A great report by Warrington Cycle Campaign called The Effect of Cycle Lanes on Cyclists' Road Space demonstrates clearly how a 1.5m wide cycle lane reduces the amount of road-space available to cyclists.
Yes, a 1.5m wide cycle lane is worse than no cycle lane at all. Yet if you measure the cycle lanes in Greater Manchester you will struggle to find any that are wider than that and Salford have put in cycle lanes that are considerably narrower.
Then there are the shared use pavement schemes. This shared use pavement on Broadway, round the back of MediaCity apparently cost £300,000 pounds to install, but by all reports people prefer to cycle on the road, not least because of all those "cyclist dismount" signs. If anyone has more details on the Broadway Cycle Scheme I'd be interested to see where the money went.
And then there are the plain idiotic cycle facilities. Pavement lanes with traffic lights or lampposts in then are a firm favorite of mine. This is another from Salford, again part of the Broadway Cycle Scheme.
With all the money now flowing in for Velocity 2025, we need to ensure that all future cycle facilities are significant improvements on what went before.
I don't know where the money went, but I can guess: we did analyses of how the City of London spent the money it received in grants for the London Cycle Network from Transport for London. Where the money was actually spent on cycle facilities (and one year's grant was spent entirely on a low concrete wall over Southwark Bridge in both directions, primary purpose to prevent coaches parking on the bridge, although an incidental benefit is that bicycles can use the space behind them) it was divided roughly into three equal parts: one to lay concrete and asphalt, one to pay consultants' fees, and one to subsidise the City Highways department which surely should be funded by the authority's tax and central grant revenues?
ReplyDeleteI've regularly cycled this particular 'cycle lane'. Aside from the (staggeringly) obvious width issue, for me one of the worst aspects of this particular installation is that it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding on the part of the designer/specifier; the solid white line indicates that it is illegal for a vehicle to enter the space. As such surely there is no need for the double yellows?!
ReplyDeleteI've regularly cycled past this particular 'cycle lane' in the first photo above myself. Aside from the (staggeringly) obvious width issue I think one of the worst aspects is the way in which it highlights a complete lack of understanding on the part of the designer; the solid white line indicates that it is illegal for a vehicle to enter the space. As such surely there is no need for the double yellows?!
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