In a plan to get around one fifth of all commuters to get into cycling by 2020, Bristol’s city council has announced a fund worth £35 million plan.
The authority plans to raise the usage of commuters using cycles as means of transport to work to 20 per cent from the current nine per cent through a number of improvements in the infrastructure, including cycling tracks which are more segregate.
Among its major initiatives, the council plans to use its funds and other grants to build commuter “corridors” towards north, north west, east and south.
Routes such as Feeder Road and Gloucester Road would be made safer with Dutch-style cycling lanes wherever possible along with plans of transforming the city centre and access to the new Enterprise Zone. Besides, the authority also looks to set up an independent driving force – ‘cycling advocate’.
The proposed changes that looks to change Bristol’s cycling culture are detailed in a new document called the Cycling Strategy were launched today. This is likely to be the only one of its kind other than present in London. The council now seeks views of public before putting the proposal document up for consultation.
Today’s statement comes around a year after the pressure group named the Bristol Cycling Campaign initiated its Cycling Manifesto. The council has now officially adopted the Manifesto, which includes plans cycle-ways spread across 200 miles in the city, some of which segregated as well.
According to the proposals laid out in the Cycling Manifesto, the authority plans to invest around £16 a year per person in Bristol for the improvement of cycling lanes. The total fund of £35 that is to be utilised over a period of five years has already been secured by the council.
Also, projects that have been approved under the plan include cycle street from Lawrence Weston to Avonmouth, a cycling lane between Temple Meads and Crews Hole via Feeder Road and Whitchurch Railway road’s extension.
