A Conservative councillor in Bristol has said that £35 million earmarked to be spent on cycling in the city would be better invested in improving local rail services instead.
The southwest city last week unveiled ambitious plans to get 20 per cent of commuter trips there undertaken by bicycle by 2020.
Bristol City Council will spend £7 million a year over the next five years, the annual equivalent of £16 per head of its population, to try and realise its vision.
But Councillor Claire Hiscott, parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in the Bristol West constituency at next year’s general election, has described the council’s cycling strategy as “too proscriptive” and “unrealistic,” reports the Bristol Post.
She said: “Personally, I am very enthusiastic about cycling and welcome more being done to promote it and the creation of segregated routes across the city, to enable all those who choose to get around in this way to feel safer.
“However, I think we have to face the reality that cycling will never suit a majority of commuters or provide a solution to Bristol’s traffic congestion, and I fear the wholesale implementation of this plan might even make matters worse.
“The whole tone and tenor of this draft document also reads rather too proscriptive.
“Sadly, I think the idea of spending £7 million per year on cycling is unrealistic – particularly should problems arise in securing future government grants or external funding.
“If the mayor has money to spare in his transport budget, then I would prefer this was put towards greater investment in urban rail – a far more practical means of mass transit than the bicycle,” she added.
The plans announced last week aim to improve cycling provision in the city, as well as implementing Bristol Cycling Campaign’s Cycling Manifesto, formally adopted as council policy.
They include implementing ‘quietway’ and segregated cycle lanes, and are aimed at providing an economic stimulus for the city.
Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson said: "Cycling is good for the economy. A healthy workforce, which arrives to work less stressed and on time, is better for productivity and good health.
“I am confident that this document will help Bristol attract more funding to the city for improvements as it gives us the benefit of a clearly defined framework."
The Bristol cycling plan remains open for consultation until 11 August 2014.
42 thoughts on “Bristol councillor says £35m set aside for cycling would be better spent on rail”
So, to support cycling she’s
So, to support cycling she’s going to defund the projects? Councillor logic at its best.
Wonder if £35m even buys a complete train set nowadays?
Out of interest, what is
Out of interest, what is Urban Rail? I thought that Bris shelved the SuperTram system and the Guided Buses…
I am guessing it is traditional heavy rail…
f’ing Tories !!!!!!
yet
f’ing Tories !!!!!!
yet another attempt to change some of the cycle routes into
tramways … grrrrr
To make the Bristol rail
To make the Bristol rail network useful for commuters you’d need to spend a lot more than 35m. Currently there are large swathes of the city that are not served by the rail network in a way that is useful for commuting. Just in north bristol you’d need to open the Henbury loop line, which would be an incredible investment in itself.
Then we get the issue that commuting by rail is expensive, comparable to going by car, and also typically slow and unreliable. Plus the city centre station involves a non-insignificant walk (about a mile to BS1 on googlemaps) to actually get to the centre. I don’t really see anyone choosing to go from driving to using the train without the entire system being replaced.
Throw in that you don’t get the benefits of a healthier population that comes with cycling, and I really don’t think it would be sensible to divert money that way. I’d like to see the trains here improved, but that should not involve taking away funding from the most sustainable (outside of walking) and beneficial means of transport.
pikeamus wrote:Plus the city
You’re right. I work in BS1 and regularly host visitors from outside the city arriving by train. They invariably get in a taxi.
So more government by
So more government by anecdote?
It’d be interesting to see the research and evidence from other countries and cities that she’s based her comments on. Surely she’s done her homework before speaking about such a major investment?
Could Road.cc (or anyone) follow up with her and share the research and evidence behind her comments?
Cycling is the only proven way to reduce congestion that I’ve found, I must have seen different analyses.
She’s right. that £35 million
She’s right. that £35 million will almost certainly stretch to a pre consultation about the possibility of a feasibility study into the potential for urban rail in an urban setting.
The guided buses are still
The guided buses are still very much alive and well, I’m afraid. So far the BRT2 project alone has cost £13 million and all they’ve done is dig up a bit of the river bank. http://stopbrt2.org.uk/
Bristol’s tram network has been dead for decades, although you can still see signs of what used to be, like the old power station at Finzel’s Reach, now being converted into trendy flats.
Jacknorell, the Portishead line is definitiely reopening, but they’re still trying to fund the cost of £55 million. For one station. That makes £35 million on a comprehensive cycle network for most of the city look like pretty good value to me.
