Over the past decade changes have been made to the road network in Bristol to improve bus journey times and encourage walking and cycling. However, the transport network in Bristol still faces challenges, including growth in housing and employment areas, unreliable journey times, and high levels of congestion and air pollution.

To address these challenges, and help Bristol reach its 2030 carbon neutral target, radical changes to Bristol’s road network are required. These changes will need to make a transformational difference to bus travel, and act as an enabler for cycling and walking.

Over the next 10 to 15 years Bristol and the West of England Combined Authority have committed to developing and improving bus services as a priority for the region, in collaboration with bus operators.

Project Ambition

The focus of this project is to develop and improve bus services and the walking and cycling environment running along the north western section of the A4.

Buses are an essential service connecting people to education, employment, sport and leisure activities, and are integral in connecting communities. Through infrastructure changes, the aim is to achieve greater bus reliability, improved bus punctuality, growth in people travelling by bus, and a step change in the quality of bus services along the A4.

While the focus is on the bus services, there is scope to consider improvements to active travel infrastructure

The A4 Portway Route

The A4 in Bristol links two of the city’s park and ride sites: one at Portway and one at Brislington. The map shows the extent of the A4 Portway route in red on the map below:

How the A4 Portway route project links to the western harbour regeneration project

Some of the A4 Portway route passes through the Western Harbour regeneration zone and this section is out of scope for this early engagement. This is because work will be needed to update or replace the Cumberland Basin road system in the future as part of the Western Harbour’s regeneration project. Replacement of large parts of the system will be necessary because the infrastructure of the Cumberland Basin has become older and maintenance has become increasingly costly.

We are proposing to make short-term improvements along the A4 Portway route ahead of work conducted as part of the Western Harbour regeneration project in the future.

Feedback from this early engagement on the A4 Portway route will be integrated into Western Harbour’s masterplan that will consider more detailed proposals for the area alongside consultation with the community.

Clean Air Zone (CAZ)

The government has directed Bristol, and other cities, to reduce harmful pollution from vehicles in the shortest possible time. The size of the zone and its boundary has been designed to meet legal air quality targets in the central area where air quality is worst.

Central areas of the city and main routes, which include the A4 Portway and the Cumberland Basin, have breached legal levels of pollution for several years because of the number of vehicles that use them. For this reason, they are included in the Clean Air Zone. The A4 Portway will support the aim of the Clean Air Zone by helping to make sustainable transport modes – such as public transport, walking and cycling – the natural choice for people’s journey.

What have we done so far

We have completed early engagement (August 2022) and design consultation (October/November 2023).

During early engagement in August 2022, we asked people living on and who travel on the A4 Portway about the travel issues they face when using the A4 Portway. We chose to engage via a survey and holding drop-in sessions. The survey was designed to look at and discover the main travel issues faced along the transport corridor (A4 Portway), to find out the local issues and desires for the proposed scheme.

The scope of the survey included over 1,000 participants. The demographic surveyed was about 30% residents and 56% of regular users of the route. The main takeaways were the need for safe cycleways, clean air concerns, and need for more bus services for communities north and west of the Park & Ride.

The results were broken down into four site/sections:

• site one – M5 Flyover to Portway Park & Ride and onto Sylvan Way junction
• site two – Sylvan Way junction to Bridge Valley Road junction,
• site three – Bridge Valley Road junction to Jacobs Wells roundabout (excluding Western Harbourside engagement)
• site four – Jacobs Wells Road roundabout to We the Curious (Explore Lane junction)

Top concerns in each section had to do with the shared footpath and cycleway not feeling safe, well maintained, and wide enough to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians at the same time.

What was gathered from early engagement is the space for the shared footway and cycle path was a major concern along with speed limits and road noise concerns. There was a large awareness of the Park & Ride with a low usage percentage, which could be solved by improvements to bus priority and infrastructure. For more information, please see the appendices for the March 2024 Cabinet Report. ModernGov – bristol.gov.uk

Consultation

We went out to consultation in October 2023. A survey was sent out to capture responses from residents and stakeholders. Along with drop-in sessions. The survey was used to gather responses to our proposals along the transport corridor. The key proposals looked at were:

• extending the 24-hour inbound bus lane
• introducing a 24-hour outbound bus lane
• widening the shared use path along most of the route
• reducing the speed limit from 50mph to 40mph and from 40mph to 30mph

Respondents were asked to rate each measure from very good to very poor and there was a space for comments to be added to each query.

Several drop-in sessions were held with over 150 people attending, 38 emails were received and over 1,400 responses to the survey.

The main views on the 24-hour inbound bus lane had over 55% positive responses i.e. people finding the proposal very good, good, and fair.

We had over 49% positive responses for the outbound bus lane proposals.

The proposed shared use path for cycling and walking got the most positive responses at over 65%.

The speed reduction proposals got over 59% positive responses.

Further information on the results can be found: Transport Improvements to the A4 Portway Route Consultation | Ask Bristol Consultation and Engagement Hub

Next steps

The decision to submit the Outline Business Case (OBC) and preliminary designs to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA) Committee and proceed with the detailed design and Full Business Case (FBC) process was approved by the Bristol City Council Cabinet in March 2024.

The Combined Authority have given approval for the scheme to proceed straight to the FBC stage. The next steps will be to draft the FBC which will include further modelling and scheme appraisal and drafting the detailed designs. The FBC will be considered by BCC Committee and WECA Committee early 2025. While the design proposals will be subjected to statutory consultation as part of the Traffic Regulation Order process towards the end of 2024 and a final internal design review before construction. The programme currently has construction commencing towards the end of 2025.

Contact us

If you have a query about this project, please contact us:

• Write to: A4 Portway, Transport Engagement Team, PO Box 3399, 100 Temple Street, Bristol, BS1 9NE

Email: [email protected]