A new plan that includes major developments in public transport infrastructure and looks at how to improve road safety across the city has been approved by Sheffield Council.
Much of the Sheffield Transport Vision concerns expanding the public transport networks in the city, with the Supertram network under public control, improving bus corridors, and the Don Valley and Barrow Hill rail lines reopening.
Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said: “It is becoming even clearer that our city unfortunately is held back by our ageing transport network and we are as a committee committed to change that.”
The Supertram network came under the control of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority on 22 March, allowing Sheffield City Council to make changes to the network through cooperating with Mayor Oliver Coppard.
Mr Coppard said: “Right now our bus services are in a spiral of decline. That’s not just a disaster for our economy, or our environment, it’s denying opportunity to people right across our communities.”
The plan also seeks to improve the safety of road infrastructure in Sheffield and encourage higher levels of active travel – such as walking or cycling – throughout the city.
This identifies that between 2018 and 2022 there were 27 incidents where someone on a pedal cycle was killed or seriously injured in Sheffield.
David Baillie, 58, a mechanic at Vernon Barker Cycles in Broomhill said: “I don’t cycle along thinking ‘oh my god I’m going to get hit by a vehicle’ but I am aware that that could happen. It does affect the way I feel when I’m on my bike.”
The Sheffield Transport Vision also seeks to build new cycle routes connecting the city centre and the suburbs within the next five years.
Mr Baillie added: “Cycle paths are obviously in a way safer because obviously you’re separated from the traffic but they’re very expensive and require quite a lot of land space to put them on- pretty impractical in most cities.”
The plan seeks to achieve these improvements to public transport and active travel infrastructure in the city by 2035.
