Cyclescape: helping campaigners campaign

Martin Lucas-Smith / Simon Nuttall

www.cyclestreets.net twitter: @cyclestreets

Cycling offers many solutions to transport problems – efficient, cheap, healthy, no CO2.

UK (2% rate) vs Netherlands (30%)

Barriers

to more

cycling

all around

the UK

No cycle parking!

Cycle paths with obstructions

A long way from

Dutch quality

provision...

Every town / city has many hundreds

of problems that need to be tackled

Politics of the situation

Streets often not cycle-friendly

Need to reduce traffic, speeds

Not much money to fix

Problems very widespread

These problems stop people cycling

Councils need pressure to fix

So how does change happen?

Cycle campaign groups

Provide the political pressure for change

Groups all around the country

Local groups Cambridge Cycling Campaign, Edinburgh Spokes, Cyclox, etc.

Groups in each London borough (LCC)

Cyclists' Touring Club groups

How do we operate?

Many on-street issues vs few campaigners

Antagonistic relationship with councils?

Sometimes we’re seen as “Whingers”

More developed groups work in partnership

Campaigners poorly resourced

Richmond CC:

“In the modern world, it is difficult for people to give up time, to attend meetings or to arrange audits of cycle facilities and poor road infrastructure that they pass on a daily basis.

Equally, it is difficult and time consuming for campaigners to develop and maintain an 'issues list' and then covert it into a format that engages councils and other relevant stakeholders.”

Campaigners poorly resourced

Volunteers - don't have much time

Don't understand how gvt/council works

Poor access to best practice examples

Consultations missed

Hard to keep on top of everything

Get distracted by new incoming issues

Hard to get new people involved

Cycle campaign group toolkit

Cycle campaign group toolkit

CycleStreets was awarded £27,000 by GeoVation to develop a wide-ranging web-based toolkit for campaign groups.

GeoVation is an Ordnance Survey initiative and is part of Ideas in Transit project with funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Transport.

Resourcing → effective groups

1. Easily pinpoint where cycling is difficult

2. Show planning applications & data

3. Prioritise: which to work on

4. Discuss easily – (forum/email)

• But these are not always very targetted

5. Pull in best practice

6. Include Councils in these discussions?

7. Assemble 'solution' resources

→ Hand groups stuff on a plate

Issues on the map

Handing groups stuff on a plate

Example: Kingston Street – who cycles through here? – they want a say

The toolkit is

not ‘Just another forum’

Much more targeted to real cycle campaigning

Tries to solve the problems our community deals with

1. Who sees what issue

People register on the site. They then say:

1. What kinds of issues they’re interested in

• E.g. Cycle parking, 20 mph zones

2. What parts of the city they want to know about

• Draw a box on the map

3. Where they cycle

• Show a route plan

With this information, we can:

automatically assign issues on the map

to

the people interested in them

2. Discussing an issue

• StreetView location automatically shown

• Normal text replies (like a forum)

• Add picture

• Documents

• Reference article/tweet

• Council meeting reference

2. Discussing an issue

• Best practice example – pull in

• (next slide)

• Nearby issue (e.g. S106 planning gain)

• Policy statement

• Deadline

• Poll

• Petition

3. Resources & best practice

examples

• System automatically suggests them

• Idea is that people don’t have to ‘search out’ – handed on a plate

• Examples:

• One-way-streets / contraflow finds the key guidance & key quotes

• Cycle parking suggests Design sketches

• Cycle lane widths shows key guidance & places where done well

4. Web-based vs e-mail

• People can use either/both:

• Discussions on the website

• Get replies by e-mail

Removing the hassle of campaigning

1. Person has added ‘No cycle parking here’ on Station Street (on the map)

2. Planning application has appeared nearby

3. People who cycle through Station Street or care about cycle parking issues automatically see it when they log in

4. Discuss it (on website or via e-mail)

5. Best practice automatically brought in (avoids researching), e.g. Council standards, drawings

6. Can assemble campaign (letter etc.) around that

Recipe for getting something done

Resourcing → effective groups

Outcome:

Help convert “whinging” to solid arguments

Constructive, achievable solutions

Prioritise: we can't do everything this year

To show easily how there are lots of problems all around a city

To get new people involved easily

To save campaigners time – only see what they’re interested in

Support for our bid

Cyclenation: “This will be a valuable tool, helping local campaigners focus on barriers to cycling and ultimately generating extra cycling trips.”

London Cycling Campaign: “Fulfil the long-standing need for more effective ways of collecting, prioritising and managing the massive number of problem spots in London where cycling needs to be improved.”

Group-specific

Each group can have their own toolkit

Groups can add their own branding

Can share discussions if wanted

Can choose whether to make discussions public or keep private

Example useful features

User registers, then shows where they cycle and the issues they’re interested in

Tagging themes to auto-match best practice

Push summaries out, various formats

Forum view / e-mail-web gateway

Deadline management

Integration of various geographical data

e.g. collision data – provides context

www.CycleStreets.net Twitter: @cyclestreets info@cyclestreets.net

David Earl