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Has Newcastle cycle spending neglected poorer areas?River Tyne (Rob Bishop-Wikimedia Commons

Has Newcastle cycle spending neglected poorer areas?

Councillor says funding should be directed so as to tackle inequalities
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Dec 22, 2018 15:25
10

Newcastle City Council has responded to suggestions that cycling investment has been too focused on wealthy areas by suggesting that the Department for Transport’s (DfT) system for handing out funding encourages it to focus on locations where cycling is already popular, reports Chronicle Live.

One of eight cities to have benefited from Cycle City Ambition funding, Newcastle has invested £16.3m on a series of schemes, including on John Dobson Street, the Gosforth Corridor, and Brandling Village.

Speaking to a finance and budget monitoring scrutiny sub-committee this week, Councillor Steve Fairlie, who represents Callerton and Throckley, argued that poorer areas are being overlooked.

"If you look at Elswick or Benwell, I would think that those are top of the list because they have some of the lowest car ownership and greatest deprivation.

“We are supposed to spend money on tackling inequalities. It is great having these cycle routes, but they are not in the areas where we will tackle inequalities – that should underpin our spending priorities.

"There seems to be a mismatch between what the DfT thinks and what we think. Cycling to work is great if you have a regular job with regular hours in the city centre, and you work in an office sat on your backside all day.

"But I represent the outer west and the people around me work all over the place – they work in Cramlington or at Nissan."

Rob Snowball, the council's senior specialist transport planner, said the DfT's system for handing out funding encouraged investment in locations where cycling was already popular. He said the argument was that these are areas where there is "value for money" even though it "forgets the wider health benefits".

He did however add that the council is seeking to develop a wider cycle network for the city.

Fairlie said: "There are six or seven major housing schemes in my ward that we are trying to integrate into the existing community. It is not all about the city centre.

"Cycling has to be a big part of that, we need to link it all up and make a wider network. It just takes one pinch point where you can't cycle to knock out the whole journey."

Newcastle
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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10 comments

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exilegareth | 5 years ago
2 likes

I'm a bit baffled about Elswick and Benwell being lobbed into a debate started by a councillor from Callerton. Route 72 runs along the riverside and serves Elswick and Benwell - there are probably issues about how you get to 72 across Scotswood Road, but it doesn't strike me as a remark based on any depth of knowledge.   Similarly I'd wonder if the original councillor knows that Route 10 runs through his patch - if he did his point about Cramlington would be well made, because getting across Seaton Burn roundabout, despite the recent improvements, is still a nightmare.

Generally though the councillors are illustrating what most people know about scrutiny committees, - councillors often don't know a lot about the topics they're scrutinizing, and make shallow, ill-informed points that only serve to illustrate the breadth of their ignorance.

Avatar
number9dream | 5 years ago
3 likes

I commute most days into/through Newcastle but not using these routes as would be the case for the majority of current commuters. This infrastruture however is well designed and safe in comparison to similar schemes elsewhere and seems to be placed in such a way as to encourage a step change increase in cycle commuting along key routes into the city where there is alredy substantial cycle commuting but also where it is not safe or encouraging for people to leave the cars behind. Spending what are limited funds elsewhere  would dilute the impact and therefore this seems a sensible use of the funds. Other areas of the city although they may be less affluent have less demand as there simply isnt the daily traffic from buburb to city centre. No amount of infrastructure spending would change this.  

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Dnnnnnn replied to number9dream | 5 years ago
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number9dream wrote:

Other areas of the city although they may be less affluent have less demand as there simply isnt the daily traffic from buburb to city centre. No amount of infrastructure spending would change this.  

I'd be interested to know if there was any decent evidence about the potential demand for cycling among different groups. We know (I think) that women are deterred by safety issues, in particular, but it maybe there are other socio-economic, ethnicity and cultural issues too.

London cycle commuters are said to be disproportionately white, male and middle class - I suspect this holds elsewhere too. Would be interesting to know if there was much more research into the extent and reasons though.

