CycleSheffield has been invited to take part in final stages of the ‘Look North’ Tour de France tandem ride which is going on all this week with presenters Harry Gration and Amy Garcia cycling the very tough first two stages of the TdF.

http://www.justgiving.com/tandemtour

So please come along and ride with Harry and Amy as they roll into Sheffield. Two opportunities:

Meetup 12:30 on Penistone Road outside Hillsborough Football Ground to ride out and meet them coming in from Grenoside, then follow the route to Meadowhall, arriving there around 3pm,

Meet again at 5:30 at Meadowhall (location tba) for the final short ride to the English Institute for Sport

This is a great opportunity for Sheffield cyclists to be seen and we’ll probably have a chance to talk about how we are working to develop cycling in the city so it feels important to get a good turnout.

If you want to come let me know which section/s by email to chris@chrisrust.net
include your mobile No and I’ll try to set up a text notification system for the day

but it’s important to be checking your email for progress or know somebody who is, especially where to meet at Meadowhall. We may not know that until after 4pm.

Please make the effort, a decent sized gang of us will make a real difference.

thanks
Chris Rust

http://www.justgiving.com/tandemtour

Nourish on Pinstone St opposite the  Peace Gdns uses a bike for deliveries.

It also now offers a 10% discount to CycleSheffield members on production of yr CycleSheffield card

I enjoyed the burrito!

Thanks to the team at Nourish.

And there are bike stands outside.

Jonathan Powell, British Cycling, came to the CycleSheffield meeting in March to talk about the plans for Sky Rides in Sheffield in 2014.
He has kindly sent us his notes for the meeting and they are below along with the PPT he used.
Some CycleSheffield members have signed up to work as Sky Ride Leaders

Schedule overview

Start Date: June 15th

End date: November 30th

3 rides a weekend until August the 31st

2 rides a weekend through September and October

1 ride a weekend starting October 26th and continuing through to the end of November

No Rides 6th of July for Tour de France and a Sunday for the Sky Ride City Event. This will be on 10 Aug 2014, a route has been agreed.

Sheffield iconic/stand alone routes

1. Philadelphia to New York

2. Full Monty ride – visiting filming locations from the movie. (Mick Nott providing details)

3. Norfolk Park Easy (Sheffield College – S2 2RL/Goals Soccer Centre – S2 2RU)

4. Tour de France Route

5. Iconic 5 – any ideas on this one? What could be a route that would be iconic of Sheffield?

Hubs (places to meet to start and stop rides) and indicative rides

1. Concord Park – S5 6AE

1. Easy around Concord park

2. Steady 5 Weirs ride

2. Meadowhall – S9 1EP

1. Easy Ride – Meadowhall shopping trip to New York

2. Steady route – Meadowhall to Coisley Hill

3. Forge Valley Sports Centre – Stannington – S6 5HG

1. Easy route – Around the 1km circuit

2. Steady 8+ (old Well) route – using part of the TDF route through High Bradfield.

4. Westfield Leisure Centre – S20 1HQ

1. Steady to Rother Valley

2. Steady 8+/Challenge route

5. Forge Dam – Fulwood – S10 3TE

1. Steady to Redmires reservoir/Stanage Pole

2. Challenge route

Back up hubs if required

6. Niagara Conference & Leisure – S6 1LU

7. Springs Leisure Centre – Heeley – S2 2AL

8. EIS – S9 5DA

9. Hillsborough Leisure Centre – S6 2AN

Routes by Level

Easy

1. Forge Valley Circuit

2. Norfolk Park

3. Meadowhall to New York

4. Concord Park

Steady

5. Forge Dam to Redmires reservoir

6. Westfield to Rother Valley

7. Concord 5 Weirs ride

Steady 8+

8. Forge Valley TDF to Bradfield

9. Philadelphia to New York

10. Meadowhall steady to Coisley Hill

11. Steady 8+ from Westfield

Challenge

12. Forge Valley longer TDF route

13. Full Monty ride

14. Forge Dam Challenge

15. Iconic 5

The tram tracks are being replaced. The document below is from SYPTE.
Cyclists, especially cyclists visiting or new to Sheffield, are coming off in the tram tracks and injuring themselves.
We understand that as the law stands if a cyclist comes off on the tram tracks then the company is not liable.
But that is only if the tracks are laid correctly (ie not proud of the surface).
The operator, not the Council, was found liable in Roe v Sheffield City Council and others
The rails being proud of the surface were deemed to allow Mr Roe’s car to skid and the tram operators were deemed liable for his (severe) injuries.
I think this case has gone through appeal and the judgement stands.
CycleSheffield understands that SYPTE own the track and South Yorkshire Supertram Ltd, the operating company, is owned by Stagecoach Supertram.
It is not in SYPTE’s interests to challenge Stagecoach Supertram about the carriage of bicycles on the trams or light rail.

