Help campaign for more cycling lanes

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Old Shoreham Road in Hove installed in May

On Tuesday 9th June the Sussex Green Living hosted weekly Horsham Future Forum and Youth Eco Forum listened to an excellent talk by Francis Vernon the chair of Horsham District Cycling forum. They are working hard to encourage Horsham District Council to install pop-up cycling lanes in Horsham town.

Message from Horsham District Cycling Forum

We’ve seen them going in across the country and now Horsham is finally getting its own pop-up cycle lanes along a section of Albion Way.

With the ongoing need to maintain social distancing as we ease out of lockdown, taking measures to enable active travel will be crucial in allowing people to get around safely.

Although initially only for a few hundred metres – and a temporary measure – we welcome this first step. For the new lanes to be a success it will be vital that there are safe and easy access points, for example at the roundabouts. We are hopeful that the lanes could be extended at a later date to the junction with North Parade and beyond to East Street so as to create a “backbone” safe cycle route across the town.

£3.9m in total has been allocated to West Sussex from the emergency active-travel fund to allow people to get around whilst maintaining social distancing, and the Albion Way scheme is being funded out of the first tranche of £784,000.

The Government has called on councils to make “swift and significant” changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians. They have made it clear that measures must be delivered quickly, and most involve meaningful reallocation of road space, otherwise this will adversely affect the ability to secure any future funding.

You can read more details here:
http://www.hdcf.org.uk/horsham-to-get-pop-up-cycle-lanes-on-albion-way/

Regards,
Peter Silburn
Secretary

Horsham District Cycling Forum – Working to make cycling safe, convenient and attractive for everyone

Web: http://www.hdcf.org.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CycleForumHorsh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CycleForumHorsh/

To help support their work, people and groups are invited to write to the Horsham Cycling Forum with statements of support. This is our statement:

“We are delighted to hear a pop-up cycling lane is being installed in Albion Way in Horsham. Covid has devastated so many people, families and businesses, we must try and find something positive to come out of the current health and economic crisis and what better way than to address the climate crisis with sustainable and safe transport!
The increase in cycling and walking shows that with less traffic on the roads people will opt for free, healthy and sustainable methods of transport. We urgently need more pop-up cycle lanes while people are in the habit of cycling and enjoying it. We would love to see Albion Way joined up with the existing cycle track by Prewitts Mill near the Sainsbury’s roundabout and the junction with North Parade and beyond to East Street. We need to join up the dots so people travelling to work, children to school and families enjoying healthy family exercise”.  
From Carrie Cort CEO Sussex Green Living (Horsham Repair Cafe and Horsham Climate Cafe, Horsham Future Forum and Horsham Youth Eco Forum)

This is Extinction Rebellion Horsham’s statement:

“All of us in Extinction Rebellion Horsham love the idea of these pop-up cycle lanes in Albion Way. They will improve the local environment, be healthier for the users, and be better for the planet (ie reduce the number of short car journeys, and therefore the associated carbon emissions). We would support any future extension towards East Street. Ideas like these pop-up cycle lanes, are the ideas that our future needs”.

From Mark (on behalf of Extinction Rebellion Horsham)

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“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” –  Alan Kay