During the Council’s Special meeting on Environment, Transport and Sustainability, Labour’s and Conservatives’ amendments were voted in favour which will likely result in the Old Shoreham Road Temporary Cycle Lane removed, and instead being relocated onto Portland Road.
For this to progress they agreed that an urgency Sub-Committee must be convened before 11 August.
During the meeting there was a long debate over the OSR cycle lanes, as the greens put forward their argument of excessive road space for motor vehicles will not help shift the change to walking & cycling in-line with the cities targets, and that many schools are located adjacent to the OSR along its entire length. They also advised that Portland road, or any alternative should gain cycle infrastructure in addition to, and not instead of OSR, as well as highlighting issues with Portland road as it is a major bus corridor. Introduction of cycle lanes on Portland Road would result in loss of parking and due to higher frequency of bus stop and junctions, would make a cycle lane harder to deliver and would not be as safe as one on the OSR.
Below I’ve created a pros and cons for having the cycle lanes on Old Shoreham Road agianst Portland Road
| Old Shoreham Road (Phase 1) | Portland Road (+Blatchington Road & Eaton Road) | |
| Ties in with existing infrastructure | Yes E-W & N-S | No E-W, yes N-S |
| Schools located along route (or near) | 5 | 3 |
| Current bus routes. More Bus routes = more busses which interrupts the flow of cycle lanes & tracks | 2 | 4 |
| Bus stops. More = harder to deliver and more conflict points. | 9 | 12 |
| Cycle Lane results in removal of motor vehicle lane, which only impacts through put of motor traffic at junctions. | Yes | No |
| Cycle Lane results in Removal of parking, which impacts on all residents and workers including disabled. | No | Yes |
| Junctions with motor vehicle access. More = harder to deliver and more conflict points for incidents. | 15 | 42 |
| Highway Boundary Width (Western End) | 21m | 19m |
| Highway Boundary Width (Centre) | 19m | 18m |
| Highway Boundary Width (Eastern End) | 18m | 18m |
