Bikes, Barriers & Breakthroughs

We hosted the CTC/CCN Spring Cycle Campaigns Conference on 21 May 2005. We had excellent speakers, great discussions, superb food and even the odd beer or two. The Mayor of Godalming gave a welcome speech, and then we went straight into our speaker programme with:-

• Mayer Hillman of the Policy Studies Institute talked about cycling and climate change
• Philip Darnton of Cycling England described how Cycling England plans to tackle the future
• Alex Sully of Transport Initiatives Ltd spoke about the work being doen on revising the 'Cycle Friendly Infrastructure' guide
• Simon Pratt of Sustrans described their work in the south-east
• CTC/CCN National Projects Awards ceremony introduced by John Franklin and presented by Mayer Hillman
• Sue Sharp of the Department for Transport talked about the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995
• Alix Stredwick of the Women's Design Service showed how cycling for women was being tackled in London
• Alec McCalden of Godalming Cycle Campaign took a view on the way forward from the A3 Hindhead inquiry in 2004
• Will Ward with Alan Fordham, both from Surrey County Council, described opportunities in the Local Transport Plan from 2006 to 2011
• Kevin Mayne of the CTC gave a closing overview

Stuart Reid, who manages the Sustainable Communities Group of the Transport Research Laboratory, chaired the conference.

Mayer Hillman's book (with Tina Fawcett) "How We Can Save the Planet" is something you simply have to read if you have any interest in climate change - which means all of us! It's available at Amazon now. This is a serious book, well researched, and puts forward with enthusiasm the twin concepts of Contraction & Convergence, and of personal carbon rationing, as the only possible way to deal with climate change. It's a book you should read and then persuade five other people to read, including your MP.

Four groups won the national awards for exceptional projects - have a look at the full citations.

Alix Stredwick gave a inspiring talk on Cycling for Women and the recent year long project in Camden and Lambeth in London. The full details are at Women's Design Service, where you can also contact the group to ask for a copy of the CD-ROM describing the work.

The full text (pdf, 56kb) of Alec McCalden's talk about Hindhead is available if you missed it first time, along with the slides either as simple images or as a 'flash' movie file (care - it's 16Mb). And there is also the text of the Highways Agency reply (pdf 40kb), and the National Trust statement (pdf 28kb).

Will Ward, the Local Transportation Director for Runnymede in Surrey, gave a description of how the Local Transport Plan for 2006 - 2011 could work out, and how cycling should be part of it. Have a look also at Surrey's web pages on cycling.

Simon Pratt, the South-East regional manager for Sustrans, described developments happening on the National Cycle Network.

Sue Sharp's presentation about the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, and as updated in 2005, showed how the legislation impacts on cyclists and cycling policies.

If you came, please tell us what you thought!

Page last updated 3 August 2005 by Webmaster.