Gearing up for new Island bike routes

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Work on extending the Gorey cycle track and starting a new one through St Peter’s Valley is due to start this year.

The Transport department are focussing on the two projects to make cycling safer and to encourage more people to get on their bikes after a drop in the number of people riding a bike to work over the last five years.

According to the last Jersey Annual Social Survey, just one-in-20 Islanders uses the bike to get to work the majority of the time – a figure that is actually lower than it was back on 2009 and 2010.

By far the most popular way to get to work is by car, which is how 55% of us do our daily commute. But of those people, 15% said that they “occasionally” cycled to work and another 5% said that they ride the bike in anything from twice a week to once a month.

Transport Minister Eddie Noel said that the Eastern Cycle Track would be extended from the garage to Grouville School this year, and that work would start on the first stretch of a new track in St Peter’s Valley from Tesson Mill to the Vic In The Valley.

“The tricky bit with the Eastern route will be trying to find a sensible route, or routes, from effectively Grouville School into town,” he said.

“We are going to be starting in St Peter’s Valley this year, and we have finally got rid of the last bit of hardcore on the track into town from the railway walk. There was a small section next to the new temporary Waterfront car park, and the States of Jersey Development Company were tarmacking the new car park, so we asked them to sort out the track as well and they did.”