Routes vs Queues Purple Route

Heres a post about my Purple Route Bournemouth central to Wallisdown which passes Winton/ Moordown area. Its a natural choice for anyone needing to get between town and University which is a huge number of people, and exactly the kind of ‘Quietway’ suggestion that Cycling Officers will be making in future. 2.7 miles from Town Hall to Uni doors (4.34 KM) and exactly the type of journey distance which is ideal for Active Travel rather than solo car driving then spending the same amount of time it took you finding somewhere to leave the car. ,Most of these Poolemouth routes are like this one, quietways before Councils designated them. We start at the square and ride up to the Town Hall and turn onto Braidley road, turning left into Meyrick park. This park is well enclosed now and the direction is due north as is the nearby Wimborne road, although here youre in a traffic free route with just the park ends closed to through traffic, its a lovely place among the pines as are many of our parks here. There is the old central drive that before the magnificent Wessex way was put in which was also a main road into town from the Meyrick Heights neighbourhood. Leaving the park and going under the railway bridge, you bear left onto Meyrick Park crescent, then find your way up to a toucan crossing over the main Wimborne road opposite and into Stokewood road. To avoid the main road traffic go up this minor road to turn left at the St Lukes road, at a small 5 way junction which is the entrance to Stokewood BH live leisure centre. Crossing the Wimborne road (again) bear left and immediate right into Stirling road which takes you straight on over a couple of small crossroads to the end, the path here then goes through an old cycleway to cross Talbot Road and then you are at Talbot Ave, right near the University. The picture here shows that facility, I kind of like this very old school intervention the engineers made- if you have any more info on it do share it. At this time when designs for cycleways are in rapid change its cool to see what was done decades ago. Some of which has aged terribly and some not so bad like this. Its the same at both entrances, a strip of protected cycleway on a curve, quite neat.

Using the crossings here you can make youre way into University site, travel west to Fern Barrow and then find the new Wallisdown cycleway or use the back route to bring you to Talbot Drive.

Here there is more work going on to link the new cycleway into talbot drive and Mossley ave, from where you can drop down to the Bourne Valley Greenway and my Route (In fact take that all the way back to Bournemouth town for an alternate loop back , part of the Green route from my 2014 Poolemouth Cycle system)

Its worth knowing that the Talbot Ave/ Boundary Roundabout has complete designs for a Continental style roundabout that the BH Active Travel forum has been in consultation on since the start. As all supply chains are currently held up by COVID this is delayed but should have been starting now for about a years rebuild. It effectively uses all existing paths and adds some crossings, no doubt adding x3 crossings here is a massive change to the road priority and bold. Its dosent use protected cycleways to separate users, these would be preferred by many people however they will be coming in other upcoming schemes. We look forward to a much calmer Boundary roundabout with space for all the thousands of Active Users there. Enjoy your riding, scooting, running and walking.