On Monday the 19th July 2021 West Sussex announced their plans for consultation for a 2km new shared cycle and footway on the eastern side of the A24, linking Findon to Findon Valley.
Improvements will be made to the current footway beside the A24 including changes at junctions to provide a continuous route.
The scheme which is expected to cost £1,200,000 is being funded by the Active Travel Fund Tranche 2 provided by central government. The scheme will involve widening the current footway to a 2.5m shared cycle & footway for 2km. It will be entirely widened within the current highway boundary, with no reduction in width to the current lanes on the A24, although there will be minor kerb realignment to the A24 where the Dual carriageway is reduced to a single lane.
The consultation
Between the 19th July and 15th August the public may comment on the proposals on the consultation website. The scheme is due to start construction in the summer of 2022.
The Plans
At this stage WSCC have only published rough sketches of the layout, it omits information like width, highway boundary and adjacent properties, it also doesn’t detail how the new cycle/footway will interact with the sideroads.
The Northern end of the scheme connects NMU’s into the village of Findon using its High Street which is fairly narrow and doesn’t have too much traffic. Its unclear at this point how or where the ingresses if for cyclists. Part of the southbound carriageway is narrowed, although this doesn’t impact on motor vehicles due to it currently being hatched down to a single lane for the majority of the bypass.At the junctions of Cross and and Nepcote which is pictured above, the cycleway would cross the sideroads on a raised table, however it is unclear about priority. The right turn across a 50mph dual carriageway isn’t exactly clear at the current time, to reduce the waiting room on the far side of the junction could lead to issues for vehicles longer than 5m and could block the southbound carriageway. LTN 1/20 10.5.9 states “In rural areas, and where the speed limit is greater than 40mph, it will not normally be appropriate in safety terms to provide simple priority across side road junctions”As we enter Findon Valley, which is the start of the built up area of Worthing the cycleway remains the same being 2.5m shared space. It has priority crossing over the side roads now, which is okay since the side roads are subjected to 30mph (but the A24 is still 40mph). Once we enter Findon Valley there is room within the highway boundary to provide a segregated cycleway and footway, however this isn’t planned.A bit further along the carriageway will be narrowed to accommodate the cycle/footway, however this shouldn’t impact motorists. Priority at side roads continues to be given to cyclists and pedestrians.At the southern end of the scheme the cycleway terminates on Cissbury Avenue, with the route then being sign posted around via Lime Tree Avenue. There is currently a shared 2m cycle/footway a few hundred meters down the road, however there is a one-way service street between there and Cissbury Avenue. It would be better if that was made into a one-way with cycle contraflow to allow cyclists to continue and take a direct route onwards to Worthing
