1. Cyclescape:
helping campaigners campaign
Martin Lucas-Smith / Simon Nuttall
www.cyclestreets.net
twitter: @cyclestreets

2.  Cycling offers many solutions to transport problems –
efficient, cheap, healthy, no CO2.
 UK (2% rate) vs Netherlands (30%)

3. Barriers
to more
cycling
all around
the UK

4. No cycle parking!

5. Cycle paths with obstructions

6. A long way from
Dutch quality
provision...

7. Every town / city has many hundreds
of problems that need to be tackled

8. Politics of the situation
 Streets often not cycle-friendly
 Need to reduce traffic, speeds
 Not much money to fix
 Problems very widespread
 These problems stop people cycling
 Councils need pressure to fix
 So how does change happen?

9. Cycle campaign groups
 Provide the political pressure for change
 Groups all around the country
 Local groups Cambridge Cycling Campaign,
Edinburgh Spokes, Cyclox, etc.
 Groups in each London borough (LCC)
 Cyclists' Touring Club groups

10. How do we operate?
 Many on-street issues vs few campaigners
 Antagonistic relationship with councils?
 Sometimes we’re seen as “Whingers”
 More developed groups work in partnership
 Campaigners poorly resourced

11. Richmond CC:
 “In the modern world, it is difficult for people to give
up time, to attend meetings or to arrange audits of
cycle facilities and poor road infrastructure that they
pass on a daily basis.
 Equally, it is difficult and time consuming for
campaigners to develop and maintain an 'issues list'
and then covert it into a format that engages councils
and other relevant stakeholders.”

12. Campaigners poorly resourced
 Volunteers - don't have much time
 Don't understand how gvt/council works
 Poor access to best practice examples
 Consultations missed
 Hard to keep on top of everything
 Get distracted by new incoming issues
 Hard to get new people involved

13. Cycle campaign group toolkit

14. Cycle campaign group toolkit
CycleStreets was awarded £27,000 by GeoVation to
develop a wide-ranging web-based toolkit for
campaign groups.
GeoVation is an Ordnance Survey initiative and is part
of Ideas in Transit project with funding from the
Technology Strategy Board and the Department for
Transport.

15. Resourcing → effective groups
1. Easily pinpoint where cycling is difficult
2. Show planning applications & data
3. Prioritise: which to work on
4. Discuss easily – (forum/email)
• But these are not always very targetted
5. Pull in best practice
6. Include Councils in these discussions?
7. Assemble 'solution' resources
 → Hand groups stuff on a plate

16. Issues on the map

17. Handing groups stuff on a plate
Example: Kingston Street –
who cycles through here? – they want a say

18. The toolkit is
not ‘Just another forum’
Much more targeted to
real cycle campaigning
 Tries to solve the problems our
community deals with

19. 1. Who sees what issue
People register on the site. They then say:
1. What kinds of issues they’re interested in
• E.g. Cycle parking, 20 mph zones
2. What parts of the city they want to know about
• Draw a box on the map
3. Where they cycle
• Show a route plan

20. With this information, we can:
automatically
assign issues on the map
to
the people
interested in them

21. 2. Discussing an issue
• StreetView location automatically shown
• Normal text replies (like a forum)
• Add picture
• Documents
• Reference article/tweet
• Council meeting reference

22. 2. Discussing an issue
• Best practice example – pull in
• (next slide)
• Nearby issue (e.g. S106 planning gain)
• Policy statement
• Deadline
• Poll
• Petition

23. 3. Resources & best practice
examples
• System automatically suggests them
• Idea is that people don’t have to ‘search out’ – handed
on a plate
• Examples:
• One-way-streets / contraflow
 finds the key guidance & key quotes
• Cycle parking
 suggests Design sketches
• Cycle lane widths
 shows key guidance & places where done well

24. 4. Web-based vs e-mail
• People can use either/both:
• Discussions on the website
• Get replies by e-mail

25. Removing the hassle of campaigning
1. Person has added ‘No cycle parking here’ on Station Street (on
the map)
2. Planning application has appeared nearby
3. People who cycle through Station Street or care about cycle
parking issues automatically see it when they log in
4. Discuss it (on website or via e-mail)
5. Best practice automatically brought in (avoids researching),
e.g. Council standards, drawings
6. Can assemble campaign (letter etc.) around that
 Recipe for getting something done

26. Resourcing → effective groups
Outcome:
 Help convert “whinging” to solid arguments
 Constructive, achievable solutions
 Prioritise: we can't do everything this year
 To show easily how there are lots of problems all
around a city
 To get new people involved easily
 To save campaigners time – only see what
they’re interested in

27. Support for our bid
 Cyclenation: “This will be a valuable tool, helping local
campaigners focus on barriers to cycling and
ultimately generating extra cycling trips.”
 London Cycling Campaign: “Fulfil the long-standing
need for more effective ways of collecting, prioritising
and managing the massive number of problem spots in
London where cycling needs to be improved.”

28. Group-specific
 Each group can have their own toolkit
 Groups can add their own branding
 Can share discussions if wanted
 Can choose whether to make discussions
public or keep private

29. Example useful features
 User registers, then shows where they cycle and the
issues they’re interested in
 Tagging themes to auto-match best practice
 Push summaries out, various formats
 Forum view / e-mail-web gateway
 Deadline management
 Integration of various geographical data
 e.g. collision data – provides context

30. David Earl
www.CycleStreets.net
Twitter: @cyclestreets
info@cyclestreets.net