Bus and cycle lanes plan for main city route
£1M WORK FOR ANSTEY LANE PAID FOR BY GOVERNMENT
BUS and cycle lanes are to be created along a main route into the city to encourage the use of sustainable transport.
Leicester City Council is to spend almost £1 million to improve a stretch of Anstey Lane, as well as temporarily close part of Buckminster Road to traffic, to help encourage more people to make the shift to walking, cycling and bus use.
The council is getting the cash from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund as part of a successful £32 million bid to help pay for improvements to public transport and support more cycling and walking routes into neighbourhoods and the city centre.
The council is planning to introduce a new bus lane on the citybound section of the road, between Buckminster Road and Larchmont Road.
This will speed up bus journey times on the route by giving buses priority, a council spokesman said.
The pavement between Buckminster Road and the mini-roundabout at Avebury Avenue will be widened to up to three metres to create a shared footpath and cyclepath, linking to the cycling route that starts outside English Martyrs School.
A second stretch of shared footpath and cyclepath will be created between Great Meadow Road and Darenth Drive, linking with a cycleway up to Krefeld Way.
Raised sections of road and zebra crossings will be installed.
An experimental closure of Buckminster Road between Brading Road and Anstey Lane is also proposed to stop the road being used as a rat-run at busy times and help to create a quieter road for residents while improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
People will be invited to comment on the layout during the first six months of the experiment.
All of the proposals are subject to feedback from residents. About 1,000 homes in the area have been sent a letter setting out the plans.
Deputy mayor Adam Clarke, who leads on transportation and environment, said: “Our ambitious Transforming Cities Fund programme represents a big step forward for Leicester.
“It will provide attractive, sustainable travel choices, helping to deliver a greener solution for the future growth of our city and its economy and supporting our work around the climate emergency and air quality improvements.
“The plans for Anstey Lane are one part of a much bigger programme but show how this new investment is helping us to extend the multi-million investment we have already made.
“It will improve bus journey times by removing a pinch point that is affecting reliability.
“It will also make roads safer, encouraging more people to make healthy choices through cycling and walking and support the increasing number of people who are already choosing to travel this way.”
If given the go-ahead, work is due to begin on a phased basis in June and is expected to take about eight months.
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