A Chipping Sodbury, Dodington & Yate Cycling Network
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Approaching Shire Way and Yate from Westerleigh. Path to pass under left hand side railway arch A Chipping Sodbury, Dodington & Yate Cycling Network A note considering the opportunities arising from the opening of the new path linking Shire Way, in the south west corner of Yate, with the Bristol and Bath Railway path from Emersons Green Revised draft updated after discussions John Grimshaw CBE September 2013 The Wool Hall, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol BS1 6JJ A CHIPPING SODBURY, DODINGTON & YATE CYCLING NETWORK SEPTEMBER 2013 • PAGE 2 Yate - A Cycling Town – September 2013 A note considering the opportunities arising from the opening of the new path linking Shire Way, in the south west corner of Yate, with the Bristol and Bath Railway path from Emersons Green 1. Background The Bristol and Bath Railway Path was completed from City Centre to City Centre in 1984 and right from its earliest days has generated a large popular usage. This 16 mile long traffic free route demonstrated that the public will cycle if they are given the opportunity of attractive routes free from conflict with traffic. Over 1 million cycling trips are made on this route each year (and an equally large number of walking journeys) and this critical mass of cyclists acted as a catalyst to support the ongoing programme of cycling provision in the area. Right from its inception, both campaigners and the Council recognised the Path opening at Coxgrove Hill, July 2012 value of connecting through to Yate and indeed the first part of the route from Mangotsfield Station to Coxgrove Hill (for Pucklechurch) was opened by 1986. Land negotiation, especially that of securing the Railways agreement to pass The Council opened the section through to Westerleigh Road by Easter 2013, and under the M4 at Westerleigh Railhead, proved daunting and it was not until 2012 plan to press on to reach Yate during 2014. that work could commence. In July 2012, Councillor Janet Biggin opened the first This note considers how to make the best use of this new path – not only as a 800m of the link northwards built by Pucklechurch Parish Council Access Group resource in its own right, but as a catalyst for raising the profile of cycling and nits volunteers working with South Gloucestershire staff, and the way under the M4 popularity throughout the area of Yate. was finally fenced through. LAYOUT JD Jan 2014 REF 431• from PB, JD docs A CHIPPING SODBURY, DODINGTON & YATE CYCLING NETWORK SEPTEMBER 2013 • PAGE 3 Map showing the Yate and Shortwood link under construction 2. Cycling in Yate and possible main route connections on into Yate On the face of it one would expect Yate to be a popular place for cycling. It is largely level, and hardly any journeys are more than 2 miles long. But whilst one sees low numbers of cyclists around the town, it is a far cry from what one would find in many European towns of this size where 20-30% of all trips would be by bike. There simply isn’t a cycling culture in the Town. There are probably many reasons for this. Yate was developed in the 1960’s at a time when there was no cycling agenda in the UK. Although it has an excellent network of walking routes, it had no cycling routes at that time so the public became ingrained in to the habit of driving for even local trips to the Town centre. Then many people looked to Bristol or further afield for work, leisure and shopping for which using the car was the only practical route. And Yate is surprisingly isolated from the point of view of a potential cyclist, with many possible routes (especially in the Bristol direction) heavily trafficked and unsuitable for family and novice cyclists. This could all change with the opening of the new, largely traffic free path to Shortwood, Bristol and Bath. There is no reason why it should not prove to be as popular as the original railway path between Bristol and Bath and, for the first time, present Yate residents with an attractive place to cycle, a route suitable for even the most inexperienced people, and a place where people can cycle for the first time and realise just what a convenient and rewarding means of travelling cycling can be. For us to take advantage of this new route we are going to have to make it easy to reach the start of the route at Shire Way. In fact we are going to have to extend the new route to reach through Yate so that it is accessible by as many people as possible, and what is more, visible to them. If we can create popular routes through the Town, on which one often sees people cycling, then the idea will spread that cycling is a good way to travel in Yate. All maps reproduced from the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. South Gloucestershire Licence Number: 2012 Licence No. 100023410 A CHIPPING SODBURY, DODINGTON & YATE CYCLING NETWORK SEPTEMBER 2013 • PAGE 4 3. A possible cycling network for Yate The current Yate Link path finishes at Shire Way, shortly Map showing suggested cycling routes in the southern half after passing under the main line railway viaduct. of Yate What is required is for the path to continue through to the town centre, serving as much of the population as possible along the way and including other key destinations such as schools or work places. Typical pair of paths through open spaces There are a few useful routes in the area, but they mainly follow the main roads, with only informal connections into residential areas via the use of footpaths. They hardly amount to anything which might be viewed as a popular network for everyday use. A map showing existing routes is available on the latest cycling map of South Gloucestershire but is not shown here. Fortunately the Town’s Radburn principles of layout and planning have resulted in generous amounts of open space with green fingers and their attendant footpaths Typical underpass (although at times a surface stretching throughout the area, including some quite level crossing may be more convenient) well designed underpasses to provide continuity. In many cases there is even a pair of paths through these spaces, one fronting the houses on each side so to speak. Some of these paths are wider than others and may have been intended for informal cycling use from the start. With this resource the most obvious solution is to select a limited number of these paths for shared use and to sign them as such and where necessary make Goose Green Way cycling route improvements to make them more suitable and to give them greater visibility and crucially continuity to the town centre with good priority over road crossings so as to emphasise the community’s desire to see much more of this healthy and sustainable, as well as convenient, way of travel. The suggested routes shown on the map here are arranged to fan out from the Shire Way end of the new path, so as to make it easy for the public to realise its start. But of course these routes will serve many other local everyday functions so they should be seen as the 1 Yate Town Shopping Centre Town’s Strategic Cycling Network. 2 Yate Link Road Development and Cinemas proposals. Inauspicious approach to the Yate Shopping Centre 4. Yate Cycle Routes Project - Apreliminary CHIPPING SODBURY, DODINGTON proposals & YATE CYCLING NETWORK SEPTEMBER 2013 • PAGE 5 This link will also require a crossing of Greenways North Yate to the Town Centre Road – this could be a single stage zebra crossing The northern part of Yate has a number of very useful and similar to the existing one opposite Milton Road – and well in constructed cycling routes. They are short only of a then finally a short link to the existing Templar Road few key connections and defined roads crossings. If these cycle route. are provided as part of the planned new developments then 8. At the same time a link across Wellington Road would the 3kms to the Town Centre should be well within most give access to a very useful and wide path suitable for people’s cycling range. shared use running to the west. New developments will be 3kms from the Town Centre. 9. This crucial crossing of Station Road to reach the They should include 2 core paths leading to the two existing Leisure Centre is discussed on the Town Centre detail. cycling routes. 10. The path crossing Greenways Road here could 1. The key link to getting these routes off to a good start usefully be made shared use including its connection is to make a new path along this open space to lead to Milton Road (which will make for the most direct directly to the Goose Green Way crossing. This will route to the station and Badminton Road) and also the be a huge improvement on the narrow and circuitous path back to Templar Road which needs a crossing to routes available at present. Millhill is a most attractive reach its east side cycle track. site and the proposed route should follow the mown area to the east of the hedge/ditch as far as possible 11. The existing cycling routes are connected across the B4060 by a sequence in the traffic lights. It would be 2.