Manchester Day Parade - Julian's Photos

Here are some more Manchester Day Parade photose. These were taken by our artist/maker Julian Taylor and you can find more on his Flickr pages.
























I'm hoping we can work with Julian again next year.

Damp June Critical Mass

Either the weather put a lot of people off joining this month's critical mass, or everyone else has gone to Glastonbury...

However, this small mass was pretty loud, with 3 large sound systems.









It was a pretty short ride and soon found its way to the Thirsty Scholar...

City Centre Consultation - Respond Now!

Like the Oxford Road consultation, the City Centre Bus Priority consultation has the potential to have quite a big impact on cycling levels in the city.



The closing date is Friday 5 July 2013.

The main thrust of the plan is to block the current rat-run through Portland Street by Piccadilly Gardens, open up Oxford Street to two way traffic which is particularly good for cycle access from St Peter's Square to Oxford Road. However, there is no plan for a 20 mph speed limit for Portland Street, no decent provision for cycling and the overall quality of the design is very messy and disjointed.

The City Centre plans need to be completely redrawn to bring them in line with Oxford Road and provide convenient, and effective cycle infrastructure built to Dutch design standards. If we can get lots of responses from cyclists on this one too then the city might just wake up to the fact that they need to make the whole city cycle friendly, not just Oxford Road.

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How to Respond.

Take a look at this video to see what is proposed, and notice how there is no decent cycle provision.



Notice how the video, this time concentrates on bus flow rather than cycling, ignores Oxford Street completely. Also notice how the proposed Portland Street cycle lanes are standard UK poor quality. If you want more detail you can download the leaflet.

Then compose your response in a text editor of some sort because there isn't space in the web form to see everything you have written.

Write as little or as much as you feel appropriate, but please remember to:-

1) Call for the plans for this whole area to be redesigned to make them fit for cycling, with infrastructure designed to Dutch standards.

2) Tell TfGM if you regularly cycle in the city centre and write about your current experience and how you want it to improve.

3) Support the removal of general traffic from the Picadilly Gardens end of Portland Street.

5) Call for a 20mph speed limit for the whole of this area.

6) Call for 2-way cycling on all the roads in this area.

7) Call for the cycle route design to be improved throughout the whole area - if necessary by employing experienced engineers from the Netherlands to finalise the design.

Once you have written your response, then visit the online form, fill in your name, full address, postcode and email address. It is important that our responses are seen to come from individuals who live in the area.

Then copy and paste your text into the box marked "Your views*", scroll through to check it's all there and hit the submit button.

Then tell every cyclist you know to do the same...

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You can also send your response by email to buspriority@tfgm.com or post it to

Transport for Greater Manchester bus priority,
FREEPOST RRHE-RKUU-KSJY,
Manchester,
M1 3BG
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Update: Thanks to Pete Abel's excelent suggestions I have simplified this post to encourage more people to respond.

Oxford Road Consultation - Respond Now!

This is the most important consultation for cycling in many years in Manchester. This consultation is for the bus priority package along Oxford Road, but it is also the busiest cycle route in Manchester so if TfGM get this route right it sets the standard for the rest of the city.



The closing date is Friday 5 July 2013.

The current plan is to remove all lorries, vans, private cars, motorbikes and private hire vehicles from the section covering the university and hospital and impose a 20mph speed limit. As a result there will be many motoring groups, shop owners and others lobbying against this scheme.

Cycling could lose out if we don't all respond to support the main principles of the scheme. However the details of the cycle route are not all as good as they should be, so we need to respond to agree with the removal of the traffic and the principle of protecting people cycling from the buses and then press for a much higher quality of cycle route design than is currently proposed.

Here is a video showing how this kind of cycle route is designed in the Netherlands with continuous cycle tracks that give priority across junctions and pass round the back of bus stops without conflict.



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How to Respond.

Take a look at this video to see what is proposed, and notice how the cycle tracks could be improved.



If you need more information you can download the leaflet but it doesn't show the same cycle track details.

Then compose your response in a text editor of some sort because there isn't space in the web form to see everything you have written.

Write as little or as much as you feel appropriate, but please remember to:-

1) Support the removal of the traffic from this route.

2) Support the 20mph speed limit.

3) Support the idea of a high quality cycle route, protected from the bus traffic.

4) Call for the cycle route design to be improved - if necessary by employing experienced engineers from the Netherlands to finalise the design.

