London Road - Fresh Paint!

Ok, it seems someone has been out on London Road with the white paint since I first took some photos there and has (sort of) joined up the Unreachable Cycle Lane.

Now going north from the junction with Fairfield Street the short piece of cycle lane, which rapidly turns into a bus lane seems to be the start.



If you look really carefully you might notice that when you get to the corner with Whitworth Street you are supposed to cycle left onto the pavement - see where it says "SLOW", that's it...



You are then directed to cross Whitworth street using the pedestrian crossing, but not after you have been warned that this is the slow route - and it takes a bloody long time for the lights to change, so this will delay you considerably.



Eventually when you get to the other side you will find that new bidirectional cycle signs have been painted on the pavement - so fresh you can see the construction marks. One of these new markings directs you back onto London road - though here there is no sign where to go next...



However, if you search around you may find the start of The Unreachable Cycle Lane, which is also now showing fresh paint.



Again the markings are so fresh you can see the construction marks, and the very strange addition of "CITY", just in case you thought Manchester was still a town.



And this was the same spot on 27th November...



This was all apparently part of the Fire Station Quality Bus Corridor scheme scheduled for completion in mid-November 2008! Seems like this is a real mess, there are a lot of disjointed signs and cycle markings in this area thanks to this bus priority scheme.

There is classic piece of mindless cycling infrastructure, just around the corner in Whitworth Street, but I'll save that piece of crap for another post.



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The Unreachable Cycle Lane - London Road

Ever wondered how magical cycling can be? Look no further than London Road by Piccadilly Station, here you will find a cycle lane built for the magical appearing cyclist...

I just couldn't work out how any cyclist could legally reach the beginning of this lane, it just appears, going northbound on a crossing island between the southbound one-way traffic and the tram tracks. I couldn't even see the traditional Cyclists Dismount sign in the area.



If you aren't walking past you just wouldn't know it was there.



The pavement lane just appears on the island, turns into a short piece of segregated track,



before turning into a contraflow cycle lane, alongside a car parking bay, though some drivers prefer the pavement.



After the road becomes two-way at a car park exit the facility ends in a reasonable advanced stop bay, but not before the lane is squeezed down to barely more than the width of the double yellow lines.



Still, since it is so difficult to get to, I don't suppose many people use this route.


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