Consultation opens on Leeds cycling strategy

Leeds residents are being asked to give their opinions on the city’s new cycling strategy. The launch of the consultation coincides with a mass Space for Cycling demonstration ride today, calling on the council to provide safer cycle routes and residential 20mph speed limits.

The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that the Leeds "Cycling Starts Here" programme board are developing a cycling strategy as part of the legacy of the 2014 Tour de France.

Councillor Richard Lewis, the council’s executive member for transport, said: “I believe that everyone has an important part to play in the development of this strategy and action plan, because of the role cycling could play in the future growth, place-making and streetscape of Leeds. We would really like to hear from not just cycling enthusiasts and residents.”

The survey can be found here. The deadline for responses is June 26.

Today also sees a Space for Cycling demonstration ride from Millennium Square to Kirkstall Abbey. Around 100 cyclists were expected to turn out.

Earlier in the week we reported how an £18m cycle superhighway between Leeds and Bradford has been condemned as ‘hazardous’ by some campaigners.

The 23km route, paid for by government Cycle City Ambition Fund money, has proven a disappointment for many with Cycling UK’s Policy Director, Roger Geffen MBE, saying that it was a good example of why national design standards for cycle routes are needed.

Just 75cm wide in places, the route puts cyclists into conflict with motor traffic, bus users and pedestrians along its length. Ken Spence, managing consultant at Transport Initiatives, an independent transport planning consultancy, shared a number of photographs with road.cc and, pointing to a number of flaws, described the attention to detail on the route as ‘woeful’.