"Better than painting bloody rainbows in the road" - Leicester builds "Keyworkers' corridor" bike lane

Leicester City Council is creating a "key worker corridor" for people cycling to work at the East Midlands city's royal infirmary - and it's an initiative we can get full behind.

As Real Gaz alludes to on Twitter, an initiative such as this will make more of a difference to people working within the NHS - many of whom commute to work by bike - than standing outside and clapping them on a Friday evening will. 

This could and should be done outside every hospital. Better than painting bloody rainbows in the road https://t.co/beYL7dtt6p

— Real Gaz on a proper bike #fbpe (@gazza_d) April 27, 2020

The council said: "A new cycle track has been put in place to help key workers who are biking to work during the coronavirus lockdown.

"With traffic in the city having fallen to a fraction of its usual levels, highways bosses at Leicester City Council have created a temporary cycle route by coning off one lane of Aylestone Road between its junction with Almond Road and its junction with Welford Road, outside the Tigers rugby ground.

"The work simply involves putting cones out to mark off one lane of the carriageway to create a safer route, especially for key workers travelling to and from Leicester Royal Infirmary [LRI].

"A temporary cycle route will help link up existing cycling tracks around Freemans Common with the cycle route on Welford Road, and creates a direct route for cyclists living along Saffron Lane in Aylestone to LRI.

"Using part of Aylestone Road as a temporary cycle track is only possible due to the huge drop in traffic across the city since the lockdown came into effect on March.

"There are plans for a more permanent cycle route as part of the landscaping works linked to a new hotel and car parking scheme being carried out by Leicester Tigers at the former Granby Halls site.

The city council is also looking at potential options to extend the link, for example on Saffron Lane, where similar cycle lanes can be easily introduced over the coming weeks to help in the current situation."​