£1m to improve junction where doctor was killed
ABUSY Birmingham crossroads where a doctor was killed last year while cycling has been awarded more than £1 million to fund improvement work.
The Department for Transport has granted £1.3 million to build a new cycleway at the junction of Pershore Road and Priory Road near Edgbaston cricket stadium.
There will also be improvements to road markings and pedestrian crossings as part of the package of work.
Last October Suzanna Bull, a doctor at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, died after being hit by a lorry at the crossroads which prompted calls for more to be done to ensure the safety of the city’s cyclists.
A vigil was held in her memory shortly afterwards which saw dozens of cyclists come together at the University of Birmingham before cycling together along Bristol Road and Pershore Road. Work is now under way on two other cycle route schemes, on the nearby A38 from Selly Oak to the city centre, and alongside the A34 between Perry Barr and the city centre although it transpired at the time of Ms Bull’s death that they had been delayed by legal challenges.
They form part of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution, the city’s wider vision to get more people out of their cars and on to bikes as a regular form of transport.
In February, the Department for Transport invited bids from so-called ‘Cycle Ambition Cities’ to receive a share of £6.5 million of funding to trial new schemes aimed at improving road safety and to get more people cycling safely.
Since then, the Government has identified six winning bids and says it is contributing more than £7 million of investment to these locations this year as part of the department’s Cycle Safety Review.
Cycling Minister Jesse Norman said: “I want us to become a nation of cyclists and to make cycling the natural choice of transport for people of all ages and backgrounds.
“To support mingham will this be goal, Birusing its funding for a new cycleway and pedestrian crossings at a major junction.
“While Britain has some of the safest roads in the world, we want to encourage still more people to take up cycling.
“We are determined to make cycling safer and easier across the country. This funding, as part of our overall cycling and walking strategy, will help local councils to make their roads safer for everyone.”
The Department for Transport launched the first ever statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in April 2017 to encourage more people to cycle and walk.
The strategy set out how the Government intends to deliver its ambitions for cycling and outlines how £1.2 billion in funding will spent up to 2021.