Author: Rachel M

Council Cycling Priorities

A cluster of recent decisions appear to show that cycling is still low priority for some parts of the council. It is frustrating for us to be spending most of our time at the moment on firefighting council measures instead of working on more positive matters.

1.The council will be trialling ‘over the festive period’ the banning of straight ahead movements from Virginia Street/Trinity Quay to Guild Street, across the Market St junction. If you are cycling from the harbour and heading for the train station, or to College St, you will not be able to do this. You will be forced either south down Market St or will have to bail out early and go up Marischal St. The intention is to ease up traffic flows though it will probably just shift problems elsewhere. The trial is to see if the change should become permanent.

2.Three junctions have been redesigned (two have become signalised) due to the new Tesco on Rousay Drive. The junctions are RousayDrive/Lang Stracht; Eday Rd/Stronsay Dr and Kings Gate/Stronsay Dr. None of these have had advance stop boxes installed (apart from two pre-exisiting ones on the Lang Stracht). ASLs should be a standard cycle safety measure now at signalised junctions. And a right turn restriction from Kings Gate onto Westholme Avenue has been imposed. All without any consultation with ACF.

3. Those of you that cycle the Westhill cycle path will be all too familiar with the narrow stretch, just west of the Park and Ride access. ACF requested that the large Prime 4 development which is now being built adjacent to this narrow stretch should contribute to its widening and upgrading. The path will presumably become busier once the business park is open, adding to safety concerns for users on this skinny bit of tarmac. This was a step too far for planners and no contribution was sought, meaning the path will continue to be way below standard.

4. The mess up with the Tesco junctions has reinforced our concerns about the planned junction for the new Morrisons on the Lang Stracht. This takes a chunk out of the existing on road cycle lane and adds in a left filter lane that risks drivers cutting across cyclists who are wishing to cycle straight ahead (heading west). Rather than assisting on road cyclists with an approach cycle lane to the junction, cyclists will be presented with a short stretch of cycle path interrupted by a two stage pedestrian crossing. There is so much wrong with this design that we are amazed officers can even propose it.

We are challenging all of these and we are making sure the council’s ‘cycling champion’ Cllr Ross Thomson knows all about our concerns.
If any of these will affect you, please let us know: info@aberdeencycleforum.org.uk

And let your councillors know you are concerned (find your councillors at writetothem.com)

Aberdeen City Council has a ‘Cycle Champion’

One of the points in the ACF manifesto for the local elections in May was that the council should designate one of its councillors as a ‘cycle champion’.

We are really pleased then that the new council has responded well to this idea and councillor Ross Thomson has enthusiastically taken on the role – even to the extent of being taken on a cycle tour of the city centre! We are hoping this means a higher profile for cycling within the city council and means that issues relevant to cycling in Aberdeen should get a better hearing.

Councillor Thomson has already helped set up a useful meeting to look at how to get more primary schools offering Bikeability Cycle Training – another key point in the ACF manifesto.

The council has encouraging cycling as part of its vision statement for the city and we hope that Councillor Thomson’s cycling role will help translate the vision into action.

City Centre Master Transport Plan

The new city council will soon be looking at ideas to improve the city centre.

In our view, that has to mean tackling its dominance by traffic and making it much more cycle friendly.

We are looking for your suggestions. Anything from small measures that will help now to more aspirational ideas. The more detail the better – if you have a specific suggestion, please be exact as to location. Your suggestions will help us feed ideas into any consultations so get in touch!

Getabout at the Beach

On 23 Sep 2012 for European Mobility Week, Aberdeen City Council and Getabout are closing part of the Beach Esplanade to traffic. The resulting road space will host a series of FREE EVENTS for all ages, promoting sustainable transport and air quality.

Have a shot of some weird and wonderful bikes, including clown, recumbent and hand-pedalled bikes at the Getabout Bike Roadshow (we can cater for all abilities, ages 2 to 102).

Find out more about sustainable transport in the North East in the Getabout tent and get some free goodies, maps and timetables.

Cruise along the Beach Esplanade in the amazing Blastads Pedal-Powered Taxi, get your bike checked and fixed for free by the
BeCycle Bike Doctor, and meet the hybrid electric Stagecoach bus and the latest First Bus and find out more about the new hydrogen buses coming to Aberdeen.

Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00 at the Beach Esplanade.

2012 CWSS Update

Every year Aberdeen City Council receives a “ringfenced” budget to spend on Cycling Walking and Safer Streets (CWSS)
from the Scottish Government. It’s not a huge sum of money but this budget pays for smaller items such as on-road cycle lanes, advanced stop boxes at junctions and dropped kerbs.
For the past few years ACF has worked with the council’s road engineers to help them spend it wisely, i.e. where cyclists need new facilities!
This year we are presenting the council with a list of previous suggestions that have not been acted on.

