Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation

Share Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation on Facebook Share Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation on Twitter Share Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation on Linkedin Email Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation link

This consultation has now concluded.


We Asked, You Said, We Did

We Asked

The consultation was launched on Monday 2 October 23 until Sunday 12 November 23 which allowed six weeks for comment and was designed by the team to capture views from residents, businesses and anyone who lives and uses the route. The survey questions were designed to capture the responses for the proposals along this main strategic corridor. The proposals looked to:

  • Extend the 24-hour inbound bus lane.
  • Introduce a 24-hour outbound bus lane.
  • Widen the shared use path along most of the route.
  • Reduce the speed limit from 50mph to 40mph and from 40mph to 30mph.

The survey asked about the key proposals for each area starting from the north of the route following the road towards the city centre. There were specific traffic measures within each area as well such as continuous footways across local residential junctions, changes to bus stops, changes to parking, widen footway and changes to crossing points.

The questions asked people to rate each measure from very good, good, fair, poor to very poor. There was also an open ended question asked at the end of each area to allow an opportunity for people to add any other comments.

You Said

1438 responses were received to the survey. Below is a summary of the responses to the 4 main proposals:

  • Inbound bus lane – 28.6% very good, 17% good, 10.2% fair, 10.9% poor, 33.3% very poor.
  • Outbound bus lane – 24.6% very good, 14.7% good, 9.8% fair, 11% poor, 39.8% very poor.
  • Shared use path – 42.6% very good, 11.8% good, 10.87 fair, 9.5% poor, 25.2% very poor.
  • Speed reduction – 35.4% very good, 11% good, 13.2% fair, 11.1% poor, 29.4% very poor.

There are a similar number of respondents who thought the extension to the inbound bus lane was very good to good (641 respondents) compared to poor to very poor (623 respondents). Whereas 553 respondents though the outbound bus lane was very good to good compared to 713 respondents who thought it was a poor or very poor proposal.

However over 50% of respondents supported the widening of the shared use path by voting very good or good and just under 50% thought the speed reduction from 50mph to 40mph was very good and good compared to 40% who thoughts it was poor and very poor. 

Specific observations from the survey

When comparing ‘mode of transport most used’ against these four proposals the results showed that 66.8% of those who cycled thought the widening of the shared use path was ‘very good’. However, there was concern raised amongst the cycling stakeholders about possible conflicts on this path with pedestrians and cyclists which do not seem to come through on the survey responses.

We Did

Following the consultation and further design work the main 4 proposals are being carried forward:  

  • The inbound bus lane has been carried forward into the detailed design process given the proposed benefits it has for buses obtained through initial modelling, as well as the support received from the public consultation.
  • The proposed speed limit reductions have been carried forward into the detailed design process given the large support received through the consultation. In addition, the project team are looking at extending the 30mph speed limit in Shirehampton up to Park Road following comments raised as part of the consultation drop-in sessions.
  • The widening of the pavement for shared use between walking and cycling is being carried forward into detailed design following the support received for this measure as part of the consultation, as well as the improvement these changes would create for the walking and cycling environment along the Portway.
  • The outbound bus lane is also being carried forward into the detailed design stage. Following the responses on the outbound bus lane from the consultation the project considered alternative options, however it was decided that to meet the aim and objectives for the scheme and deliver a balanced range of infrastructure measures for the route, the outbound bus lane was the best option to carry forward into detailed design.

Other suggestions raised as part of the consultation such as the removal of the footbridges in Shirehampton and additional bus stops along the route were also assessed, but due to funding constraints can not be carried forward at this moment in time.  

Timeline

The decision to submit the Outline Business Case (OBC) and preliminary designs to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA) Committee and proceed with the detailed design and Full Business Case (FBC) process was approved by the Bristol City Council Cabinet in March 2024. The decision was made by the Combined Authority for the scheme to progress straight to the FBC stage.

The next steps will be to draft the FBC which will include further modelling and scheme appraisal and drafting the detailed designs. The FBC will be considered by BCC Committee and WECA Committee early 2025. While the design proposals will be subjected to statutory consultation as part of the Traffic Regulation Order process towards the end of 2024 and a final internal design review before construction. The programme currently has construction commencing towards the end of 2025.  

You can read the detailed consultation report here.

Background

Over the past decade changes have been made to the road network in Bristol to improve bus journey times and encourage walking and cycling. However, the transport network in Bristol still faces challenges, including growth in housing and employment areas, unreliable journey times, and high levels of congestion and air pollution.

To address these challenges, and help Bristol reach its 2030 carbon neutral target, radical changes to Bristol’s road network are required. These changes will need to transform bus travel and better enable cycling and walking.

