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How will Bristol’s politicians improve cycling?
From pedestrianisation to dropped kerbs, and from bike hangars to bike lanes, Bristol’s politicians have explained their priorities for cycling ahead of May’s local elections.
Representatives from our city’s four main parties spoke on Queen Square following the Kidical Mass bike ride.
The ride took participants through the Old City, with work still yet to be completed on its pedestrianisation. The ride also made its way through Castle Park and across the improved junction next to Bristol Bridge, which is one of the best pieces of new cycling infrastructure in Bristol in recent years.
is needed now More than ever
Watch the speeches in full below:
Here are some edited highlights:
Don Alexander
Don Alexander is the cabinet member for transport – photo: Rob Browne
“In a few weeks’ time, the contractors will move in for about six months and we will finalise the (Old City) scheme. I just walked through there myself, and I think it’s looking really good now, and I’m very proud of it. But we’ve done an awful lot more as well.
“We’re just finishing now ‘the Old Market gap’. Along with the Old Market quietway and the Victoria Street, it will complete the cycling infrastructure from the Bristol & Bath Railway Path through to the centre and down to Temple Meads, which will be a product of many, many years of work, certainly not just mine, but an aspiration of the council over a decade or more.
“The next thing we’ve got planned are Bedminster Bridges and Bath Bridges, where designs are being worked up for active travel infrastructure. There’s no question that our repairs of bridges across the New Cut has shown that we need to reactivate and we are reactivating the plan for a new cycling and walking bridge across the New Cut.
“Let’s not forget training. Our Family Cycling Centre is having to move from its temporary site in Hengrove, so we’re setting aside £13m for a new one in Lawrence Weston, which will be a lot better.
“That’s now in the planning stages. I’m very pleased to host that in my ward, it just so happens that that’s where there was a site, I promise you.
“More important than any of these specific schemes is the work of reimagining public space and what it could be. It doesn’t have to be what it always has been, primarily for cars, be they parked or moving. There are loads of other possibilities.
“That’s where the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, for me, is so important, because it gives communities a space to discuss what could happen to their streets and the other things that could go in there that would be great for their health, active travel, and the planet, with sustainable drainage, cycle parking and street trees.
“We will be moving to the trial stage in July, we hope. July or August. We’re also working on South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood, and I’ve had requests from a number of other areas and I’m really delighted to have those requests, because I’m keen that we’re going to move on those as soon as we have the resources.”
Carla Denyer
Carla Denyer is a Bristol councillor and co-leader of the national Green Party – photo: Rob Browne
“Most people would agree that the government’s job – probably above all else – is to keep its people safe. And yet somehow, cycling and walking facilities to keep people safe, end up Cinderella-like, at the bottom of everybody’s to-do lists.
“At the Green Party, we do things differently. Your Green Party councillors brought a motion to Bristol City Council a few months ago about reducing the number of serious injuries and worse to zero in Bristol. Thanks to the hard work of our transport and active travel lead, David Wilcox, it has passed.
“That motion included a line that all new walking and cycling routes in Bristol must be LTN 1/20 compliant. What that means is that journeys will be safer for pedestrians, wheelchair users, mobility scooter users and cyclists of all ages.
“There are also some concrete changes that have happened across the city that you might have already seen that David also helped make happen, like the bollards on Bristol Bridge that stop drivers using the cycle track.
“Over the last eight years, we’ve also been the ones stopping the council from backsliding on some measures on sustainable travel.
“We stopped the mayor from reopening University Road just off the Triangle, after it had been successfully pedestrianised a few years earlier. And again led by David, we campaigned for extra roads to be made 20mph. But unfortunately we were blocked on that by both the mayor’s office and the Conservative police & crime commissioner.
“We are, at the moment, limited on what we can do, because for now the Green councillors sit on the opposition benches. However, there is a local election coming up, so if you want that to change, you know what to do.”
Mark Weston
Mark Weston is Bristol’s Conservative group leaser – photo: Rob Browne
“Because things are more dispersed for us in the suburbs, it’s actually about having the connectivity between the modes of travel. For us, the priorities we want to see are how do you cycle, safely store your bike and then use either trains or buses to travel on?
“Because we’re so dispersed, and the Conservatives tend to represent suburban wards, our priorities are slightly different.
“We want to see safe travel around schools. We also want you to be able to drive – sorry, cycle – to the bus stops or the train stations, store your bike and have a reasonable chance of it actually being there when you come back.
“One of things that we’re very agitated about is it always seems to be about getting the cyclists to the city centre.
“Actually, it’s the interconnectivity – those radial routes that go from say Henbury and Brenty to Lawrence Weston or Southmead or Horfield – they’re often ignored. But they’re the actual journeys that are being used in our communities.
“We want to see a properly thought out cycling plan for the city, that includes those inter-communities connectivities. All too often they are the afterthought when it comes to cycling provision.”
Andrew Varney
If re-elected as a Lib Dem councillor in May, Andrew Varney will be Bristol’s next lord mayor – photo: Rob Browne
“We have a very busy city, with half a million people and very busy roads and often inhospitable and unwelcoming places for people to cycle.
“When I first moved to Bristol in 2008, I didn’t cycle for a while because I didn’t feel safe and I didn’t have the confidence.
“But gradually my confidence picked up and I now cycle pretty much everywhere. But a lot of people don’t feel safe and so many people tell us they would cycle more if they felt safe. So it’s our duty to try and make the streets safer to encourage as many people as possible to cycle.
“We’re doing a lot of good stuff in Bristol, but unfortunately it’s just too slow. We need to see more rapid progress, and that’s what the Liberal Democrats support. We’ve got about 160 schools in Bristol, and only 11 School Streets, so we need to see a much faster rollout of that.
“Another example is bike hangars, a fantastic idea as a lot of people don’t have a garden or rear access, they live in a flat, they don’t have somewhere to store a bicycle.
“A bike hangar takes the space of one car but it provides parking for six bicycles. We’ve got about 30. It’s progress, but it’s too slow.
“We’ve got about 1,200km of highway over Bristol, but only about 20km of really decent segregated cycling infrastructure. We need to do much better than that, and we need to improve it much more quickly.”
Main photo: Rob Browne
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