When is a cycleway not a cycleway? When it's under water...
Today marks the first day of 2024 that the river gauge at Diglis dropped below 4 metres. That's the slightly arbitrary measure we have used to illustrate the increased frequency of flooding of (shared) cycle infrastructure on our patch.For anyone travelling into Worcester from the south, the riverside routes provide a safer alternative to the road routes, despite being busy at times, and somewhat convoluted. As regular users of these routes, it hasn't slipped our attention that they spend rather longer under water than they used to. Rather than rely on our anecdotes and fading memories we decided to crunch some numbers [Source]. They show that, using the aforementioned 4m cut off, the section near the Diglis Bridge was under water for an average of 19.8 days a year from 2019-2023 (inclusive). For the previous five year period, the average was 9.2 days per year. Add to this the days that it takes to clean and reinstate the routes after flooding (props to Worcester City Council for their fast action on this!) and you'd be getting close to a month a year over the past five years.
This is important for a few reasons but primarily because this is what passes as acceptable cycle infrastructure locally. And that is important because it acts as a blocker to any serious discussions about safe and direct cycling routes along this stretch. Can you imagine the uproar if the sole road from south of the city was unusable for this much of the year?Add to all of this the fact that things will only get worse with climate change [Source] and the fact that this will already be a factor in the 2014-2018 data, and you have to question the viability of these routes as anything other than occasional leisure routes. Especially over winter. Flooding in Worcester as recently experienced, forces the closure of Diglis Bridge, Sabrina Bridge (despite recent modifications), Hams Way Bridge at Powick, the entirety of the riverside paths between Diglis Bridge and Sabrina Bridge, and all shared use paths adjacent to Worcester Racecourse. It will be interesting to see the effect that flooding has on the new Kepax Bridge when it opens in 2024, and in the coming years.2023 saw the approval by Worcester City Council of their Active Travel Plan for the city, which has bold ambitions to meet Government targets of 50% of journeys to be by walking or cycling by 2030. This requires a dramatic change in how people consider moving around the Faithful City, and requires the City Council at every level to enable and encourage the use of active travel. Continuing to rely on existing sub-optimal infrastructure (shared use between pedestrians and cyclists) that is likely to be unusable for an increasing amount of time each year is not enough. A relaxation of the TRO banning cycling in the city centre is an ever more pressing requirement.Can we get some decent and direct cycle infrastructure into and across the city please?