Over the next 10 to 15 years Bristol and the West of England Combined Authority have committed to developing and improving bus services as a priority for the region, in collaboration with bus operators.

Early engagement – August 2022

We carried out an early engagement exercise in August 2022, which asked people about the issues they face when travelling along the route. People who live or travel along the A4 Portway were encouraged to take part in the early engagement exercise. This was to find out how this main route into the city can be improved to help buses move quickly through traffic and make cycling and walking safer and more enjoyable

On the topic of buses, people generally commented that they want to feel more connected to the north of the city and they want buses to be more frequent. People liked the Portway Park & Ride but did not always use it as it was not open on a Sunday or later in the evening. People thought the bus lanes would be a good addition and helped make the buses more reliable but would still like more buses available to connect to wider areas.

In response to questions on walking, people said the vegetation in places could be cut back as the pavements are too narrow in places, crossing points could be more frequent on the route particularly by bus stops, and the speed of traffic is too high and can make it unpleasant to walk along the route.

Many people who commented on cycling said they wanted a segregated cycle lane in both directions along the A4 Portway. Cyclists and pedestrians often collide as there is no separated cycle lane. People felt the existing shared path and the cycle route are very poorly surfaced with frequent potholes left by the remains of trees. People also said the shared use path is too bumpy and has a poor quality surface for cycling on.

For more information about this early engagement, read the full report.

Portway Park & Ride Bus junction improvements – February 2023

One theme that has come out of the early engagement was the desire to see more connecting bus routes to the Portway Park & Ride site. To allow this to happen the bus entrance and exit to the site would need to be expanded. As part of that work, the team carried out a light touch engagement exercise in February 2023 to look at the possible improvements to the bus junction of the Park & Ride site.

The project proposed to widen the bus entrance and exit junction so buses can turn left travelling northbound towards Avonmouth employment area, Filton, Cribbs Causeway, and help to mitigate the impact of the new arena. The ability to turn left would help to transform the Portway Park & Ride into a community transport hub, serve the railway replacement bus services and the YTL Arena shuttle bus. This project is now progressing the Traffic Regulation Orders and finalising the detailed design and construction is set to get underway in summer 2024.

Other projects in the area:

Other projects that are happening in the area include:

  • Clean Air Zone (CAZ)
  • Portway Park and Ride train station
  • Western Harbour Regeneration Project

You can find out more about these projects in the “Further Information” section.

We Asked, You Said, We Did

We Asked

The consultation was launched on Monday 2 October 23 until Sunday 12 November 23 which allowed six weeks for comment and was designed by the team to capture views from residents, businesses and anyone who lives and uses the route. The survey questions were designed to capture the responses for the proposals along this main strategic corridor. The proposals looked to:

  • Extend the 24-hour inbound bus lane.
  • Introduce a 24-hour outbound bus lane.
  • Widen the shared use path along most of the route.
  • Reduce the speed limit from 50mph to 40mph and from 40mph to 30mph.

The survey asked about the key proposals for each area starting from the north of the route following the road towards the city centre. There were specific traffic measures within each area as well such as continuous footways across local residential junctions, changes to bus stops, changes to parking, widen footway and changes to crossing points.

The questions asked people to rate each measure from very good, good, fair, poor to very poor. There was also an open ended question asked at the end of each area to allow an opportunity for people to add any other comments.

You Said

1438 responses were received to the survey. Below is a summary of the responses to the 4 main proposals:

  • Inbound bus lane – 28.6% very good, 17% good, 10.2% fair, 10.9% poor, 33.3% very poor.
  • Outbound bus lane – 24.6% very good, 14.7% good, 9.8% fair, 11% poor, 39.8% very poor.
  • Shared use path – 42.6% very good, 11.8% good, 10.87 fair, 9.5% poor, 25.2% very poor.
  • Speed reduction – 35.4% very good, 11% good, 13.2% fair, 11.1% poor, 29.4% very poor.

There are a similar number of respondents who thought the extension to the inbound bus lane was very good to good (641 respondents) compared to poor to very poor (623 respondents). Whereas 553 respondents though the outbound bus lane was very good to good compared to 713 respondents who thought it was a poor or very poor proposal.

However over 50% of respondents supported the widening of the shared use path by voting very good or good and just under 50% thought the speed reduction from 50mph to 40mph was very good and good compared to 40% who thoughts it was poor and very poor. 

Specific observations from the survey

When comparing ‘mode of transport most used’ against these four proposals the results showed that 66.8% of those who cycled thought the widening of the shared use path was ‘very good’. However, there was concern raised amongst the cycling stakeholders about possible conflicts on this path with pedestrians and cyclists which do not seem to come through on the survey responses.

