Cyclists as Trunk Road users

Today I attended my second meeting of the “East Midlands Road Users and Environment Committee” of the Highways Agency (HA) in Leicester on behalf of Derby Cycling Group.  This is a way that the Highways Agency, that oversees the trunk road network, liaises with non-motorised users of its network – including cyclists, pedestrians and horse-riders. 

Today’s meeting included a briefing on the way they judge whether improvements meet their aims, which is done by consultants to give some independence to the assessment.  We also had an update from one of the HA’s traffic officers.  These patrol the network responding to issues causing delays with the aim of keeping traffic moving.  They work closely with the police, who lead on more serious incidents.

A number of other issues were raised, including operational issues like litter-picking, and environmental ones like air quality and noise.   They had appreciated the award we’d given them for their good management of cycle routes during the Alvaston bypass construction works!

There was quite a lot of discussion on the A52 going into Nottingham – more on this on my website – and we also had a discussion on the consultation being planned for raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph.