Cycling

To support our Local Transport Plan, and in line with the government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS), our Safer Travel team have created the Local Walking Cycling and Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP).

With 24% of all journeys to work being less than 2km, there is significant potential to increase the number of people walking and cycling in the city. If people walked and cycled instead of driving, there would be reduced congestion, better air quality and improved levels of fitness.

To prioritise walking and cycling we will establish a cohesive and continuous network work of attractive, inclusive, safe and accessible routes. Each route has been audited based on its attractiveness, comfort, directness and safety. As the quality of some of these routes is poor, they may not currently have high numbers of people travelling on foot or by bike, but the potential for increasing the number of short journeys is high if they are found to be easy, convenient and safe.

Hire a Beryl bike in Portsmouth

‘Beryl Bikes by Breeze’, allows you to hire a pedal bike for local journeys or an e-bike for a longer journey, without the need to own and store a bike yourself, across Portsmouth, Southampton and on the Isle of Wight. This means you have another greener way to travel across the city, so you’re helping to tackle the climate emergency, while improving your health and reducing the number of cars on the road. Find out more about how to hire a Beryl bike.

Report a cycling near miss 

If you’ve had a ‘near miss’ incident in Portsmouth, which made you feel unsafe when walking or cycling around the city, or if you’ve seen one, we’ve created online forms you can use to report it. What qualifies as a near miss may differ from one person to another, so please report any incident you feel was a near miss. Report it

New Cycle Parking available in Southsea

New multi bike parking is available at two sites in Southsea, on Marmion Road and along the sea front near Southsea Beach Cafe.

These bike racks provide space to park six bicycles and take up less than one car parking space on the road. Named bike corrals, they respond to requests from the local community for more cycle parking.

This means that you can cycle across the city and storing your bike whilst you visit Southsea’s shops, dining and leisure facilities, or go to work. If more people swap their car journey for cycling it can help reduce traffic congestion, noise and create cleaner air for everyone, while improving your health and wellbeing too.

These bike corrals are part of a twelve month trial to investigate whether this kind of facility will benefit visitors to the local area. If you have any questions or would like to provide any feedback on this trial, please email travel@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Funding boost for walking and cycling in Portsmouth

Safer walking and cycling routes are coming to Portsmouth, as new funding has been awarded to improve cycle lanes and crossings in the city. We’ve secured just over £650,000 from the Department for Transport as part of the Active Travel Fund. The money will go towards creating schemes that are designed to help encourage people to make short trips by bicycle or by foot, making it easier for everyone to make greener travel choices around the city.

This aligns with our objectives as set out in the Local Transport Plan and the schemes will focus on creating a cleaner, greener, and more joined-up transport network that enables residents, visitors, and businesses to access every area of the city, however they choose to get around. The funding is broken down into the following schemes:

  • £420,000 to construct better cycling and walking routes in the East West Active Travel Corridor
  • £75,800 for a new Toucan crossing between Eastern Road and Grove Road
  • £70,000 to improve crossings at Eastney Road and Bransbury Road
  • £87,480 to add more pre-start signals for cyclists at traffic lights

More details will be available after a decision meeting later this year, where we will determine the best way to implement these enhancements for the benefit of everyone in Portsmouth.