Controversial Southsea cycle lane scrapped after trial
A controversial cycle lane has been removed in Portsmouth after a three-week trial.
Portsmouth City Council said that the trial, which saw the implementation of bollards to segregate cyclists from other road users, would not be extended.
The trial, in Elm Grove, was funded using part of a £214,000 emergency active travel fund from the Government to promote walking and cycling in the city and to aid social distancing on the busy Southsea road.
Business owners and residents highlighted the lack of parking during the trial, where almost 70% of a survey’s 1,400 respondents cited the lane as having a negative impact.
The timing of the trial was also criticised, as it coincided with the England’s second national lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The scheme that was installed did not match the ambition of the designs that were part of the consultation for the scheme and having cut the trial to only three weeks… meant there was not enough time to measure real aims of the scheme,” said a statement from Pompey Cycle Forum.
“Many of our members have wondered why this was trialled in November when elsewhere in the country temporary schemes used the summer months.”
Portsmouth is not the first city to drop one of its cycle lanes — Southampton and Kensington & Chelsea announced subsequent removals after similar trials.
Cycling has steadily reduced in Portsmouth since 2015, with a drop of 1.7% in the number of people using their bicycle once a month, according to data from the Government.
The city maintains above the national and local averages, both of which have also seen a decrease — albeit much smaller.
However, Government data suggests that the number of cyclists on our roads has increased this year.
The Government introduced the Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme earlier this year, offering a £50 voucher for bike repairs in a bid to reduce the number of people on public transport.
On May 8, a bank holiday Friday for the 75th VE Day, cycling increased by 300% compared to 2019. There were more than double the number of cyclists on the roads on most weekends throughout the first national lockdown.
