Bristol’s new Clean Air Zone and planned underground metro will make cycling safer, according to council chiefs. Responding to thousands calling for more bike lanes and safer cycling infrastructure, they said a light rail network and less pollution would improve safety.
Cyclists urged Bristol City Council to install safe bike lanes at a full council meeting on Tuesday, November 8, after thousands signed a petition forcing a debate. Opposition councillors backed calls for more bike lanes, and slammed the administration’s record.
A cycling strategy for Bristol was promised by the council three years ago but has not yet been published. Many bike lanes in the city are disjointed and unconnected, or shared space with pedestrians causing conflict, and bicycle theft is rampant with few safe parking spots.
Read more: How Bristol can be made safer for cyclists to be debated next week
Cecilia Farren, a cyclist, said: “I love the freedom and exercise that cycling gives me, but most people think I’m crazy to be cycling at the age of 73 — and it shouldn’t be like this. There’s a lack of protected cycle lanes, no enforcement of 20mph zones, and illegal parking everywhere. Cyclists deserve respect and equality, and not be made to feel like second class road users.
“What plans do you have for making cycling safer for everyone, including grannies like me? I’m the only granny I know who rides a bike around Bristol. I want it to be safer for children and old people.”
Earlier this year, the council removed a bike lane on Cheltenham Road, a main route into the city centre. The removal has reportedly led to an increase in drivers parking on double yellow lines and the pavement, with little to no enforcement. A second bike lane was also proposed to be removed, on Whiteladies Road by the BBC building, but this plan was dropped after huge public criticism.
The controversy on Cheltenham Road and Whiteladies Road prompted about 2,000 people to take part in a demonstration, cycling around the city centre and calling for safer cycling infrastructure and more bike lanes. The petition was then started after the demonstration, and quickly gathered more than 3,500 signatures in support.
Ian Pond, chair of Bristol Cycling, said: “Through the tough times of the Covid lockdowns more Bristolians did choose to cycle, taking advantage of the quieter roads. However, as the traffic volumes increased again and the emergency bike lanes were removed, this has slipped away.
“Cycling is widely accessible, even to some of those with mobility impairment. It has a low entry cost and very low running costs, but it is not adopted by many primarily because of safety concerns. We and our supporters are petitioning you to make it safer and easier.”
As well as a comprehensive city-wide network of bike lanes, campaigners are calling for a proper bike share scheme, on-street cycle hangars, free training, more school streets, wayfinding signposts, and secure cycle parking at transport hubs and destinations.
According to Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, the “biggest thing we could ever do” to improve safety for cyclists is to bring in the new Clean Air Zone and reduce air pollution levels. He added that he found it “very difficult to get anything done quickly” with Bristol's highways team.
Cllr Alexander said: “My experience over the last 18 months of being in this role is that it’s very difficult to get anything done quickly in highways. The Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan is our guiding strategy and a West of England document. We’re handing over most of our strategy work to the region. It’s been effective, bringing in money for Princess Victoria Street, Cotham Hill, Park Row and a Liveable Neighbourhood in east Bristol.
“I want to slightly push back on the suggestion that we haven’t got that much done, I spend a disproportionate amount of my time on cycling. If we’re talking about safety for cycling, probably the biggest thing we could ever do is provide people with clean air to breathe when they’re exercising and going across the city. Leading up to the end of 2023 we’ll no longer have illegal levels of pollution, anywhere in the city.”
Elsewhere, the council is planning to build a new cycling centre in Lawrence Weston. The £14 million cycling centre would help people safely learn how to ride a bicycle, as well as include a closed-circuit racing track. It would replace the Bristol Family Cycling Centre in Hengrove Park, and that site could then be used for building new housing.
Recently the council claimed there were 75 miles of segregated cycling lanes across the city, a claim contested by Green Cllr David Wilcox, shadow cabinet member for transport. He added other newly planned schemes have yet to see any construction work actually begin.
Cllr Wilcox said: “The current administration promised a cycling strategy in 2019 and somehow it was forgotten from the 2021 mayoral manifesto. The administration proudly states that they have delivered 75 miles of segregated cycleways, but I could find only a maximum of 12 miles of cycleway dedicated to cycling. The rest has conflict designed in from the start as it is shared with pedestrians. Maybe they meant segregated from reality.
“Other Labour-led councils like Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff are streets ahead of us in delivering infrastructure for cyclists. These cities have shown strong bold leadership and are prepared to make difficult decisions when needed. We believe Bristol deserves this too.
“This city has a problem delivering even the schemes it has budgeted for. The Active Travel Tranche 3 Schemes for Upper Maudlin Street, Old Market and Cotham Hill were approved by the cabinet in September last year. Yet only Cotham Hill has been partially completed; the others have yet to break ground. This council needs to start taking the opportunity to work with Active Travel England seriously or face a needless loss of funding.”
One city which has seen a huge increase in segregated bike lanes since the pandemic is Paris, with more than 100 miles of new bike lanes planned. Asked why Bristol couldn’t act with similar ambition, deputy mayor Craig Cheney said the city needed an underground metro.
Cllr Cheney said: “To be able to do something similar to Paris, and many other modern cities, we need an equivalent public transport network — which is why we have the ambition for a mass transit system. It will transform transport in Bristol.”
Last month Bristol mayor Marvin Rees pledged to spend a further £15 million on plans for a new mass transit system, which would include an underground railway network. He declined to answer questions about how exactly that money would be spent. Plans for an underground were first revealed in 2017, and construction was initially due to start this year.
But amid long delays and doubts about whether the underground will ever actually be built, Cllr Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, suggested that money could be better spent on improving walking and cycling infrastructure in Bristol, or even “digging a hole and throwing the money in”.
Cllr Weston said: “What would make [safer cycling] more deliverable is if the council stops squandering money on transport schemes that are never going to happen. £15 million on an underground feasibility study is just a pipedream, a literal pipedream. Any time I hear the word ‘underground’, I think of the Simpsons: ‘monorail, monorail, monorail’.
“It’s never going to happen, but that money could make a massive difference if it was actually put into schemes that could make a positive improvement, such as a cycling path, bus improvements, or pedestrian improvements. But it will never come to anything. We may as well literally dig a hole in the ground and throw the money in.”
