Coventry's Binley cycleway set to be extended
Councillors are due to sign off on the plans next week.
Coventry’s Binley cycleway is set to be extended so it links up with different areas of the city.
Plans for a branch of the two-way cycle track down Allard Way are due to be signed off by a city councillor next week.
If the scheme is approved, a new separated cycleway would be built from the road’s junction with Binley Road to Second Avenue.
This would connect with an existing walking and cycle path leading to Stoke Aldermoor and Ernesford Grange, according to a council report.
Without the new track, cyclists trying to get from Second Avenue to the Binley cycleway have to mix with traffic on a 40mph road or use a narrow footpath.
Neither of these options are desirable in road safety terms, the report states.
“This scheme fills in the missing link for safe cycling by connecting these two neighbourhoods to Binley Cycleway and therefore all destinations served by it,” the report says.
Plans show the cycleway would be separated from car traffic and part of the road opposite would need to be widened to make room for it.
A new traffic light controlled crossing, allowing cyclists to cross Second Avenue in one go, would also be built.
The scheme will be funded by more than a half a million pounds from the government’s active travel fund, the report notes.
This £550k sum will be “passported” through the West Midlands Combined Authority and is subject to an updated business case for the Binley cycleway and the signing of a grant agreement.
A public consultation on the plans this month had only 10 comments and four-fifths of these were in favour, the report said.
Using Google Maps as a rough measure, the new track looks set to be between 200 and 300 metres long.
This is a fraction of the planned Binley cycleway which is due to cover six kilometres and will cost an estimated £8.6 million.
The cycleway is planned to link Coventry city centre with University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW.)
As of May 2023, some two-thirds of the route was open to the public.
Data in the council report shows more people are using the cycleway since parts opened last year.
In June 2023, parts of the track recorded 10,000 and 15,000 trips per month – up from 2,000 and 8,000 in June 2022.
Cllr Patricia Hetherton, cabinet member for city services, will decide whether to give the extension the green light at a council meeting next week.