Nick Wallis has some photos on his blog of some of the work on bike infrastructure currently in progress in the town: On the bike 1 and On the bike 2.
Highlights for me include the “hole in the wall” behind M&S which will connect the tucan crossing over the ring road from Russell Street with the back of M&S and the East Street. Once completed, this will allow me to access the Pedestrian Heart from North Road without having to cross the Northgate roundabout. If the path along the river is ever extended past Magnet, a huge proportion of the population from the east end of town will be able to get from home to the town centre without having to ride on a main road.
This was discussed at this week’s Cycle Forum, and that is the aim. The only difficulty is highly industrial Valley Street, which has so many HGVs using it. The plan is traffic calming and a 20mph zone.
The Cycling Campaign should be consulting with the council soon about near future cycle routes again, so maybe a few thinking caps for this one – my preference is a 20mph zone with markings that give cyclists some form of priority on a shared space, and maybe a warning sign for HGVs to be considerate when using our shared space. As a campaign we could even do a door to door about it with businesses – or maybe Louise should do that as she’s much more diplomatic!