There is SO much happening in the world of active travel locally it is hard to keep up. So here is a summary of how things are going- I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but still may have missed things! Hold tight…

The Bread and Butter

• Pavements- Finally we are seeing some investment in our footways (pavements). There remains a big issue around footways being relaid like ‘roller coasters’ ie. very up and down, particularly where there are ‘crossovers’ for vehicles to access properties. But at least we are seeing some investment in replacing the most cracked and pot holed surfaces.
• Highways vehicle danger reduction work- The surplus from the Clean Air Zone has given a huge boost to highways investments generally. At least 3 new zebra crossings are being funded in Bath this year (Weston, Lansdown & Southdown) amongst other measures. A full list of projects is here.
• Old Newbridge Hill has a crossing planned for the bottom, which will particularly help students from Oldfield School cross the A4 from the bus stop.
• Tier- We continue to advocate for Tier to be given access to the River Path, Linear Park and to have the speed restriction removed at Royal Avenue. None make sense when Tier provide legal machines yet we have illegal machines using the above routes with no speed limiters, and motor vehicles able to drive along Royal Avenue (and indeed around all of Royal Victoria Park) with no speed limiting. We are also told Tier should be covering the whole city by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
• Tier storage– first sprayed storage areas have been rolled out (see above). These are ok as a stop gap, but really they need to be stored on the highway as that is where peoples’ journeys start and finish. Baby steps…
• Nextbike cargo bikes are here! 2 at Kingsmead Sq, 2 on London Road.
• Cycle Hangers- A huge success story. Every space in Bath is now occupied. More hangers are coming soon, and we should start planning for even more if the experience so far is anything to go by.
• Leisure Centre cycle parking– After much lobbying some accessible cycle parking has been added at the leisure centre. Very important given the number of heavier cargo bikes taking children to and from activities.
• Bollards and barriers – We continue the seemingly never ending lobbying to remove barriers where possible, and where not to ensure they do not restrict access to legitimate users and they are conspicuous to help avoid collisions. While not perfect, some recent degree of success on the Two Tunnels Greenway bridges and access points.
• 20mph roll out continues as we inch towards a 20mph city. It would save so much time, resource and money if we ‘went Welsh’ on this one ie. default 20mph.
• Residents Parking Zone coverage is being reviewed. As a wise man said, when you implement the first zone you essentially commit to covering the whole city.
• Devonshire Tunnel Flooding – Works required to clear a blocked drain have been identified and should be undertaken by the autumn.
  

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) ‘corridor’ programmes

These are the really big multimillion pound projects. There are 3 biggies for Bath:

• A4 Bristol to Bath- Including the transformational proposals for Keynsham by-pass which will allow the X39 to serve the town centre and cut several miles off the cycle route between the region’s 2 cities. An Outline Business Case (OBC) has been produced
• Bath City Centre- Some useful additional cycle lanes proposed including improved east/west access. No news since the outline proposals.
• Somer Valley Links- This includes a stretch of cycle lane on the Wellsway in Bath. Currently a Full Business Case (FBC) is being developed. Cycling elements have been hived off into a specific Radstock and MSN package.

Full details are available here.

Other WECA

The main thing we are waiting on is the revision of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans. These are detailed plans that are then used to develop projects, bid for funding etc. There are two main issues…

1. They are painfully out of date
2. We are rapidly running out of schemes as more and more things move into the delivery stages. Our ‘pipeline’ could run dry!

BANES led programmes

There is some substantial work being done by BANES in the active travel project world:

• Active Travel Masterplan is out for consultation. Please take a look and give your feedback. This document will shape how car dependent (or not hopefully) development will be going forward.
• Scholars Way is now funded. That is about all we know!
• Bath Quays Links. There was an initial consultation, then went very quiet. Unclear of what is happening
• Copseland Crossing (near Bath Uni)- again this has gone a bit quite but £350k is allocated to it so assume something is happening soonish!
• Bath Sustainable Walking and Cycling Links– this will connect the city centre to Weston, Oldfield School and possibly Bath University? As well as improving the connection from Great Pultney Street to the canal tow path? All a bit of conjecture at the moment- we will find out more in the Autumn.
• New Recycling Centre gives some recognition not everyone needs to go there by car. Consultation is open.
• Bath Riverline will deliver some modest improvements particularly in terms of access to the riverpath for all abilities.
• The Liveable Neighbourhoods (LN) programme is moving forward with the Sydney Road/Place filters now it (you can comment on these on this link). Lyme Road/Charmouth has been paused. Lower Lansdown and the Circus trial will commence in August. The latter will be the first LN done at scale, and it is going to show just how transformational removing through motor traffic can be for an area. It is also the biggest active travel project in Bath this year. We are very grateful to Highways for relaying near every road in the area- it is going to make for glorious smooth cycling!
• LNs made permanent from the first two trials in Bath, those being Southlands (Weston) and Church Road (Widcombe).
• School Streets – over £200k has been allocated to develop school streets and an officer assigned to take it forward. They can’t come soon enough and we look forward to it being the norm to remove vehicle danger from outside the school gates. Easter 2025 has been mooted as an implementation date.
• Circulation Plan will define what actually constitutes Bath’s main road network, instead of leaving that decision to Californian tech bros and their sat nav algorithms. Hopefully this will put to bed where through traffic should be routed (good luck with that one!). Essentially, over time every area that is not a main road becomes an LN and we get to a Liveable City. There is a blog entry on our progress toward this.
• Sustainable Communities Consultations– These are for places beyond Bath (scary!) looking at creating more affordable safe transport choices for those communities. The areas covered are Saltford/Keynsham, Hicks Gate (just outside Keynsham), Somer Valley and Whitchurch.
• Fieldings Bridge- This is the bridge between Lidl and Bath Spa Locksbrook Campus (formerly Herman Miller) £850k has been allocated to… something?! The bridge is hopelessly insufficient for the task these days, so our best guess is that this is for developing a parallel bridge or a full replacement.

