Letter: We must not waste a golden opportunity

The Harrogate and Knaresborough Congestion Survey last year acknowledged that Harrogate’s streets are overcrowded and steps need to be taken to encourage forms of travel other than the motorcar.

Furthermore, both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council have agreed to meet net zero carbon emissions and, as transport accounts for approximately 50 per cent of CO2 emissions in Harrogate and Knaresborough (BEIS 2019), reducing car use would be a major step towards this.

As noted by Coun Don MacKenzie in last week’s Advertiser, it is good that funding has been received to upgrade facilities for walking and cycling in the town centre, however, for these schemes to be successful and to persuade people to walk and cycle rather than use a car, we have to create a network and not just build cycle lanes. Thus, people need to feel safe and confident cycling from outside their door to the cycle lane and from the cycle lane to their final destination.

Actions that could be taken to encourage active forms of travel around our streets include:

1) Reducing traffic speeds by introducing a 20mph speed limit throughout the urban Harrogate and Knaresborough District as this is one of the key factors for increasing safety and confidence for many people who want to try cycling.

2) Make it illegal to park in cycle lanes so cyclists do not have to move into the flow of traffic to avoid parked cars.

3) Create traffic exclusion zones around schools at peak school run times to discourage car use. This is one of the largest contributors to town congestion and it would be good to address this before old habits are re-established.

4) Introduce modal filtering in many of our neighbourhoods to stop side roads being used as rat runs. These can be readily implemented with semi-permanent barriers such as large plant holders to let pedestrians and cyclists through but not cars, and can contribute to making our streets and neighbourhoods safer for road users other than car drivers.

5) Build secure cycle storage in schools and at several points around town.

As we come out of lockdown, we have never had a better opportunity to re-invent what we do and how we travel, and we must not let this opportunity go to waste.