Riding through Darlington town centre this morning, I saw...

... a council van and trailer, parked in the contraflow bike lane on Northgate while power washing the pedestrian 'tunnel' to Union Street;

... a motorbike and a scooter parked in the bike racks outside Barratt's shoe shop, which must have both illegally ridden down Northgate to get there;

... a Citroen Piccasso waiting to get into the gated alleyway by Evans, which must have illegally driven down Northgate to get there;

... a Veolia bin wagon driving through the No Entry signs on Bondgate and then the wrong way down the one way street.

Update: and yesterday, Ralph's daughter saw his stolen bike

20mph limits cut speed, crashes and casualties in Portsmouth

The first city in the UK to introduce 20mph limits on almost all residential streets has seen very encouraging results published in an interim report (Surveyor 1/10/09).

In March 2008, Portsmouth completed a nine-month programme to implement signed-only 20mph speed limits on 410 of its 438km road network.

A report commissioned by the DfT has revealed that on roads where the average speed before the scheme was above 24mph, a reduction of seven mph has been achieved. This change was described in the Atkins report as ‘statistically significant’.

The report also found collisions dropped by 13% and the number of casualties by 15%.

Duncan Price, branch head of road safety at the DfT, said there was ‘general support’ for a ‘substantial expansion of 20mph areas’.

Simon Moon, Portsmouth’s head of transport and street managements, said: “This interim report is limited in what it can say about the 20mph scheme – we’ll have to wait until it has been running for three years before we get the full picture.

“But there are some encouraging signs, especially on roads where speeds were significantly higher than 20mph when we imposed the new limit.”

Darlington Cycling Campaign has been calling for a similar scheme to be introduced in the town at our AGM in February 2007.

Who, where and what is the real danger for pedestrians in Darlo?

If you would like to get a flavour of our town's view about tolerance towards young people, and the strange sense of perspective that underpins "risk assessment" thinking around cycling in Darlington, read the report of "The Economy and Environment Scrutiny Committee“ on the 10th of September 2009 about cycling in the town centre, monitoring accidents and incidents and behaviour involving cyclists during the summer of 2009:

„There have been six incidents involving pedestrians either on the ring road or in the town centre.” Now you are waiting for a report about rowdies on bikes injuring innocent pedestrians:

„One incident was with a HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle), two with a car and three with buses. Two of the casualties were classed as serious.”

So we know now that there were at least two serious accidents in the summer 2009 involving motorised traffic injuring pedestrians. But then the report continues with its real subject, i.e. reported incidents with bicycles:

„During the period 1^st June to 31^st July there were two emails recorded regarding people on bikes in the town centre. One comment gave information about a report from a member of the public regarding youths sitting on bikes blocking the pavement on Tubwell Row near the Nags Head pub. The second email was regarding young people doing ‘wheelies’ on High Row. A phone call was also recorded regarding an incident that had occurred in Northgate Subway when a cyclist, carrying a stick, almost hit someone. Nobody was hurt in the incident and the caller did not leave contact details or a time and date for the incident.”

So there we have it. A few lads sitting on a wide pavement with their bikes requires the attentions of a council committee. Six accidents with cars and HGVs, two classed as serious? Well, that's the natural way of things, is it not? Clearly, however, wasting council time is not enough. More must be done to stamp out this appalling behaviour (by youths on bikes, not accident-causing motorists).

Luckily there is a Code of Conduct for Cyclists in Darlington printed on glossy paper: "The Neighbourhood Policing Team“, says the committee's report, „have taken a supply of the Code of Coduct leaflet to give out in schools. The leaflet will be used as part of a schools education programme to teach children about responsible cycling.”

Perhaps most pupils would rather see a Code of Conduct for Darlingtonian Car Drivers that reminds them of their responsibility (and the Highway Code) and is handed out to any driver parking around the town centre with the parking ticket.

Cycling Campaign Wins Bike Hub Funding

Darlington Cycling Campaign has been awarded one of just three New Ideas Fund to build on the work of the Beauty and the Bike project. The Campaign's submission is for a bike pool of the kind of dutch-style bikes that are proving so popular amongst young women who want to cycle. With funding for between 60 and 100 bikes, and support staff to promote the bike pool in workplaces, colleges and schools, the aim is to kick-start a cycling culture in the town that is more attractive to women in particular.

The documentary Beauty and the Bike, which will be premiered in Darlington Arts Centre on Wednesday 9th December, found that peer group culture is an important barrier to young women cycling. But where small groups got together to start using stylish bikes, the barriers began to crumble.

The Campaign also hopes that a growing culture of gentle cycling in the town will lead to better quality infrastructure. As one of the Beauty and the Bike girls said, "We're getting the lovely bikes, we've got the lovely girls to ride them. Now we are looking forward to the lovely cycle paths".

See also: BikeBiz: Bike industry grants cash to three 'increase cycling' schemes

Beauty and the Bike - Our Changing Face

Darlington Cycling Campaign organised a farewell party on Thursday for the many participants of the Beauty and the Bike project. It marked the end of one year of filming the remarkable story of these young women by Darlington Media Group, who hosted the event. Girls from cycling-friendly Bremen in Germany had just spent a week in Darlington exploring what it is like to cycle in a typical British town.


Editing now begins in earnest, whilst photographer Phil Dixon will be continuing to document the Darlington girls for a few more weeks. He and German portrait photographer Sabine Bungert are working towards a book about the project, which will also feature an essay by cycling activist and Cycling Campaign member Beatrix Wupperman.

The project began a year ago with just one regular cyclist amongst these teenagers. Now there are 13 bikes out on long-term loan, and a waiting list of 7 more. Plans are now afoot to formally constitute the scheme.

The film, which will be premiered in December, explores why so many British teenage girls give up cycling - and what needs to be done to reverse the trend. Perhaps these photographs are a clue. They are all regular cyclists, and most are now members of our Campaign.

Another incident at the Dolphin Centre bike racks

After at least two, but possibly more, bikes were stolen from the racks outside the Dolphin Centre recently, the racks have been modified to make them more secure. However, there now looks to be a new method being used:

Left it outside the dolphin centre at 8 this evening, locked on rack. Went out to ride it home at 9 and some helpful person had attached a massive padlock to one of the spokes so that I couldn't ride it home. Managed to wheel it into the dolphin centre where the duty manager attempted to remove the padlock. Unfortunately he was unable to so the bike is spending the night at the doli pending use of some serious bolt cutting equipment in the morning.

This sounds similar to a strategy I've heard is used by thieves in several places. They will use their own lock to lock a bike to a rack, sometimes with "their own" bike also attached. When the owner comes back, they assume that someone has accidentally locked their bike up, and will get home by some other means, thinking they will be able to retrieve the bike the following day. The thief them comes back in the night, and cuts the owner's lock while nobody is around.

If this happens to your bike, make sure you report it, and do as much as you can to keep your bike safe and secure. In this instance, as there was just a padlock attached to a wheel, the bike could be moved to safety.

We will be pushing for extra CCTV coverage on these racks.

Darlington: stolen bike (updated)

A silver Carrera Vulcan (black wheels, skinny Conti sports contact tyres, Flite TT saddle & big red flat pedals, LX cranks, XT mech, Avid Vs) was nicked from outside the Dolphin centre yesterday evening - all locked up through both wheels & the frame.

(Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_mc/3651479680/)

Update: As a result of this theft, we noticed that it was possible to pull the vertical posts apart and so remove a horizontal bar and unthread any locks on that bar. The council have repaired the racks, and have welded the bars in place.

Extra: A teenager is appealing for help to find his bike, which was nicked from outside Darlington College a few weeks ago.