Bear Way Extension? Not Likely!

Here is a short e-mail trail between myself and my MSP Rona Mackay concerning the active travel discussion in Holyrood tomorrow (31st October some time ater 2pm), and the extension of Bears Way. I'll leave the e-mails here without further comment, unless you want to add your own....

Dear Rona,

Following on from my questions on Twitter, I was wondering if you will 

be attending the active travel debate on Tuesday at Holyrood?

I am very concerned with the state of active travel in East 

Dunbartonshire. I have heard from very reliable sources, that the SNP in 

the region do not want to consider extending the Bears Way cycle lane 

past its current location. This is particularly concerning considering 

recent data released demonstrating that the majority of cyclist 

incidents (resulting in injury) occur in the area of phase 2.

You can see the data for yourself at this link 

(https://bikedata.cyclestreets.net/collisions/#15/55.9223/-4.3139/opencyclemap). 

Bears Way phase 1 was a great start, but on its own provides no 

significant safety to those cycling through the area, as they still need 

to cycle on the road in the most dangerous areas. The extension of Bears 

Way is absolutely vital to the area in which traffic congestion will 

only serve to get worse with the new builds in the area. 

I would be very grateful if you could attend the debate and address some 

of these issue.

Reply from Rona:

Dear David,

Thanks for your email. I asked you to email as I prefer not to enter into constituent discussions on social media. I hope you understand and didn't want you to think I was ignoring you.

To answer your question, I am not taking part in tomorrow's debate on Active Travel. I am speaking in another debate tomorrow which is more directly related to my work on the Justice Committee.

With regard to Bears Way, I think you know my stated position - and that of the SNP group on EDC who voted to postpone the extension before the May election - that I am not in favour of extending it until the problems with Stage 1 have been addressed. How long this will take, and if indeed anything has been progressed on that front, I will have to ask the Council, which I am happy to do on your behalf.

I am fully supportive of Active Travel and I am happy that the Government is taking this forward as a priority throughout Scotland. However, I maintain my position that Bears Way is extremely badly designed and I do not believe it serves the best interests of cyclists, motorists or pedestrians.

I know it is unlikely you will agree with me on this, but I hope you respect my position.

My reply:

Hi Rona,

Many thanks for your reply. Of course I respect your position on this, 

however I do wholeheartedly disagree with it. As someone who finds phase 

1 Bears Way the safest and most enjoyable part of their commute, I find 

it hard to understand what problems with phase 1 would justify a 

moratorium on the design and implementation of phase 2, something that 

the crash data demonstrate is desperately needed.

I would be the first, and probably was the first 

(http://www.magnatom.net/2015/05/bears-way-heaven-or-hell.html & 

http://www.magnatom.net/2015/05/bears-way-not-for-everyone.html) to 

criticise some aspects of Bears Way. It certainly isn't perfect. 

However, it is far superior to what was there before. As I have ridden 

on it over time, and seen others (including many children) riding on it, 

I have come to realise that despite its minor flaws, it is a huge 

benefit to those who use it and who could potentially use it, if it was 

finished.

Just recently the Cycle Embassy of Great Britain, a well respected UK 

wide campaign group, rode on the lane and gave it its approval 

(https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/blog/2017/10/13/a-glasgow-excursion-the-cycling-embassy-agms-third-infrastructure-safari).

Considering that the overwhelming majority of the cycling community 

support the extension of the cycle lane (I could provide a list of 

organisations if you require it), could you please list for me what 

issues that the EDC SNP group have with phase 1? Also, if the resolution 

of the issues on phase 1 are all that is holding up phase 2, can I ask 

what work your councillors have been conducting, and what internal 

communications they have been making on behalf of constituents to 

resolve these issues? I have seen a lot of public discussion with 

regards to the shared space on Kirkintilloch (which I might add, I am 

not a huge fan of), but absolutely nothing with regards to progressing 

Bears Way.