Bristol
Greater Bristol is England’s first Cycling City and the recipient of nearly a quarter of the overall funds for the Cycling City and Towns Programme during 2008-11. With a substantial number of short car journeys in Greater Bristol – 45,000 daily car trips to work are less than three miles in length, representing 50 per cent of total trips – there is considerable potential for behaviour change.
Greater Bristol’s Cycling City strategy is being delivered by a partnership of Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council. The cycling strategy consists of a series of major infrastructure initiatives and a programme of ‘Smarter Choices’ measures, designed to offer people the information, motivation and training they need to take up cycling.
In terms of infrastructure, Bristol City Council built/improved 19 new paths and junctions in the first half of 2010. South Gloucestershire Council also completed a similar number of projects in that period.
There are several projects in development at the moment, such as Hartcliffe Way and the Connect 2 Cycling City route that links the Create Centre (an environment and learning centre) to the University of West of England’s Bower Ashton Campus. This will be a largely traffic-free route giving families, leisure-seekers, commuters and students a safer and more direct way to travel by bike to and from the historicAshton Court park estate and one of the key University campuses. The paths that have already been built are being well used - St Werburgh’s bike path sees over 5,800 cycle journeys each month, an increase of around 2,000 journeys (56 per cent) compared with before the improved route was built.
Work has started on additional infrastructure design and development, including a safe cycle route on the A38 – one of the busiest and most congested traffic routes in the area – to make cycling between the main places of employment, education, shopping and housing easier and safer for residents. By March 2011, work will have been completed on almost 50 roads or cycle paths.
New cycle parking has been provided at over 20 sites, including Bristol Parkway station, with over 900 on-street bicycle parking stands installed across the city providing space for 1,800 bicycles. A pilot bike hire scheme has also been launched with 40 hire bikes available at eight locations in and around Bristol. In addition to this the council has 100 loan bikes available for businesses in central Bristol.
The Cycling City team is also making headway on two large 20mph speed limit pilot areas proposed within Bristol. Working closely with the Primary Care Trust (PCT) the areas have been selected to ensure they tackle health deprivation concerns and casualty numbers at the same time as increasing cycling. The project will focus particular attention on communities identified through social research, which identifies people who are most likely to take up cycling. Work started in April 2010, with an expected completion date of July 2010.
A business engagement programme, including Personalised Travel Planning, is currently being rolled out in Bristol, based on initial conversations with 30 employers and trade bodies. This includes surveys of businesses to assess potential demand for cycling. A number of high profile companies, such as the Ministry of Defence, Rolls Royce, Burgess Salmon, DAS and the Highways Agency have signed up to the Cycling City’s workplace programme – ‘Gear Up.’
In 2009 Cycling City was involved with 50 events that helped to promote cycling and healthy living. The biggest success was Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride which saw 7,000 people taking part – a 40 per cent increase from 2008.
2010 is seeing Bristol gear up for a year of high profile cycling activity, including Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride in June (expected to attract 10,000 riders to the city’s streets) and the UK’s first bike based carnival and fortnight-long Cycle Festival in September. 2010 will also see the launch of Bike Back - Bristol’s bike recycling project - and a collaborative project with national charity Cycling Projects to get disabled adults and children on their bikes.
The team’s work with schools and parents in Bristol and South Gloucestershire has also been a success. There are now 55 Bike It schools in the area and over 9,000 children have taken part in Bikeability training. Four Bike It officers have been recruited and 20 Bike It schools have received funding to install cycle parking facilities which are now in place, with three schools already requesting additional parking space due to increased cycling levels.
A new initiative, the Concorde project, has begun in South Gloucestershire with the aim of providing cycle connector routes between secondary schools in the area - allowing pupils to travel to lessons between schools as part of their curriculum. The new routes will be used in conjunction with Bikeability training and Bike It activities in order to familiarise new pupils and parents with the routes and to encourage sustainable modes of travel before the transition to secondary school.
In addition to these initiatives, Bristol Primary Care Trust has launched a five year ‘Active Bristol’ programme (to run 2008 to 2013). To ensure the cycling programme is well integrated within this, the PCT has funded two Bike It Officers to work on school engagement activity.
Visit www.betterbybike.info for more information.
