West Berkshire Council to invest £100,000 government grant in a cycle lane on the A4 Options

[Andy Capp]

Cycle the A4 to get fit? Yeah right!

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/home/20...cycle-path.html

[Rdg]

I suspect if you delve into this you will find the name sustrans listed - they seem to be a consultancy who specialise in getting sustainable transport grants for councils which saves them spending their own money. For instance from M4 J11 to Winnersh instead of Wokingham spending 80k resurfacing the road from their budget they got nearly £1m of grant funding to build a cycle lane and fence and resurface the road. Nobody uses the cycle lane, the road has had it's speed limit reduced and extra islands so you can't overtake plus the roundabout had to be reprofiled after a couple of crashes due to poor sightlines - but hey Wokingham "saved" £80k. Even the cyclists hate it as they have to stop for the side roads and the fast cyclists just want to keep moving

So unfortunately i doubt the money could have been spent on social care as it would have been a ring fenced grant

[blackdog]

I suspect if you delve into this you will find the name sustrans listed - they seem to be a consultancy who specialise in getting sustainable transport grants for councils which saves them spending their own money. For instance from M4 J11 to Winnersh instead of Wokingham spending 80k resurfacing the road from their budget they got nearly £1m of grant funding to build a cycle lane and fence and resurface the road. Nobody uses the cycle lane, the road has had it's speed limit reduced and extra islands so you can't overtake plus the roundabout had to be reprofiled after a couple of crashes due to poor sightlines - but hey Wokingham "saved" £80k. Even the cyclists hate it as they have to stop for the side roads and the fast cyclists just want to keep moving

So unfortunately i doubt the money could have been spent on social care as it would have been a ring fenced grant

Fast cyclists can cycle on the road - cycle paths are for safe cycling, not racing. As for no-one using the cycle path - I drove along there yesterday for the first time since the path was built - and noticed cyclists on it. Struck me that it was a rare UK example of doing the job properly, not just painting an ineffectual line along the edge of a road.