A View from the Handlebars: Cycling Task & Finish panel
In January, CycHull City and Hull Friends of the Earth got the chance to speak to Hull City Council’s Task and Finish panel, to put forward suggestions for encouraging cycling in Hull.
The panel, which consists of two Labour and two Lib Dem councillors supported by an officer, will be submitting a report later this year to the council’s decision-making cabinet, based on the findings of their research. From what we’ve seen, some of their proposals look really promising:
Cycle contraflows on all one-way streets
More cycle stands and better storage
More 20mph zones, including for Hull city centre
Better training for councillors and officers
Bike hire scheme
Better lighting and removal of barriers.
That’s not to say that all of these things will definitely happen – but it’s good to see that some councillors are at least thinking along the right lines.
As for presenting our own wish list, where to start? We could have pointed the councillors towards any number of peer-reviewed articles on the importance of better infrastructure, lower speed limits and stronger sanctions against bad driving. But we felt our case would be stronger if CycHull City members were given a say. So, we sent out a questionnaire and got a great response on a range of issues, from what encouraged/discouraged people from cycling and the new cycle lanes to how to improve engagement on active travel, better signage, storage and security and examples of what worked in other cities.
We submitted these (anonymised) written responses to the panel, and they will form part of the evidence that the councillors consider when writing their report – thanks very much to everyone who took the time to email their ideas.
In the meeting, we reiterated all your points about safety and security and told the panel about the different types of advocacy the group has been involved in over the last two years – from bike rides to advising Hull City Council officers on infrastructure improvements and opportunities. We were particularly keen to stress the importance of creating a positive image. In the past, the council hasn’t given enough thought to making active travel appear attractive. Some of its online imagery of bike lanes has been poor, compared with the ‘blue sky’ CGI illustrations used with the council’s marketing material for the Maritime City heritage project, for example. This needs to change.
We also floated the idea of using the electronic roadside signs to put out messages to encourage cyclists – giving updates on the number of cyclists using a particular route and thanking them for choosing active travel. We were told that this could be done, using the Matrix signs that were previously used for giving directions to Covid vaccination centres. Please let us know if you spot anything happening with this.
At the meeting, we were asked if we’d be willing to help promote and publicise the council’s active travel marketing. While this is great recognition of our standing as an advocacy group and we support a lot of what Hull City Council is trying to do, CycHull City is not an outsourced (and unpaid) part of the council’s marketing department. We will help them when we support their methods and goals but when they’re not performing or progressing, we won’t be afraid to criticise them.
We feel the panel was hampered by the fact that infrastructure was not being part of its remit. Better infrastructure, as has been shown repeatedly, is the single most important factor for encouraging greater cycling rates, with all the economic, environmental and health benefits that flow from that.
Having said that, the overall feeling was encouraging. Hopefully, by expressing our views (and yours) to the panel we can take a step forward towards making active travel happen. There was lots of scribbling of notes and nods of agreement, anyway. The proof will be in the quality of the report and to what extent the council acts on it.