Map plan aiming to promote cycling

A LOCAL authority facing a huge demand to increase cycling infrastructure has revealed it is mapping all non-public right of way cycle routes for the first time to make it easier for people to swap their cars for bicycles.

North Yorkshire County Council’s highways team is set to produce a cycling route map spanning England’s largest county while also examining moves such as segregating road users as sweeping Highway Code changes are introduced to make cycling easier and safer.

The announcements follow the authority being inundated with proposals for cycle route schemes from residents and community groups after the authority received £1m from Department for Transport Active Travel Fund last year to improve the infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.

Despite numerous calls for action to enable active travel in rural areas, the council said it would focus the funding on large towns such as Harrogate as greater populations meant better value for money.

A meeting of the county’s Local Access Forum heard safety concerns continued to be a major issue in whether people chose to cycle and that the government was trying to discourage segregating cyclists by using white lines, “given that white lines don’t do anything to protect cyclists”.

Instead, highway officers said, the authority was now moving towards physically segregating cyclists and motorists, but it was a

more expensive than simply using white lines and would “not happen overnight”.

The forum’s chairman, Paul Sherwood, said: “Is the highways section of the county council aware of the incredibly dangerous situation of the appallingly maintained roads in which cycling is extremely hazardous in the way the roads are at the moment?”

Officers replied that the roads were subject to a scheduled programme of inspections and the council was looking to gain extra funding through property developers’ contributions for safety improvements.