Cycling over or along tramtracks needs care and probably explicit training about angles at which to approach them, how much to lean, when to brake, wet or dry? etc
CycleSheffield think that more could be done to make the tracks safer for cyclists – eg warning signs about the presence of tracks, rubber inserts at crossing points with roads etc.
The Council is to remove the red paint that is between the tracks and the footways especially near tram stops as some cyclists are liable to think they indicate a cycle lane.
Neither SYPTE nor Stagecoach Supertram make any attempt to gauge the number or severity of incidents involving cycles (but neither do SYP or the NGH’s A&E).
The Council receive a steady trickle of letters of complaint or inquiries to sue.
None of these problems were anticipated when the tram tracks were laid in the early 90s but came to light more or less straightaway.

A colleagues from Leeds Cycle Campaign went along to a meeting about the possible installation of a cycle path alongside the HS2 line.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has commissioned a Feasibility Study into potential demand for cycling in communities along a route that broadly follows the HS2 corridor. The study will examine how we might create a new national cycleway, by linking or upgrading existing cycle infrastructure or rights of way from London to Birmingham and then onto Sheffield and Leeds, Stafford, Stoke and Manchester.

The Feasibility Study is being carried out by Royal Haskoning DVH (a Dutch consultancy) in conjunction with Phil Jones and John Grimshaw (the founder of Sustrans), both of whom were at the meeting.

The primary objective of a linear cycleway would be to provide a national exemplar of modern and international cycling infrastructure fit for 8 to 80 year olds and bringing benefits to local communities along the route to serve both leisure and utility cyclists and walkers by providing safe, convenient, attractive and continuous links to local stations, urban centres, countryside and tourist attractions typically, but not exclusively, within 3 miles either side of the HS2 route.

The primary purpose of the meeting, which was attended mainly by highways and planning officers from the local authorities on the route through Yorkshire, was for the study team to get a very quick introduction to the existing routes, the problems on those routes, and other desirable routes, some of which would need major infrastructure (such as bridges over motorways) to enable them. We also discussed how such a project should be funded and managed.

The consultants will produce a design guide (which could be a very useful reference for other cycling infrastructure projects), and will report back to the DfT in the autumn. It then “only” needs the DfT to provide the funding, and agreement on a body to manage its construction (and possibly maintenance). It’s hoped the cycleway could be built over a period of ten years – i.e. it could be on the ground long before the HS2 railway!

Full Briefing note below

Reps from CycleSheffield will be presenting the itemm below to the next bi-monthly CycleForum

These items may receive some discussion and/or be passed on to the best people to deal with it in SCC or elsewhere

We post these to all on the CycleForum list about a week before the meeting – and already a Police Inspector has got back to us to say he would like to come and talk to the Forum about the parking of football coaches on the Sheaf Valley Cycle Route at Asline Rd.

We report back on the responses at our monthly meeting (next one Mon Apr 7) and start to build up our agenda for the next CycleForum (Tue May 20) which will be finalsied at our May meeting (Mon May 12)

CycleSheffield Matters for CycleForum Tue 18 Mar 2014

1. CycleSheffield would like SCC to note:

1. our response to the DfT consultation on parking;

2. our appreciation of Greg Challis from the SCC AQAP team coming to the meeting to discuss the Smarter Travel Choices aspect of AQAP 2015;

3. our recent meeting and discussion with the SCC Cycle Champion, David Caulfield to discuss cycling issues;

4. the Cycle Expo meeting in Leeds May 1 & 2 2014  – CycleSheffield is sending a delegate and we would appreciate SCC sending one too;

5. our thanks for a successful initiation of the sub-committee to look at making highway schemes better for cycling;

6. our thanks for works being done to make small improvements within the Streets Ahead opportunities programme, eg dropped kerbs on Duchess Rd at one end of SVCR and the excellent work being done on Upper Hanover Way.

2. Cycle Audits It is now one year since the Cycle Forum meeting in March 2013 where we were led to believe that cycle audits would start.  We understand that some cycle audits have started wrt Streets Ahead opportunities but we do not believe it is the case that is part of the general practice in SCC for highway design or improvements.

1. It could be argued that the Cycle Forum’s sub-committee is a part of this process.  We think this sub-committee is important but we believe that cycle audits (and walking audits) should be part of the design ‘flow-chart’ – an institutionalised part of the process.

