Wide Area 20 mph Limits Encourage Cycling and Walking

From the 20’s Plenty Campaign

Slowing speed limits from 30 mph to 20 mph contributes to increasing the attractiveness of cycling and walking relative to other options. 20 mph increases physical activity and reduces traffic.

With the exceptions of road closures and congestion charging, it is hard to prove that any single traffic intervention results in raising active travel. A choice to walk or cycle is complex, involving factors like distance, route knowledge, safe routes, weather, topography and cycle parking. Yet, it is well researched that traffic speeds are a major barrier to choosing to walk or cycle. Perception of risk is strongly involved in the “how shall I get there?” decision.

Volumes and speeds of traffic are inversely correlated to walking and cycling levels – when one side of the equation rises, the other falls. Interventions that reduce traffic speed and volume are likely to promote walking and cycling and thus result in public health gains.[i] This is compounded by critical mass effects. Where there are more cyclists or walkers, safety increases due to its visibility and popularity, making drivers more conscious of vulnerable road users.

The key prerequisite for sustainable travel is creating the conditions in which walking and cycling are more attractive than car use. Reviews have found methods that pull people toward active travel include increasing the percentage of the local road network where speeds are limited e.g. to 20 mph (30 km/h)[ii] Unsurprisingly, in Europe 30km/h speed limits are the foundation of cycling and walking policies in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

In Portsmouth, which implemented 20 mph limits on 94% of its roads in 2008, “over 40% of respondents stated that since the introduction of the scheme, there has been a safer environment for walking and cycling; and as a result, around a third of respondents felt that there had been an increase in pedestrian and cyclist activities in the local areas.”[iii]

Health professionals see lower traffic speeds as a foundation for increasing “active travel” leading to a healthier nation. The Association of Directors of Public Health with the National Heart Forum have developed a “position statement” on the benefits of 20mph as the default limit for residential and urban areas.[iv]

It is time to give people a real choice in how they travel by removing the fear of fast traffic from community streets. The authorities of over 6 million people have committed to do so.

More information at www.20splentyforus.org.uk
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[i] Jacobsen,PL; Racioppi,F; Rutter,H (2009) Who owns the roads? How motorised traffic discourages walking and bicycling, Injury Prevention, v15, pp369-373.
[ii] Oja,P; Vuori,I (2000) PROMOTION OF TRANSPORT WALKING AND CYCLING IN EUROPE: Strategy Directions, The European Network for Promotion of Health-Enhancing Physical Activity. http://www.panh.ch/hepaeurope/materials/HEPA%20Walking%20and%20Cycling%20Strategy%20.pdf
[iii] http://www2.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/speedmanagement/20mphPortsmouth/
[iv] http://www.adph.org.uk/files/ourwork/policies/NHF_PositionStatement20mph_2010.pdf

Another Vodafone Mast !

Well I guess it had to come sooner or later. Those nice people at Vodafone are planning another attempt at installing a mast in Tilehurst. I have been alerted to this latest attempt by a local resident who has received a letter from Vodafone. They are planning an 11 metre high (that is 36 foot in imperial measurements) mast at the bottom of Dark Lane, opposite number 8 and are inviting residents to comment before they finalise their planning application. The proposed site is actually over the border in Birch Copse Ward in West Berkshire but very close to my ward of Tilehurst.

They do not seem to realise that local residents do not appreciate telephone masts close up to their houses.

I think I may be about to make myself popular again with Vodafone.

Update on Tilehurst Car Park Charges

Well, a delegation of traders from Tilehurst along with myself and other local councillors presented their petition this evening to the Council’s Cabinet. When you realise that there were 2,200 signatures on the petition which were collected in just two weeks, you will understand the depth of feeling over the proposed new car park charges in Tilehurst. Roger Kent, who owns a shop in Norcot Road, presented the petition and explained the depth of feeling amongst local traders against the withdrawal of the first hour free car parking, and the likely effect on their trade.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Jo Lovelock, responded and offered to retain 30 minutes free parking and to look at ways of refunding shoppers car park charges if they bought a certain amount of goods.

None of us were at all happy with the Council’s new proposal and will be taking up the Council’s offer to discuss the car park charges with Cllr Page, the Lead Councillor for Transport (when he returns from holiday).

In the meantime, the council has agreed to hold back on the new charges until this discussion has taken place.

My advice to the shopkeepers is to hold firm and explain to Cllr Page that doing away with one hour’s free parking is no way to support local shopping centres. We are very proud of our local shops in Tilehurst, and especially of the fact that almost all of them are real independent local traders, not branches of big chains. I will certainly do my best to support them and with 2,200 Tilehurst residents also supporting them I think we have a very good case to put forward.

Well done to the Tilehurst traders for organising the petition.

Today was a victory for local shops in Tilehurst but the campaign is far from over yet.

Cyclists need lights at night

Whilst the above headline is obvious to most people there are an awful lot of cyclists who ignore the need to make themselves visible at night. It is amazingly common to see cyclists on our roads at night riding around with no lights.

