Neil Matthews, Assistant Director: Highways and Transport,
attended the
meeting to give a presentation on the Council’s
presentation Walking and Cycling Strategy.
Arising from the presentation, the following points were
noted:
- There were 530km of footway and over 100km of traffic free cycle
way in the Borough. With much of that was in urban areas,
specifically in the Town Centre which was planned when Bracknell
was a new town such as the underpasses which would be hard to
retrofit.
- The National Cycle Network 422 ran across the Borough and linked
Bracknell to West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham and Ascot.
- There were over 100 controlled crossings for pedestrians and
cyclists with a number of schemes being
developed each year.
- 3000 school children had received cycle training in the past 5
years, under the bike ability scheme, this was funded by the
Government and offered to all year 6 pupils.
- Over the past 10 years annual monitoring surveys suggested that
there was an increase in cycling of 9% and an increase in walking
of 59%. This was a snapshot of the Borough.
- The Government introduced the Cycling and Walking Investment
Strategy which was to show how investment and improvement would be
made in cycling and walking over the future years. This strategy
was to be undertaken by Local Governments via Local Transport Plans
and Walking and Cycling Strategies to deliver a Local Cycling and
Walking Infrastructure plan.
- A
key aspiration was that the majority of
short trips would be undertaken by foot or bike.
- Active Travel England was introduced to govern the funding that
it was going to provide.
- Policy TP8 in Bracknell Forest Councils Local Transport Plane
detailed what the Council had committed to undertake for cycling
and walking within the Borough.
- The capital programme delivered a number
of schemes across the Borough.
- Increased connectivity had been made through strategic transport
improvements to the A329/A3095/A322 so that motor transport
didn’t become dominate in those schemes.
- It
was key to build on the strong urban network.
- Walking and cycling connectivity were a key consideration for
new development proposals, especially larger sites. It was
important that they were high quality and direct links.
- Developer funding contributions could be taken to support wider
off site
improvements.
- There were obligations on developers to create travel plans
which sought to promote sustainable travel.
- Green infrastructure was also important, with Swinley Forest being a good example of
this.
- Developers were realising the importance of green infrastructure
as part of new developments as it made them attractive to
residents.
- Pedestrian road safety was rolled out to key stage 1 and 2
pupils.
- The team analysed any traffic accident data provided by the
police and looked to tackle any road safety issues.
- Secure cycling parking was key as locations.
- There were 6 different funding schemes that came into the
council that could be used for cycling and walking which could be
used for the plan, emerging demands, safety improvements and
development opportunities.
- LCWIP was a Government initiative to
identify evidence based, high quality cycling and walking
improvements at a local level. It used gap analyses and assessments
of likely use and benefit.
- The Council’s current Cycling and Walking plan only
covered urban areas and was currently being reviewed to cover the
whole borough.
- Engagement on the new plan had started with residents and Town
and Parish Councils.
- An
online platform had been introduced which allowed residents to
pinpoint any issues in the Borough. So far there had been 2653
contributions from 525 respondents.
- The comments were wide raging from
general maintenance to suggestions regarding new infrastructure.
These responses were being analysed and alongside an engineering
assessment would inform the new LCWIP. It was hoped this would
tigger new funding from the Government but would also assist in
aligning the councils funding.
- The current infrastructure was underused in many
places.
- There were a range of promotional videos available on the
Council’s website.
- A number of circular walking and cycling routes had been designed across the
Borough were promoted on the Council’s website. These were
colour coded with the corresponding stickers on lampposts on the
routes to be followed.
- Eco Rewards was an initiative for children to walk and cycle to
school. With miles equalling prizes and discounts. Love to Cycle
was a similar scheme. With both being very popular with schools
signing up to be involved.
- My
Journey had recently been set up which
was a personalised travel journey portal. It had gone live but was
still being refined. Start and finish points of journeys could be
entered and the different modes of how to make that journey were
presented to the user. It was hoped that the Council’s
infrastructure could be mapped into the portal – this was
still being refined.
Arising from the presentation the following points
were raised:
- The strategy was easy to read for residents and
members.
- It
had been commented that it was hard to find cycle lanes in
Bracknell, however it would be hard to colour code all the
routes.
- All routes were available on the Councils website.
- Reading had closed roads around schools to promote more cycling.
This was something that had been undertaken in large cities. The
Boroughs schools were well connected in a
majority of cases. There was less connectivity to the rural
schools.
- This was not something that could be discounted but would need
to be looked at closely on a case-by-case basis.
- There was not a target or governmental target to get more people
on bikes. This was not something that could be measured easily, nor
for walking.
- There was a shift on how the capital programme be spent towards
sustainable travel.
- How travel data would be collected in the future was something that was being looked at by the
Government. Travel data for cars was collected by Bluetooth, it was
expected that travel data for cycling and walking could be done the
same way as the majority of people had a
phone on them which could track anonymised journeys.
- Cycling clubs could be promoted. Love to Ride was a form of this
and you could club together with other people.
- Cycling and walking in the winter months was always a
challenge.
- There were challenges with cycling in the rural areas where the
roads were narrower, and people were often more wary of cycling.
More broader thinking was required for these areas.
- Walking in the Borough was a pleasant experience.
- Working with the Parish and Town Councils was key to make use of
opportunities.
- Lots of promotion of My Journey was underway, with aspirations
that this also be available via app.
- Safe storage for expensive bikes was key for those who cycled
leisurely to also cycle to shops or to commute.
- There were 350 cycle hoops in Bracknell Town Centre. These were
securely attached to the ground and had CCTV.
- The train station had bike racks to save space.
- The bike storage in the Borough was not overused.
- Neil would look at the cycling crime data in the borough and see
if there was an issue with leaving bikes, or whether this was just
a perception.
- Roundabouts were difficult for a car, cycle and pedestrian mix, it was important to find a
safe solution where users didn’t meet together.
- The mindset of road users in Europe was different than in the UK
which was someway behind.
- Bracknell Town Centre was a pedestrian zone, with cycling not
permitted. There was signage throughout and work had been
undertaken with the Lexicon to try and combat those that did cycle
through; however the Lexicon staff
didn’t have powers to enforce unlike the police.
- There were compromised that could be used in the rural areas for
lit pathways.
The
Chair thanked Officers and Members for their presentations and
contributions.