North Somerset Cycle Campaign

Maps
Free cycle maps are available from the four councils for North Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath & NE Somerset (BaNES). Cyclists have been involved in their production and campaigners' comments have been incorporated when maps have been revised before reprinting. We continue to send in comment on inaccuracies and omissions. The maps are useful and we recommend you get several for your household. Phone the cycling officer or ask at a library, council offices or bike shop. You can also assist with distributing the maps - ask for a quantity and leave them with any bike shop or other likely place. (And remove any old first-issue maps - these have no date on the front).

Warning - the maps disintegrate rapidly when wet!

If you see an error or have a comment, report it to the cycling officer at the council and communicate it to fellow cycle users via the email group.

Cycling Satisfaction Maps
We have a long term project preparing a map of North Somerset showing the quality of the roads for cycling and picking out the hazards. Some of the information already gained has been added to the council's cycling map (free from North Somerset Council).
Hazard reports detail safety hazards or inconveniences that arise from poor design or speed limits set too high.
Let us know about danger points, and where infrastructure is designed to inconvenience cyclists and push them off the road. Remember the stated policy of the council is to increase cycling and reduce motoring. Do they live up to their word?

THE HIERARCHY OF SOLUTIONS from Cycle Friendly Infrastructure - the design manual that North Somerset should be using - and say they use - do they?

“Cyclists have the road network available to them for their use. Where use of this network is rendered unattractive or dangerous by traffic conditions, there is no single correct solution to providing a suitable infrastructure for cycling and local conditions will frequently dictate which solutions are possible. However, the following hierarchy of solutions indicates the possible strategies in order of preference. Each strategy should be thoroughly considered before a solution is chosen.

1. Traffic reduction
2. Traffic calming and restraint
3. Junction treatment and traffic management
4. Redistribution of space on the carriageway
5. Cycle lanes and cycle tracks

Where special facilities are provided for cyclists these should, in principle, be taken from road space that is currently devoted to motor vehicles, rather than from pedestrians.”