Active Travel Fund Scheme on A4

West Berkshire Council has been awarded £124,000 for Phase 1 and £495,000 for Phase 2 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund to give more space to pedestrians and cyclists as part of the response to COVID-19.

West Berkshire SPOKES was consulted on the measures that we would like to see. Our priorities included protected cycle lanes on the A4 and on approach routes to the main town centres, as well as closing some local roads to through-traffic and exempting cyclists from some one-way streets.. We are delighted to see the first of these installed this week on the the section of the A4 between Cothrop and Thatcham.

The scheme uses wands and Orcas to provide low cost physical segregation that helps to make the mandatory cycle lane self-enforcing. These are low cost, but effective measures that can be rolled out quickly and easily, and are therefore ideal candidates for the Emergency Active Travel Fund.

The wands are used before and after junctions, while the Orcas are used in the central sections. If you are unfamiliar with an Orca, they are low-level rubberised features that have a near vertical profile facing traffic and a more gently sloping profile facing the cycle lane. This means that if you were to hit one, while riding your bike, it would just push you back onto the cycle lane.

First impressions are quite good. The gaps between features seem quite large, but vehicles were definitely keeping their distance, which is the main goal. However, the segregation runs out on the approach to Colthrop Lane, and the presence of a pedestrian refuge means that traffic is pushed towards the cycle lane. Longer term, it would be good to be able to widen the cycle lane into the verge to allow the segregation to be extended a bit further.

We look forward to see the rest of the schemes rolled out in the coming weeks and will keep you posted on the results.