FAQs

Side road entry improvements are changes made at the junction between a side road and the main road to make the area safer and easier to use for everyone. These improvements can include: 

• Tactile paving to help people with visual impairments identify crossing points
• Pavement buildouts (kerb extensions) to shorten crossing distances and improve visibility between pedestrians, cyclists and drivers
• Raised tables at side road junctions, which encourage vehicles to reduce speed when entering and leaving the side road 

Together, these measures help to slow vehicle speeds, improve visibility, increase driver awareness of people walking and cycling, and create safer, more accessible junctions for everyone.

A bus stop bypass routes the cycle track behind the bus boarding and waiting area. This helps separate people cycling from motor traffic and removes the need for cyclists to pull out into traffic to pass stopped buses.  

Passengers cross the cycle track when it is safe to do so, using a crossing point that is marked by tactile paving and mini zebra crossings. If a cyclist sees a person crossing the cycle track ahead of them, they should slow down or stop to let them cross before continuing, in line with the Highway Code.  

On buses servicing bus stops with bypasses, audio announcements and visual alerts remind passengers that they are getting off the bus onto a bus stop where there is an adjacent cycle nearby. The alerts also encourage passengers to use the marked crossings points.  

‘Floating bus stop’ is an umbrella term used to describe designs where a cycle track passes a bus stop. There are several different types of floating bus stop, but the design proposed as part of this consultation is a bus stop bypass.

Routing cycle traffic away from the road is an effective way to create safe, attractive cycling facilities along bus routes. The risk of conflict between cycles and pedestrians has been found to be very low by providing a dedicated crossing point for bus passengers and design features like mini zebra crossings that encourage slower cycling and help to make the bus stop area more comfortable for everyone to use.

Traffic modelling helps us understand how changes to the road network could affect journeys before any construction takes place.  

Traffic surveys were carried out to record how many vehicles, buses, cyclists and pedestrians were using the area on a typical weekday. This information was used to create a computer model that reflects how traffic is moving. The model was then carefully checked against observed conditions to make sure it provided a realistic representation of traffic on the route. Longer term planning assumptions are then applied to this ‘base’ scenario to generate a model for a period of time in the future; called the ‘future base’.  

The proposed cycleway was then added to the model and the results compared with the future base scenario. This allows us to estimate how journey times for general traffic and buses could change if the scheme were introduced. 

As with any forecast, the results are not a prediction of exactly what will happen in the future. Traffic conditions change from day to day due to factors such as weather, roadworks and incidents. The modelling provides an evidence-based estimate of the likely effects of the scheme.