A63 - a campaigning victory

Some of you may be wondering why on earth we’d include an A road on our 140 routes, but the reality is that sometimes we have to use A roads to get from, well, A to B, and we can’t celebrate 140 years of Cycling UK without celebrating our work to protect cyclists’ ability to do just that.

The A63 is one such route, running into Hull alongside the north of the Humber, and we won’t pretend it’s beautiful or a particularly pleasant ride – this is a busy A road after all. However, cyclists’ right to use our roads is something Cycling UK has campaigned for since its early existence 140 years ago, when we won the right to cycle on the carriageway back in 1888. Given that history, it’s no surprise that, when Highways England announced a consultation on proposals to ban cyclists from this section of the A63, it was once again Cycling UK which stood up to defend cyclists’ rights.

Our national campaign highlighted the failures of Highways England to apply their own standards on cycling to the proposals, and, with an acute awareness that the banning of cyclists on this route could quickly lead to copycat bans elsewhere, we delivered 9500 letters written by our supporters to Highways England objecting to the plans.

While that consultation is not yet concluded, we are continuing to engage with Highways England and are optimistic of a positive outcome which will protects cyclists’ right to use our roads.

So, we won’t suggest you go out of your way to ride down the A63, but if you do find yourself on this stretch of road, be it for leisure, commuting or transport, remember that your basic right to be on the road was fought for by Cycling UK’s campaigning and the combined voices of almost 10,000 cycle supporters.