Next meeting: Friday 27th August 2010

Our guest speaker for the August meeting is Anthony Wright, Sustrans Manager for Norfolk and Suffolk. Anthony will be talking about development of the National Cycle Network in Suffolk including signing and funding issues.

Meet at 7 pm on Friday 27th August 2010 at the Westerfield Railway public house.

Address:

Westerfield Railway Public House
Westerfield Road
Westerfield
Ipswich
IP6 9AA

Gavin Turk leads Les Bikes du Bois Rond

As part of Fleet: Art in the Haven Ports, acclaimed Young British Artist Gavin Turk, a contemporary of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, organised a 17 mile ride from Ipswich’s maritime to Felixstowe’s Languard Fort.

May of the bikes used were part of Gavins art collection.

This footage is close up and shows the art in action, as the participants cross the A14 slip road near Ravenswood Ipswich. The route followed Sustrans National Cycle Network Route 51.

Cycle Ipswich are calling for a cycle crossing to be installed at this site to improve safety and the speed to cross the road. The footage has been edited to remove the one minute wait before traffic is light enough to stop. This same crossing is regularly used by pupils and parents on the Nacton School Bike Train.

Proof that FixMyStreet.com works

If ever proof was needed of the effectiveness the Tim Steinberg’s MySociety experiment, it will be in my recent experiences of the FixMyStreet.com website.

Following discussion with Des P, we agreed that something needed to be done with the kerb at the top of St Nicholas Street.

So on June 28th, I logged onto www.fixmystreet.com and reported the fault. You can submit a problem anonymously. You are encouraged to post a photo, which obviously would help enginers asses the problem remotely – saving time and money.

Before

3 days later - survey evidence!

After

Response

Just three days later, the site had been surveyed, as evidenced by the spray paint.

The fix

Now, just two weeks later, we’ve got a tarmac ramp, over the kerb. It doesn’t look like a long term fix, but it has already vastly improved the ride at that junction. What I impressed by is the convenience, anonymity and response that this site offers. Hats off to Ipswich highways for monitoring and responding to the alerts. Hopefully we can have a proper party when a more permanent fix is put in place.

Conclusion

What a great website! To report a fault in your street – road surface, signage, lighting, visit www.fixmystreet.com

Community Cycle Routes

Someone mentioned that the Tourist Information Centre in Ipswich often gets request for cycle routes around town and outskirts to local villages and pleasant places. Strikes me that this is something that many people in Cycle Ipswich could benefit from. Likewise the wider cycling public.

I’ve had a go at making one using uMapper. It’s probably a bit clunky but I’ll try to improve it once I get a bit more skilled with the software. Belstead to Capel Cycle Route

If anyone else would like to make one, we could maybe create a section here to keep the links. I’m going to be adding them to my transport blog and to the Transition Ipswich wiki