Mr Agreeable wrote:although
Thought it was an old Courage Brewery, not a power station.
Redvee wrote:
Thought it was
I’m pretty sure the big square building on the corner is the old generating station.
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-379462-former-tramway-generating-station-/photos
You can also see some of the tram tracks in Castle Park, near the fountain.
Mr Agreeable wrote:Redvee
I’m pretty sure the big square building on the corner is the old generating station.
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-379462-former-tramway-generating-station-/photos
You can also see some of the tram tracks in Castle Park, near the fountain.— Redvee
The Finzel’s Reach development was only a success because the developer went to the council and said “You know all that section 106 money we said we’d spend on infrastructure around our shiny new development? Here’s the thing, if we actually spend that then the development won’t be profitable so we might as well throw in thr towel and not bother.” Bristol CC promptly said, “Well, OK, then, don’t bother paying for the additional infrastructure, that can just come out of the council’s budget.” and lo and behold, the development got finished. (Allegedly).
Mr Agreeable wrote:The guided
BRT2 wants to land grab the bridge by the Create Centre. Also known as “the only bridge to get you from the Pill Path onto the Chocolate Path”, also known as “part of the grand Festival Way”. Cycle paths are seen as an easy target – god forbid that any roads are sacrificed…
why do people like cars?
Is
why do people like cars?
Is it because they isolate the user, is it because they travel from door to door, is it because they appear cheap at the point of use?
Now consider the train, you have a time table, you have to have a way of getting to the train station. At the point of use they aren’t particularly cheap, and finally they are full of other people.
Then think about how to travel and how far your traveling. Clifton into the city centre, Is a train really a viable approach, or is the councillor out in South Gloucestershire where a bike ride is a bit far and wants a better train service, afterall a long way from Temple Meads to the city centre!
I’ll tell you what, Give her
I’ll tell you what, Give her the £35 million to spend on rail. So long as cycling can take a couple of BILLION from the white elephant that is HS2…..
Gkam84 wrote:I’ll tell you
The HS2 will be passing within 200m of here, thats right under Palatine Road [birth place of Factory Records.] Just cause it isn’t near your gaff doesn’t make it a white elephant. Why not vote for the Scottish Government to pay for an extension from Newcastle to Edingow?
Quote:However, I think we
Maybe they could consider spending a couple of hundred quid on a plane ticket for Councillor Hiscott to visit Copenhagen, to see how much worse investing in cycling infrastructure makes a city 8|
Gkam84 wrote:I’ll tell you
The HS2 will be passing within 200m of here, thats right under Palatine Road [birth place of Factory Records.] Just cause it isn’t near your gaff doesn’t make it a white elephant. Why not vote for the Scottish Government to pay for an extension from Newcastle to Edingow?
A Tory fishing for petrol
A Tory fishing for petrol head votes in the most obvious way. What else is new?
Sounds like the mayor himself seems very much in favour of spending the monies on cycling regardless of what comes out of her face, so it’s all good.
Not quite sure what else you
Not quite sure what else you can do with the current Bristol rail structure. My journeys are by train, bike or a combination and, despite the traffic getting worse, parking charges going up etc, I haven’t seen an increase in the number of passengers; however, I would say I’ve seen more bikes being used. I’m always amazed at the increasing levels of misery drivers are prepared to endure when there are other transport options available. I was on ‘new territory’ yesterday in Bristol and had 2 near misses; so spend the money on cycling! I was in Bristol ‘pikeyville’ so shouldn’t have been too surprised! 😉
“Personally, I am very
“Personally, I am very enthusiastic about cycling and welcome more being done to promote it and the creation of segregated routes across the city, to enable all those who choose to get around in this way to feel safer.”
This is it. She cannot imagine that anyone who doesn’t already cycle will do so. As if cyclists arise at random, unbidden, rather than being shaped by conditions.
Why won’t it suit the majority of commuters Cllr Hiscott? It’s fast, cheap and healthy. Make it safe too and you’re on to a winner.
Whist I don’t agree with
Whist I don’t agree with Councillor Claire Hiscott I can see her point of view and the logic in her reasoning.
Many people travel into Bristol every day to work and travel in the city is very car-centric. It’s a pretty typical state-of-affairs but many of us now live substantial distances from our places of work and travel by bike is not a realistic option. Better rail routes and services however would provide a viable aternative to the car.
