Bristol petition to campaign for more safe cycling for children
The lack of safe space for cycling - in particular for children - in Bristol has led to a petition to address the matter


With only a finite pool of safe roads for children to cycle on in Bristol a strongly-backed online petition has been created to address the problem, and is gaining support.
Worried parents in the city say that there are too few traffic-free areas for families to cycle on in the area and are therefore proposing that local authorities temporarily close a three kilometre section of the Clifton Downs on four Sunday mornings across 2015.
Circular Road – which hosted the finale of stage four of this year’s Friends Life Tour of Britain - is the intended stretch of tarmac that is being suggested because of its “uniquely beautiful and flat parkland.”
The petition states that families have to drive outside of North Bristol at present to find safe spots for cycling and that by closing for Circular Road “it would also open up the Downs to people with disabilities who don’t feel safe cycling on the road alongside cars.”
Sustrans, The Bristol Cycling Campaign, Bristol City Council’s Health Department and various other organisations are backing the petition which would coincide with the Bristol Green Capital 2015 – an initiative set up in 2007 and now granted the title of European Green Capital next year.
1,640 children killed or injured on British roads in 2013
'Equivalent of six primary schools full of children' killed or injured whilst cycling or walking during 2013
Department for Transport aims to "double cycling by 2025"
PARENTS' SAFETY FEARS PUT BRAKE ON CHILDREN CYCLING
Survey reveals decline in children cycling
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A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and long reads across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013. In 2024 he released a seven-part podcast documentary, Ghost in the Machine, about motor doping in cycling.
Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains. He lives in Valencia, Spain.
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