Bristol cycling safety to be debated by city councillors

Members of the public are free to attend the debate next week and submit questions or statements to the council

Councillors will debate next week how Bristol can be made safer for cyclists.

It comes after thousands of people signed a petition calling for more bike lanes, secure storage and training schemes.

About 2,000 cyclists also took part in a demonstration at the start of October called Big Ride for Safer Cycling.

Bristol City Council will debate how the city's infrastructure could be upgraded, at a full council meeting on 8 November.

Campaigners are calling for a comprehensive network of safe cycling routes throughout the city, rather than what they call the "piecemeal" current bike lanes, many of which do not clearly join up with other routes or stop suddenly, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

A map of an "aspirational cycle network" for Bristol by campaigners

Three years ago, Bristol City Council published a wide-ranging new transport plan, setting out how travelling around the city would be made better.

This plan mentioned that transport chiefs at the council would publish a new cycling strategy "in the near future", but this has yet to be published.

It is understood the delays to publishing a new cycling strategy were due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the government introducing a new emergency pot of funding for councils to install new temporary bike lanes during lockdown.

• Cycle paths plan to 'significantly' improve city

• Van driver avoids jail for punching cyclist unconscious

• Bristol mayor says new cycle lane has 'messed up' bus route

In August, a cycle lane was removed from a stretch of Cheltenham Road and the pavement made wider, a move criticised by cycling campaigners and the National Federation of the Blind, which said more cars parking on the pavement as a result was dangerous for visually impaired people.

Ian Pond, chair of the Bristol Cycling Campaign, said: "With the removal of the bike lane on Cheltenham Road and the threat on Whiteladies Road, we feel there seems to be a retrograde step in the approach towards cycling - at a time when the nation and the city want to encourage people away from the car and towards public transport, walking and cycling."

Bristol City Council is investing some money into installing new bike lanes and paths. At the start of October, it installed a new bike path in Stoke Park.

Upgrades are also planned for Park Row, Old Market, the Bristol Bridge and a long section of Concorde Way.

However, Mr Pond said that many people felt discouraged from cycling because of concerns about safety.

"We have seen progress in Bristol with short sections of cycleways but they don't join up very well," he said.

Members of the public are free to attend the debate next week from 18:00 GMT.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]