LCWIP – planning for a better Bristol walking infrastructure

Bristol and the other local authorities in WECA (West of England Combined Authority) are developing a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP). This is a government-supported initiative as part of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (pdf, 2.1MB) proposed in 2017. The aim is for councils to draw up a prioritised list of investment-ready schemes for when the funding becomes available, rather than put together schemes hurriedly when some funding is announced.

BWA sees LCWIP as an opportunity to help guide future walking developments, and has been feeding in its ideas. Bristol Council officers and their government-funded consultants seem to be listening.

As well as identifying initial prioritised projects, LCWIP will also consider a longer-term aspirational network of pedestrian-friendly places and routes, based on Core Walking Zones and Key Walking Routes.

BWA has submitted three ideas documents to the council.  Key points we are making are:

• When drawing up Core Walking Zones (CWZs), a range of walking-focused areas should be considered, including Bristol city centre, local high streets, safe routes to schools, new housing developments, areas around hospitals, community and other leisure centres, and transport hubs.
• Key Walking Routes (KWRs) should extend existing primary and secondary pedestrian routes to new areas of development, and include both existing well-walked routes and those that could become better used.
• A range of funding packages should be proposed, not just based on CWZs and KWRs, including low-car residential areas, no-car zones around schools, large and small projects to overcome barriers along desireable walking routes, and projects that could be undertaken within the road maintenance programme.
• Better data on walking is required and its collection should be an essential part of all projects, not least to evaluate the effectiveness of different kinds of projects.

You can read our three submissions to LCWIP so far: