Category: Infrastructure

Kidical Mass rides are fun, a lot of fun! They are meant to be an opportunity for families to enjoy themselves. We ride our bikes, we chat, have some cake, and we play. But sometimes, we need to get serious as well. This is the campaigning side of Kidical Mass. We write articles on this blog setting out our opinions, we run petitions and we sit on council meetings about active travel.

We try to push the council to implement more infrastructure for safe active travel. A big part of this is enabling families to do the school run in an active way. For example, we have recently campaigned for infrastructure to connect to the new River Academy school.

It is great to see some of the measures the council is taking already. There is the Clean Air Living Matters (CALM) project to raise awareness about air pollution, including the role of motorised traffic. The council is also implementing wonderful School Streets to protect children near their schools.

Obviously, children don’t teleport to these school streets, though. There are still many barriers to active travel. I cycle to school with my child every morning along Hemdean Road in Caversham, a road with two primary schools and a nursery. Morning traffic can be hectic on this bendy road, with parents driving children to school, buses coming through and traffic using the road as a rat run. The available space is severely restricted by parked cars on both sides. After enduring numerous close passes on myself and my child, I have recently helped the school campaign for extra safety measures. While the council has sympathised with the requests, two arguments were repeatedly mentioned. If you follow discussions around active travel in Reading, you will surely recognise these recurring themes.

Parking space

Firstly, we are told, whatever we do, to not impact any parking spaces. Indeed, across the country it is often said that UK streets are too narrow for cycle paths and other infrastructure. This is clearly nonsense. Many roads are more than wide enough, but almost all of the space is allocated to the movement and storage of motor vehicles. This is a political choice, not a law of nature that can’t be changed.

This situation is only becoming worse with the trend for unnecessarily large cars, with almost a third of new cars sold being SUVs. These cars make the roads more dangerous for other road users by restricting space and visibility. In case of a crash, their weight and shape strongly increases the severity of the consequences. They cause more air pollution (including the electric ones). A recent study showed that air pollution caused by cars could have dropped by over 30% if this car obesity had not occurred.

The lack of space means there’s also no room for other much needed measures that enable active travel, such as shared cars and on-street bike hangars. It means no space for more plants and trees, which will be sorely needed to combat the urban heat island effect during heatwaves of ever increasing severity and to combat the dramatic decline of biodiversity. We have no space for benches for people to rest and socialise.

Crucially, it means no space for children to play. UK children are said to be among the least active worldwide. Is this any wonder? Have you had a look outside recently? Our society values the convenience of its adults to leave their belongings lying around over the health and safety of its children.

Reclaim

We need to reclaim our public space now, before the situation becomes even worse.

The council even supports this aim, in principle. The Reading Transport Strategy 2040 says the council will re-allocate space to active travel. The reality can, however, be very different. An example: the council has recently voted through the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). Interestingly, this plan included a short new section of cycle lane on Oxford Road. Sadly, even this short section is interrupted halfway though. By what you ask? Parking spaces, of course. Meanwhile, under the same plan extra parking spaces are created just around the corner. How is this re-allocating space for active travel?

So, there are vague claims, but no concrete plans for how to implement them. Other boroughs, are taking actions. Some are charging higher parking permit fees for larger, more polluting vehicles. Other councils have much more extensive parking permit zones. What will RBC do? It is not enough to have lofty aims without a plan for implementing them. The council can not be taken serious about its ambitions in active travel unless it sets out a clear plan for how to tackle this blight on our public space.

On some streets houses have no front garden where owners can park their vehicles, but many do have sufficient space. Parking a small vehicle on their own property is an option for many people, but most simple choose not to. Why would they if they are given extra space for free on the road? Let them convert part of their front garden if they really need to. If you look carefully, you will start to notice that some of those cars are almost permanently parked, sometimes with cobwebs on the tyres and a patch of dirt accumulated underneath the vehicle, even in front of houses with ample space, but owners can’t be bothered.

