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Work has begun on six new walking and cycling routes across all six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region.
Most of the schemes are scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer. The 23 kilometres of new pop-up cycle lanes and expanded footpaths will be supplemented by traffic calming measures and new secure bike storage.
Since late March, there has been an increase in people cycling and walking for daily exercise and essential journeys, with six in ten people telling a Combined Authority survey that they expected to walk and cycle more even as lockdown measures are eased.
Schemes to be built with the first tranche of emergency funding include:
– Halton: Segregated cycle lanes for Hough Green town centre
– Knowsley: Traffic calming measures for safe walking and cycling in Kirkby town centre
– Liverpool: Segregated cycle route between Liverpool city centre and Bootle town centre
– Sefton: Cycle route through Southport town centre, segregated cycle route from Bootle town centre to Liverpool city centre
– St Helens: Upgrade of cycle routes through Clock Face and on Chester Lane
– Wirral: New segregated cycle lane on Fender Lane and upgrade of existing B5136 cycle lane
– Liverpool City Region-wide: Extra bike storage at new cycle hubs
Steve Rotheram, metro mayor of the Liverpool City Region said: “Since I was elected I’ve been working hard to deliver a walking and cycling revolution across our region, with 600 kilometres of new and upgraded routes being delivered over the next few years. The coronavirus pandemic has seen lots of people getting back on their bikes and we’re doing all that we can to make it as safe and enjoyable for them as possible.
“Cycling is much better for your health, the planet and for your wallet than taking the car. These new pop-up lanes should make it much easier for people to get about and hopefully help encourage more people to ditch the car!”
The new pop-up foot and bike paths also mark a step towards the city region’s long-term plans for a “best-in-class” 600-kilometre walking and cycling network – with £30.7 million already committed to building and upgrading routes across the Liverpool City Region.
Increased funding has also been earmarked for cycle training and repairs as well as bike loan and grant schemes to help more people out of cars and public transport and onto bikes.
The new routes are funded by almost £2 million of funding from the first tranche of the Government’s emergency active travel fund that has been awarded to the Liverpool City Region. The Combined Authority has worked closely with local councils to allocate this funding for new pop-up routes in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
Simon O’Brien, Liverpool City Region cycling and walking commissioner, added: “It’s fantastic to see that work will be beginning on new pop-up bike lanes and footpaths. Infrastructure like this will help people in our city region to travel actively more safely and with confidence.
“It’s also an amazing opportunity to test out our vision for a 600km network of high-quality, permanent walking and cycling routes for the Liverpool City Region. Coronavirus has had a huge impact on our city region, but we now have the opportunity to look at how we can change things for the better in the future – and rethinking the way we travel and taking more journeys by bike and on foot needs to be part of that.”
Read the August issue of BikeBiz below:
