Building a case for people-friendly streets

A host of DfT funded schemes are starting to reap benefits for local communities, speakers revealed at this year’s Cycle City Active City.

Some of those attending this year’s Cycle City Active City arrived in style, riding into Bradford on the Cycle Superhighway from Leeds. Not surprisingly, several local delegates referred to the route with pride during the two-day event. 

The fully segregrated 23km cycleway, completed last year, forms the centerpiece of a range of infrastructure projects being implemented in West Yorkshire. Phase 2 of the CityConnect project is now focusing on improving cycling infrastructure in Huddersfield, Wakefield and Bradford, as well as expanding the network within Leeds City Centre. 

Long-term funding 

This work is being overseen by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and local authority partners including Bradford and Leeds city councils. Chief executive of the combined authority Ben Still told delegates how he plans to normalise cycling and walking as modes of travel. “The devolving of powers to city regions, the promise of long-term funding and local discretion about how funds are spend is a huge opportunity,” he said. “We are applying that to long-term funding streams so that cycling infrastructure schemes are not stop-go initiatives based on the latest distribution of funds from government.”

It was important to link cycling with the broader agenda around health and economic growth, Still said. “We need to work at a faster pace. Often our cycle schemes take too long to develop. We are quite cautious but we need to be more experimental. There are fantastic examples of work in cities like New York where they have brought in temporary measures. If measures work you keep them, and if not you take them out.”

There remain serious obstacles to cycling and walking becoming widely accepted modes of travel. “Since 2007/08 local authorities have been undergoing stringent cuts so there is a lack of overall funding particularly revenue funding, which is what you need to properly maintain cycling infrastructure. Also, cycling schemes are hard to deliver as they are controversial and therefore politicians need to be willing to put a lot of political capital into schemes.”

Cycling schemes should be integrated into the wider objectives that the combined authority is tackling, he said. “Road space is a scarce commodity and when cities reach a certain size you simply can’t fit in all the cars. Cycling and walking are a very efficient use of road space. We need to think about how we can create high quality, environmentally sustainable cities that work for everyone.”

The key tipping point will be when cycling numbers reach “critical mass”, believes Still. “The more that drivers spend time on the road with cyclists the more accommodating they will have to become. I know there are cases where drivers become more irate but, in general, there will be greater tolerance of seeing more cyclists on the road, which will start to shape behaviour.”

For now, though, it appears that cycling in and around Bradford can still be treacherous. John Dennis, chairman of the CityConnect Advisory Group, said: “There is some real ‘wild west’ driving in Bradford district.” Riding into the city centre was reminiscent of the opening sequence of the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he quipped. “There are all sorts: opening car doors, extendable dog leads – you get bonus points if you reach the bottom of the hill safely!”

But, despite this, Dennis is upbeat about the future of everyday cycling in West Yorkshire. “I don’t think we should lose heart whatever the ups and downs. Eventually we will see some real improvements. There are loads of naysayers – Yorkshire folk can be pretty dour. But something like the Cycle Superhighway takes nerve – it is a huge statement.” 

More cycleways = more cycling

An international perspective was offered by Professor Mark Nieuwenhuijsen from Isglobal, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. The institute looked at studies of cycling behaviour in 167 cities across Europe, assessing the connections between the length of the cycling network and the percentage mode share of cycling. “There is a strong association between how much cycling infrastructure you have and the percentage mode share of cycling,” said Nieuwenhuijsen. 

“There is a linear relationship between the length of cycling network and the percentage cycling, up to about 25% mode share. When you get above 25% the length of the cycling network becomes less important.” 

There is a linear relationship between the length of cycling network and the percentage cycling, up to about 25% mode share. When you get above 25% the length of the cycling network becomes less important

There were still very few car-free city centres across Europe, the professor pointed out. “We should be creating car-free city centres. Urban planning has allowed people to live far away from their work and drive in. We need more public transport and electric bikes would also be helpful. In Belgium we are finding people doing a 30km commute by electric bike.”

Living in car-dominated areas was clearly bad for our health, he said. “This is not just about air pollution but also noise pollution. We are seeing a very strong link between noise levels and cardiovascular disease through pathways like stress.”

Improving the urban realm would not only encourage active travel but increase social interaction, leading to greater wellbeing and happiness, said the professor.

This point was echoed by Hugh McCarthy, senior consultant at AECOM. “If you walk more your brain is more active and you’ll generally be happier. If you pedestrianise a street or create an active street you have these social spaces, and the more people talk to one another the happier they are.”

There are also economic benefits to making streets people-friendly, said McCarthy. Results from eight case studies in the UK showed that footfall to businesses rose between 25% and 60% while retail sales increased by 30% as a result of walking and cycling schemes. 

Happy retailers

There appeared to be a change of heart among retailers who were initially opposed to infrastructure changes to Acorn Street in Newcastle in March 2016. The changes include a one-way system with cycling contra-flow, raised junctions, the widening of pavements allowing more public seating areas and a 20mph speed limit.  

A study published at the end of last year found good approval ratings for the scheme despite resistance from traders prior to its introduction, said Rob Snowball, transport planner at Newcastle City Council.

“Across all groups there was a high level of praise for the scheme,” he said. “Not everything was perfect – there were issues over parking – but most thought the scheme had improved the area.”

More than 60% of traders rated Acorn Road an “improved area” while 15% said it was unchanged and 22% regarded it as worse. Meanwhile, more than 90% of residents said the area was better “in overall terms” and visually more attractive, with 90% feeling that the pedestrian space was improved and 80% noting improvements to traffic congestion and flow.

Since the scheme was completed, the percentage of residents cycling to shops on Acorn Road had increased from 5% to 21%, reported Snowball. 

Funding for the Acorn Road scheme came from the DfT’s Cycle City Ambition Grant. Newcastle were among the authorities offering updates at an ‘Ambition Cities’ update at this year’s event.

Phil Wright is transport programme manager at Bristol City Council, another of the Ambition Cities. He touched on the challenges around shared use schemes: “There is quite a lot of shared use in the city centre and sometimes cyclists think this means they can cycle on any pavement. I have sat in rooms with angry people shouting at me about how scared they feel walking because of the threat from cyclists.”

In a bid to tackle this, the council has developed a shared use policy, explained Wright. This places streets into one of three categories: In areas of high footfall the council will aim to create segregated cycling routes. Where there is medium footfall routes will be delineated between cycling and pedestrian areas while shared use schemes will be considered acceptable in low footfall areas. “We don’t have the budget to resolve all these issues so we are trying to come up with low-level solutions,” said Wright. “This could involve putting in more signage and more cycle symbols on the ground to make it more legible for people.”

Tightened geometries

Robert Freshwater, senior transport planner at Oxfordshire County Council, discussed the challenges of accommodating large numbers of cyclists in Oxford city centre. “Oxford has a compact city centre with a tightly defined geography, so wide segregated cycle lanes are not an option,” said Freshwater. He explained how “small tweaks” had improved Plain Roundabout. This involved enlarging the footway area, improving junction priority for cyclists and “tightening up the geometry” on the roundabout to encourage slower vehicle speeds. “Since the scheme cycle numbers have gone up through that area,” said Freshwater. 

“A recent user survey found the biggest benefit was for those who did not feel confident on the roads before when there wasn’t much priority for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Joel Hawthorn, an AECOM senior engineer on secondment to Leeds City Council, outlined plans to improve the busy junction between York Street and Duke Street in the city centre. “Leeds City Council’s policy is to remove through-traffic from the city centre, and this route is a key part of that,” said Hawthorn. The southbound carriageway splits into four lanes through railway viaduct arches. “The result is a junction with a huge amount of carriage space. It really is daunting for non-motorised users.”

Under the council’s proposals the junction would become a simplified dual carriageway crossroads, with a cycle track running north to south and fewer staggered crossing points for pedestrians. By using the LinSig modelling tool, the council found that any traffic displacement that occurred could be accommodated by the surrounding road network, said Hawthorn. “Proving the concept through modelling is key to winning support politically and with external stakeholders.” 

He said modelling identified the “dream solutions” that would not work in reality. “There are features we have not gone ahead with because of modelling.”

Dave Stevens, project manager of the cycling team at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), reported on the implementation of 28 bus stop bypasses on the 9km Wilmslow Road segregated cycle route. “With 3,000 buses a day, this is arguably the busiest bus route in western Europe, and this caused some real problems when designing the cycleway,” said Stevens. 

TfGM initially installed one bus stop bypass for a trial period. “We did lots of research on what the impact of the bypass would be on cycle-bus and cycle-pedestrian conflict and looked at concerns from visually impaired users. We worked with the Disability Design Reference group in Manchester,” Stevens said. “The group flagged up a few issues such as tactile paving being confusing as it wasn’t obvious which way you were meant to cross the cycle lane.” Changes will be made to ensure greater clarity and consistency, he said.

There were three incidents of cycle-pedestrian conflict during the early days of the cycleway, said Stevens. “But there have been no incidents more recently. We have seen a change in behaviour from the cycle courier, elbows out, lycra, head down, bottom up, fast as you can, dodge the buses type of cycling to a much more laid back, sit up look where you are going, and say ‘please and excuse me’ to the occasional pedestrian who wanders in front of you.” 

The system does not always run smoothly, admits Stevens. “Sometimes there are too many passengers waiting to get on the bus, but the feedback from cyclists is that they would rather be in the queue trying to get through the pedestrians than in the traffic trying to get round a bus.”

He added: “Cycling on the Wilmslow corridor has doubled, and most of that growth is second year students who have moved out from university campuses, who have made different travel choices to previous cohorts,” said Stevens.

Norwich has also seen a rise in the number of cyclists, said Ben Webster, the city council’s design, conservation and landscape manager. “There has been a 45% increase in the levels of cycling in the past three years. One aspect of our Cycle Ambition programme is it gives cyclists the freedom to move around the city centre and get into the city centre.”

The programme comprises an array of schemes such as removing through-traffic from 12 streets in the city centre, allowing two-way cycling on 17 street that were previously one-way only and introducing a 20mph limit across the city centre.

Traffic calming has also been introduced on four streets while nine parallel cycle-pedestrian crossings have been installed, as well as 134 additional cycle stands. “We are using ‘m-shaped’ rather than Sheffield stands because it provides more fixing points for bikes with different geometries.”

Norwich, like the other Cycle Ambition cities, is trying out innovative new measures, said Webster. “Some of these measures are working, some of them aren’t. It is about capturing what we have learnt from all of this and gathering the empirical evidence. And that is why it is so important for us to get together to share our experiences at events such as this.” 

View the photo gallery from the event