2. When are cycle audits to be incorporated into the planning and design process as a matter of course?

3. Has a programme of professional development and training on designing for cycling been established for staff?

4. Is there a reason for why, one year on, that it feels like very little has been done?

3. SYP and Cycling CycleSheffield met with the Police Commissioner last year to discuss SYP’s response and policies wrt cycling and treatment of cyclists and cycling facilities.  We have had cordial discussions with officers but we do not feel we have got any real engagement.  In some events we feel we have not got anywhere and never will get anywhere.

1. The evidence collected for the Inquiry into Cycling showed that one of the main reasons that people do not feel able to choose to cycle is because of the behaviour of other road users either when travelling or when they abuse cycling facilities.  Lack of enforcement means that this poor behaviour on the road will continue and deny people the right to cycle.

2. SYP continue to park football coaches on the Sheaf Valley Cycle Route at Asline Rd and do not seem to be able to locate or be willing to locate alternative locations. This parking blocks the path for every SUFC home game with neither SYP or SCC defining a suitable alternative for cyclists.  This parking creates the impression that it is OK to park on this cycle track.

3. SYP admit that policing road safety or traffic enforcement is a low priority yet we have at least one yellow box that regularly fills up with traffic blocking a cycle lane across the junction.(Behaviour that SY LAs, and agreed by SYP, noted as common in their submission to DfT on Section 6 of the Traffic Management Act)

4. SYP will not take action with vehicles parked in cycle tracks as they deem it a parking offence, we deem it obstruction of a cycle track. (See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/21). SYP officers are still parking their vans in the cycle lane on Castle St whilst attending Snig Hill police station.  We believe that these obstructions are hazardous to cyclists and threatens their safety.  SYP will not do anything about this parking on Castle St.  They claim parking coaches on Asline Rd cycle path is for the public safety.  This is obviously a complicated area as SCC have officers who enforce parking regs.  There is a SYP Safer Neighbourhood Team, does SYP talk to SCC about these matters under this umbrella or the Road Safety Partnership that exists between them?

5. We recognise that SYP officers have treated threatening behaviour towards cyclists on the road with seriousness but we also recognise that officers haven’t done this and in fact cyclists have been harrassed when trying to make statements.  We believe that there is little training for officers in dealing with incidents where cyclists have been put at risk and no consistent policy or practice with abuse of cycling facilities or incidents likely to put cyclists at risk.

6. SYP would like cyclists to report incidents and to attend Safer Neighbourhood Team Consultations which may be done through Ward meetings.  However we do not believe that this will satisfactorily address the issues above when an advocacy/campaign group is addressing city-wide issues that may affect the whole of SYP and certainly its Sheffield District.  We would value SYP attending the May or July CycleForum to discuss:

7. the priority given to the enforcement of road safety and poor road behaviour;

8. the parking of football coaches and police vans;

9. the guidance or training officers receive to deal with incidents where cyclists are put at risk.

6. Taxis The hope was that when Castlegate market was closed that the number of taxis at the taxi rank would reduce and taxis would no longer park in the contraflow cycle lane.  We can report that this is not the case.  Taxis still park in this lane.

1. We want Parking Services to increase their monitoring & enforcement  and POs to warn taxis of obstruction of a cycle track

2. We want the licensing committee to treat this offence (or multiple offences by taxi drivers) more seriously and consider and change the current disciplinary policy.

3. Our colleagues in Leeds are taking part in a LCC consultation about the ‘fit and proper persons’ criteria for taxi drivers in Leeds with a view to granting 3 yr licences.

4. Are people with criminal convictions allowed to be taxi drivers in Sheffield?  

5. Are there Sheffield taxi drivers who have convictions for criminal motoring offences?

7. Castle St The design of Castle St with the contraflow cycle lane and the bus stops means that buses have to cross the solid white line on the mandatory contraflow cycle lane to pass stationary buses.  We need help here with interpretation.  We think this is hazardous and not legal unless the TRO says it is.  The TRO as far as we can see does not say that crossing the solid white line is permissible.  The Highway Code Advice is: 140 Cycle lanes. These are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation. Do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable. You MUST NOT park in any cycle lane whilst waiting restrictions apply. Law RTRA sects 5 & 8

1. We want Sheffield Bus Partnership to discuss this matter at the earliest opportunity, something is very wrong here and the city inner ring cycle route is compromised.

8  Five Weir Ways and Towpath

1. Last CycleForum (Jan 2014) we raised out concerns about the construction of the Bus Rapid Transit Northern Route that went to Cabinet on Wed 20/11/13.

2. The 5WW from Weedon St to Meadowhall South tram stop has been closed and is being dug up and used as the route for the district heating pipes.  (We hope that whilst this disruption is concurrent for the BRTNR construction on Meadowhall Way).

