Participating towns and cities

United KingdomGlasgow, United Kingdom

Population:
606.000 inhabitants
Contact:
Collin Little
(++44) 0141 287 7215

Participation 2010

Activities within the week Activities within the week

Glasgow organises activities during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2010, taking into account the annual theme.

All week
Thursday 16th GCC will launch a week long commuting challenge for its employees. Coinciding with the challenge will be the first announcement of Glasgow City Council’s plans to adopt the cycle to work scheme and the opportunity for staff to pre register interest in the scheme. This is also the day of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Glasgow where considerable transport challenges have been overcome, including closure to private motor vehicles of the M77 motorway through the city to manage the transport of an estimated 85,000 attendees of the open air mass.

On Friday 17th a number of Glasgow’s elected members will invite members of the public to join the open led ride through the city and give them an opportunity to find out more about sustainable transport in Glasgow and how they could travel differently.

There will be a road closure on Saturday 18th to allow the opening of the first half kilometre of segregated cycle way and to help the community envisage the completed facility via on-street chalking in of the next phase. A Gala day will take place at the “Bridge to Nowhere”, and will be the focal point of the day. This will include active travel information, a led ride from Kelvingrove Park to the Gala, and a jazz band to add that party atmosphere.

A “Try Cycling” event in the east of the city on Sunday 19th will heavily feature promotional information on sustainable transport in the city. Sunday’s event will encourage people to try cycling on a variety of bikes and remind them that they never forget how, making them think about what travel options are open to them. This also ties into GCC’s Smarter Choices Smarter Places campaign currently running in the east of the city which, through a mixture of new infrastructure and marketing, is encouraging residents to travel more on foot, bike and public transport to help tackle the serious health and economic problems in this area of Glasgow.

Also over the weekend Glasgow’s TRAFFCOM centre will open its doors to the public to see how the road network is controlled from a central location and priority is given to public transport whilst traffic incidents can be managed swiftly to reduce congestion and its associated environmental and economic impact.

Monday 20th will see the launch of new cycle parking shelters in 7 schools. These shelters aim to encourage more pupils to travel to school actively and independently, setting behaviour trends for the future.

On Tuesday, a debate will take place at Glasgow Caledonian University between two of the City’s primary schools, leading the pupils to think about how their families travel choices affect the wider world and encouraging them to make positive changes. There will also be the launch of the refurbished National Cycle Route 75 and Clyde walkway which has been subject to considerable surface upgrades.

In Town Without My Car Day on Wednesday 22nd will see the closure of Frederick Street in the city centre. The closed street will feature a grass picnic area for walkers and cyclists to enjoy their lunch, electric cars from the GCC fleet, opportunity for drivers try to modify their driving with the eco driving simulator and vehicles from Glasgow’s car club which aims to remove between 6 and 20 private vehicles from the road for every car club car, a much smarter way to travel.

Throughout the week led walks will be organised across the city helping citizens to embrace the open spaces of Glasgow and rediscover the benefits of walking. Participants will be encouraged to consider walking as a travel mode in the future.

Permanent measures Permanent measures

Glasgow implements one or more new permanent measure(s), which contribute(s) to modal transfer from private car to environmentally sound means of transport.

New or improved bicycle facilities
Improvement of bicycle network (creation of new lanes, extension, renovation, signposting etc)
Improvement of bicycle facilities (parking, locks etc)
New forms of vehicle use and ownership
Launch of online car-pooling and car-sharing schemes
Responsible car-use (eco-driving etc)
Use of clean vehicles

Car-free day Car-free day

Glasgow carries out a Car-Free Day 2010 and closes off one or more streets to traffic, and opens it to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.

Zone opened to residents on Car-Free Day:
Two zones have been restricted to the private car during the week. On Saturday 18th as part of the Connect2 cycle route opening a section of road due to receive new cycle infrastructure will be closed to allow the local community to draw the new route onto the ground and include it in the opening cycle precession along the completed first stage of the project.
In Town Without My Car Day shall see the closure of Frederic Street in the city centre for the whole day. The closure will be used to promote alternative personal transport measures that don’t require a private fossil fuelled car.