Leicester Sky Ride 2011

Another very successful Skyride with an estimated 14,000 riders enjoying the route.
Our stall was loaded with maps this year, thankfully, alongside general information about Sustrans' work.
The star of the show was undoubtedly Justine with the smoothie - maker.
This was the first of many customers!

The rest of us did our best to compete, including being talked into appearing on this YouTube sensation.

I guess we have several ideas to make it even better next year, but have to say a big thank-you to Rory for all his hard work getting the stuff to the site.

Route 48 signing ride

Following a welcome hot drink and plan of action at Keith Drury's house in Birstall we, including Steve Hill, set about making a detailed analysis of the requirements from our prospective for the connect 2 GI signage requirement's of route 48 north from Whiles Lane Birstall north to Rearsby village.

Keith was very organised with his recording system of folder and camera which gave Steve and myself plenty of opportunities to talk with familiar cycling faces as they passed by wondering what we were up to.

I found it quite interesting to see where the route actually goes on the Eastern side through Watermead Park since the new paths have been surfaced and bridges constructed in recent years.

I usually cycle on the Western side of King Lears lake.

- Looking at the road crossing on the Old Fosse Road near Syston Triangle.

There is a possibility of us claiming a mile post or two. One of which we thought would/could be sited adjacent to the North end car park in Watermead, the other if we get it further on into the Vale of Belvoir, more news on this at a later date.

The route through Syston has not yet been confirmed as there are a few options, which we looked at, the best being to split following the one way systems in each direction to and from Syston church where signs are in place through to Hickling Basin.

We continued to Rearsby village and found a few problem areas with existing signs which will need to be repositioned in future.

We parted company at Rearsby with plans of another ride to access the remaining section of 48 into the Vale of Belvoir sometime soon.

-Rearsby Ford

Signing ride, route 63

A beautiful spring day saw four of us at Bede Island just off the Great Central Way.  Heather, who has responsibility for route 63 from Bede Island to Glenfield and Nigel who takes over from there towards Thornton.  Rory brought along his friend Kyle who lead for much of the ride.

We found signs that needed twisting back to show the correct direction.




Signs that looked better ater the bushes had been given a good trim.

And some that just needed replacing to make the route clearer.
In all we found several places which will need further attention and a new supply of signs has been ordered.
It was a useful ride, good to have a new pair of eyes looking at our familiar routes and hopefully when the new signs arrive and are in place the route will be clearer for everyone to use.

”Cycle Route Signage” – Soar Valley GI Signage Scheme

Keith outlined this Scheme – well, the little we know about it so far - in his November 15 2010 contribution to this blog.

Rory James, Heather Massey and Richard Himan met at Keith’s house on Saturday Jan 15th to chat about the GI (Green Infracture) Signage Scheme and its implications for Sustrans and our Group’s work, and to ride some of the routes in the northern part of the affected area. There’s been no further detail of the content of the scheme yet, so we agreed to ask the County Council immediately for more detail, and for another seat at the table in the Steering Group for the Scheme for Rory to take up. We’re writing this week to the Council to that effect.

Rory cycled from home in Glen Parva to Keith’s place in Birstall - at some speed (remember the strong southerly wind on Sat 15th?)! Richard had a hard push into the wind from Loughborough. We then rode with Keith through Watermead along the unsigned part of Route 48 from Birstall to Syston, where signage rather surprisingly starts, and continues to East Goscote.

On the way, we experienced the superb new cyclepaths through Watermead Park, then the most recent tarmac paths along the Canal past the Hope and Anchor, and into Syston itself.

Building of these paths is all part of the Connect2 Scheme, but they will need

signing, which, we hope will be provided under this GI Signage Scheme. (Nothing if not complicated, these Council ways of working, but, of course, these days you grab funding wherever you can get it!)

OUT WITH THE OLD "NO BIKE" REGIME

Watermead Park is being equipped with the Council’s latest version of an entrance gate – the ‘A-frame barrier made by K Barriers Ltd. We negotiated several on the way, and, well, have mixed views about them. They may be easier to negotiate than the ‘kissing gate’ type for those using recliners, tandems and other ‘stretched’ bicycles and those towing kids bikes or trailers. Also for mobility scooters, pushchairs and pedestrians. For a ‘normal’ bike, they’re not really too much trouble but regular use would drive a commuter to take a hack saw to their handlebars. Anyway: go and see for yourselves.

The GI Signage scheme actually starts in the City Centre, and includes a link from London Road Station to the route of NCN 6 along the River Soar. But we have no details of that yet, nor of the route which it’s intended to use between the St Nicholas area and Abbey Park. When that’s clear, we may be asking for help from other Rangers to review what the Council proposes by way of signage for this – given that it interacts at least with NCN Route 6, if not Route 63 as well.”

It was a good day, and we felt we were at the start of a positive programme of works! :-))

Sustrans at the Skyride

Volunteers manned our stall throughout the day at the second Skyride Leicester.  12,500 people were recorded as cycling on the day and a good many visited the stall.  Leaflets about Sustrans were distributed alongside materials and maps provided by the local councils.  Most requested and most sadly missed item was the Leicester Cycling Map - this has been 'in production' for a prolonged period.
I have e-mailed the City Council reporting how many requests we had on the Skyride day but am still awaiting a reply.  Please mail, phone or send a letter to support our requests.
We learnt alot during the day - not least that we need paper weights to hold down the leaflets in the wind that sprung up in the afternoon.
On the whole a successful day for Sustrans and the Skyride organisers.  How lovely to see an event like this come to our city.  You may like to follow this link to see news, pictures and videos of the ride.
http://www.goskyride.com/city/details.aspx?cityid=6

Signing on route 6

The plan to cycle and check the entire route through our area was rendered less necessary by the dedicated work of the local volunteer.  We did find some places however where we felt the need to add, or clean up a sign. 
Here Peter is cleaning up a sign in Watermead park that was also partially obscured by vegetation.

We came upon this sign that was hidden behind a cherry tree.  The owner of the house was adamant that he didn't want his tree lopped so we found another solution and hopefully kept a member of the public on our side.
the problem -

and the solution -

John Woodward completes renumbering of route 70 to NCN 50

With his two sons John has spent 4 days renumbering the route using about 220 route 50 stickers. Each sign needed cleaning and he even returned to a wobbly sign to cement it properly into the ground.
He also produced a 20 point document of required improvements to the existing signs which has been taken up by Patrick.

A huge amount of work by John.