Nottingham allocates £600K to make dangerous junctions safer for cyclists

Nottingham Council is to spend more than half a million pounds improving two dangerous junctions to make them safer for cyclists.

£600,000 will be spent making the junctions at Dunkirk roundabout and the point where Forest Road meets Mansfield Road better as part of a wider transport infrastructure improvement drive.

The money will also go towards creating a cycle path accessing the former Dunkirk Fire Station site, where a college is being built, all as part of Action Plan for Cycling which was launched in 2012, aiming to increase the number of cyclists in Nottingham by 50 per cent between 2010 and 2015.

Plans for a similar path at Wells Road, in St Ann's have had to be put on hold for these proposals however.

Councillor Jane Urquhart, portfolio holder for Planning and Transport, told the Nottingham Post: "When told we could be provided the money to do more difficult projects at Mansfield Road and Dunkirk roundabout, we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

"Mansfield Road has been recognised as an ongoing problem area. We will look at our 2014/2015 budget and see if we can fit the Wells Road scheme back in."

Hugh McClintock, committee member of the campaign group Pedals said: "It's always been a problem in terms of getting clear signage and for connections to and from the city.

"We certainly support the scheme on Mansfield Road and by the Dunkirk flyover. We recognise these are places where action is needed to improve cyclist safety."

Last year we reported how some of the most dangerous junctions in Manchester are to be reviewed, with £200,000 earmarked for improvements, in a move that has been welcomed by the city's cycling groups.

The plans include cycle lanes and cycle-only traffic lights.

Recently we reported how Boris Johnson has pledged to make 33 dangerous junctions in London safer for cyclists, along with starting work on two major safe cycle highways for cyclists through the middle of the city by 2015.

He has also published for consultation a network of quieter routes through backstreets for cyclists who are frightened of cycling around lorries.

"We are publishing the map of our new network of Quietways across Zone one, many of them following the lines of the Tube map,” he said in a speech this morning.

The Mayor has been criticised for downgrading the safe junctions plans down to 33 from an original 100 promised earlier this year as part of the Olympic legacy plans.

And even the ones he has promised won’t happen fast. According to TfL’s new delivery schedule, 25 of the 33 junctions will be completed by 2015/16 and the remaining 8 will be delivered by 2020/2.

Last year, TfL committed to completing improvements to 10 junctions by the end of 2012, with a total of 50 junctions being timetabled for improvements by the end of 2013.

London Assembly Green Party member Darren Johnson said: "Over two years ago, the mayor promised to urgently overhaul 500 of the capital's most treacherous junctions but what we are now seeing is the mayor's ambition shrinking as cycle casualties are rising."