Consultation on proposed new cycle lane in Brighton underway: OPINION - an important step toward providing safe cycling facilities which should be supported.

 

4 September2011. A public consultation about the proposed Old Shoreham Road Cycle Lane linking Brighton and Hove has been launched. Details and plans are available on the Council's website, where you can also register your opinion and support for the proposals. Click here.

In my opinion this scheme, though limited, is an important step toward providing the safe cycling facilities that are needed to get people cycling to school and work, and should be supported.

Vulnerable cyclists will be protected from vehicular traffic by a kerb (and also prevented from straying into traffic by this kerb). At the pinch point of the railway bridge between Wilbury Crescent and Silverdale Road, where road width is restricted, the cycle lane will become a mixed cycle and pedestrian lane. In fact, at present, along stretches of this road in the morning, you can see school kids cycling along the pavement because it is too dangerous to cycle along the road. So this scheme will be a big step in the right direction and hopefully will be extended in future.

(Amendment - earlier today I posted my opinion that this proposal needed more detail to explain how mixed pedestrian and cycle traffic would use the railway underpass at the end of the Old Shoreham Road. However, I had confused the railway underpass with the less threatening railway bridge that will be included in this scheme (between Wilbury Crescent and Silverdale Road.).

Update 15 September. Today I visited the council website again. Having thought more on this, I made this suggestion: I think the planners should get expert advice on the railway bridge pinch point. In my view they should consider a barrier on the railway bridge to separate mixed cycle-pedestrian traffic from motorised traffic. The best solution of course, is to construct a separate bridge for cyclists and pedestrians.