Sheffield's healthcare staff say they are risking their lives cycling to work on city's unsafe roads

Staff from the city’s Teaching Hospitals Trust say they are risking their lives when they try to peddle into work on Sheffield’s ‘unsafe’ roads.

Today (July 5), staff cycled from the Royal Hallamshire to the City Hall to raise awareness of the dangers they see on the road.

The Trust’s active travel initiative is campaigning for local authorities to improve cycling provisions across the city, with ambitions of creating a direct route between the Royal Hallamshire and the Northern General.

They would also like to more places to lock up bikes rolled across Sheffield, and to see e-bikes made more available either by renting or through payment plans.

On the steps of the City Hall this morning, service manager Helen Shipley told the hospital staff: “No one cycles in Sheffield – it’s too hilly, too dangerous, there’s not enough cycle infrastructure, and it’ll just get nicked.

“We have undertaken this big cycle ride as NHS staff in protest about the lack of a safe way to travel from the city to our hospitals.

“Between 2015-2019, there were 12 serious of fatal accidents involving someone riding a bike on routes between the Northern General Hospital and the city – including hospital staff who have been injured.

“This scares the hell out of me, and my husband and my kids, who worry every day about whether I’ll get to work and back safely.”

One the active travel group’s founders, Dr Liz Puddy, joined the group in 2019 after she was knocked off her bike on Rutland Road on the way to work.

Dr Puddy told The Star: “We have been campaigning to see safety changes both inside and outside the hospital.

“We want to put pressure on the council because we feel we so far have had half-hearted promises and proposals to extend cycle ways.

“It’s more important than ever, especially after the bus cuts, which are hideous.”

And, in 2021, The Star spoke to Dr James Meiring, who suffered a punctured lung in a collision on Burngreave Road while cycling to work.

He said at the time: “The cycling infrastructure in and around Sheffield is quite frankly rubbish, especially considering it’s promoted as being the Outdoor City with the Peak District on our doorstep.”

It comes on the first day of a two-day-long Active Travel Conference being held in Sheffield.

The conference began with a guided six mile cycle to Hillsborough and back. Key note speeches included a panel with paralympian Dame Sarah Storey.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard also rode with the group.

He told The Star he hopes to create the role of ‘active travel commissioner’ for South Yorkshire to look at alternatives to taking the car.

He said: “It’s brilliant to see so many people who are so passionate about cycling, especially who also know a thing or two about healthcare and looking after yourself.

"We’ve got to support cycling infrastructure in South Yorkshire. That was something that was started by Dan Jarvis and I intend to carry that as far and as fast as I possibly can.”