We aim to provide more travel choices for everyone. As part of our Corporate Strategy, we want to make walking, wheeling, and cycling safer, more convenient and accessible, as well as provide better bus infrastructure to enable more ways to travel sustainably.
The project went out to consultation in Summer 2023. A full engagement report can be found here.
Since then, we have carried out a number of studies to inform our proposals, including traffic modelling, safety risk assessment, and parking analysis.
These improved choices will help to reduce congestion, connect rural areas to towns and cities and improve air quality across Bath & North East Somerset.
What are in the Somer Valley Links proposals?
- More than 5km of footway improvements, such as widening and continuous footways
- 8 new mobility hubs to provide opportunities to switch between transport modes
- Upgrades for 22 bus stops, such as real time information and new shelters
- 3km of new footways to make walking a more attractive option
- More than a kilometre in new cycleways to allow segregated cycling
- 25 new pedestrian crossings and 8 pedestrian crossing improvements to make walking safer across the district
- Around 3km in new shared use paths to allow active travel to be safe, attractive and convenient
- Nearly a kilometre of new bus lanes to support bus priority and the public transport network
As a result, Somer Valley Links scheme would:
- make catching the bus, walking, and cycling easier by offering improved bus infrastructure and delivering safe, easy-to-use walking and cycling facilities
- reduce bus journey times through bus lanes and bus priority
- create or improve walking, wheeling and cycling routes which connect to communities along the corridor
- support opportunities for regeneration and economic growth along the corridor
- improve options for interchange between/with sustainable modes, through the provision of scalable Mobility Hubs along the corridor
- make alternative modes more attractive, enabling reduced car use, and supporting improved public health, as well as better air quality and cutting carbon emissions along the corridor
Why are we doing this?
The Strategic Outline Case and the Outline Business Case, both produced by West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, highlighted the existing challenges for sustainable travel in the Somer Valley. These include:
- a large reliance on cars along the A37 & A367 and both routes are frequently heavily congested
- journey times are too long because buses get stuck in traffic
- access to bus stops is hampered by footways being overgrown or non-existent
- lack of safe footways and crossing points
- cycling along the A37/A367 can be challenging even for confident cyclists due to traffic volumes, including large vehicles passing close and travelling at high speeds
- there is also little infrastructure that links cycling and bus services together along these routes making interchange between the two difficult
- narrow sections of the A37 through Pensford and Temple Cloud are not wide enough for large vehicles to pass each other, leading to delays for all traffic
- Farrington Gurney and Temple Cloud have air quality issues (declared Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs))
- collisions occur on the fast sections and junctions on the corridors
Car parking loss
To provide the substantial improvements for better bus infrastructure and the active travel network, 37 on-street parking spaces will be lost. These are mainly located on the A367 Wellsway. See the Wellsway and Bear Flat section for more detail about all the proposed changes there.
However, the details of the scheme are not yet finalised. We need your feedback to make the scheme the best that it can be and to understand how the changes will impact the community. We welcome feedback from everyone who lives on or uses the route.
