Warrington Borough LTP 2001-2006
Implications for Cycling
Contents
Summary
The Government has funded the borough council's
entire Local Transport Plan bid.
£33 million will be spent on transport
in and around Warrington over the next five years.
The proposals include significant progress towards
establishing a borough wide cycle network.
A bypass at Bridgefoot and a new Urban Traffic Management and Control
system will share £11 million.
The remaining £22 million will be invested into improving public transport,
pedestrian, school and cyclist routes,
the structural maintenace of roads and bridges and the creation
of new traffic management schemes. We will have plenty of work trying to
prevent the big schemes harming cycling, and also helping to ensure
that the positively cycle friendly schemes are carried out well.
Centre of Excellence
Warrington Borough Council has been named
as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for
Integrated Transport Planning for the duration of their
first full LTP (2001/02 to 2005/06).
Judges specifically praised
the council’s commitment and enthusiasm to take forward
the Government’s integrated transport agenda at a local level.
Ministers are keen to see that COEs are delivering improvements
in transport. COEs will have robust targets and indicators
and rigorous monitoring to measure progress against them,
based on the annual LTP progress reports.
Transport Minister Keith Hill said "I am delighted to designate
Warrington Borough Council a Centre of
Excellence for Integrated Transport Planning.
I was very impressed with Warrington’s local transport plan
and this recognition is well deserved.
I look forward to seeing the plan becoming reality."
Warrington Borough Council will now take a key role in helping other councils across develop equally strong local transport plans and be used as an example of best practice.
Targets
| 4:
| Implement 35 Safe Routes to School schemes by 2006
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| 5:
| Implement 90 Safe Routes to School schemes by 2010
|
| 22:
| Reduce cycle casualties by 40% by 2010
|
| 37:
| (CT1) Increase in the overall modal share of cycle trips in Warrington to 10% by 2006
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| 38:
| (CT2) Increase in the overall modal share of children cycling to school to 20% by 2006
|
Policies
Technically, the formal Mode Hierarchy places cyclists
above private cars and motorcycles and below pedestrians and buses.
However, in practice, any scheme that provided for cyclists
at the expense of general traffic would face
formidable political obstacles.
The council's adopted Cycle Strategy is an excellent
document with many good policies that, if followed,
would make a big difference for cyclists.
To date application of these policies has been patchy
so we will need evidence of actual implementation of the
strategy rather than a statement of good intent.
In particular, we are interested to see progress in the following:
| CP1:
| Wherever possible, measures to make the use of existing roads safe and convenient for cyclists will be implemented in preference to segregation.
|
| CP3:
| The route network will achieve high standards of coherence, directness, safety, attractiveness and comfort, and design criteria…The council will adhere to national design guidance contained within the IHT/DOT/CTC/Bicycle Association publication: Cycle Friendly Infrastructure, Guidelines for Planning and Design (1996) and Sustrans National Cycle Network Guidelines and Practical Details (1997).
|
| CP7:
| All Land-Use and Highway development proposals will include a cycle audit
|
| CP14:
| The council will adopt cycle parking design standards to ensure that cycle parking facilities are sufficient in number, secure and accessible
|
| CP18:
| The council will endeavour to increase the number of schools and pupils taking part in cycle training and road safety education.
|
| CP23:
| The council will ensure that sufficient expertise among a wide range of staff within the relevant departments to enable the effective implementation of cycle policy.
|
Programmes
Twelve Cycle Routes are proposed.
Eventually these routes will form the backbone of a
cycle route network for Warrington.
Rightly, priority has been given to routes radiating from the
town centre. They should all connect to the
"inner circulatory road" cycle route,
which should be implemented during 2000-2001.
The routes are:
| Warrington town centre to: | Winwick
|
|---|
| Orford
| | Croft & Culcheth
| | Birchwood & Gorse Covert
| | Padgate & Woolston Grange
| | Woolston
| | Latchford & Grappenhall
| | Lymm
| | Stockton Heath & Stretton
| | Walton & Daresbury
| | Sankey Bridges, Great Sankey & Penketh
| | Old Hall, Westbrook, Urban Village & Burtonwood
|
We are concerned that resources (£1.7M over 5 years)
may be spread a bit thinly, particularly as Warrington has a
record of poorly designed cycle facilities that fail to conform
even to minimum standards.
It will be important to monitor the quality of provision on
these routes.
Cycle Parking is proposed for "various locations" to cover
main destinations.
The proposed Bus Priority Measures on A5060 Chester Road,
A49 Wilderspool Causeway,
A5061/A50 Knutsford Road and
A57 Manchester Road will form parts of some of the cycle routes listed
above and should help cyclists so long as lane widths are sufficient.
Safe Routes to School and Local Safety schemes
should help to fill in some of the local connections to the
cycle network. These are likely to have a greater impact
in the 2006-2010 period.
The Highway Maintenance Strategy contains the objective to
"address the special needs of vulnerable road users,
such as cyclists"
Roads that are important cycle routes gain points in the
maintenance assessment framework.
Applying cycle audit procedures will be the key to ensuring
that highway maintenance schemes deliver improvements for cyclists.
Bridgefoot Bypass Major Scheme
The claims that cyclists would be helped by this proposal
are a bit wide of the mark.
While it is true that Bridgefoot is a major obstacle
(one of the worst in Warrington in fact),
cyclists arriving from the south can currently avoid the
Bridgefoot gyratory by crossing the river using the blue bridge
from Brian Bevan Island
(i.e. the proposed route of the bypass, which is now very quiet).
The scheme is likely cause considerable extra severance for cyclists,
particularly at Brian Bevan Island due to conflicting
cycle-vehicle manoeuvres (right hand turns).
Careful design will be needed to minimise the dis-benefits
to cyclists.
It will be important to apply the policies in the cycle strategy
and the mode hierarchy, and to consult the cycle campaign.
Road Traffic Reduction Act (RTRA) Report
The traffic reduction target is rather less ambitious than implied.
The target is for traffic growth to 2006 of only 1% less than
that predicted for a "do-minimum" unconstrained traffic growth.
This is assumed almost entirely to be due to a modal shift
from car to public transport.
The RTRA report seems to assume that not only will the
cycling modal share targets fail to be met,
but that cycling will actually account for a slightly lower
modal share of journeys than under a "do-minimum" strategy.
If the cycling modal share target of 10% were to be included in
the calculations this would result in a target for a reduction in
traffic volumes rather than just a slightly lower rate of growth.
Links
Updated 14th February 2001
Pete Owens
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