Avatar
HoarseMann replied to number9dream | 5 years ago
0 likes

number9dream wrote:

I commute most days into/through Newcastle but not using these routes as would be the case for the majority of current commuters. This infrastruture however is well designed and safe in comparison to similar schemes elsewhere and seems to be placed in such a way as to encourage a step change increase in cycle commuting along key routes into the city where there is alredy substantial cycle commuting but also where it is not safe or encouraging for people to leave the cars behind. Spending what are limited funds elsewhere  would dilute the impact and therefore this seems a sensible use of the funds. Other areas of the city although they may be less affluent have less demand as there simply isnt the daily traffic from buburb to city centre. No amount of infrastructure spending would change this.  

Yep. John Dobson Street used to be a horrible place to cycle, dual carriageway through a dark tunnel under a tower block. There were ASL boxes at the traffic light cross roads, but I had a bus driver cut me up there, then pull into the bus stop. When I spoke to him about it, he was adamant the ASL box meant “cyclists dismount and use the pedestrian crossing”. The alternative was riding illegally down pedestrianised Northumberland Street. So I think it’s money well spent there.

On the few occasions I passed through Benwell and Elswick I saw no other cyclists, but got verbal and egged once, and had a firework rocket shot at me on another occasion (they missed). That was many years ago though.

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Geordietrout | 5 years ago
2 likes

Councillor Fairlie makes a good point. The areas that have seen this investment are affluent. It does seem a bit unfair that none of this money found its way to some of the more deprived areas. Wouldnt it be a good thing to encourage cycling in these areas which have some of the lowest life expectancies in Europe? Health issues aside.. If road cycling were to be seen by the lower income areas as something more than a rich mans pursuit we may see even more success in the future. 

Avatar
Zebulebu | 5 years ago
1 like

I know nothing about Newcastle or its cycling demographics, but I do know one thing - Rob Snowball might be the best name I have ever heard

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Dnnnnnn replied to Zebulebu | 5 years ago
1 like

Zebulebu wrote:

I know nothing about Newcastle or its cycling demographics, but I do know one thing - Rob Snowball might be the best name I have ever heard

Maybe so - but when things get hot, he's a total melt.

Avatar
HoarseMann | 5 years ago
1 like

I think they have focused on the right areas initially. Mainly the places with high student populations, who are definitely going to be commuting into the city's university campuses.

Although the West End would seem like a good candidate due to low car ownership and not being served by the Metro, the question that needs to be asked is bike ownership high in these areas?

Certainly when I was living there, Elswick and Benwell were areas where you kept your wits about you when cycling through for fear of no longer being a bike owner!

Avatar
roadmanshaq replied to HoarseMann | 5 years ago
1 like

HoarseMann wrote:

I think they have focused on the right areas initially. Mainly the places with high student populations, who are definitely going to be commuting into the city's university campuses. Although the West End would seem like a good candidate due to low car ownership and not being served by the Metro, the question that needs to be asked is bike ownership high in these areas? Certainly when I was living there, Elswick and Benwell were areas where you kept your wits about you when cycling through for fear of no longer being a bike owner!

 

Seems to me that bike ownership rises in proportion to how safe and convenient riding one is so this is fallacious reasoning.

Avatar
HoarseMann replied to roadmanshaq | 5 years ago
2 likes

roadmanshaq wrote:

HoarseMann wrote:

I think they have focused on the right areas initially. Mainly the places with high student populations, who are definitely going to be commuting into the city's university campuses. Although the West End would seem like a good candidate due to low car ownership and not being served by the Metro, the question that needs to be asked is bike ownership high in these areas? Certainly when I was living there, Elswick and Benwell were areas where you kept your wits about you when cycling through for fear of no longer being a bike owner!

 

Seems to me that bike ownership rises in proportion to how safe and convenient riding one is so this is fallacious reasoning.

True, but there were already cyclists commuting in from these initial areas. So the priority is to protect them with improved infrastructure before rolling out to other districts.

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