More than 100 people have signed a petition to increase the cycling provision along a busy road in Stevenage.
Cycle UK Stevenage launched the online petition last week, and have already had a wave of support for the initiative to promote safer cycling along Gresley Way.
The petition seeks to complete the cycleway along Gresley Way between Six Hills Way and Martins Way - as currently the bike route ends, leaving cyclists having to use the main road.
Chair of the local branch Tina Walker said: "We launched the petition last week and over 100 people had signed within a couple of days.
"The path alongside Gresley Way from Six Hills Way north to Martins Way is not a cycleway but is for pedestrians only. Car drivers may not expect cyclists to be on the road - but it would be illegal for them to be cycling on the footway.
"Gresley Way is one of the busiest roads in Stevenage yet the entire northern section from Six Hills Way to Martins Way lacks any cycleway provision. Instead, people cycling along this route are forced to share the road carriageway with vehicles travelling up to 40 miles per hour.
"A safe space for cycling along the whole of Gresley Way would create a direct link between homes, schools, and workplaces throughout the east of Stevenage and connect with Great Ashby.
"Many children living in housing accessed from Gresley Way do not have a cycleway link to existing secondary schools; the new Michaela Stevenage secondary school is due to be built close to Gresley Way."
The group has also cited planned developments - including one that will bring more than 600 homes to land east of Stevenage - which would increase the traffic to Gresley Way.
It is calling on Hertfordshire County Council and Stevenage Borough Council to work together to upgrade the pedestrian path to give a segregated space for walking and cycling.
This would be "in line with our New Town planners' vision of high-quality joined up infrastructure, and at least as good as the existing route on the southern end of the road".
Cllr John Gardner, executive member for regeneration Stevenage Borough Council said: “The council identified this portion of Gresley Way as a key location for cycling infrastructure improvements and included it in its Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan published in 2019.
"Cycling and walking improvements across the borough continues to be a council priority and this remains the only Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan published by any authority within Hertfordshire.
“We identified this “missing link” in the town’s extensive cycle network and negotiated with East Hertfordshire District Council and the developers of the housing development that it will be delivered adjacent to Gresley Way, outside of the Stevenage borough boundary, to deliver a major cycling scheme as part of their planning permission.
"The developers have agreed to deliver a segregated cycleway from the Six Hills Way to Chells Way roundabout, to Gresley Way, heading northwards alongside Gresley Way to the Fairlands Way roundabout and onto Fairlands Way where it will integrate with the existing cycle way.”
To find out more, go to you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/support-a-gresley-way-cycleway-extension.
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