Help from Glaswegians!

[magnatom]

Hi Guys,

It would seem my moment of fame has arrived (but this is not connected to the actioncameras campaign, sorry Paul, although I did mention you to them)

BBC Scotland will be interviewing and filming me next week. They are doing a piece on facilities (or lack of) in Glasgow. I have a copy of the questions ahead of the interview (which is nice) and a couple of them relate to the facilities themselves. I have plenty of experience of them in my part of Glasgow. However I want to be as informed as possible.

I was wondering if the Glasgow folk on here have any particular facilities they think are great, or bad in Glasgow. Where are they and what is wrong/right with them.

I personally don't tend to use cycle lanes, but I can understand that for new cyclists they can be a good guide to best practice (if designed properly!). So I'll refrain from saying all cycle facilities are bad! I also don't want to come across as council bashing. In fact I know there are people on the inside who are keen to improve things, so I will try and focus on the opportunities that we have, especially with the commonwealth games coming to Glasgow.

Any advice or comments are appreciated.


P.S. I am a little concerned about keeping up the high standard set by Arch. I think I feel the pressure!!


(Posted in commuting as I need replies fairly quickly and commuting has a high view rate!)

 

[BentMikey]

Please please make sure you comment on how irresponsible those feeder lanes to ASLs are, you know, the ones that encourage wobblers to ride up the left of an HGV.

 

[magnatom]

Please please make sure you comment on how irresponsible those feeder lanes to ASLs are, you know, the ones that encourage wobblers to ride up the left of an HGV.

Absolutely! That was already first on my list!

 

[papercorn2000]

Easily answered in regard to the EK to Rutherglen area as there are none!

 

[Rab]

Well done Magnatom

Good luck and I'll look out for you on the news.

Sorry don't know too much about the Glasgow facilities........... as for the Ayr ones well I would have a few comment s to make

Give us the heads up when you are on the telly

 

[QuickDraw]

About half of my direct commute is on some sort of cyclepath. From Milngavie it's one of those metre wide strips in the gutter. It's not ideal but I feel forced to use it because apart from the occasional parked car there aren't any real problems with it.

Most of the length of Maryhill Road (from Shiskine Drive to George's Cross) there's a bus/cycle/taxi lane which I find ideal. The occasional taxi driver gets a bit close but other than that I've had no real problems using it.

One improvement I'd like to see is more warning signs for drivers where the lane ends. The usual red triangle with the bike in the middle perhaps accompanied by "Give Cyclists Room" underneath.

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

PM'd you.

 

[lazyfatgit]

Best of luck, i've PMed you.

 

[boydj]

Glasgow has some facilities that are reasonably good. but it also has a perfect example of how not to do it. Along the Broomielaw, the cycle lane is bi-directional and on the pavement - pedestrians mixed with bikes travelling in both directions - crazy, especially where there is plenty of room on the road for a good size bike lane in each direction if they reduced the car lanes to one in each direction. If you use the Northbound cycle-lane over the KGV bridge there is a chaotic junction where that cycle-lane is diverted off the road to join up with the cyclists travelling at 90 deg in both directions on the Broomielaw, and this with pedestrians milling about on the same piece of pavement waiting for lights to change.

By and large, Glasgow's cycling facilities are best avoided or ignored by the serious commuter.

Overall though, I find commuting by bike in Glasgow - Paisley/Glasgow most days -to be a pretty reasonable experience. In the last couple of years the standard of driving has improved considerably as the number of bikes on the road has grown.

 

[magnatom]

Thanks guys for the comments here and via PM. I will respond individually tomorrow. Times just a bit tight just now.

The interview is on Thursday morning so still plenty of time for further comments!

Cheers

Dave

 

[arranandy]

Absolutely no concession made for cyclists on my commuting route - Motherwell to Robroyston via Uddingston. However this route is mostly pretty quiet of traffic in the morning and in the evening the only really busy bits are Stepps Road and through Uddingston/Bothwell. On the whole I find most drivers I encounter give me plenty of room with only the occasional elbow-shaver. Hope this helps Magnatom

 

[magnatom]

I had my TV interview today. I think it went fairly well. I was asked about 5 questions and I replied as best I could (as diplomatically as I could). Each question was done in one take which surprised me, so I hope I didn't say anything daft or um and err to much.

I was also filmed sticking my helmet camera, and helmet on, getting on the bike and riding off into the sunset (ok it was morning and it was pretty miserable weather at the time!)

The piece is mainly about trying to improve cycle facilities in Glasgow, which are pretty poor at the moment. I'm not a big fan of cycling facilities in general, but I can see how, if the council did more, and provided more facilities, it would encourage more people to take to their bikes. That's the big problem at the moment. There is just not enough of us in Glasgow.

Apparently they are interviewing someone from spokes (Edinburgh based!) and a councilor.

Anyway it will apparently be going out on Reporting Scotland (BBC) on Tuesday (or Wednesday major story depending) next week. So we will see if I am up to Arch* standard.

So thanks to everyone who replied to me on here (Sorry I haven't replied to everyone individually, very busy!). I didn't mention anything specific (I think) but it did allow me to talk generally with some conviction.


* The standard by which all other interviewees will be judged. Reaching the Arch standard is considered unobtainable....

 

[Tetedelacourse]

I had my TV interview today. I think it went fairly well. I was asked about 5 questions and I replied as best I could (as diplomatically as I could). Each question was done in one take which surprised me, so I hope I didn't say anything daft or um and err to much.

I was also filmed sticking my helmet camera, and helmet on, getting on the bike and riding off into the sunset (ok it was morning and it was pretty miserable weather at the time!)

The piece is mainly about trying to improve cycle facilities in Glasgow, which are pretty poor at the moment. I'm not a big fan of cycling facilities in general, but I can see how, if the council did more, and provided more facilities, it would encourage more people to take to their bikes. That's the big problem at the moment. There is just not enough of us in Glasgow.

Apparently they are interviewing someone from spokes (Edinburgh based!) and a councilor.

Anyway it will apparently be going out on Reporting Scotland (BBC) on Tuesday (or Wednesday major story depending) next week. So we will see if I am up to Arch* standard.

So thanks to everyone who replied to me on here (Sorry I haven't replied to everyone individually, very busy!). I didn't mention anything specific (I think) but it did allow me to talk generally with some conviction.


* The standard by which all other interviewees will be judged. Reaching the Arch standard is considered unobtainable....

I think I know who they'll be speaking to through here from SPOKES. I hope it's strong enough to counter the complete and utter drivel the councillor is likely to spout.

 

[magnatom]

I think I know who they'll be speaking to through here.

I think the chat with the spokes person was on the more general issue of cycling in cities.

The chap doing the interview said he cycled himself and he suggested that he is editing it as well, so fingers crossed it comes out ok. (and that I do not come across as arrogant!

 

[goo_mason]

I think the chat with the spokes person was on the more general issue of cycling in cities.

The chap doing the interview said he cycled himself and he suggested that he is editing it as well, so fingers crossed it comes out ok. (and that I do not come across as arrogant!

We should have challenged you and offered £10 for every time you managed to slip the phrase "big jessie" into the conversation.....

Seriously though, well done on becoming the forum's Scotland cycling correspondent. Since Arch has England sewn up, we need to engage spokespeople in Ireland and Wales and see if they can get TV coverage too. Together, CycleChat will take over the world... mwah ha ha ha haaaaaa (and other assorted evil cackles)