Mini-Holland proposals
In 2021, we persuaded Hull City Council to apply for Department for Transport funding of £100,000 to begin developing a Mini-Holland scheme for Hull. And we won! Now we’re hoping to support the council on a feasibility study to get investment for the project in Bransholme.
But what are Mini-Hollands and how do they work?
Mini-Hollands are a great way of creating liveable neighbourhoods that benefit everyone. In the three outer London boroughs where they've been introduced to date, their combination of traffic calming, segregated bike lanes, greater safety at junctions and residential streets blocked to car traffic has led to significant increases in walking (13%) and cycling (18%), improved attitudes towards active travel, with no evidence of increased congestion.
There are any number of places where MHs could work in Hull. Any area or neighbourhood that has its own identity or can be physically defined, such as by boundary roads, would be suitable for an MH. Another example we looked at in addition to Bransholme was Central Ward. Such a scheme in Central Ward would have additional advantages of offering parallel but still direct route choices as an alternative to using the busy arterials roads in the ward. This would aid people passing through the area as well as the residents. For a more modern example, Kingswood could fairly easily become a liveable neighbourhood, again owing to its self-contained nature but potential for good links out.
Bransholme is a prime candidate for Hull's first MH scheme. The estate's street design already incorporates some separation of cars and pedestrians and already has some good cycle infrastructure, which could be improved on and joined up, using safety features such as controlled crossings and path segregation. Because Bransholme is fairly self-contained, providing a concentrated investment here would provide healthier transport choices for thousands of residents as they go about their everyday lives. By choosing Bransholme, which includes areas of significant deprivation, Hull would also be sending a signal that Mini-Holland schemes and active travel are for everyone, not just for higher income neighbourhoods.
Many areas, neighbourhoods and suburbs of Hull already have segregated bike paths, traffic filters and traffic calming measures. However, they aren’t well connected enough to be integrated in to a wider network. Often, short connecting sections of bike path or a controlled crossing are all that’s required to change this; some of these changes, with local support, could be made at the ward level, while others will need to be part of larger road schemes.
Our research has involved riding with CycHull members along cycle paths in Bransholme and Central Ward to see how routes could be made safer and offer more choices to travel. We've used this information to create our own unofficial proposals for three Mini-Hollands, one for Bransholme/Kingswood, one for North Bransholme and one for Central Ward: