The 'Dutch-style' roundabout on West Bar in Sheffield city centre has officially launched, showcasing the cohesion in which cyclists, motorists and pedestrians can move around the city together.
The Star spoke to Councillor Ben Miskell and active travel commissioner Ed Clancy about the new infrastructure.
The Star spoke to Councillor Ben Miskell and active travel commissioner Ed Clancy about the new infrastructure.
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00:00So we're really excited about the opening of the new roundabout at West Bar which is which is
00:04fabulous. You can see at the back of me you've got four zebra crossings which is making it much
00:10safer for people to be able to to walk but also to be able to cycle in this area. We know that
00:16by investing in infrastructure like this, by making fabulous public spaces, we're actually
00:22increasing people's time that they spend in the city centre, increasing their confidence to come
00:27into the city centre to bring their family and ultimately spend more money. There'll always be
00:32thousands of car parking spaces in Sheffield city centre and it will always be part of the mix but
00:36it's really incumbent on on the council to make sure that people have got some genuine choice
00:41about how they travel into and out of the city centre. That means improving public transport
00:45which we're doing at speed but it also means making sure that people can can walk from from
00:50offices and shops and they can do that safely and and that's what we're committed to doing.
00:56It's important we listen to people but I've got to say that we've been stood here at half nine on
01:00Monday morning and the traffic has been pretty reasonable for this time of day and there's been
01:06a lot of people riding bikes around it for obvious reasons with the big launch so that's been great
01:12to see and again you know from personal experience I've spent time on the continent as a professional
01:17cyclist and I know what it feels like as a car driver to approach a new bit of infrastructure
01:22like this and to be a little bit curious but it only takes two or three days to get used to it and
01:29yeah I've been drove a car and a team car around places in Germany and Belgium and
01:34Holland in the past it doesn't take long to get used to it and I hope that that's
01:38what people find here in Sheffield.