Campaigners have criticised the removal of planned cycling and walking improvements in Muller Road.
City councillors approved the next step of proposals for more bus lanes on Muller Road in Lockleaze.
But Bristol Cycling Campaign is furious that plans announced in 2018 to make active travel easier and safer on the route that links north Bristol with the M32 have been dropped.
The council’s transport and connectivity policy committee voted 8-0, with one abstention, to proceed with the revised second phase of the project by submitting an outline business case (OBC) for almost £1million to create bus lanes on the bottom half of Muller Road, from the railway bridge near Shaldon Road to Heath Road.
If it goes ahead, there will be sections of 12-hour bus lanes on both sides of the road.
Transport improvements are needed because of housing development in Lockleaze.
A report to the committee in December said the plans also included a new pedestrian crossing next to Fairfield High School, installing bollards between Shaldon Road and Elmcroft Crescent to limit private vehicles while allowing access for walking and cycling, and a raised table at the junction with Stottbury Road.
It said these measures would ‘help encourage active travel users by providing a safe environment to walk and cycle, as well as reduce the likelihood of accidents’.
But Bristol Cycling Campaign chairman Ian Pond told the meeting that this was ‘misleading’.
He said: “We are extremely disappointed that walking and cycling has been dropped and is ‘out of scope’ of the OBC that’s been published.
“We propose that the OBC should be rejected.”
In a written statement to councillors he added: “Muller Road is currently a cycle-hostile road for only the brave and bold cyclist. We called for action to be taken to address this.
“We are extremely disappointed to read that following the consultation there have been no revisions to take advantage of the opportunity to change this.”
The committee report said the original scheme included more segregation for cycling than bus lanes but that this would have led to the loss of between 28 and 53 trees and the need to acquire third-party land on the section over the hill, so it was rejected and replaced with the new proposals.
The first phase of the Muller Road project was completed in December 2023.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service