Southampton Cycle Facilities
I — well, bikeuser@soton, I’m only half of that — received an email from Solent Tide asking
> The leader of the council told me recently that Southampton is behind
> other cities in its number of cycle paths, so the council has put
> more money into “closing the gap”.
>
> Would someone at BUN please be able to comment on this statement and
> cycle paths in general?
I don’t really have a clue, but I took the opportunity to witter about cycling in Southampton in general. I reproduce my comments below, and I’d be interested to hear any opinions:
I have no idea if this is true, I am afraid! I noticed that a cycle
path appeared on the middle bridge (on the way onto the Itchen bridge)
which improved my regular route to Woolston enormously.
As a town with two universities and lots of students it is important for
Southampton to provide safe routes for cyclists across the city as well
as interesting “day rides” for pleasure outings.
Southampton seems to me to have a reasonable network of on and off-road
paths and a map can be found on their website
(http://www.southampton.gov.uk/transport/cycling-pedestrians/cyclingsoton.asp).
The main “nasty” roads mostly have off-road alternatives or cycle lanes.
I compare with my home town Lincoln which has very few cycle paths
along roads or across town but is working on developing longer routes
along old railways and canals in the countryside.
The two main reasons students give for not cycling are
– they are scared of the traffic; as I say I believe that there
*are* mostly routes for cyclists here. The best advert is usage 
Cycle-friendly routes through back-streets could also be advertised
with those little blue cycle-path signs to encourage cyclists to find
routes that avoid unpleasant or busy roads
— bikes would get stolen anyway. I myself ride a folding bicycle and
always keep it with me, so I do not keep up with cycle theft issues.
Providing areas where bikes can be locked up (to some fixing/stand) in
busy areas or monitoring with CCTV; recovering stolen bicycles where
possible; providing cycle frame marking schemes — these are all
possibilities and I just don’t know what is provided for in Southampton.
What I *would* like to see more of here, as someone who travels late at
night, is traffic lights which change automatically on detection of
traffic, if there is nothing in the other direction. In Cambridge if I
cycled home at 2am, all the lights would change green as I approached.
Southampton doesn’t appear to be terribly good at this.
Other facilities which would be useful for cyclists are more cycle
lanes against the flow of one-way streets, and lanes which allow
cyclists to slip around corners without waiting for the traffic lights
when turning left (generally not safe if there are no separate cycle
lanes, but plausible if lanes were provided). I don’t know if this is
where the council’s money is going, and of course it’s just a personal
opinion.
I fear I haven’t answered your question Have you contacted the
Southampton Cycling Campaign?