Letters: Make roads safer by turning Forest verges into cycle paths

SIR – There have been numerous articles in the paper about the appalling number of road accidents in the Forest where animals have been hurt and often killed.

New Forest ponies and cattle graze on the verges alongside the roads and too many motorists do not seem to understand that these animals are likely to stop grazing and walk into the road, for no apparent reason, and are hit by a car with outcomes we read about every week.

There have also been numerous letters to the paper about the impact cyclists have on the free movement of traffic in the Forest and I would say that the majority of the letters we read in this paper are not in support of the cyclist.

I am both a cyclist and a car user in the Forest so do I see both sides of the argument?

A solution, which addresses both of these issues, could be to change the grass verges alongside the roads into cycleways (the cycleways would of course need to be a little wider than most current verges).

The cycleways would need to be surfaced to a similar standard as the adjacent road so that they provide an equal (if not better) surface for the cyclist to use compared to the road.

Providing dedicated cycleways alongside roads would: provide a relatively safe space for cyclists; enable motorists to travel unimpeded along the forest roads; and move the grazing livestock further away from the road which should reduce accidents between vehicles and animals.

At road junctions, cars turning off the main road onto a side road would need to give way to the cyclists (in similar fashion to what happens very successfully in Holland). And of course cars would not be permitted to park in the cycle lanes.

I would assume that the NPA does not have funding for this work. However, according to the internet, we have 39 campsites in/around the New Forest and why not raise the cost of camping, say £1.50 a night per pitch extra, which I would suggest could raise around £400k pa?

Campers staying in the Forest would gain from this with better cycling facilities and the roads with the highest animal mortality rate could be modified first; and a long term (10-year?) approach to changing verges into cycleways could be aligned with levels of financing received from the campsite levy and since the campsite levy would be paid by visitors to the forest, there would be no additional cost to the local community.

I have to say that I am not so sure that I like the idea of effectively wider roads across part of the Forest.

However, animal deaths will continue and we will see ever-increasing numbers of cyclists across the Forest so we need to do something more than just complain about it all.

Keith Charles,

Lymington