m was recommended to minimise discomfort to ambulance and bus passengers. We also stated that current private motor vehicles are now so wide that cushions are also wider, so is no consideration now given to patients in ambulances?
3. The email refers to “local road users”, which is just what we are! Sadly, they appear not to listen to us.
4. The gap at the kerb should not exceed 1200mm; this is why we used to get a gap of this width. Now we are lucky to get more than 500mm.
5. Safe roads are expensive then? We have looked at the City Council’s proposals for Liveable Neighbourhoods and how convenient that Sustrans have £3m Government, ie our, money to provide for the update of the Council’s Strategies. Let’s hope that they have budgeted for works on the ground!

3.2 Multiplex University of Glasgow Campus Development – September 2020 Newsletter

Here’s a link to this month’s newsletter, received on 07 September.

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That’s it for now, but with holiday weekends coming up – that city in east this coming weekend and Glasgow 25-28 September, there might be a delay in the publication of Digest 70. If you do get some time off work, please enjoy it safely and carefully.

The post Consultation Digest Issue 69, 15 September 2020: What price public opinion? appeared first on GoBike.