Bay Gateway - 5 Year Review
/Cycling UK recently had the opportunity to comment on the five year review of the Lancaster Northern Relief Road. We are extremely grateful to the County Councillor with responsibility for Highways and Transport for ensuring that our contribution was possible.
Summary of Cycling UK Comments
Lancaster has experienced a considerable reduction in levels of cycling over the past decade, and whilst some of this decline may be due to the construction of the Lancaster Northern Relief Road it is unlikely that this is the only factor. Cycling UK believes that gradual changes to the road network in and around Lancaster city centre have also progressively made Lancaster more dangerous, and therefore considerably more undesirable, for cycling. This has resulted in considerably lower levels of cycling in Lancaster compared to a decade ago. There are also several issues identified in the Lancaster Northern Relief Road that the council should aim to avoid in future projects. Several recommendations are made for the future to avoid similar problems from being repeated.
Cycling UK recommends that Lancashire County Council adopts a road danger reduction approach rather than the conventional “road safety” based approach, which seeks to achieve safer roads for all users by reducing the sources of danger on the roads.
Cycling UK recommends that where an entirely new junction is built, or an existing junction completely remodelled, key routes for walking and cycling are laid as tunnels under the junction prior to its construction, rather than providing multiple stage crossings at the same level as the motorised traffic.
Cycling UK recommends that where practical cycleways along roads with high traffic speeds (> 60 km/h) should be located with some space between them and the traffic lanes to improve the user experience.
Cycling UK recommends that any staff involved in the design of major active travel projects should be required to ride existing routes so that they can identify problem areas and avoid similar ones in future projects.
Cycling UK recommends that future Park and Ride schemes are fully integrated into the local transport system, with appropriate facilities for a variety of modes of transport into the city centre.