Tag Archive for ‘bike’ at scatterdrum

Tag Archive for 'bike'

Papergirl Manchester: like art? like cycling? then this is for you …

Published

on Wednesday, August 18, 2010

. 1 Comment

I am hoping to take part in this fantastic art project which started in Berlin and now comes to Manchester in September. I need to find time to print up some of my latest photography work (one print I’m submitting has just been shortlisted for an award but I’m not allowed to announce what just yet). I am determined to find time to support such a terrific idea.

To get involved you can donate an hour or two and become an art distributer via bicycle or you can create and donate your artistic work. Or both. This art can be anything; any subject (within decency realms), any quantity, originals, prints, photos, copies etc. all are welcome. Details of how to submit are here. Work should be between A4 and A1 in size. The Deadline is 1st September 2010.

Each distributed art roll will contain several different works, so each one holds a unique combination of works.

The bike bit is designed to mean the art will go to anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of the cycle route at the time, so it’s completely random and without stereotype. It fits with the quirky nature of the project and allows art to become public art.

All work will be exhibited at Nexus Cafe, Manchester prior to distribution and some contributors work is being featured over on the Papergirl tumblr site right this minute …. so get along and have a shufty.

The project is on twitter and has been featured over at central station creative network. You can read more about the original Berlin project here (don’t worry if your German is a little rusty there is an English translation).

Finally, if Ms Papergirl MCR (Janice?) reads this, I have two questions:

1) Can I buy a Papergirl MCR tee-shirt? I see Berlin had one and it’s lovely.
2) Can cycling boys take part and be Paperboys?

Who will be crowned England’s premier Cycle City? Cycling England Funding up for grabs …

Published

gill moore

on Friday, May 23, 2008

in award, blogging, bristol, competitions, cycling, eco-friendly, environment, environmentally-friendly, green, links, manchester, photography, prize, transport, uk and united kingdom

. 0 Comments

Did anyone know that 19 towns and cities in England have reached the final shortlist in a competition to find the country’s first Cycling City and ten new Cycling Towns? I certainly didn’t, but I was delighted to see Manchester is in the pot for the Cycling City Award. The winner is to be announced in early June 2008. A list of all the shortlisted towns and cities can be found here.

There have been 6 pioneer Cycle Demonstration Towns operating a pro-cycling policy for the last 3 years. These are Aylesbury, Brighton & Hove, Darlington, Derby, Exeter, Lancaster & Morecombe.

Some of the benefits a winning area will gain are extra funding (up to £500,000), advice on best practice, access to other Cycle England funded programmes and support with promotion and monitoring.

Is it all hot air? I guess if it pushes cycling up the news headline barometer, no bad thing. To take an example from one of the previously successful “Cycle Demonstration Towns” namely Brighton, here it certainly seems to have kick-started the Council to become more cycle-friendly. They match-funded the Cycle England’s contribution, which promises a £3 million investment in cycling over the next 3 years. Brighton is a town which has seen cycling increase by 47% since 2000 and with 45% of city-workers travelling less than 3 miles, then this presents a fantastic opportunity to inform and tempt those workers to ditch the car and travel on two wheels.

UPDATE : Today it is Wednesday 18th June and still NO announcement and NO explanation on the cycle demo towns decision. I guess we’ll just have to keep watching on the Cycling England website. Of course I will post the winners as soon as the “powers-that-be” make a decision.

UPDATE TWO : Yes the decision is out this morning (Thurs 19th June 2008), Bristol is the winner, it will become the UK’s first “Cycling City”. It is probably not a massive surprise as historically Bristol has always projected a very strong supportive relationship with local cyclists and aimed to encourage cycling in the area. Sadly (for me anyway) Manchester doesn’t get a look in, it is not even on the demonstration town list of winners, those are: York, Stoke, Blackpool, Cambridge, Chester, Colchester, Leighton, Shrewsbury, Southend, Southport and Woking. Read more on this story here. Good luck to all the chosen towns and cities, hopefully this extra money will allow and encourage more people to cycle and using pedal-power becomes a more enjoyable, respected, desirable and safer experience in urban areas. There is further BBC piece here which looks at Bristol and attitudes to the city winning the award and the difference it could make.

Two cycle schemes trying to make a difference: “Ciclovia” in Bogota and the “Velib” in Paris.

Published

gill moore

on Saturday, March 22, 2008

in Uncategorized, cycling, environment, green and transport

. 0 Comments

Well, it seems cycling has been deemed newsworthy in the UK at last. Naughty David Cameron has been found running a red light and going the wrong way down a one-way street on his bike. Something I would never do of course.

In an effort to balance out this negative press I urge you to take a look at this link: www.streetfilms.org/archives/lessons-from-bogota/ or click on the youTube image below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELa5CHsUepo]

It features a short film made all about an amazing scheme called “ciclovia” in Bogota where the usually car-laden streets are given over to pedestrians and cyclists every Sunday. It has been a massive success and shows how an area can be transformed if designers put community needs at the heart of things.

The film was made by a non-profit group aiming to reclaim New York back for its people. They want to improve the quality of life and make the streets safer for all New Yorkers; pedestrians and bicycles, skaters, rollerbladers, in fact any non-vehicular modes of transport. Via their website they provide evidence to back their case and a platform for discussion and dialogue on the issue: www.streetfilms.org.

Most people do agree that we must find alternatives to the car. Ideally, we want easy, cheap, practical and acceptable modes of transport. The rise of cycling in London has been dramatic since 2000 with a reported 83% increase in journey’s by bike. It shows the desire is there to use pedal power but conditions need to be right to make it happen and attitudes need to change.

In August last year Paris introduced a scheme called “Velib”, 20,000 bikes were dotted around 750 sites within the city centre for anyone to hire. One must purchase either a subscription (£20 for unlimited use all year) or pay per trip when the first half hour is free and then the cost is roughly a euro an hour. The system operates with either a pre-validated swipe card or the users credit card which then allows quick release of any bike from the bike’s locked collection points. Bikes do not have to be returned to the same spot.

Use of the “Velib” has been high, with 1.6 million trips in the first month each bike being used roughly 30 times each day and that is despite many technical glitches suffered at the scheme’s start. The bikes also carry advertising space to subside some of the scheme’s costs. Using the bike as a portable marketing tool has encouraged advertisers to introduce schemes to Seville, Cordoba, Brussels and Vienna and is probably the most likely way a large scale scheme similar to the Parisian one may be brought to the UK.

Suprisingly, many of the Velib users are switchers from public transport rather than car-ditchers, so not quite the anticipated effect the French mayor had hoped for. However, it is still early days and has possibly started a slow sea change in opinion; the acceptance of the bike as a popular, even trendy, method of getting from A to B in a cosmopolitan and busy city. Could the UK be next to follow?