December Cycling
Here’s local riders benefitting from Keyhole Bridge Poole. Real people. Real results pic.twitter.com/FZNqzO25w0
— BH Active Travel (@bhactivetravel) November 25, 2020
Chairmans Chat.
Lots going on at the moment., we have meetings with a Living Streets local Co-ordinator this week, which is new for BH Area, and the first meeting next week with the new Cycling / Walking officer for BCP Council. After Lockdown 2 some of the long-term forum attendees are getting together to talk about the next Forum public meeting and the priorities we will need to set for members, the actions ongoing and the ways we can make the group interest translate into more educative and productive outcomes.
Last weeks post about ATF 2 is still unfolding, to be honest no-one know whats going on with this right now. To have gone from Central Gvt instructions to ‘get some measures in place ASAP please’ in the first phase- to now some convoluted multi -faceted instructions with loads of qualifiers is enough to make any Authority struggle. We await to hear what are the possibilities for the second funding pot.
Today heres a great Map shared with us which is a heat map of Cycling Routes, Over the last 2 years. Many thanks to Gary Livemore and Tall Tim from Hampshire for sharing these.
It shows all routes used, with thickness of the white lines most recorded by Strava Users. We know that isnt all bike trips, but it is what might be regarded as regular cyclists, people that record their journeys. Not the sort of people that are about to become converts to active travel but those who are already dong it. Clubs and keen riders might be happily doing 50 miles for leisure at the weekends and other times, Poole Wheelers for example are these people, and we have them in support of what we are doing. Youll find club riders now using Gravel Hill, using infrastructure, but remember it is the choice of those whether or not to use it- and if they dont it says something about the continuity of it. Written into LTN 1/20 from now on. Strava if you arent aware of it is the largest free tracking service in the world, and they have taken COVID era data and found ways of supplying Authorities with help in transportation planning. Strava Metro is the September 2020 start of this wide reaching work, read about it here. Also one interesting specific area Colorado study shown here.
So the map below is another version that has added the Transforming Travel initial routes on it. These are all open to public feedback- and we are promoting them to help to get some content on them. As we know when people are less likely to voice any concerns about things until they are actually affected by them, witness the Summers very minor changes to see that. So do contribute- Heres the info and links on that– it looks like there are some good contributors so if that you well done, remember if you agree on individual locations where the pins are placed, copy and paste them from youre account, ours all say BH Active Travel. Another purpose of todays post is just to show that while we all have our own favourite routes- the whole of the BH conurbation is used equally. What interests me particularly is how on regular street maps Canford Heath itself for example is a blank space, and here you can see it within a block and is well trafficked by bikes and always has been. If you follow C5 Poole to Merley, it crosses near Asda Canford Heath, going up the locally known Red Brick road to an end point of the surfaced section, therefter its sand and gravel, with the east west route I featured on this post a while ago showing as white and as well used. You might also notice that your area isnt quite as you expected. Anyway take a look
Canford Heath onto Bourne Valley Greenway- a beautiful place, and a great route choice, –watch the contrasting scenes in the video below
December Offer- Final details to come.
Now heres some more details of the upcoming December mechanics sessions in Boscombe. BHAT support this and other types of initiatives that help people on daily needs of local Active Travel, into the future we are looking at ways to engage workplaces, schools and people that are leading their localities on sustainable travel.
Mechanics are ready to go.
They will be on Site at point 5 on attached plan of the sovereign centre – from Midday to 6pm each Thurs/Fri/Sat from 3rd December till 19th December.
You can just turn up or phone ahead to book a slot – each bike gets a maximum of 30 mins – see attached pdf flyer.
Many thanks again to Peter Roscoe of Sovereign Centre for linking with us on this.
Have a great tuesday.
