Take Part in the A540 Safety Improvements Survey

The Chester Cycling Campaign and other local cycling organisations are fighting for improvements to be made on the A540 to protect the safety of the many cyclists who use this route for commuting, training, and leisure cycling. The road is also the only way to access the Eureka Cyclists’ Cafe, exposing customers to the risks associated with the heavy and fast moving traffic on this route.

In order to be able to press for improvements, we need to gather cyclists’ views about what would be their preferred options for any safety improvements that might be made to the road.

Take a few minutes to register your views which will be used in our liaison work with the relevant Highway Authorities and Cheshire West and Chester Council. Please vote only once in order to maintain the integrity of the results. Updated poll results will be posted on this website regularly.

Note that the old road numbering system has been used for this survey, as this is the numbering that most of us will be familiar with.

Click here to view the results of the survey so far

Below is an orientation map of the area which will assist you in answering the questions. Clicking on the map will open a larger version of the map in a new window.

A540 Cyclist Survey Questions

Atkins Global Appointed as Bridge Consultants

Cheshire West and Chester Council have appointed Atkins Global as the engineering consultants for the new River Dee Bridge onto the Meadows. The initial brief of the consultants will be to prepare an options report on the siting of the new bridge.

In addition to the original location on land owned by Dee Water, two further locations are being explored.

An eight week public consultation will take place during the summer of 2010 in order to gather views regarding the proposed sites. The council will then take the decision regarding the site, enabling further preparation work to commence.

Keep an eye out for the consultation, and make your views known. Details of any public consultation events and submission forms will be published on this website as they become available.

Deva Link > Canal > Greenway Cyclepath Opens

On 14 June 2010 the Millennium Greenway reopened following the completion of another of the four major Cycle Demonstration Town infrastructure projects. 

Cyclists in West Chester now have set of new links between three popular routes, the Deva Link shared use path, the Millennium Greenway, and the canal towpath. The heavily engineered links involved a great deal of earth moving, foundation laying, and reinforcement of the adjoining slopes. The completed project also includes street lighting, railings, and some prominent signage.

The Chester Cycling Campaign understands from Cheshire West and Chester council that no council tax money was involved in the construction of the link which was funded from Connect2 and Cycle Demonstration Town grants.

The new three-way link provides steps for pedestrians and a series of linked tarmac ramps for cyclists, wheelchairs, and buggies. The finished project will be welcomed by cyclists travelling to popular destinations like the Greyhound Retail Park, the Stadium Way allotments, and the University of Chester.

Visit our photo gallery to see some images of the completed project.

A540 Safety Improvement Survey Results

The results of the A540 Safety Improvements survey will be collated and posted here periodically.

Click here to view the survey results as at 4 September 2010. Note that you may need to click on the image of the results when it appears in order to make it appear full size and readable.

Pressure Grows For 20 MPH Speed Limits

Some cycle campaigners and CDT supporters argue that limiting the speed of vehicular traffic can have a major impact on the perceived levels of danger on the roads and lead to increases in levels of cycling.

Several UK towns and cities have begun implementing district-wide 20 mph speed limits with popular support.  The arguments for such an approach can be persuasive.  Portsmouth have taken the initiative and implemented a default 20 mph speed limit throughout their town in all except main arterial routes.

20’s Plenty For Us is a national organisation which was formed in order to campaign for the implementation of 20 mph as the default speed limit on residential roads in the UK.  They cite research which shows that the vast majority of the public would like 20 mph on residential roads.  In addition, recent changes in Department of Transport guidelines have relaxed the rules governing speed limit changes.  As a result of this, in many residential areas 20 mph limits may be set without any physical measures at all.

20’s Plenty have published guidance for Local Authorities on the implementation of 20 mph speed limits. The guide sets out the benefits of introducing 20 mph limits and includes an overview of the implementation of such limits around the country to date.

20’s Plenty have published a leaflet which we are making available here to allow vistitors to read up on the arguments and make their minds up whether such an approach should form part of Chester’s Cycle Demonstration Town project.

Click here to visit the 20’s Plenty For Us website.

Feel free to add your views in a comment.

Action Needed Urgently to Protect A540 Cyclists

Another serious accident involving two cyclists took place on Wednesday, 28 October 2009, on the A540  beyond Chapel Lane towards Chester not far from the Eureka cafe.   A man and a woman, both members of the Birkenhead North End Cycling Club, were knocked off their bikes by a passing van.  Allegedly the wing mirror of the van caught the cyclists knocking them off their bikes and resulting in serious injuries to them both.

