Liverpool presses on with pop-up cycling project

The city’s intention to establish seven pop-up cycling routes remains on course to attract Government support, with tweaks made to the routes as further funding is sought.

A report that will go before Liverpool City Council’s regeneration and sustainability select committee next week outlines the progress made so far in establishing the pop-up routes, following Mayor Joe Anderson’s commitment to supporting 60 miles of routes.

Funding for the programme comes locally, with Andeson doubling down on an earlier pledge by committing up to £4m of LCC backing; and nationally, with the Department for Transport asking for active travel scheme bids.

Three of Liverpool’s seven routes are now established, with alterations to layout and design ongoing. Monitoring equipment is being installed: Vivacity cameras are in place on West Derby Road and will soon be put it on Liverpool Loop North.

The team led by highways manager Jayne Black is currently awaiting the outcome of its bid and allocation of Tranche 2 funding, so that it can progress the other routes, with a target delivery of early 2021.

Council officers have secured £290,000 from the first tranche of the DfT’s Emergency Active Fund to implement one of the routes, and an announcement is expected shortly on a further bid of £1.85m to implement three of the remaining four.

A “small pot of funding” has been secured for cycle parking at schools that have expressed interest, and the Liveable Streets Liverpool platform used to build up data on what people want to see delivered and where – Black’s report says that the implementation of the first route, undertaken in a hurry amid the first, pressured phase of lockdown, showed that a more consultative approach is preferable.

The list of routes in full is below, with the completed routes towards the top:

  • Route 1. West Derby Road – Kensington – City South
  • Route 2. Sefton Park to City Centre – Sefton Park perimeter – Sefton Park Road
  • Route 3. Liverpool Loop North: Bootle New Strand – Bank Hall – Vauxhall – City Centre
  • Route 4. East Lancs – Townsend – Breck Road – City Centre
  • Route 5. East Prescot Road – University Hospital – London Road – City Centre
  • Route 6. University Route: Gateacre – Woolton Road – Wavertree – Lawrence Road – Crown Street – Myrtle Street – City Centre
  • Route 7. Liverpool Loop South: Hale – Speke Boulevard – Garston Village – Aigburth Road – City Centre.

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Of course they’re pressing on with it. It involves spending money with road contractors.

By Mike

Why. Drove down West Derby Road at 9-15am one lane of cars doing about 10 mile per hour. Bike lane totally empty for the whole of the journey to town. Saw one cyclist and he was riding on the pavement.

By Carol

What a waste of money and resources and short sighted. We got rid of bus only lanes and are now replacing them with cycle lanes. I wonder how may bikes will use them .And allso consider how much more fumes will be generated by cars being held up .The mind boggles how these plans get passed .Maybe to do with justifying jobs of no real value to our great city .

By Paul Furlong

waste of money when businesses are closing down due to pandemic with not enough funding

By Anonymous

I drove along West Derby Road half the road is sectioned off for bikes. This road is so busy it’s causing traffic build up. Its ridiculous and a waste of money.

By John toohey

As someone who lives in Holland it’s unfathomable to me why people would object to cycle lanes. They just make sense, especially when partt of a joined-up network as Liverpool is proposing here

By Anonymous

Noticed that no plans for cycle lane for woolton and allerton road area. Most cyclist use pavements as cycle lanes. If I go for a walk I have to get out of the way quickly as you don’t hear them until they are right up to you.
The odd cycle lanes disappear after small sections and often have pot holes in them. They need to have proper ones which are continuous and we’ll maintained for people to use them.

By Janice Gresham

If you think this is a waste of money you should see what is planned at the Rocket. I would never would of ridden down West Derby Road without this, a few more across the city and I can get rid of my car and finally not be at the risk of idiots driving around the city streets at 40mph .

It’s a scandal its taken a pandemic for this to happen. When will people wake up to the environmental, economic and health damage the car causes to Liverpool and other cities. The North West struggles to punch its weight due to its chronic health issues and this current time proves more than any that Health is Wealth, the more we design our cities for people not vehicles the better.

By Mark O

A classic case of hoping that something will be so just because you wish it. Would they do this if it was their own money?

Look at the usage of the new Princes Boulevard cycle route – negligible, and it goes through the heart of studentville.

Fact is, Liverpool is wet and windy and very few of its offices are equipped with showers. Who wants to turn up to work dirty, sweaty and in needs of a shower? Quelle surprise: very few of us. And that won’t ever change, unless there’s a seismic shift in favour of BO and wearing damp cloths to work.

I’ll wait…

By Sceptical

Brilliant news

By Anonymous

I think it’s great. Put them in and more people will cycle and feel safe enough to allow their kids to. Cycling helps fight obesity, sitting it cars doesn’t. Less cars on the road can only be a good thing.

By JJ

Its all ‘tickbox mentality’, and designated funding; LAs and some NGOs just see shiny badges on letterheads and the …look what we can tell the public… comments. Its good for votes etc. Who cares if its money well spent, who cares if they end up polluting us more. Liverpool are distroying The Strand, just to show green compliance, but they will ignore the asthma figures. This is how we let LAs be run, wouldnt have happened in 1830s when Liverpool, Manchester and others were city states.

By Billy

Yes – people cycle on the pavement and they shouldn’t. But if you ask them why, inevitably they’ll say that it feels too dangerous riding on the carriageway and mixing it with vehicles. It’s noticeable that in quiet backstreets pavement cycling doesn’t happen.

By L7

Not exactly HS2 is it

By Mike McLolz.

Fantastic news – mega radical approach. Liverpool leading the way.

By Hokey Cokey

cycle lanes are fine but electric cars and good public transport are finer. Some offices would be nice too, y’know cos that’s what people would be cycling into town for.

By Slightlycynical

Good news on one level, safer ways for people to cycle around the city.
How long will the pop up routes remain in place? What about the current cycle lanes that just stop? Who decides were the cycle lanes will be? What is the bigger picture to increase the safe cycling routes for people? As already mentioned below we need to be able to access showers/lockers/safe parking for cycles. Can we have some money spent on a cycling hub in the city centre with access showers/lockers/safe parking for cycles? Maybe plan the cycle routes out from the city centre and link up with the routes already in place. A safe cycling route into the city centre that people could use would be a great start.
Al in all as a keen cyclist this is great news but we need to have a clear plan on how we can get people on their bikes with cycle lanes and access to showers/lockers/safe parking for cycles.

By John

Stop complaining about being stuck in traffic and get on your bike

By Ben

The vocal minority win again

By Block

Excellent. Just like in Copenhagen and Amsterdam in the 1970s, we’re a wet city where cyclists are treated as third class citizens. And like Copenhagen and Amsterdam of the last 40 years, we could finally provide a civil, basic, level of infrastructure for people who aren’t filling up our roads with cars.

By Top Gear

That explains it. I thought the coned-off bit of West Derby Road was a litter refuge. I’ve driven up and down it most days for three months (actually no; sat in traffic jams pumping out diesel fumes into the local community) and never seen even a single bicycle.

By Moomo

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