A TOTAL of £2.6m has been pledged to support active travel in the future in Barnsley but what’s the current state-of-play? Ashley Ball got on his bike to find out.

I’VE worked at the Barnsley Chronicle for 12 years now.

It has often occurred to me, on those thousands of journeys into and out of the town centre, that there are so few people getting into the town on two (self-propelled) wheels.

Why is that?

I had my own theories but I wanted to put them to the test by commuting into work last week.

We are very fortunate to have the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) on our doorstep and running across the entirety of our borough.

It is safe and fairly easy to navigate making a workout seem like an enjoyable experience rather than an ordeal.

The roads of the borough, however, are a different story and I am afraid to say that in my experience they are at their worst and most dangerous in Barnsley.

Getting to the outskirts of the town centre is the easy bit but there are no other cycling commuters around.

I exit the TPT near Oakwell and it is the moment I’ve been dreading.

With no cycle lane into the centre, you’re on the road and on your own on Pontefract Road.

I am no Tadej Pogacar but I am an experienced cyclist and no slouch I completed the coast-to-coast ride for charity in 2023 so I am just about qualified to give my opinions.

I do not particularly mind riding on the road but as I was expecting, it’s busy and you can sense the motoring impatience in the air.

Drivers MUST give cyclists a metre and a half of space by law.

To be fair, one motorist did give me enough room not to feel slightly panicky but it was the other 30 or so who didn’t.

It is nothing I am not used to but I can imagine it putting a novice cyclist off instantly.

Then comes the next big decision: how best to get to the office on Eastgate?

On the way in and way out I tried the two options.

Firstly, over the Tommy Taylor Memorial Bridge and then through the town centre.

There are grooves for cycle tyres to be pushed up but I found that my handle bars (on a standard hybrid bike) banged into the rail. It’s okay but you have to walk up and then down at a jaunty angle.

I can’t imagine a cyclist was consulted on those measurements before they got the sign-off.

The other way is down Schwäbisch Gmünd Way. Then we deal with a cyclist’s worst nightmare: traffic lights.

In York, admittedly a flatter and more affluent city, cyclists get their own green light to give them a headstart on other traffic. No such joy here. On your marks, get set, go... and take your own life into your hands.

Having a double-decker bus beside or behind you is understandably unnerving and knowing you have to turn adds to the concern.

That was in my mind but I fortunately managed to get away unscathed with cars behind me.

There is a long wait to actually turn right and you have to be ready to take your chance. Again, that is okay for me, but for somebody trying it out for the first time it must be a real panic.

I think having the TPT is a real asset for everyone in South Yorkshire. The problem is, it runs out before you get into the town centre.

It’s like having a cake but no icing let alone a cherry.

For all the council’s spending, soundbites and press releases, active travel INTO Barnsley is at best unpleasant and at worse perilous.

But what can be done?

Alternative routes into the town centre are no better. Coming out at Twibell Street proposes a whole host of new problems with the steep hills (I know the council can’t alter geography) but the multiple traffic lights would also add to the chaos.

Huddersfield Road is of course flatter but I would have to take a heck of a detour.

Sheffield Road and Dodworth Road entries into the town centre can be nerve wracking for a driver, let alone a cyclist.

Where are the cycle lanes?

Of course they help but would non-cylists want their money to be spent on creating them?

The very notion of a ’Dutch-style’ roundabout at Town End which gave cyclists the priority sent people into a furious rage online.

In an ideal world the TPT would run right into the town centre like it does in Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

How that could ever come to fruition is probably a costly town planning exercise but until there is one the commuting trails will remain empty but traffic and pollution will remain.

Now to the good stuff.

From where I live, in Bolton-upon-Dearne, I barely have to leave the TPT at all in the 15km or so journey.

It is actually a great feeling knowing that I am not sitting in traffic at Cathill Roundabout, Stairfoot Roundabout or praying to the motoring gods that I drop on a charitable driver to let me out on to Grange Lane from Tank Row.

While the drivers are motionless, I can fly by and the burning of calories is an added bonus. You can quickly get from Stairfoot to Manvers Lake and I’m home in well under an hour.

It’s not perfect, the trail near Netherwood Academy in Wombwell needs urgent repairs as the tree roots are, to put it politely, in danger of making every male cyclist infertile. Signage is often vandalised and sadly broken glass is present frequently.

The natural element does more than make up for it, though.

I saw countless native species, took in the smell of wild garlic, circled a lake and rode along a river.

They are all things you miss while in the car and when I got into work I felt more energised than usual for having done the exercise.

I would like to commute manually into work at least once a week, and I am sure others would too, but the pre-cycle trepidation in my head now feels vindicated.