Is Sustrans fit for purpose?

[KnackeredBike]

There is a misconception about Sustrans.

They were set up as an enabling organisation, and are neither the builders, nor maintainers of the "National Cycle Network

Volunteers do some work, but that is not the same as maintaining

When a route is planned, it is the local County Council that is the organisation that plans builds and maintains. Sustrans merely puts everyone in the same room and as far as possible pushes them in the right direction. They are not always successful, but all they can do is try

They said they have £64m income in 2015/16 and say they spend 97% of this on projects... so where does the money go if they don't build or maintain anything? (I can quite believe they didn't spend anything on maintaining.)

You can buy a lot of smooth tarmac path for £64m.

 

[ufkacbln]

In my experience, pretty much everything Sustrans does could be devolved to local/county council level, or upwards to NGB level (ie BC or CTC) with no loss of function.

One of our biggest problems locally is a cycle path that is regularly blocked by parked cars.......

Ironically they are attending a local BC affiliated BMX club. The parents would rather block the path than use the adjacent car parks

Neither the club or BC are willing top tackle the issue

 

[ufkacbln]

They said they have £64m income in 2015/16 and say they spend 97% of this on projects... so where does the money go if they don't build or maintain anything? (I can quite believe they didn't spend anything on maintaining.)

You can buy a lot of smooth tarmac path for £64m.

Link

 

[cyberknight]

Get an MTB for sustrans routes.

part of my commute uses a NCN path , on the MTB till the weather is better and it get clearer as i have had 6 flats on the same section this year on the roadie.
EDIT actually its not part of sustrans , reported it to the council as the amount of debris is dangerous .

 

[KnackeredBike]

Link

Makes sense, they spend £433,000 on route maintenance, with 210 infrastructure staff. So each member of staff has £40 a week to spend. I wonder why all highway authorities don't adapt this model.

 

[S-Express]

Neither the club or BC are willing top tackle the issue

Enforcement should come from the council and/or the police though, as with any other parking issue. BC/local club can only request.

 

[mjr]

Even as an enabler, Sustrans are the route numbering authority, aren't they? They're responsible for the travesty that is cyclists being unable to count on their red numbers as signifying a useful all-weather cycle route. Even within the same highway authority area (Norfolk), Notional Route 1 varies between wide/smooth tarmac and near-unrideable sand, dangerous gravel descents ending in barriers and narrow dirt track.

I feel they should be stricter about delisting sections which do not conform to their design manual, but I think much of the current substandard network was accepted by them in a Lottery-funded push to have a route within X miles of Y% of the population by the year 2000 and falling back below that carries some reputational risk (if not having to refund the £43.5m lottery grant).

But why would they? As a self-perpetuating private charity, they're basically not accountable to cyclists, as long as enough people are willing to donate money.

There's also their key involvement as a trusted partner of central government enabling the waste of cycling budgets on dross such as the Bedford Turbogate but they did at least ask cyclist-led organisations to get involved then (and none covered themselves/ourselves with glory in that example IMO).

 

[mjr]

If they would just use a simple way of explaining what routes are suitable for skinny tyres and what routes you need off road tyres it would be a lot better , saying cycle route when it is impossible to cycle that route on a road bike is not very helpful to the user.

Volunteers are slowly adding surface quality information to Open Street Map and some route planners (http://cycle.travel/map for one) use that information - rough stuff is marked in green on that and weighted accordingly, but you can drag the route away if you're on a bike that really can't use it.

 

[confusedcyclist]

I have ridden Route 6 which is partly on an old railway track from Penistone towards Sheffield, I found it enjoyable at first, then confusing, then infuriating. The segregated/rail track was impressive, if a little busy with dog walkers, muddy/covered in horse shoot, then once you got off the track, the signage was very poor. My friend and I got horribly lost and confused, being confronted with footpaths which stated no bicycles permitted etc... Luckily my friend knew the roads in the area so we did a bit of on road riding instead of attempting to continue on the route.

Making it sound like a national network is a bit misleading, you couldn't use it to navigate long distances with ease, but I'd be happy to take a child/novice on it to get a taste of riding.

 

[User6179]

Volunteers are slowly adding surface quality information to Open Street Map and some route planners (http://cycle.travel/map for one) use that information - rough stuff is marked in green on that and weighted accordingly, but you can drag the route away if you're on a bike that really can't use it.

Thanks, will have a look .

 

[ufkacbln]

Enforcement should come from the council and/or the police though, as with any other parking issue. BC/local club can only request.

Or refuse participation to members blocking a local cycle facility

 

[Hardrock93]

Volunteers are slowly adding surface quality information to Open Street Map and some route planners (http://cycle.travel/map for one) use that information - rough stuff is marked in green on that and weighted accordingly, but you can drag the route away if you're on a bike that really can't use it.

Yes, indeed. In fact, I've been doing some OSM data updating today on a local section of the NCN. I'm fairly new to editing OSM, but I find it a satisfying and worthwhile task to try and accurately set the parameters (good or bad!) for my local area routes.

 

[growingvegetables]

... if we want to get people cycling the Sustrans network surely needs to be well maintained, safe, and easy to follow. IMO it is none of these, it is worse than even the most minor roads for cars. With that, surely Sustrans need to get their act together and start acting like a highways authority, or give the network to someone that will.

Do we need something like a highways authority? Yup.
Do we need a quality network? Yup.

Should it be a charity endeavour? Nope. [Not in my opinion ]

Are we in danger of criticising the charity endeavour that tries to fill a glaring gap? Transferring expectations of what should be, to a bunch of guys who can only fail? Cos all that they CAN do is badger local authorities and their agendas?

One of the joys of riding the TPT north-south - you can spot the local authority boundaries by the changes in the quality of the provision. Barnsley had the HQ - cracking stuff in its time, within its boundaries. Leeds - nose out of joint, so their bit of the TPT is a ******* joke. And Sheffield? Just CBA.

 

[mcshroom]

And Sheffield? Just CBA.

To be fair they take the same approach to the roads

 

[KnackeredBike]

Do we need something like a highways authority? Yup.
Do we need a quality network? Yup.

Should it be a charity endeavour? Nope. [Not in my opinion ]

Are we in danger of criticising the charity endeavour that tries to fill a glaring gap? Transferring expectations of what should be, to a bunch of guys who can only fail? Cos all that they CAN do is badger local authorities and their agendas?

I don't think that a non-profit is per se the wrong way of doing it, I just think Sustrans model of skeleton funding and badgering local authorities to borrow a bit of tarmac isn't working and wasn't ever going to work.

However, Sustrans have to take accountability, there is money out there for sustainable transport be it from government, Big Lottery fund, etc, but they clearly aren't banging on the doors loud enough. Honestly £1bn is nothing to either of those if they could say it got a nationwide NCR properly surfaced and signed. However, they're now in the way of anyone else doing it now because Theresa May will just point out Sustrans is already cutting the odd branch back and cleaning her windows and all for £10 a week.