Cycle safety at 78 junctions to be improved thanks to £18m in grants

The funding includes several hugely impressive and radical schemes, including the partial removal of a gyratory in Leicester and the construction of a £2m cycle bridge in Bury St Edmunds.

CTC was represented on the panel of experts alongside British Cycling, CPRE and Sustrans, which recommended the shortlist of schemes to be funded. 

Over 130 schemes were submitted by local authorities in a very short funding window of a few months in summer 2012. Following the 'Cities fit for cycling' campaign, £15m had already been made available to fund junction improvements in London, and CTC had called for additional funding for the rest of the country.

Many of CTC's local campaigners also fed in their comments on the proposals, helping to ensure that the schemes would improve conditions for cycling as well as improving cycle safety. 

Some of these schemes have shown real ambition from local authorities, very much in line with CTC’s ideas of infrastructural improvements to create Cycletopia. However, CTC is calling on Government to make funding schemes such as this a regular, predictable source of funding, to give local authorities the ability to plan their improvements over the longer term

Gordon Seabright, CTC Chief Executive 

The funding also brought in over £21m in match funding from local authorities and local developers, enlarging the total funding pool to almost £40m. Although this is welcome additional funding, it only represents a very small fraction of the amount of funding required  to improve the road network to the standard that CTC would like to see. 

Many of the schemes are small scale improvements, including the provision of off-road pavement conversions in rural areas. However, a few of the schemes are truly radical and will represent a major improvement in the junction or road in question.

The best schemes 

• Leicester's proposal unwraps part of the city centre one-way system, removing a whole lane of the carriageway and reallocating it to a two-way cycle track.
• The Ormskirk Road and Wallgate approach to Wigan will be redesigned to close side roads and provide a cycle route alongside this busy, hostile road. 
• A new cycle and footbridge will cross the A14 at Bury St Edmunds, providing an alternative route to the busy Fornham Road.

The full list of schemes can be downloaded below.