Welsh Bridge blog: part six

The final installment of local photo journalist, Richard Bishop's, blog on the improvements to the Welsh Bridge junction in Shrewsbury...

A couple of months on and its time to review the new pedestrian and cyclist crossings and cycle scheme around the Bridge Street/Smithfield Road area.

smithfield-road-crossing It was busy this sunny Wednesday morning with plenty of local people and tourists out and about, navigating their way in all directions through the traffic. There were obviously also more cyclists and children than I had seen in previous months. The transformation looks impressive and it all seemed to be working well but I waylaid a few cyclists to get their reaction to the new system.

paul-cummings Paul Cummings was crossing from Smithfield Road into Victoria Quay with his two young children, also on bikes. He said: “Its very complicated now. You don’t know which set of signals to look at and there is no audible signal to help you. I can see 8 or 9 lights in this area alone. In my opinion it hasn’t made any difference whatsoever.”

john-trickett John Tricket said: “I cycle almost everywhere and coming to this side of town from Rea Brook its pretty good. Shrewsbury has been made a lot more cycle-friendly, especially compared with other parts of the country where you wouldn’t want to use your bike. However, you do have to wait a long time for the lights to be in your favour here and when I can access the railway station from Smithfield Road it will be a lot safer for me.”

phil-saltmarsh Phil Saltmarsh said: “Shrewsbury is a great place to cycle now and this area has always been a bottleneck. Coming in from Sundorne is quite easy then suddenly you hit the traffic and it can be quite scary. At least you don’t have to fight your way across the junction now and when the whole scheme is completed it will be a God-send.”