Plans for £2.5million cycle highway on A4
Government grant could help fund new route alongside the A4
Plans are being drawn up for a cycling highway which will run alongside the A4 Bath Road offering cyclists their own lane to travel in. The scheme could cost up to £2.5million.
Plans are being drawn up for a cycling highway which will run alongside the A4 Bath Road offering cyclists their own lane to travel in, writes David Lee.
The scheme, which could cost up to £2.5million, forms part of Slough Borough Council’s aim to discourage car use and promote alternative forms of transport.
The east-to-west cycling route plans to make use of existing wide verges, service roads and existing shared paths which run parallel to the A4.
The council is looking to part-fund it with a £552,000 grant secured from the Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund.
Councillor Rob Anderson (Lab, Britwell and Northborough), cabinet member for sustainable transport, told a cabinet meeting on Monday: “We’ve seen it in other countries what can be achieved when you give people safe areas to cycle in.
“If we all just swap our petrol and diesel cars for electric cars, we’ll just be sitting in very quiet and clean traffic jams.
“We have to achieve a new way of operating which gives people alternative ways of getting about the town which don’t mean just jumping in your car for every five-minute journey.”
Savio de Cruz, the council’s head of major infrastructure, said if the right cycling infrastructure is provided, there could be 10 times more cyclists in Slough.
But he said a thorough consultation must take place with residents and businesses to ensure a cycling highway is wanted in the town.
He told the meeting: “We don’t want to spend the sort of money mentioned in the report and then find out we end up with the scenario where we have a piece of infrastructure that nobody wants to use.”
The meeting heard the council is planning to work on designs for the scheme and draw up a business case over the next six months.
■ The controversial A4 bus lane is set to switch to peaktime hours only from December 4 onwards.
Cars will be banned from using the bus lane from 7am to 10am and 3pm to 7pm Monday to Friday but authorised vehicles including e-scooters, motorbikes and hackney carriages will be allowed inside.
The changes will see the trial scheme reset, meaning it will run for another six months from December 4.