Strategic Transport Route (STR)

Originally set out in the Riverside Enterprise Area Masterplan (still an interesting read as informs a lot of ongoing work) from the east end of Bristol-Bath Path to Green Park, much of it along the old railway alignment. Will largely be delivered via private developments, with B&NES delivering some key access points, primarily the Locksbrook (former railway) Bridge across the River Avon.

Some of the key developments:

• Hartwells Garage site has planning permission and will deliver a section of the old railway alignment.
• The Gasworks site. A revised planning application has been submitted.
• The former Homebase site is in the very early days of redevelopment planning. WRB has been in discussion with developer’s representatives.

Other Private Developments

Dick Lovett site is well progressed. This will deliver new active travel routes, though WRB have suggested a temporary link needs to be provided across BANES owned land to Stothert Avenue in Bath Riverside.

The Lidl proposals for London Road have been withdraw, with the assessment of traffic generation appearing to play a large role in the decision. This hopefully shows how fully integrating active travel into development proposals is now key to gaining planning permission.

Others

The big ‘other’ project is the National Trust Bathampton Meadows work, the first of their 20 ‘Green Corridor’ projects. Amongst other things this will deliver a 7km walking, wheeling and cycling route from Batheaston all the way through to Grosvenor Bridge. This will be a step change in accessibility to the area, and provide active travel alternatives to the London Road and the canal tow path, both of which come with their own challenges.

It is early days but the signs so far are promising. We look forward to seeing more detailed plans! Accommodating all the competing demands will be no mean feat.

End to the ‘War on Motorists’

How the change of government will play out long term is anyone’s guess, but in the short term talk of a ‘war on motorists’ etc… has been replaced with talk of bus franchising and tram building. This is welcome, if only because rhetoric and ‘othering’, particularly of people who cycle, has real world consequences on how people interact on the roads, which is still where a lot of cycling has to take place in the absence of dedicated safe infrastructure. Culture wars cost lives- good riddance to them.

As a minimum we hope to see funding restored to Active Travel England allowing them to simply get on with the job they we set up to do, and powers restored to councils to enable them to get on with delivering safe travel choices (for instance camera enforcement of weight limits and banned turns).

WRB’s most popular tweet

Generally we do well to get a few hundred views to any of our posts on Twitter/X. This one image got over 50,000. Hit a nerve…

Want to do more?

If you want to take things up a gear, then take action! A few things:

• Respond to consultations. These are not referendums on projects proceeding, they are a chance to shape how they turn out. If lots of people respond to support active travel, those elements will get extra attention (and not get cut if money gets tight!)
• The main consultations for Bath are the Active Travel Masterplan and the Sydney Place/Road Liveable Neighbourhood initial feedback.
• Sustainable Communities Consultations also taking place in North East Somerset.
• Write to your councillor– they can only represent the views that they hear! Many also run surgeries so you can meet in person. Tell them what matters to you.
• Borrow a bike or ebike from the council for up to a month. Ebikes in particular totally change your relationship with Bath- the hills are significantly flatter!
• Walk, wheel and cycle with a smile. Seriously, active travel is fun and good for you. Exude that and you will become a recruiting sergeant to the cause.

Staying up to date

Later this year the Council will launch an interactive map detailing all ongoing projects. This will make it a lot easier to see what is going on, and also how projects interact with one another. Looking forward to seeing it.

In the meantime, WRB will keep you informed- if you are not already subscribed to this blog, you can do so at the bottom of this page and it will get emailed to you directly!

Happy walking, wheeling and cycling to all- and mind those steps!