Money

The second oft-repeated argument is that their is no money for infrastructure. The council keeps a long list of requested changes to improve road safety that are awaiting funding. Many of these measures, no matter how small, will have to wait for many years for anything to happen. Yet at the same time the council is handing out huge subsidies to car owners by surrendering one of its prime assets: the public space. Most of this subsidy is going to owners of larger cars, often the wealthier residents of Reading. Meanwhile the poorest households often don’t own a car (30% of households across the UK don’t own a car) and miss out yet again.

Fixing it

Therefore, here are some of my personal suggestions to the council:

• Introduce size based parking permit fees,
• Significantly expand permit fee zones,
• Increase all parking permit fees to represent the true cost of public space. Exemptions and reductions can be given to those who can’t afford it.
• Set out a street-level plan and timeline for reducing parking space to make way for infrastructure for sustainable transport,
• Keep in mind the needs of disabled persons and use part of the freed up space to improve blue badge parking
• Increase space for shared cars and install bike hangars,
• Ring fence proceeds for active travel and public transport.

When will the council make clear that parking on our roads is a privilege, not a right? That children’s health, safety and future are more important than storing metal boxes?

As a campaigning group, we work to draw attention to areas of Reading where improvements to cycling infrastructure are needed. However, I think it’s also important to notice where cycling infrastructure works well. Here, therefore, is my list of things I love about Forbury Gardens.

1. Bike Specific Infrastructure

Approaching Forbury Gardens from the South, after crossing Forbury Road, cyclists find themselves for a short stretch in their own specific path. In most of Reading cyclists are either expected to mix with motor vehicles (with a painted line to protect us, if we’re lucky), or to share space with pedestrians (with a painted line to suggest that we take half the path each, if we’re lucky) which substantially reduces the speed at which we can safely travel. Here the bike path runs along side the pedestrian path, but, crucially, at a different height to it. It makes a big difference, and I’m glad the new bike lane on Shinfield Road has been built this way too.

2. Low Motor Traffic Levels

Cars are definitely permitted on the roads around Forbury Gardens – there’s parking and you see the odd one driving around – but for whatever reason (presumably the combination of one way streets/bollards/bus only zones) it isn’t an area that gets used as a rat run and the traffic that comes through tends to move at a sensible speed and observe give way lines. I think I see more buses than cars here, and the low traffic levels mean that it’s one of the few places (outside of Kidical Mass) where cars are allowed that we’ve let our children ride their own bikes.

3. The Amazing Bollard Placement

Presumably contributing to those low traffic levels are the bollards under the Abbey Archway. Every time I come through these they make me happy. The central one isn’t quite central, which means that one of the gaps is bigger. My cargo bike is (slightly) wider than a standard bike, and I can slip through easily without worrying. It’s a great example of how accessibility improvements can help multiple groups of people – wheelchair users, families with pushchairs and unusual bicycles can all benefit. I’m really glad someone put a bit of thought in when installing the bollards here.

4. Accessible Cycle Parking

Speaking of accessibility, I love that there is bike parking right by Forbury Gardens, and that the pavement is profiled such that I can walk round to it without having to push my bike over a kerb. I can do that, if I need to, but with two kids on the back it can get pretty heavy! So I really notice here that the bike parking is easy to navigate.

5. Kidical Mass Memories

All of our early Kidical Mass rides finished at Forbury Gardens, and some of them still do. We’ve ridden to climate festival and children’s festival events there (two causes very well aligned with Kidical Mass goals). I’ve eaten some excellent cake in that garden, and seen kids visit with Santa (and have their bike given a tune up by his elf). When I’m in the gardens it brings back lovely memories of seeing the kids run and play together.

If you too would like to come and make memories with us, please join us for our next ride on 20th April. We’d love to see you.

 
Last year, Reading Cycle Campaign ran a photo competition under the heading “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” for cycle infrastructure in Reading. I submitted under all three categories, and managed to win under the “good” category for the Tiger crossing on Gosbrook Road.

My entry for the “Bad” category was the bit of the cycle lane on Lower Henley Road which was very narrow and squeezed against parked cars. I felt it actively encourages cyclists to cycle too close to the parked cars, and drivers to not give them enough space when passing. I’m not the first person to have concerns about the safety of this lane: when the lane was first put in, just under a decade age, the then-chair of Reading Cycle Campaign made the local papers with his safety concerns. He wanted the lane to be made wider and for there to be more of a gap between the cyclists and the parked cars. The road is on the R4, an official cycle route according to Reading Council, and an important connection between lower Caversham and Caversham Park.

