Coventry City Council has announced a £19.2 million programme to improve roads and build new cycle lanes this year in the West Midlands city.
A £2.3 million cycle lane in Coventry city centre, a £2.2 million route linking Coundon to Keresley and a £500k link to the already-built Binley cycleway are a part of the planned project.
The project will be funded by Transport for West Midlands, through the government’s active travel fund. More cycle lanes, with funding reserved for schemes including a segregated cycle network for the city are expected in future.
At a City Council meeting, Green Councillor Stephen Gray emphasized the issues faced on the cycleway at Coundon saying it was “just stops” and “If you’re going to the city centre, you come to the end of the cycleway, you’re facing oncoming traffic”.
The project was also defended by Labour Councillor Christine Thomas, Chair of the City Council’s Disability Equality Action Panel thus: “Despite what some people say, that it’s a waste of money, that’s not what I’m hearing from people. I’m hearing how happy they are that this programme’s going ahead.”
£9.4 million, half of the council’s total spending this year, will go towards repairing Coventry’s roads and pavements. The other half will go towards other improvements to the network, including the cycle lanes, speed cameras, and red lights at school sites, totaling £9.7 million.
