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Bristol City Council appear set to provide the city’s cyclists with a ‘cycle lift’ that would cost approximately one million pounds to install, according to This is Bristol.
The proposal is hoped to encourage cyclists put off by some of the more formidable climbs in Bristol. The external bike lift will be placed between the city centre and Park Row, linking the bottom of Trenchard Street with the eight level of the multi-storey car park on Park Row.
Transport campaigner Chris Hutt has proposed the unusual scheme and has already received indications of support from local councillor Jon Rogers, who is responsible for transport in the city.
Hut suggested that cyclists could be charged £1 to use the lift: "Some of Bristol’s existing cyclists would use the lift, but crucially it has to attract a lot of people who do not cycle because they are put off by the hills on Park Street and Park Row.
"We cannot know for sure if people will use it, but they did not know for sure that people would come in such numbers to the Banksy show.
"The fact that so many came to that was a surprise, and in the same way we have to take a bit of a punt on this idea.
"Perhaps it might go some way towards changing the image of cycling in Bristol as something exclusively for the Lycra-clad super-fit.
"For Bristol this really could be the iconic symbol of a genuine move towards being a Cycling City and perhaps the world’s first and best example of a bicycle lift forming a key part of a city’s cycling infrastructure."
Councillor Rogers added that the quirky proposal was “a bit of a long shot”.
"I think that it’s certainly an interesting idea. However, the cost against the lift is probably such that it is unlikely to be a realistic option. But it is being done elsewhere in the world. You are looking at either flatter and longer routes to cycle, or looking at the possibility of bike lifts as another option."
