![\"Charity](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_JS399456728.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBut talks will happen soon about how the road could change in the short to medium term<\/p>\n
Charity shops on Gloucester Road(Image: Paul Gillis\/Reach Plc)<\/p>\n
Plans for new bike lanes along Gloucester Road were \u201cset to one side\u201d for years due to the debate about building a Bristol underground network. The flagship policy of the city\u2019s former Labour<\/a> mayor was constructing a mass transit network with underground sections of railway.<\/p>\n This never got built because Marvin Rees<\/a>, now \u201cBaron Rees of Easton<\/a> \u201d, failed to convince other politicians to back his idea. One of the routes would have gone along Gloucester Road, a major commuting route and shopping street which runs from the city centre to the north of Bristol.<\/p>\n The former mayor first floated the underground idea in 2017, which eventually hit the buffers and was vetoed in 2023. In the meantime, transport planners at Bristol City Council<\/a> hesitated from building any bike lanes along Gloucester Road \u2014 one of the busiest cycling routes in the city \u2014 in case they ended up having to dig up the road again to build an underground tunnel.<\/p>\n However discussions are now about to take place over the future of the route, between the council and the West of England Combined Authority. An update on Gloucester Road was given to councillors on the transport policy committee, on Thursday, May 14, as part of wider investment in the roads around the new indoor arena being built on the old Filton<\/a> Airfield.<\/p>\n Adam Crowther, head of city transport, said: \u201cThe A38 has been set on one side because we\u2019ve been talking about mass transit for a long time, along essentially that alignment. So there hasn\u2019t been a push to go and do lots of bus priority and active travel schemes, like we might do on a long corridor scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause you don\u2019t want to do something that you then make completely different. I think we need to probably review that approach because we can\u2019t wait forever to improve the A38. We\u2019ll be discussing mass transit options with the combined authority and as part of that we do need to be looking at the short to medium term future of the A38.\u201d<\/p>\n The cost would range between \u00a310 million and \u00a330 million, depending on the length of the route. Initially a light-touch scheme would focus on the problem spots and pinch points along Gloucester Road, rather than building a segregated bike path along its whole length. The road is narrow in parts, so a segregated cycle lane \u201cprobably isn\u2019t feasible\u201d.<\/p>\n The works would likely be paid for from the giant Transport for City Regions pot of funding, which the Department for Transport gave to the West of England Combined Authority last year. Over the next five years, the West of England has \u00a3752 million to improve walking, cycling and public transport routes across the wider Bristol and Bath<\/a> region.<\/p>\n Green Councillor Emma Edwards, who represents Bishopston and Ashley Down, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a massive cycling corridor and it\u2019s so piecemeal. There are some bits that are great, and some bits that are absolutely horrific. There are people who won\u2019t cycle down Gloucester Road because it doesn\u2019t feel safe enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But talks will happen soon about how the road could change in the short to medium term Charity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":983315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[13273,381,3893,748,4230,9999,393,10300,4884,528,13072,285,1263,16,15],"class_list":["post-983314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-bishopston","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-britain","tag-cycling","tag-easton","tag-england","tag-filton","tag-great-britain","tag-labour-party","tag-marvin-rees","tag-politics","tag-transport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116633816595489416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}