Foleshill Road Granted Coventry’s Third Cycle Scheme
Just a quick thing...
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In a demonstration of its continued commitment to active travel, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has announced that Coventry’s third protected cycle scheme will be constructed along Foleshill Road. This will be the first scheme that serves an area to the north of the city, and comes after the construction of the Coundon and Binley routes.
The scheme comes as part of a package of measures designed to improve the environment for walking and wheeling, cycling, and bus travel in the area. The £4.5m investment will also include new pedestrian crossings and better bus service reliability. Adam Tranter, the WMCA’s walking and cycling commissioner, noted on Twitter (or X, if you insist) that Foleshill is the most deprived ward in the city, with the lowest level of car ownership. Providing transport choice is therefore very important, in addition to achieving essential emissions reduction targets.
In addition, the new route will form part of a useful link beyond Coventry.
Warwickshire County Council has long-standing plans to build a route from the city boundary, through Exhall and part of Bedworth, to connect to Nuneaton and existing shared use paths at the Griff roundabout. With the creation of the new WMCA scheme, plus Warwickshire’s scheme (should it ever come to fruition; it’s been promised for years), this will create a substantially traffic-free/low-traffic link between Coventry and Nuneaton, leaving just Longford Road as a direct network gap where riders would either still need to mix with heavy traffic, or take a relatively short diversion on Coventry Canal – neither ideal, but still a much better situation to today.
No timescale or specific details have been announced for Coventry’s new scheme as yet, but this announcement shows how the City and wider West Midlands region is making quick and meaningful progress on developing its active travel infrastructure. These efforts should be applauded, while neighbouring Warwickshire (or at least the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough) appears to be standing still, clinging on to car dependency as it remains stuck in old, twentieth century thinking.
Cover image shows Coventry’s Coundon cycle scheme.
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