The cycleway (which will run for 3.5km along Hamble Lane) is an appropriate and imaginative way to mark King's achievement and might give the Lib Dems' cycling strategy a much-needed boost.
Eastleigh has had a strategy (on paper at least) to encourage cycling in the Borough since 1990, but according to a recently published Department of Transport survey, the Lib Dems have failed spectacularly to encourage cycling in the Borough.
Along with the Isle of Wight, Eastleigh is bottom of the league table of Hampshire councils for encouraging cycling, with only 13% of residents claiming to get on their bikes at least once a month, and only 2% cycling regularly at five times a week.
| Local Authority | 1 x per month | 1 x per week | 3 x per week | 5 x per week |
| Gosport | 32 | 24 | 15 | 8 |
| New Forest | 24 | 15 | 7 | 4 |
| Hart | 24 | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| Test Valley | 22 | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| Havant | 21 | 13 | 9 | 6 |
| Winchester | 21 | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| Portsmouth | 20 | 14 | 8 | 5 |
| Rushmoor | 19 | 14 | 8 | 4 |
| Basingstoke and Deane | 18 | 13 | 7 | 4 |
| Fareham | 18 | 10 | 4 | 3 |
| East Hampshire | 16 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| Southampton | 14 | 10 | 4 | 3 |
| Isle of Wight | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 |
| Eastleigh | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 |
Eastleigh has 44km of cycle routes, many of them in Hedge End, but people don't seem to want to use them. Perhaps they have been built where they are easy to build, not where they would be really useful to people wanting to cycle as part of their day to day lives or where they would make cycling genuinely safer.
Perhaps it would help if the Council got on with the long-awaited Hedge End to Botley cycleway.
