In May 2020, the government announced funding for emergency active travel schemes. The first round of funding was for temporary highway schemes to aid social distancing, and to reallocate existing road space, to help enable more journeys by walking and cycling. We installed a number of measures within a matter of weeks, including the following:
- Pavement widening at 15 locations in Bath
- Turning Keynsham High Street and a number of roads in Bath city centre into pedestrian and cycle zones
- Automating pedestrian crossings at the busiest traffic signal junctions so that people didn’t need to push the button to activate the crossing
Through the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), we submitted a bid to the Department for Transport’s second round of funding for Active Travel schemes. This round of funding is to provide an alternative for journeys that people may previously have taken on public transport (which still has reduced capacity, due to social distancing) and also to help enable more people to walk and cycle for short, local trips.
The schemes we are taking forward to consultation form part of our wider strategy to make it more convenient to walk, wheel, or cycle for short journeys, helping residents, businesses, and visitors to Bath and North East Somerset to live healthier lives.
We will be consulting on three schemes in February 2021, two of which will use funding from the government’s Active Travel Fund.