Well, the council heard our safety concerns and finally decided to take action in the recent round of road repainting and resurfacing…by removing the cycling infrastructure on the road in the direction going out towards Henley. Not just the bits that people complained about, but also the bits that they haven’t. In particular, they have removed the bike boxes by the traffic lights at the junction with Henley Road. There is a steep hill approaching the traffic lights, a hill that is very difficult to stop and restart on (if you’re not on an e-bike, anyway…). Previously, if the traffic stopped whilst you were halfway up the hill, you could filter safely to the front ready for the next phase of the lights, knowing you had somewhere to wait. Now, you cannot.

Frustratingly, despite the fact that there are several organisations attempting to engage with the council on the subject of cycling infrastructure, recent opinions were not sought. Apparently some comments from when the lane was installed about how it could be safer have been taken as a mandate to rip it out entirely. Compare and contrast, at a recent cycle forum meeting I asked about the feasibility of installing cycle hangers on some roads in Reading. I was told this would not be possible without a consultation along each road which showed a majority of residents in favour, as it would remove one parking space for motorists. One single space! Yet an entire bike lane on a key route was taken out without a consultation.

So, to the council, we have a few requests:

1. Reinstate the bike boxes immediately. There were never any safety concerns about that part of the infrastructure.
   
2. Come up with a plan for how you can put a safe lane in, and do it. Currently you have reallocated space from cyclists to motorists which is the reverse of your stated aims.
   
3. Talk to us! You have set up various forums, and we really appreciate that councillors attended the Reading Cycle Campaign annual general meeting, to have quite an awkward discussion about this change. We’re full of opinions and always happy to give them to you in advance of you making changes.

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s interesting to note that we are often told no cycling infrastructure can be put in because there is no funding. Perhaps we could get some bits in as part of the general maintenance and resurfacing plans, as it does seem layout changes can be made under this programme.

And to you, Dear Reader, please join us in emailing the relevant councillors – Cllr John Ennis and Cllr Jacopo Lanzoni – who were at the Reading Cycle Campaign annual general meeting and said the best way to get change on this point was to inundate them with emails.

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Update 30-Nov-2023

We were really excited to learn todat that @ReadingCouncil has listened to the feedback and Lower Henley Road will have its Advanced Stop Line back, as well as a mandatory cycle lane!
Thank you to everyone who used their voice to fight for people on bikes safety on this road.

As part of my daily commute to the Reading station, I cycle in the Palmer Park, through the little car park at the corner of Wokingham Road and Palmer Park Avenue. I mean the one here, near the church:

It’s one of the most stressful parts of my commute, because in this little space, you can usually find:

• a lot of potholes
• pedestrians, sometimes running
• dogs, sometimes connected to the pedestrians with a leash
• cars parked haphazardly, sometimes moving in unexpected ways
• and not much light at night!

The combination of all these is quite dangerous, and I’ve seen a few near misses. More frequently, the cars are lined up so close to each other that I struggle to pass with my bike — and forget it if you have a cargo bike, a pram or a wheelchair.

The video below (and the picture above) give a good idea of the issue: you’ll see a car driving on the footpath, then deep puddles and finally a cluster of cars preventing access to the footpath.

Suggestions

The park should be a safe space for people. Allowing cars there is annoying, and dangerous. Here are a few ways we could improve it:

1. Add more light! A few lampposts will make it easier to see the potholes and the people 💡
2. Fix the potholes 🕳️
3. Confine the cars. They should not be able to cross the footpaths at all. And I mean: physically, with fences, bollards, planters, etc. 🪴

4. Actually, you know what? Ditch the cars completely! Maybe we can keep a couple of blue-badge spaces ♿♿ for easy access to the church, but otherwise cars are able to stay in the very nice, recently extended car park in the middle of the Palmer Park, just 30 seconds walk away.

Our children deserve a better, safer environment, whether they are in a pram, a wheelchair or just walking their dog.
If you agree, do join us on our next Kidical Mass ride!