To give a personal perspective, I live about 30 miles from Bristol and would certainly consider Bristol as a place to work. For me, 30 miles is too far for a cycle commute and as enticing as a metric centry every day might be the travel time would just be too great. I would be able to get a train to Bristol and then ride to my place of work so the presence of a good rail service is actually the key to being able to leave the car at home; the roads might be hostile for cyclists but they aready work.
My big worry when I hear of earmarked cycling budgets is that we end up with more useless segreagted lanes that de-prioritise cycling and make the roads even more hostile for those of us who choose not to behave as glorified pedestrians. Let’s hope that this money is well spent on meaningfull infrastructure.
Matt eaton wrote:To give a
To give an impersonal perspective, for nearly half the UK population, the commute to work is 3 miles, not 30.
http://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/wiki/cycling-not-practical-most-peoples-transportation-or-commuting-needs
Matt eaton wrote:To give a
Before I moved to an eminently cyclable 5 miles from my workplace I too believed cycle commuting into Bristol to be too great a distance. But then I saw a number of hotspots around the circumference of the Bristol urban areas where people were clearly parking their cars, unloading a bike and cycling the last few miles. Same prinicple as your train+bike but requiring no investment in trains and gets around all the lack of convenience arguments above. Worth considering?
On this basis surely allowing cyclists to use the Park & Ride car parks would help? I believe you’re supposed to get on a P&R bus and buy a ticket if you use the ‘free’ P&R car parks…
mbrads72 wrote:On this basis
Now there’s a thought.
Just because you’ve bought a bus ticket doesn’t mean you have to use it. Win win situation all round.
levermonkey wrote:mbrads72
Or even ‘just because you’ve parked in the P&R car park doesn’t mean you ‘have’ to buy a bus ticket…’ 🙂
Matt eaton wrote:Whist I
There isn’t really any logic though.
She claims the cycling strategy is ‘unrealistic’ – what exactly does she think £35m is going to get in the way of ‘urban rail’? The first phase of Manchester’s Metrolink, built 25 years ago, cost £150m for 20 miles of what was primarily conversion (and not a particularly good one in places) of existing heavy rail lines.
Another anti-cyclist who
Another anti-cyclist who always starts their justifications with “Personally, I am very enthusiastic about cycling….”.
From the 2011 Census 55% of part-time workers commute less than 5km, and 38% of full-time workers commute less than 5km.
The most effective method for commuting a distance of around 5km is by bicycle.
Spending £35 million on cycling infrastructure is the most cost effective way of tackling the commuter and congestion problem.
It is a no-brainer.
I would also support train & bus investment, but £35m is chicken feed for significant rail projects. The planning application will cost that, and any build probably 10 to 20 times that.
Ref: ONS census data, 2011, Commuting
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/distance-travelled-to-work/2011-census-analysis—distance-travelled-to-work.html
Rail supporter in Bristol are
Rail supporter in Bristol are still peeved that the bristol to bath cycle path was created 25 years ago on the old railway line, there is a perfectly valid view that this could have been a new train/tram line done but the costs are not in the slightest bit comparable.
This comes back to ambition, London cycling modal share 2% target by 2020 5%, Berlin’s target 35%!
Well done Bristol for setting 20%.
please all write to
please all write to her…
claire.hiscott@bristol.gov.uk
With just 965 million pounds
With just 965 million pounds extra, on top the existing 35 million, they could have an 8.7 mile long tram system like Edinburgh
Wouldn’t providing safe,
Wouldn’t providing safe, efficient, quick access to and from Rail Network hubs (for example, via a well thought out inner-city Cycle Network) improve the experience of using the rail system more than tinkering about with the rail system itself?
No matter how shiny and spangly the rail system is, it’s redundant unless people can easily access it in the first place. Especially, as a previous poster has noted, if the the main Railway Station and the city centre are already quite far apart.
Or more simply; is providing a safe, efficient and pleasant-to-use city Transport Network not of the upmost priority and needs all the money it can get?
The fact that The Netherlands provides ample evidence that “the reality that cycling will never suit a majority of commuters or provide a solution to Bristol’s traffic congestion” is complete narrow-minded, ignorant balderdash doesn’t really help her case either.
Quince wrote:No matter how
That’s well put. Even if they reopened the Henbury loop line in north bristol then that would only bring my current home (on the edge of Westbury-on-trym) to within 1 mile of the nearest station (currently it’s 2 miles for me). If I needed to commute to the centre, would I be better off walking a mile, taking a train, then walking another mile on the other end, or just cycling the 4 miles into town? Clearly the second in my opinion: it’s both quicker and cheaper.
