Pensioners who videoed pavement cyclists in Bristol are now campaigning for more cycle infrastructure

A campaign group that made a stand against pavement cycling has appealed to Bristol City Council to improve its "inadeqate" cycling provisions that force riders onto the pavement.

Judith Brown, chairwoman of the Bristol Older People’s Forum, which has been campaigning against cyclists using pavements, attended a Sustainable Development and Transport Scrutiny Commission meeting on Thursday.

After the meeting she told the Post that the council should listen to what had been said and change its “inadequate” policy.

Last month we reported how another member of the group took video footage of cyclists on the pavement in Bristol city centre.

But in a clear sign that the campaigners had seen that the root cause of the pavement cycling was poor provision for riders around town, they attended the council meeting in support of improved insfrastructure that separated cyclists and pedestrians and diminished the potential for conflict.

Mrs Brown said: “I think the council has to think seriously about its inadequate policy for all.

“As Bristol is a cycling city, the council must think how it accommodates them properly.

“What countries have done in Europe looks promising and it’s certainly worth thinking about how they can make life safer for everybody. “I’m going to take this away to digest and tell my members.”

Dr David Horton, a sociologist focusing on cycling, also attended the meeting. He said that his research showed how potential cyclists were put off by “terrifying” road conditions.

He said: “Too often words like ‘petrified’ and ‘terrified’ crop up in surveys when people are asked why they don’t cycle around town. “In urban Britain, at the moment, we are really struggling to provide for cyclists.

There’s a real mismatch between policy and practical work leading to improvements.”