UK Cities Going Dutch for Cycling - Leicester
UK Cities Going Dutch for Cycling - Leicester
Although Leicester lost out on government Cycle City Ambition funding in both 2013 and 2014, that didn’t deter Leicester’s mayor, Peter Soulsby from planning to double cycling in the city by 2018.
Soulsby is looking at the big picture, i.e. the creation of a cycle network: he’s spending £8.5m on pedestrianising part of the city centre – due for completion winter 2015 – where, unlike similar schemes elsewhere in the UK, cycles will be permitted.
Trial removal of traffic lanes on main roads are being carried out, with a view to them becoming segregated cycle routes, including on the three/four lane one-way Welford Road.
If successful the trial will precede cycle routes between South Leicester suburbs Saffron, Eyres, Monsell and Aylestone, and the city centre.
The £4m Jubilee Square project, finished in 2014, saw a car park transformed into a traffic-free public square, and with the King Richard III visitor centre expected to be a massive draw to visitors, Leicester is a city truly looking to the future. Chapeau!