Thursday 14-11-2024 - 15:55

 

 

Do you like cycling to and from campus? Or would you like to but feel that it’s too dangerous? Lancaster University Cycle Lane Campaign have launched a campaign for safe, segregated cycle lanes between campus and town!

 

 
Cycling to and from campus is a good way to get fit, help the environment, and save money. Yet, despite the university advertising dedicated cycling routes to and from campus, many of these routes are fragmented and unsafe. The route along the canal is unlit and dark, especially in winter months. Routes along the A6 mean that you must cycle on a busy and high-speed road with sometimes aggressive drivers.
 
Lancaster University Cycle Lane Campaign, made up of Lancaster University students and staff, believes that provision of safe, segregated cycling routes to and from campus is a no-brainer, particularly when the 13,000 students (and staff and residents) who live in Lancaster may need to travel to and from campus regularly. The campaign believes that active travel should be accessible to all, not just to those who feel confident or able enough to cycle on busy A-roads or on dark and sometimes slippery canal paths.
 
Lancaster University Cycle Lane Campaign want students to have safe, sustainable, and cheap ways to get to campus. For this reason, last week, Lancaster University Students’ Union voted to support the aims of their campaign, and approved a motion with a majority of 25-1.
 
One of the aims of this campaign is to get Lancashire County Council to ensure there are safe, segregated cycle lanes between campus and town. For this reason, the campaign have set up a petition to call for Lancashire County Council to provide safe, segregated, and direct cycling routes between town and campus (specifically between the train station and campus).
 
The Cycle Lane Campaign have done this for a number of reasons:
 
1) Safety: The A6 has been identified as one of the most dangerous roads in Britain, and unfortunately, most people at Lancaster University must travel along it in some form to get to campus. Shockingly, it is estimated that 64% of accidents between junction 33 and Lancaster involve pedestrians and cyclists. Safety on the road is not just about following rules; it’s about recognizing that the road is a shared public space and that many different people with differing abilities and forms of transport use roads to travel. 


2) Accessibility: You may think that building cycling lanes may reduce accessibility for other road users. However, there have been numerous studies into the positive effects of segregated cycling lanes and accessibility and equity. Additionally, research by Lancashire County Council, which forms the Local Cycling and Walking Plan, shows that one of the biggest barriers to cycling is busy roads and feeling unsafe, with the effect of this being that men cycle twice as much as women. Moreover, building segregated cycling lanes means that pavements can be redesigned better to include those who may be partially sighted (for tactile pavements) as well as being resurfaced to be less slippery, as some examples. 


3) The environment: Lancaster campus is 3.5 miles from the city centre, which is an awkward distance for many of those who travel to and from campus. Many own cars and find it easier to drive, rather than waiting for an often overcrowded bus, or spend over an hour walking. The campaign believes that provision of the option to safely cycle between campus and town would help to reduce our car dependency and help local levels of air pollution and traffic. We are currently in a climate emergency, and reducing our use of fossil fuels can help the planet. However, Cycle Lane Campaign believe that more people are likely to continue driving until there are safe and accessible options for cycling, walking, wheeling, or cheaper options for public transport.


4) Saving money: In October this year, Keir Starmer announced that the bus cap for England would be increased to £3. This could mean that a return journey via bus to campus could cost £6 without the use of a bus pass, after Stagecoach removed the return ticketing option in the summer of 2024. The campaign doesn’t believe it’s fair that students who haven’t bought buspasses should have to pay that much to get to and from uni, and they don’t believe that students should have to feel unsafe if they want to cycle to save money.
 
5) Health: Just adding 5 minutes of exercise a day, such as cycling to the shops, is enough to lower blood pressure! Commuting via bike or cycling for leisure is a great way to stay fit. Integrating cycling into your daily commute can help both mental and physical health. It is estimated that increasing the level of cycling in the UK to the levels of Denmark would save the NHS £20 billion over 20 years. However, this is hard to achieve when we don’t have safe, segregated cycling lanes on our roads.
 
 

Source: Intereg NWE. An image of a segregated cycling lane in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark. Could Lancaster ever look like this?
 
 
 
Photo of the A6 leading from campus to town. What Lancaster looks like now. How can this road be redesigned to be accessible for all?
 
These are just some of the many reasons the Cycle Lane Campaign have set up their petition for segregated, cycling lanes between campus and town.
 
The petition closes on the 22nd of November and wants to gather as many signatures as possible to get Lancashire County Council to listen to those who cycle or want to cycle more to and from campus.
 
If you would like to find out more about the campaign, please check out the website here. Or give the campaign a follow on Instagram (lu_cyclelanecampaign), Facebook (Lancaster University Cycle Lane Campaign), or Twitter (X).
 
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to get involved in the campaign or find out more information!
 
Thanks,
Sophie, Joe, Ivan, Aleks, and Matt at Lancaster University Cycle Lane Campaign