3. The Meadowhall to Rotheham towpath is now closed at Tinsley – for NINE months – for construction of the BRTNR onto Sheffield Rd.  Access is not available again until Bessemer Way leading to Brinsworth Lock (at which point you may as well carry on Sheffield Rd to R’ham).  No alternatives (‘safe’ or otherwise) have been provided for cyclists.  Members who use these routes are appalled thatno warning appears to be given or that no altreantives seem to be have been considered by EoN, SCC or RMBC.

4. This follows the fiasco of the recent disruptions to National Cycle Network Route 6, where no warning was given and no diversions have been posted (other than by volunteer rangers) We request that the following measures should be put in place.

5. Sustrans to be notified of all works on NCN routes at least one month before they begin.

6. Diversions to be agreed by Rangers and posted.

7. Where there is space (as on Meadowhall Way) an alternate walking and cycling route to be marked out by temporary barriers, so that the option of a traffic-free route is preserved.

9 Glossop Rd & Clarkehouse Rd cycle lanes.

1. We understand the position re Clarkehouse Rd, where it is difficult to prosecute people who sit in their cars and drive off when parking enforcement officers approach,

2. But we ask SCC to note that people are getting away with parking outside the shops on Glossop Rd at Urban Clearway times.   (We note that Parking Services had a recent enforcement campaign on Carlisle St outside Tesco.  Sometimes these issues are resolved not as a matter of road design but of enforcement)

The bollards that were plonked in the bike route have gone – not sure whether that’s because of a specific complaint or the ridicule we have plastered all over them for the past 15 years or so. Good news anyway.

The Sheffield to Chesterfield Railway Line is closed due to a landslip, which means Dronfield has no train service. Here’s an alternative cycle route.

Link to Map

This route helps you get out of town on quieter roads. In the opposite direction (Chesterfield – Sheffield) you may wish to take advantage of the long downhills and stay on busier roads. 

From Sheffield Station cross Sheaf St at the main crossing (near the ticket office) mount the pavement on the opposite side of the road and turn left. Follow the shared use to the crossing of Howard St, then mount the road on your right  (Paternoster Row) turn left at Matilda St then r. Shoreham St (off-road contra-flow) .  Cross the Ring Road and continue straight for a mile or so, with Sheffield United football ground on your right.

As you approach the traffic lights at the junction with Bramall Lane, there’s a cycle right turn lane which takes you up on to some red pavement, Cross at the toucan crossing and follow the cycle lane past James’s cycle shop, and onto Asline Rd. (This section can be blocked by football coaches if there’s a match on – CycleSheffield has taken this up with the police and council.)  At the bottom, cross at the toucan and go up up Glover Rd  – turn left for Saxon Rd, along the cycle track past Virgin Gym, then left on Little London Road. taking the cycle track on the right up to Heeley Retail Park (route currently blocked by Costa Coffee – we’re working on this) use the main exit from the retail park, straight across Chesterfield Rd and up Beeton Rd and enter Meersbrook Park. Technically you should walk up through the park to Bishops House, straight up Thorpe House Rd  right on Lees Hall Rd (nice switchback) r. on Mount View Rd, left on Warminster Rd to the top, left then first r. to Bunting Nook, emerging onto Norton Lane which is a bit busy.

Turn r. to Norton Park View, (there is a cycle route signposted on Norton Park View but this takes you to Norton College and in our view involves a dangerous tight turn on Norton Park Rd ) go through the bike gate at the end and left on Little Norton Lane. r. on Little Norton Lane to the toucan crossing at Meadowhead, which at the time of writing is being re-modelled. Use the off-road alongside the A61 as far as Sheffield Park Hotel and we recommend you stay on the pavement to the crossing at Batemoor Rd. Here the best thing to do is operate the lights, wait for the traffic to stop and then head hell for leather down to the next roundabout where there is an off-road avoiding route. (take care crossing the busy roads. )

Continue down Sheffield Road which is busy down to Dronfield but gets quieter. Stay on this road all the way down to Sheepbridge, passing Dronfield station. At Dronfield you can use Mill Lane, which takes you past Vernon Barker Cycles, and is an interesting detour with a nature park, but if you’re in a hurry stay on the main road. When you see the Dronfield bypass bridge ahead turn left to stay on Sheffield Rd, the B6057. The roundabout at Brimington (JE James cycle shop) has cycle tracks in the subway – head for Station Rd which becomes Sheffield Rd. You can now use the new cycle route from here alongside the A61 (haven’t tried this yet) coming back onto the road at Chesterfield College and with a ramp at the end to take you up to Brewery St. Turn left and the station is in sight –  corporation st has a walkway to take you up to the town centre. 

Trip should take 1 hour for a reasonably fast cyclist.