Woking Cycle Users' Group

LATEST NEWS

• The most recent meeting of the Cycle Forum was on 14 September:
• we recognised that the improvements funded by Cycling England had come to an end at 31 March 2011 but discussed the remaining improvements which will nevertheless be implemented. These include the pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the Basingstoke Canal at Hermitage, the cycle crossing of Victoria Way by the Lightbox, and the wheeling channels under the subway at Woking station.discussed the initiatives to be funded from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund monies. These include off road cycle/pedestrian paths along Oyster Lane at Byfleet, more cycle parking racks at local stations, ‘Go Ride’ and neighbourhood projects at Sheerwater and a designated cycle track from Langman’s bridge to Goldsworth Park. These total spending of only £300k, a far cry from spending in the last few years.
• We raised at the meeting many of our concerns including the urgent need for cycle paths adjoining Parvis Road from West Byfleet where there have been recent cycle fatalities, issues with the Basingstoke Canal towpath ( see link), crossing the road to Pirbright barracks at Brookwood and generally the maintenance of cycle paths and routes.

The next meeting of the Woking Cycle Forum is on Thursday 12 January 2012 at 18.30 at Quadrant Court on Guildford Road.

The Woking Cycle Forum is an informal meeting place for exchanges of views and ideas between the cycling community and those from Surrey County Council who are able to improve conditions for cyclists. Commonly others also attend, including Councillors and officers of Woking Borough Council. For example at one recent meeting representatives of Surrey Police also attended to talk about measures to reduce cycle theft and recent publicity about fining cyclists found cycling through the Commercial Way shopping precinct. Its meetings take place two or three times a year and these are opportunities for us to offer constructive suggestions for improvement and for the transport planners to test what developments should be given priority. For example some of the useful things that have come out of the Forum include the following:
We presented Surrey CC representatives with a comprehensive survey, with photographs, of some of the problem sites on cycle routes radiating from Woking. Surrey has used our list as a basis for prioritising improvements to solve the problems we have highlighted.

We have commonly been asked for our ‘top ten’ list of desired improvements each year and these have been incorporated in Surrey’s plans.

We have continually stressed the need to implement a very old study – The Oscar Faber study – which recommended implementing a collection of radial routes for cyclists from Woking Town Centre. This has borne fruit in the last few years as these have steadily been constructed.

Our pressure next to put in place cycle routes across the town centre to link the radial routes has at last been implemented, albeit problems remain with the shared use areas.

Surrey has worked closely in partnership with two of our committee members, Carole and Jane, to install cycle parking stands at doctors and dentists throughout the Woking area. Carole and Jane did the leg work talking to the various surgeries to convince them to agree to the cycle parking and Surrey then arranged the purchase and installation of the stands.

We are notified of planning developments and are able to maintain pressure for any spending of developers’ money to improve conditions for cyclists. An example is a proposed cycle route alongside the Centrium blocks of flats on the South side of the station for which we pressed for years and which has now been built.