Now if I wanted to commute to where I actually work (Aztec west business park) I’d have to walk a mile, catch a train, make a change to another train, and then walk over a mile from the nearest station to the business park. Or I can just cycle the 4 miles.
I could hypothetically cycle to the station I guess, but previous experience of being left at the platform because the train was too full makes that seem unattractive as an option, and most people who don’t want to cycle 4 miles without any infrustructure improvement wouldn’t want to cycle 2 miles either.
Some cycle paths / tracks /
Some cycle paths / tracks / lanes are more trouble than they are worth in terms of keeping some fluidity to a ride but ok, some are down right necessary. A lot of money has been wasted creating any little bit of a run for the sake of saying some thing has been done The cycle bridge in Copenhagen on the road cc vid looks great, and there was something like it once for cars back in the 70s and 80s in-between the top end of Victoria Street and Temple Meads. It would be great down around Lewins Mead and the Hay Market.
I’ve just about had enough of
I’ve just about had enough of politicians claiming to be in favour of cycling, but doing precisely nothing about funding infrastructure.
Claire Hiscott is a hypocrite, claiming to be enthusiastic about cycling, then trying to derail a good plan to provide proper funding. She is also wrong that cycling cannot suit commuters. In Utrecht, 33% of all journeys are by bike, so why not Bristol? She demonstrates a failure of imagination or research, because she looks around and doesn’t see mass cycling, so she assumes it’s impossible.
Good on the Bristol mayor. Shame on Claire Hiscott.
Sounds like the prospective
Sounds like the prospective Tory MP is seriously “off message”. Last year the DfT set up the Transport Systems Catapult (https://ts.catapult.org.uk/10-challenges) to integrate modes of transport and make travel slicker for everyone.
Bristol sounds like an ideal candidate for a bit of government & EU transport systems funding.
The new rail station in my
The new rail station in my home city will have a big underground bicycle parking, with a direct stair connection to the rail platforms. Of course, this is not in the UK, but in The Netherlands, where we know that cycling is complementary to rail.
Old city bike at one end, another old one at the other. Voila. Your commutes just got a ton faster, since you don’t need to use the bus or walk.
Aapje wrote:The new rail
In the UK, at a minor station, you are lucky if there is any bike parking. Most trains around bristol are fitted out to allow either 2 or 4 bikes, but that actual range of how many may be let on is probably between 0 and 8, depending on how busy the route and how flexible the conductor is. Zero happened more often than 8 on my old route.
Also, I used the “secure overnight” bike parking at a station in Bristol once, to lock up a cheap, 15 year old, bright pink, bike. I did this because it was snowing so heavily that I didn’t feel safe riding it home. It was gone the following morning. Sigh.
pikeamus wrote:Aapje
For the UK I think that folding bikes are the best bet for cycle/rail travel. They also overcome the problem of limited parking facilities at your place of work and if it comes to the crunch can be taken on buses or taxis.
Matt eaton wrote:For the UK I
Agreed, but the reason I was using that particular bike at the time was because it was free (my mum’s old bike) and money was tight. Folding bike’s can be a bit too much of an expense for some people (especially if they are paying through the nose for the train fares).
In an ideal world it woudn’t
In an ideal world it woudn’t be a problem to take a regular bike on the train and I wish the operators would get thier act together in this respect. Folders can be costly and it’s not easy to pick up a decent one second-hand for a small sum in the same way that it is with regular bikes.
Surely if you get a load of
Surely if you get a load of commuters off the roads onto trains, that would leave more room for cyclists?
In Guildford there is a network of rail tracks but only one station in town and one on a branch line. It has been suggested many times for at least 30 years (I know ‘cos I did in the local paper) that stations be built along the various branch lines on the periphery of the town and extinct lines re-opened to bring people into town.
Well how about spending some
Well how about spending some of the £35 million on putting guards wagons back on trains ?.
Going by bike on a train is a right PITA, and near impossible during the rush hour even with a Brompton so only the most die hard cyclists even attempt it.
A proper guards wagon (or cycle carriage!) setup for easy and quick on off bike access would encourage more bikes onto trains.
For those not old enough to remember, guards wagons were special carriages where freight, bikes etc were loaded and also where the guard used to eat his sarnies.