As we prepare to face the judges at the Dragon's Den -style contest for GeoVation on May 4th, we're encouraged that more support is continuing to come in.
CPRE (The Campaign to Protect Rural England) work actively on transport matters amongst other issues around the UK.
They have added their support:
"The Campaign to Protect Rural England is delighted to be able to support the CycleStreets GeoVation Challenge bid. We have been working with local communities and parish councils to increase travel options in rural areas as part of our Transport Toolkit project, which was featured in the Department for Transport's Local Transport White Paper earlier this year. Through this work we have found there is a real need for new on-line collaboration tools to help improve conditions for cycling. We believe these innovative proposals would be a huge step forward not just for cycling campaign groups but for others engaged at the local level who seek to improve the range of sustainable travel choices."
– Ralph Smyth, Senior Transport Campaigner, CPRE
Also, the creator of the heavily-used OpenCycleMap map, Andy Allan, has written on his blog about "The Problem of Cycle Complaining" and supporting our bid.
He describes our bid as "a hugely important step forward for all cycle campaigning groups". He hits the nail on the head, recognising the same problems that we and other groups around the country have found, as this extract explains:
If a cycle group want to approach a council to convert one-way roads into two-way, they are unlikely to have the traffic simulations to show the five most useful changes. There’s just a huge gulf in tools and technologies available to each side, so when the only way things work is for one side to suggest and the other to accept/refuse, it’s easier to see where so much reactionary complaining comes from.
Enter the guys behind CycleStreets, with their “Helping campaigners campaign” proposal. You can read it for yourself, but in summary is a web-based tool to track, manage and develop solutions to infrastructure problems facing cyclists. While it’s not a panacea for everything I’ve discussed, I think it’s a hugely important step forward for all cycle campaigning groups. Their proposal has been short-listed for the GeoVation awards finals in two weeks’ time and I wish them the best of luck, the funding from that would really kick things off. If you want to show your support then go for it, through your blogs, twitter or however you see fit. Even if they don’t manage the grand prize I hope to see their proposals come to fruition in the near future, especially given their track record of getting things done. I hope to get the opportunity to help their ideas see the light of day – it will be an excellent tool to help turn cycle complaining into the results we want to see.
CPRE and Andy Allan of OpenCycleMap join other supporters of the bid:
- Cyclenation, the national federation of cycle campaign groups
- CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation
- London Cycling Campaign
- Richmond Cycling Campaign
- Bristol
- Pedals (Nottingham Cycling Campaign)
- Dublin Cycling Campaign
- Cambridge Cycling Campaign
- Spokes – the Lothian Cycle Campaign
- Spokes (East Kent Cycle Campaign)
- Loughborough & District Cycle Users' Campaign
- Push Bikes, the Birmingham Cycling Campaign
- CycleSheffield
Read their quotes of support in section 10 our full bid document.
If you're free on 4th May, we'd love you to come to the GeoVation Showcase to support us (and vote for us for the additional Community Prize!). It's a daytime event on the south coast, so we're aware it may not be easy for people to come to, but do come should you happen to be free. There are a number of other interesting projects, so it will be a good chance to hear about them and mingle and network with other innovators.
Get your free ticket here: http://geovationshowcase2011.eventbrite.com/
Here's a great picture of many of the people whose ideas got through to the shortlisting stage of GeoVation:
Photo credit: GeoVation blog
