Hove cyclist’s death prompts calls for safer routes

A network of safer cycle routes has been proposed by a trust set up in memory of a Hove teacher.

The Jo Walters Trust said that much of the infrastructure for the network already existed or had already been planned.

The trust said that it had pulled together the routes to create a masterplan, providing the joined-up thinking that was necessary to make cycling safer and save lives.

Among the sites to be served by the network would be the Sussex University and Brighton University campuses at Falmer, the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy and the Amex Community Stadium.

The Jo Walters Trust paid for a transport consultant to help draw up the report, which also looks at where there are gaps to be plugged if safe cycling is to be encouraged.

The trust was set up in memory of Jo Walters, 28, of Westbourne Street, Hove, who died in a cycling accident on Tuesday 13 July 2010.

She was trying to avoid a bike coming towards her on a narrow cycle path under the A27 Brighton Bypass where it crosses the A270 Lewes Road at Stanmer.

Miss Walters, who came from Aberdeenshire, swerved and fell into the road and was hit by a passing van.

She had recently qualified as a maths teacher at Brighton University and was due to take up a job at Uckfield Community Technology College.

The trust aims to commemorate her life by giving grants to causes of which she would approve.

The trust said: “The work leading to the Cycling Masterplan has been funded by a specific donation for that purpose.

“The plan proposes a Netherlands-style network of cycle routes linking the various centres of activity and development in the area.

“Between Falmer and the city centre, it is proposed that over 7km of dedicated bus and cycle lanes should be installed along the A270 Lewes Road.

“This road now carries far less motor traffic than it did before the opening of the Brighton Bypass in the early 1990s.

“But the route is seeing steadily rising use by cyclists, many of them being students and staff at the two universities.

“The report has been prepared by transport specialists in consultation with a wide range of local stakeholders, including Brighton and Hove City Council.

“Much of the necessary infrastructure exists or is already planned to be built.

“The masterplan provides the joined-up thinking needed to bring these routes together as a complete network and to highlight any gaps in provisions that still need to be filled.”

It said that the junction of the A27 Brighton Bypass and the A270 Lewes Road had changed a great deal in recent years.

Last year, for instance, major roadworks were completed there in readiness for the opening of Brighton and Hove Albion’s new ground, the Amex Community Stadium.

The trust said: “A key initial step in the preparation of the masterplan was to assemble a comprehensive base plan showing all current and proposed development in the area.

“This future map of the area then formed the base plan on to which the proposed cycling network has been drawn.

“The co-operation of the various parties who supplied these details, including the city council, has been crucial to the success of the plan preparation.

“The masterplan has been prepared using the Knooppunten system of cycle network definition, which now operates throughout the whole of the Netherlands and most of Belgium.”

Consulting engineer Peter Mynors worked as the trust’s technical adviser on the masterplan in association with Transport Planning Practice.

Mr Mynors has spent more than 45 years in highway design and transport planning and acted for Transport for London in editing the London Cycling Design Standards.

Andrew Walters said on behalf of the trust: “This has been a very good public/private sector initiative.

“The trust was able to invest and assemble the plans with the help of some specialist expertise and Brighton and Hove City Council won funding from the Department for Transport last year to carry out ‘green transport measures’ along the Falmer road corridor.

“We hope that this Cycling Masterplan will be seen as a key contribution to discussions now under way into the detail of how this funding should be used.”