The list is here.

Not every one of these will happen (though they are our priorities) but we don’t want to stop you sending us anything else to add to the list.
Please use information listed in the FAQ/Contact page to send us any suggestions.

Deeside Way to be upgraded between Murtle and Peterculter

The Deeside Way is one of the City’s most important active travel routes.
Since the spring of 2006, increasing numbers of cyclists in the City
have benefited from the upgrade of the majority of the route to
tarmac and from the erection of a new bridge over West Cults Road.
Aberdeen City Council plans to complete the upgrade this year by
replacing the remaining dust surface between Murtle and Culter
Station with tarmac.
Between Murtle and Peterculter the surface quality is very variable and in places muddy
and not up to a standard suitable for what is now a key corridor for
active travel. The tarmac has been a great success elsewhere and
this work will enable cyclists to use the route all year round.
Works are expected to be completed during the winter. Some short
term diversions may be in force to enable works – please follow guidance signage.

Aberdeen Cycle Count 2012

The annual cycle count was completed in May of this year. The results can be found in .pdf form here.

Aberdeen City Council is to be congratulated for creating two cycle contraflows ( i.e. you can legally cycle both ways on a one way street) in response to ACF suggestions.

One is along Leslie Terrace which now opens up two way cycle flow along what is a quieter alternative to Berryden Road.

The second is Allenvale Road which connects Gt Southern Rd (opposite Duthie Park) to the Hardgate and Holburn Street.

If you try these out, we want your views. Do they help your journey? Do you feel safe on them? Could they be improved?

The council is open to constructive feedback on contraflows and hopefully we will see more rolled out in the future. Please get in contact

May 3rd is polling day in Aberdeen City, your chance to [re]elect councillors for the next 4 years. ACF together with CTC Grampian has produced it’s own election manifesto. Don’t worry we are not running for office, but we did write to the leaders of the major parties on the council and ask them to support it. We will update this page with the responses as we get them.

Across the city there are approimately 100 candidates contesting the 13 wards, we can’t contact them all, but you can! Find out who is running in your area – the leaflets will soon be dropping through your letter box – all the candidates have email addreses. Send them the manifesto and ask them to support it. By doing this you are helping keep cycling high on the local political agenda.

Don’t know who’s running, what ward you are in, or even if you are registered to vote? The links below should help.

• Ward Finder – Enter your postcode and click” Councillors” on the left – this shows your current councillors, many of who will be standing again and also your ward
• List of candidates (PDF) organised by ward
• Electoral Comission – how to register as a voter

Responses (In Order Received)

Scottish National Party
Thanks for your email. Following the discussions that I had with the forum last year I had already included the following commitment in our manifesto:

Explore options for making the city centre a more cycle friendly environment and continue investment in cycle routes across Aberdeen.

In terms of your 6 priorities I am very happy to look at all of these in detail. I have the following comments about them though.

1. Happy to do this.
2. The council’s budget is around that mark and therefore the target is affordable. Indeed I’m pretty sure that this year we will be exceeding it, if only just. If you add in the council’s 9.5% contribution towards the AWPR however you are adding several million to the total budget and I would be lying if I thought we could match the 3.5% during those years assuming it finally gets the go ahead. I do appreciate the need to invest in this area though, and I am keen to do so.
3. Happy to do this.
4. This fits in with what is already in our manifesto above.
5. I see no reason why this cannot be included in our manifesto.
6. I think we would need to look into this further, but happy to at least commit to exploring how we can achieve this.

 

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Scottish Green Party
I just wanted to advise that as Green candidates we would support all six points you have specified in your manifesto.
Trying to encourage more public transport, cycle use and walking is one of the Greens main aims.

UPDATE 22APR – To update you further on our policies following the national manifesto launch the Scottish Greens are committed to allocating 10% of the transport budget to active travel forms like cycling and walking see Section 2. Manifesto for local elections (PDF 1.6M)

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Scottish Lib Dems
I can confirm that there is now a commitment in the Lib Dem manifesto which reads:”Work with partners, including Aberdeen Cycle Forum, towards safer walking and cycling in Aberdeen.”I hope this meets your needs

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Scottish Conservatives
Nothing received Yet – Why not remind your local candidate!

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Scottish Labour
Nothing received Yet – Why not remind your local candidate!

Finally a Toucan Crossing at Kingswells!

The Kingswells-Westhill cycle route has been a big success with one significant exception, the toucan crossing that was removed from the design at Kingswells roundabout has resulted in a significant hazard for cyclists and pedestrians. ACF has long campaigned to get this omissions corrected [ read the history]. An independent safety audit commissioned in 2010 stated the blindingly obvious:

The lack of a facility to help cyclists and pedestrians cross this busy and fast road was a safety oversight

Nearly three years after the route was completed the new crossing is finally in use!