A former city councillor says she is preparing to leave York because she no longer feels safe travelling on its roads.
Anna Semlyen, a road safety campaigner, says she has been injured twice while riding her bike around York.
“I feel very scared, and it’s not just that I’ve been injured twice by give way offenders – and and they were culpable both times because I got insurance payouts,” she told YorkMix.
“I’m feeling so scared that I’m going to relocate to Oxford, which has better coverage of 20 mile an hour limits, because I don’t feel safe in my city.”
Anna, a former Labour city councillor who represented Dringhouses and Woodthorpe, has long campaigned for 20mph speed limits.
She criticised the Station Gateway scheme, which is set to cost £60m, more than double the original budget. Despite new cycle lanes, it’s still not a safe option for cyclists, Anna says.
“Consider cycling to the station. You’ve still got to get to the cycle tracks, haven’t you?
“How are you going to do that safely, particularly if the river is flooded? Well, all the surrounding roads are 30mph, aren’t they?
“So it’s not giving you a door-to-door safe system, which is the modern standard of road safety.”
Anna said she didn’t think York was going to get safer for road users with the “current cabinet member in charge”.
Cllr Kate Ravilious, the executive member for transport in the Labour-run City of York Council, was “making bad decision after bad decision”, Anna argues.
“For instance, the spending of £150,000 on humps in Woodthorpe on Alness Drive that has no casualty record in ten years, whereas the station area has 112 casualties recorded in ten years.”
Why does she think Oxford will be a safer place to live than York? “They have comprehensive 20 mile an hour limits. They have low traffic neighbourhoods.
“In York, for instance, when it’s icy, I feel a bit trapped at home because honestly, I am scared to be on my bike in the ice when the river’s flooded.
“I cannot get safely into town. Some of the roads between my house and town are 40 miles per hour.
“My chances of survival are 15% if I get hit on Shipton Road as a cyclist or if I’m walking. I don’t want to live with that level of danger and risk.
“I’m definitely moving.”
Executive member for transport, Cllr Kate Ravilious said: “20mph signage is one tool in a box of many for reducing speeds and improving road safety.
“We’re working with the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Jo Coles, in progressing plans for police enforcement of excessive speeds in 20 and 30mph areas, along with consideration of physical speed reduction measures where needed.
“When selecting where interventions are needed we use a wide range of data and evidence, plus look at the potential uplift in walking and cycling that a scheme could bring.
“Road casualty data tells part but not the whole story and using all of the tools in the box enables us to reduce road danger on a neighbourhood wide basis.
“Only by approaching speed reduction in this strategic way will we make roads safer and enable more people to choose to walk, wheel and cycle.”