POSSIBLE new bike lanes along Gloucester Road are to be considered again after being on hold for several years.
Plans to improve cycle routes were “set on one side” because of the desire to build a a Bristol underground network.
Former mayor Marvin Rees floated the underground network idea in 2017 and it was eventually vetoed in 2023.
In the meantime, transport planners at Bristol City Council hesitated to put forward any schemes for bike lanes along Gloucester Road — one of the busiest cycling routes in the city — in case they ended up having to dig up the road again to build an underground tunnel.
However discussions between the council and the West of England Combined Authority are now about to take place over the future of Gloucester Road. An update was given to councillors on the transport policy committee on May 14 as part of discussion of wider investment in the roads around the indoor arena being built on the old Filton Airfield.
Adam Crowther, head of city transport, said: “The A38 has been set on one side because we’ve been talking about mass transit for a long time, along essentially that alignment. So there hasn’t been a push to go and do lots of bus priority and active travel schemes, like we might do on a long corridor scheme.
“Because you don’t want to do something that you then make completely different. I think we need to probably review that approach because we can’t wait forever to improve the A38. We’ll be discussing mass transit options with the combined authority and as part of that we do need to be looking at the short to medium term future of the A38.”
The cost would range between £10 million and £30 million, depending on the length of the route. Initially a light-touch scheme would focus on the problem spots and pinch points along Gloucester Road, rather than building a segregated bike path along its whole length. The road is narrow in parts, so a segregated cycle lane “probably isn’t feasible”.
The works would probably be paid for from the giant Transport for City Regions pot of funding, which the Department for Transport gave to the West of England Combined Authority last year. Over the next five years, the West of England has £752 million to improve walking, cycling and public transport routes across the wider Bristol and Bath region.
Green Councillor Emma Edwards, who represents Bishopston and Ashley Down, said: “It’s a massive cycling corridor and it’s so piecemeal. There are some bits that are great, and some bits that are absolutely horrific. There are people who won’t cycle down Gloucester Road because it doesn’t feel safe enough.”
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democray Reporting Service