A £2m programme will see cycle lanes and extended footpaths installed across all of the Liverpool city region’s six boroughs. Tony McDonough reports

Six new pop-up walking and cycling routes are to be installed across all six boroughs of Liverpool city region.

Work begins this week on the routes in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral with most scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer. The cycle lanes and extended footpaths will total 23km and there will also be extra storage at new cycle hubs.

Since late March, there has been a surge in people cycling and walking for daily exercise and essential journeys, with six in 10 of people telling a Combined Authority survey that they expected to walk and cycle more even as lockdown measures are eased.

The new infrastructure will help enable people to travel more safely and support social distancing, connecting key locations such as hospitals, workplaces and town centres as well as rail and bus stations. The schemes are:

• Halton: Segregated cycle lanes for Hough Green town centre.
• Knowsley: Traffic calming measures for safe walking and cycling in Kirkby town centre.
• Liverpool: Segregated cycle route between Liverpool city centre and Bootle town centre.
• Sefton: Cycle route through Southport town centre, segregated cycle route from Bootle town centre to Liverpool city centre.
• St Helens: Upgrade of cycle routes through Clock Face and on Chester Lane.
• Wirral: New segregated cycle lane on Fender Lane and upgrade of existing A4 cycle lane.
• Liverpool city region-wide: Extra bike storage at new cycle hubs.

The new pop-up foot and bike paths also mark a significant step towards the city region’s long-term plans for a 600km walking and cycling network – with £30.7m already committed to building and upgrading routes across the Liverpool city region.

Increased funding has also been earmarked for cycle training and repairs as well as bike loan and grant schemes to help more people out of cars and public transport and onto bikes.

The new routes are funded by almost £2m of funding from the first tranche of the government’s emergency active travel fund that has been awarded to the Liverpool city region.

Simon O’Brien, Liverpool City Region Cycling and Walking Commissioner said: “It’s fantastic to see that work will be beginning on new pop-up bike lanes and foot paths. Infrastructure like this will help people in our city region to travel actively more safely and with confidence.

“It’s also an amazing opportunity to test out our vision for a 600km network of high-quality, permanent walking and cycling routes for the Liverpool city region.”