Painting it black Bike lane upgrade work underway

CONTRACTORS have started digging up a notorious bike lane through the Centre in Bristol ahead of an upgrade.

- Alex SEABROOK Local democracy reporter

The lane, which passes by the Hippodrome and where the fountains were, will get a new surface of black Tarmac, as well as refreshed white lines and large bike symbols.

Transport chiefs at Bristol City Council hope the new black surface will make the bike lane easier to spot. The current tiny bicycle symbols are barely visible and the pre-vious paving stones looked very similar to the adjacent footpath.

This meant that pedes-trians often walked along the bike path, to the ire of cyclists having to swerve out of their way, as well as the unpleasant surprise of people walk-ing to suddenly have a bicycle hurtling towards them. Campaigners said this conflict made the area feel unsafe.