COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Two roads in Coventry and Warwickshire have been named among the worst in Britain for cyclists.



Holyhead Road in Coventry and the A452 between Leamington and Kenilworth were condemned by cycling charity Sustrans. It said both routes presented major hazards, including parked vehicles and bottlenecks in Holyhead Road, and fast traffic on the A452.

In his damning verdict of Holyhead Road, Martyn Brunt, of Sustrans, said: “A nicely painted cycle lane lures you on to this road and gives you excellent separation – where it isn’t blocked with parked cars – right up to a major junction where it completely abandons you just when you need it most.

“The road from there is first wide and jammed past a supermarket, then narrow and jammed under a bridge, before you’re dumped on Coventry’s major ring road.”

Mr Brunt added that the new pedestrian bridge installed over the ring road last year was not signposted from the cycle route.

Speaking about the A452, he said: “The only route between these two towns, the traffic is fast and extremely heavy, and with large numbers of buses and HGVs.

"A single carriageway along its entire length, it has no cycle facilities except at one roundabout which is poorly signposted, sending cyclists the wrong way. Should you survive the road itself, busy junctions await you at either end.”

Coventry City Council said cyclists would benefit from the roadworks which were currently taking place in Holyhead Road.

Coun Lindsley Harvard (Lab, Longford), cabinet member for city services said: “When the improvement work is finished in May, all four sets of traffic lights will have advanced stop lines for cyclists.

“We have also provided an alternative route to the city centre away from the main road from Southbank Road to Corporation Street across the Hill Street bridge. Signs are now in place to guide cyclists along the alternative, quieter route.

“We are also extending the cycle route from the city centre even further to the former Jaguar site at Browns Lane.

“Once completed, this will mean that we will have in place a continuous route from the city centre to Allesley and Brownshill Green, forming part of our strategic network of cycle routes across the city.”

Warwickshire County Council planner Roger Newham admitted improvements needed to be made on the A452 for cyclists, but said there was no money just yet.