Speaking about the incident, Chester Cycling Campaign member and CTC Right to Ride Representative Peter Williams commented, “Various safety campaigns regarding the dangers of this stretch of the A540 have been mounted in the past with little success.   We need to get all interested parties to campaign on one front, including  various cycling clubs, cycle campaign groups, local parish councils and residents societies.”

Since the incident took place, some ‘Think Bike’ signs have been put up.  However, the Campaign is calling for a better long term solution.  This stretch of road is heavily used by road club members out training, by leisure cyclists exploring the Wirral, and by those visiting the Eureka Cafe.  The wide verges on this part of the A540 could easily support a separate cycle lane for increased safety.

Although the costs of such a solution have been cited as a reason for inaction, the highway authorities do need to consider the casualty rate on this stretch of road and act now to protect cyclists.

Getting Girls on Their Bikes

An interesting project in Darlington aiming to get teen-age girls cycling persuaded a group of young women from Darlington to take up cycling for a year. As part of the project, the group visited Bremen, where cycling is as natural as lip gloss to teenage girls. There they exchanged views, hints and tips with their German counterparts and enjoyed trips along the town’s cycle paths.

The following YouTube video of their experiences provides some insights into what kind of approach might work with this group of potential cyclists.  Richard Grassick, spokesman for the project, said: “The film aims to show how much fun girls can have when they cycle, and how liberating a means of transport it can be, allowing girls to be mobile without relying on public transport or their parents’ cars.”

Darlington is both a Cycling Demonstration Town and a Sustainable Travel Demonstration Town.  Chester could perhaps learn from Darlington’s work, and establish an initiative aimed at teen-age girls, a group which is one of the most under-represented amongst local cyclists.

Mickle Trafford Greenway Extension Now Open

The first of the major CDT infrastructure projects is now open.  The long-awaited official opening of the latest section of the Chester Millennium Greenway took place on 25 October 2009.

Residents of Guilden Sutton and Mickle Trafford now have a traffic-free route into the city centre, and Chester residents have better access to the countryside to the east of the city.   The new stretch includes a new pedestrian bridge over the Chester to Manchester railway line as well as a series of links and access points. These are situated in Fairfield Road, Mannings Lane (South), the A41 at Greenfield Lane, an access point near Guilden Sutton, and Station Lane, Mickle Trafford.

To mark the opening, the Chester Cycling Campaign has created a photo gallery providing a good overview of the new Greenway Extension.

Work on the project started in June 2009.  The 16 week scheme was funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) as part of REVIVE – the project which aims to reclaim 170 hectares of brownfield land in Cheshire and Warrington.

A detailed description of the route and the history of the campaign to save the route from the misguided Guided Busway proposals and to get the extension built are included in Steve Howe’s excellent Virtual Stroll website.

An active group of volunteers, Friends of the Millennium Greenway, have worked long and hard campaigning for the building of the extension.  The opening of the extension is a tribute to their hard work.  The group organises periodic planting and maintenance days on the Greenway.  Please support these volunteer days if you can spare a couple of hours.

Artist’s Impression of New River Dee Bridge

A new pedestrians’ and cyclists’ bridge over the River Dee onto the Meadows is one of the flagship projects of the Chester Cycle Demonstration Town initiative.                                        

                                                                              

The bridge would be built with Connect2 and Cycle Demonstration Town monies. However, devoting so much of the CDT budget to such a large engineering project raises the question of whether this is the best way to spend money to increase the number of cyclists in Chester. Some hold the view that the money would be better spent on a number of smaller projects, or on improvements to the Hoole Road railway bridge.

Nevertheless, a dramatic new river crossing would have publicity value and could serve act as a focal point and symbol of the CDT project. Option appraisals and costings are currently being carried out.

Curzon Park Railway Bridge

The Cycle Demonstration Town project includes plans to build a new cycling and pedestrian bridge from Curzon Park to the Racecourse over the River Dee to replace the current narrow bridge.  Proposals are that the new bridge will be built on redundant pillars on the west side of the railway.  The bridge will be 3 metres wide and ramped on both ends.  Construction may take place in the financial year April 20010 to March 2011.