Coming home last night I came across the scene of an accident in Hildens Drive by the junction with Berkshire Drive. A young cyclist with no lights had been struck by a car. I have no idea who was to blame for the accident but one thing I do know is that cycling at night without lights is just plain stupid.

We need an education programme to point out the obvious to the lunatics who cycle at night with no lights.

Update on Car Park Charges

We now have a large number of signatures on a petition which has been set up by some of the shopkeepers in Tilehurst who stand to lose a lot of their trade if the free first hour of parking is withdrawn.

The petition will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet by some of the traders. In the absence of Lead Councillor Tony Page (on holiday) the Leader of the Council Jo Lovelock will reply to the petition.  The Cabinet meeting is on Wednesday evening from 5:30 in the Civic Centre. It is open to the public.

Council to end free car parking in Tilehurst

Reading’s Labour Council  are putting up charges for car parks in Tilehurst. Not a huge issue you might think, but they are also going to end the current first hour’s free parking which allows shoppers to park in Tilehurst, behind the Co-Op or in Dunstall Close, do their shopping and avoid paying anything for the car park. It has been a great boon for shopkeepers in Tilehurst to have this first hour free for their customers whilst preventing other motorists from filling up the car park and jumping on a bus into town as used to happen, leaving no space for shoppers.

We really thought we had won a major battle two years ago when we got the council to agree to the first hour being free and this is a real blow to Tilehurst traders. Needless to say I have taken this up with the council and am awaiting a reply.

I will keep you informed.

Meantime the shopkeepers and Tilehurst Globe have a petition on the matter which you can sign in any of the shops in School Road.

See previous posts at  http://rickyduveen.mycouncillor.org.uk/?p=62 and http://rickyduveen.mycouncillor.org.uk/?p=142

Civilians cannot use speed guns

Just sometimes I do feel totally let down by the police and tonight was one such time. I arrived late at the Tilehurst NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group) at the tail end of a discussion on using speed guns. It turns out that ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) have ruled that no civilians should be allowed to use mobile speed guns. It means that not only can residents not use speed guns themselves, but neither can local PCSOs. Apparently we need to wait for the already hard-pressed police officers to find time to spend an hour or two tracking speeding motorists. As if they have not got enough other things to do.

As a community we have been trying to help the police tackle what is one of Tilehurst’s three main issues, that of speeding cars (for reference the others are vandalism and rowdy youths). I think ACPO are afraid of ‘civilians’ using speed guns and being involved in an accident but they would all need to be trained up first anyway. I just think that occasionally the police need help to perform their duties and they should be glad that the community actually wants to work with them.

So for the moment we cannot push ahead with our intended use of the speed guns. We had planned actions in various roads in Tilehurst where speeding motorists would have been tracked and then written to by our local police inspector pointing out that they had been caught speeding and the dangers they were causing to residents.

Mow it seems we will need to tyake this battle forward to Westminster and see if we cannot get more sense from ministers on the use of speed guns.

Road re-surfacing in Tilehurst

The good news is that after lobbying from the Tilehurst councillors, Park Lane is to be re-surfaced between City Road and Mayfair. It is included in the list of roads being repaired this summer by the council.

Also included is Tilehurst Road (from Liebenrood Road to Honey End Lane).

Both these roads are in a shoddy condition and it is good to see the council spending some of the extra money (£400k) given by the Coalition Government for road repairs following two severe winters.

Good News for 20mph Campaigners

I was heartened by the announcement on 9 June by Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Transport Minister, that he was removing a lot of red tape that was holding the implementation of 20mph zones in residential areas. Councils no longer need to wait for Whitehall’s authorisation before implementing 20mph zones and many of the requirements for specific signs and other traffic calming measures have been removed.

This could be very good news for people living along residential roads who seem to have lost control of their streets to the omnipotent cars that speed along frightening young children, old folks and any other pedestrians or cyclists who thought that they had an equal right to use the road.

I believe that 20 mph should be the norm along residential streets and will go some way to allowing non-car users to feel safer in their own neighbourhoods.

I have a question on 20mph zones down for the next Council meeting and I very much hope that the Labour Administration will move ahead with 20mph zones in Reading.

The full announcement is at:

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=202&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=419854&SubjectId=36

Tilehurst Car Parks

It seems that residents still do not appreciate that much of the parking in Tilehurst car parks is actually free of charge.  The charges in Recreation Road and Dunstall Close car parks only apply after the first hour and only between 10:00 and 15:00 Monday to Saturday. To park for free during these peak hours just take a ticket and display in your car window and you will have a hour’s free parking.

The problem is that NCP who run the car park on behalf of the council, do not advertise the fact that the first hour is free or that they only charge between 10:00 and 15:00. After all, what’s in it for them to advertise free parking. However the lack of advertising puts people off using these car parks as people assume that they are going to have to pay and then start looking around for free spaces on the roads behind the shops in Tilehurst.