We Did

Following the consultation and further design work the main 4 proposals are being carried forward:  

  • The inbound bus lane has been carried forward into the detailed design process given the proposed benefits it has for buses obtained through initial modelling, as well as the support received from the public consultation.
  • The proposed speed limit reductions have been carried forward into the detailed design process given the large support received through the consultation. In addition, the project team are looking at extending the 30mph speed limit in Shirehampton up to Park Road following comments raised as part of the consultation drop-in sessions.
  • The widening of the pavement for shared use between walking and cycling is being carried forward into detailed design following the support received for this measure as part of the consultation, as well as the improvement these changes would create for the walking and cycling environment along the Portway.
  • The outbound bus lane is also being carried forward into the detailed design stage. Following the responses on the outbound bus lane from the consultation the project considered alternative options, however it was decided that to meet the aim and objectives for the scheme and deliver a balanced range of infrastructure measures for the route, the outbound bus lane was the best option to carry forward into detailed design.

Other suggestions raised as part of the consultation such as the removal of the footbridges in Shirehampton and additional bus stops along the route were also assessed, but due to funding constraints can not be carried forward at this moment in time.  

Timeline

The decision to submit the Outline Business Case (OBC) and preliminary designs to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA) Committee and proceed with the detailed design and Full Business Case (FBC) process was approved by the Bristol City Council Cabinet in March 2024. The decision was made by the Combined Authority for the scheme to progress straight to the FBC stage.

The next steps will be to draft the FBC which will include further modelling and scheme appraisal and drafting the detailed designs. The FBC will be considered by BCC Committee and WECA Committee early 2025. While the design proposals will be subjected to statutory consultation as part of the Traffic Regulation Order process towards the end of 2024 and a final internal design review before construction. The programme currently has construction commencing towards the end of 2025.  

You can read the detailed consultation report here.

Background

Over the past decade changes have been made to the road network in Bristol to improve bus journey times and encourage walking and cycling. However, the transport network in Bristol still faces challenges, including growth in housing and employment areas, unreliable journey times, and high levels of congestion and air pollution.

To address these challenges, and help Bristol reach its 2030 carbon neutral target, radical changes to Bristol’s road network are required. These changes will need to transform bus travel and better enable cycling and walking.

Over the next 10 to 15 years Bristol and the West of England Combined Authority have committed to developing and improving bus services as a priority for the region, in collaboration with bus operators.

Early engagement – August 2022

We carried out an early engagement exercise in August 2022, which asked people about the issues they face when travelling along the route. People who live or travel along the A4 Portway were encouraged to take part in the early engagement exercise. This was to find out how this main route into the city can be improved to help buses move quickly through traffic and make cycling and walking safer and more enjoyable

On the topic of buses, people generally commented that they want to feel more connected to the north of the city and they want buses to be more frequent. People liked the Portway Park & Ride but did not always use it as it was not open on a Sunday or later in the evening. People thought the bus lanes would be a good addition and helped make the buses more reliable but would still like more buses available to connect to wider areas.

In response to questions on walking, people said the vegetation in places could be cut back as the pavements are too narrow in places, crossing points could be more frequent on the route particularly by bus stops, and the speed of traffic is too high and can make it unpleasant to walk along the route.

Many people who commented on cycling said they wanted a segregated cycle lane in both directions along the A4 Portway. Cyclists and pedestrians often collide as there is no separated cycle lane. People felt the existing shared path and the cycle route are very poorly surfaced with frequent potholes left by the remains of trees. People also said the shared use path is too bumpy and has a poor quality surface for cycling on.

For more information about this early engagement, read the full report.

Portway Park & Ride Bus junction improvements – February 2023

One theme that has come out of the early engagement was the desire to see more connecting bus routes to the Portway Park & Ride site. To allow this to happen the bus entrance and exit to the site would need to be expanded. As part of that work, the team carried out a light touch engagement exercise in February 2023 to look at the possible improvements to the bus junction of the Park & Ride site.

The project proposed to widen the bus entrance and exit junction so buses can turn left travelling northbound towards Avonmouth employment area, Filton, Cribbs Causeway, and help to mitigate the impact of the new arena. The ability to turn left would help to transform the Portway Park & Ride into a community transport hub, serve the railway replacement bus services and the YTL Arena shuttle bus. This project is now progressing the Traffic Regulation Orders and finalising the detailed design and construction is set to get underway in summer 2024.

Other projects in the area:

Other projects that are happening in the area include:

  • Clean Air Zone (CAZ)
  • Portway Park and Ride train station
  • Western Harbour Regeneration Project

You can find out more about these projects in the “Further Information” section.