5) And if you regularly cycle along Oxford Road then include this information in your response and write about your current experience and how you want it to improve.

Once you have written your response, then visit the online form, fill in your name, full address, postcode and email address. It is important that our responses are seen to come from individuals who live in the area.

Then copy and paste your text into the box marked "Your views*", scroll through to check it's all there and hit the submit button.

Then tell every cyclist you know to do the same...

----------------------
You can also send your response by email to buspriority@tfgm.com or post it to

Transport for Greater Manchester bus priority,
FREEPOST RRHE-RKUU-KSJY,
Manchester,
M1 3BG

----------------------

Update:

I've now sent my response in.

I've also called for the cycle tracks to be suitable for all types of cycles including hand-cycles, rickshaws and cargo cycles.

I've also called for physical barriers between the cycle track and the Bus/Taxi lane to stop taxi drivers pulling off onto the cycle track to drop off passengers.

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Further update

I have just received an email admitting that the cycle tracks along Oxford Road will be inconvenient for many cyclists and the writer will be using the road.

We must call for high quality Dutch provision. In the Netherlands you do not see lots of people refusing to use the cycle tracks because they are crap!

Mad Hatter's Alley Cat

The final day of the Spokes North West Velo Fest saw an Alice in Wonderland themed alley cat ride kick off outside Bicycle Boutique.

The riders are brought into some sort of order...



and they're off!



Clearly somebody is taking this far too seriously - Kieran!



Others are much more in the spirit of the event.



And this pair depart at a sedate pace.



Needless to say Kieran Evans won the event...

Congratulations to the Spokes for a wonderful week of cycling fun.

Cycle Route Closure - NCN55 at Roe Green

This path is on the old Eccles, Tyldesley and Wigan branch line. Tot the south-east of this point the old line is the Monton and Roe Green Loopline Heritage Trail including Worsley Station.

The part that is closed is between the M60 and Greanleach Lane.



The closure is caused by sewer works.



However, last weekend people were bypassing the fence at the south eastern end by lifting bikes over the fallen on the left of this image.



The works were fenced of, so quite safe,



and the fence had been pushed over at the north-western end.



So not really closed off... and you can always use the official diversion along Greanleach Lane.


View Larger Map

The Spokes - Hands Free Olympics

An outbreak of cycling sillyness in Whitworth Park today, thanks to the wonderful Spokes.

The event was part of North West Velo Fest.

Here the objective seemed to be to cycle as slowly as possible.



The pack soon narrowed down...



And here you had to carry all the items...



They were suitably silly,



and handed over one by one,



until the final item, a 5kg bag of charcoal.



Coffee Cranks were there too, providing refresments in the summer sun.

In The Skinny NW

This week Mad Cycle Lanes of Manchester made page 26 of The Skinny NW in the first paragraph of an item on cycling.



Also mentioned were Popup Bikes and Team Glow, but it is a shame they chose a women's sports group rather than the more inclusive Spokes.

Manchester Day Parade

Manchester Day Parade is quite an experience when you are taking part. The only down-side is that you don't get to see what the other floats look like.

I have to say at the start of the day my thoughts were "never again" with all the hard work and long hours that went into this. I spent many hours trying to help our artist, maker and blacksmith Julian Taylor in his efforts to build our big bike and puppet rider.

However, as soon as we turned the corner into Deansgate I changed my mind. Our group of 30 people on bikes, trikes and a quad with two linked sound systems and Julian's wonderful giant bike just seemed to take over the space.

The other problem is that when you are taking part it is very hard to take many decent photographs. So this post is what I have taken - I will post more when Jasmine and Julian's photos are available...

The chaos before the start - Anna and friends didn't join until we had moved off.



After the main part, a pause whilst we waited for the parade to clear Deansgate - a military band were refusing to follow directions from Walk The Plank and spoilt the parade for the people at the back.



Finally we returned to Deansgate and let (what's left of our) hair down...

Pete Abel had contributed a lot of effort despite also sorting out a lot of the Bike Month Manchester stuff.



Julian Taylor our artist looking very pleased with the result.



And Peta, who also helped with the building of the puppet, soaking up the atmosphere.



We are already thinking about next year. It doesn't have to be under the GMCC banner net time, we could call it Manchester Critical Mass or Mad Cycle Lanes of Manchester. We will have to see what next year's theme is...

Update:

You can see all of  Julian's photographs here.