Major route through south Bristol could get new 12-hour bus lanes

New bus lanes are to be introduced along a major road in south Brsitol as part of works next year to make travelling by bus, foot, or on bike easier and quicker along the A37 Wells Road.

Bristol City Council is drawing up plans for a wide range of work along the Wells Road corridor, including several smaller nearby streets. This includes blocking off access to side roads, building new segregated cycling lanes, and creating new pedestrian crossings.

Plans include installing new 12-hour bus lanes along Wells Road, and resurfacing parts of the road where needed. It’s unclear however which parts of the road will have new bus lanes, although more details should become clearer towards the end of this year.

Wells Road runs south from Temple Meads through Totterdown, Knowle, Hengrove and Stockwood. Council bosses approved plans to move the scheme to the next phase, writing up full business cases, during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, May 2.

Labour Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said: “This is a major investment in the city’s main strategic corridors. We want to improve the infrastructure so that our bus services are more reliable, faster, cheaper and more attractive for operators.

“We need better bus infrastructure in order to have better bus services. Our bus services have really suffered under the Conservative government all around the country, not just in Bristol. We’re now trying to do our utmost here to improve them in Bristol.”

The works form part of the council’s wider plans along the number 2 bus route. This includes Victoria Street in Redcliffe, which will see wider pavements and a new segregated cycle route linking Temple Meads with the city centre. Works along the northern end of the route, on the A4018, will be further revised before these are taken forward to a full business case.

As well as the works to Wells Road, several smaller streets leading onto the street will also see major changes. Some of these have sparked concerns from local councillors, including the removal of bus stops to make way for cycle lanes.

Changes to streets

The junction of Bellevue Road in Totterdown with Wells Road will be closed off to motor traffic, to improve safety for cyclists and motorbikes and prevent rat-running. But the closure will leave many people living in the Bellevue cul-de-sac forced to drive through the very narrow streets of Totterdown to leave the area, either down Oxford Street onto St John’s Lane, or Windsor Terrace onto St Luke’s Road.

On St John’s Lane, an extra pedestrian crossing point will be built, just down the hill from the junction with Oxford Street. At the junction with Wells Road, a new island will be built for cyclists turning right off Wells Road by the former YMCA and onto Bushy Park and the Bayham Road cycle route. Winton Street will also be made one-way, with vehicles banned from driving downhill.

In Stockwood, a new segregated cycle route will be built to link two sections of the Whitchurch Way, part of the National Cycle Network. This will run along the northern end of Sturminster Road, linking Hither Bath Bridge with Manston Close. A new crossing will also be built on Sturminster Road, north of the junction with Manston Close, as well as two crossings on the bend of Craydon Road and Sturminster Road.

Concern from councillor

During the cabinet meeting, Conservative Cllr Graham Morris, representing Stockwood, said: “We welcome the investment into Stockwood. But I’m concerned about moving the bus stop on the corner of Hither Bath Bridge. You’re taking away the public transport access from the Imperial Sports Ground, which has up to 4,000 people a week using the site. The reason it’s being removed is to enable a cycle lane going through it.

“What takes priority, bus users or cyclists? This is particularly relevant in Stockwood ward, which has the second highest number of people aged over 70 in the city, and the second largest proportion of people who live day to day with their lives greatly impacted by illnesses and chronic conditions.”

Response from cabinet

Cllr Alexander replied: “A lot of people aged over 70 do cycle. The way you’re framing the balancing act that we have to do is attempting to fuel division. What most people want is the best possible solution for everybody, the best possible bus services and the best possible cycle infrastructure.”

According to Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, the council is “very limited” in building the transport network that City Hall bosses would like to see, due to current laws and a lack of government funding. He added that every change to the network “comes with a price”.

Mr Rees said: “Until we get changes to our financial and legislative framework, then we’ll be very limited in our ability to deliver the transport offering that we would like to make for Bristol. We all in this chamber need to be on the front foot of challenging the national framework in which we have to work, which too often limits our opportunities.

“Everything we do has a price. This is one of the maturities we have wanted to bring to so much of the Bristol debate, whether that be about land use and house building or public transport. Every solution we bring forward to unlock a benefit will come with a price, somewhere.

“Our job is to work out whether the price is worthy of the prize, and then to minimise that price or eliminate it as much as we can. This is never easy, but it is easy for that to turn into bun fights and cheap headlines, the stuff that undermines people’s ability to get engaged with the real challenges facing Bristol’s future.”