‘County council should be commended for Worthing pop-up cycle lanes’

I write concerning correspondence in the Herald dated September 10 and wish to express my support for the pop-up cycle lane.

Town centre manager Sharon Clarke seems to have got the wrong idea about the cycle lane. We are not building this lane for visitors, are we? Good-quality cycling infrastructure is needed for residents and is not necessarily about bringing visitors to the town.

The primary purpose of cycle lanes should be to provide an alternative transport choice for Worthing residents. If visitors happen to make use of the cycle lane, then this is purely a secondary benefit.

MP Tim Loughton laments he’s only had one message of support for the new cycle lane. I wrote my first ever letter to my local MP, Sir Peter Bottomley in June this year concerning Worthing’s walking and cycling infrastructure plan and never received a reply, unless you count an automated receipt as a response.

It’s unlikely I’ll bother writing to an MP again. So, Mr Loughton, please bear in mind lack of correspondence for the cycle lane should not be perceived as a lack of support.

One of your correspondents remarks that the cycle lane is starving shops of much-needed cash.

Cyclists are human beings and consumers with money to spend and no parking fees to pay.

This means they can take more time in local shops, spend more money and not have to think about the car park time clock.

West Sussex County Council should be commended for putting this temporary cycle lane in place.

Nobody enjoys being in a traffic jam, but you cannot judge the success of a cycle lane based on one north/south lane that covers a fraction of the town and takes five minutes to pass through by bike.

The impression of lack of use is not due to the cycle lane itself; more likely is the fact that at both ends of it a cyclist is routed into mainstream non-segregated traffic.

This is unlikely to bother experienced cyclists. However if the idea is to tempt infrequent or non-cyclists out of their cars, then this solitary lane needs to become part of a wider and safely segregated network.