Cyclists in Cardiff say the City Council needs to work harder to improve the cycling infrastructure if they want to encourage more residents to travel by bike.
In their Local Development Plan the Council says they aim to cut the number of weekly car journeys by 14% by 2026.
The Council wants to persuade people to switch to more eco-friendly forms of transport, such as walking or riding bikes.
But cyclists in Cardiff say the current infrastructure cannot support this, and roads in the city need to be made much safer before more people can travel by bike.
Steve Bowden, 62, is an Independent candidate for Heath in next year’s local elections. He has been cycling in Cardiff for 25 years and wants the Council to put some weight behind their plans to make Cardiff more bike-friendly.
He says there are plenty of issues that need to be addressed. As well as lack of road maintenance such as potholes in need of repair, he says cyclists are often forced into the path of oncoming speeding traffic because of the overlapping of bike and car lanes.
“They’ve put in an infrastructure cycle lane along some roads…and then allowed cars to park in them, so basically, you’ve created a cycle lane that the cyclist can’t use.”
Cardiff Cycle City, a cycling community group says although they don’t want to criticise the Council too much, they think they have missed opportunities to make cycling safer in Cardiff.
“There is no new cycling provision built in Cardiff that has been proven to increase safety despite there being plenty of examples in other cities in the UK,” the group told CJS News.
CJS News approached Cardiff City Council for comment.
