Western Morning News (Saturday)
Card carries plea for safer cycle routes into the city
AGIANT Christmas card has been delivered to the council by volunteers from the Plymouth branch of Greenpeace, with a request for better cycling routes into the city.
The card was delivered to the council’s Ballard House offices this week with the specific request for improved cycle links on the A386 from Tavistock and the A379 from Yealmpton.
A package of measures to improve cycling within the city was recently unveiled by the council after they were given £945,250 from the second phase of the Government’s Active Travel Fund.
One of the measures is the trial closure of the eastbound carriageway of Plymouth’s Royal Parade to all traffic except buses, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles.
Other planned measures include lighting on an east-west cycle route through Central Park, safety improvements at the Millbay Road roundabout, and two new 20mph zones in Laira and Plympton.
A cycle way along the embankment, from Arnold’s Point, near the rowing club, to Blagdon’s Meadow, nearer to Laira Bridge, is also planned.
But routes in and out of the city are still considered dangerous for cyclists, and the Greenpeace card is entitled ‘All I Want for Christmas is Safer Cycling into Plymouth’.
Volunteers would like to see the routes into Plymouth, particularly the A386 from Tavistock and the A379 from Yealmpton, undergo development to improve the safety of these key cycle routes in and out of the city.
Iain Miller, lead volunteer for Greenpeace Plymouth Group, said:
“Greenpeace volunteers presented a Christmas card to Plymouth City Council to let them know that for Christmas we want local transport improvements.
“We believe it’s really important to encourage local people to cycle as much as possible but creating safer conditions to do this is essential, especially along routes in and out the city that are particularly dangerous due to speed, congestion and road layouts.”
The Greenpeace group say the government’s £2 billion commitment for new walking and cycling infrastructure is dwarfed by their planned spending of £27 billion on new roads.
They point to recent YouGov polling in the South West, in which almost two-thirds of people (63%) said they would support low-traffic neighbourhoods, while only 8% picked new roads as their preferred choice of seven proposed transport improvements.
The survey showed that almost half want existing roads to be better maintained and also want cheaper bus and train tickets (44%) and a third (33%) want less traffic on the roads.
The volunteers said councillors were unable to meet to discuss safer cycling.