New cycling plan for Leeds launched

Leeds City Council and its partners have launched a new cycling plan for the city to improve cycling infrastructure and accessibility.

The ‘Leeds Cycling Starts Here’ strategy, unveiled alongside the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), British Cycling, and Leeds Cycling Consultation Forum, aims to build upon and create a lasting legacy from the successful 2014 Le Grand Départ in Leeds.

The strategy highlights ways to inspire more people to cycle more regularly, eventually making cycling a natural everyday choice. In order to do this, the strategy highlights the importance of improving safety, enhancing convenience for cycling and boosting health and well-being across the city.

The overall intention is to make Leeds a thriving, active and cycle friendly city. The scope of the city’s cycling ambition is also represented in a tube-style map that shows the extent of the cycling network that the city would eventually like to reach. Approximately 10 per cent of this network has already been built and the remaining routes linking communities, shows the scale of the long-term ambition for cycling connectivity. The cycling tube map can also be located on the above web page.

Richard Lewis, executive member for regeneration, transport and planning, said: “While a significant investment has been made by the council and partners in infrastructure and a wide range of other areas since then, we all recognise that if we are to meet our aim of becoming a really excellent city for cycling, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. It was for this reason that we tasked the ‘Leeds Cycling Starts Here’ programme board with developing a new cycling strategy for our city, and it is great news that having also incorporated the views that were made through a large public consultation last year, it has now been launched.

“Through this strategy we have a real opportunity to put in place both long-lasting and positive changes which can ensure Leeds is a vibrant and accessible city for cycling. Everyone in the city, whether it is the council, partners, cycling enthusiasts, residents or the voluntary, education and business communities has an important part to play, and I hope that by working together we can make the vision, aims and ambitions of this strategy a reality.”