Cycle lanes

Hardly any of CS7 has a solid white line.

YouTube - ‪bike lanes‬‏

One of the chaps at work who rides a motorbike was telling me about his journey to work the other day down a road with a cycling super highway.

He got into an altercation with a cyclist about a section with a broken white line- he believed he was allowed in, the cyclist did not.

Rather than get to the "shove shove smack" stage he waved over a police car, and they asked the copper- whose answer was "I don't know mate, I dont' get involved with cycle lanes".

Handy.

Chief Inspector Ian Vincent of the cycle Safety Squad is keen to hear reports about aggressive drivers. These can be sent via this website:
http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/

http://www.londonbicycleculture.com/promotion/back-to-the-future-by-bike/

Cycle lanes great for drivers
http://drivetoworkday.org/2012/11/05/separation-for-a-safer-nation/

Whoever wrote that is clearly under the influence of some top gear. Which they probably think should be legalised so our kiddies can buy it at the school gates.

You mean they've 'Gone Dutch'?

Boom!

^^^ Dude, I think the Drive to Work day site is a piss take.

Very hard for the average punters to realised.

^^^ Dude, I think the Drive to Work day site is a piss take.

Exactly, you need to stop taking things so seriously all the time, Will. You're going to end up with a reputation

^^^ Dude, I think the Drive to Work day site is a piss take.

Oh is that what you young people call it these days when everything that made this country great is mocked and ridiculed? It was the late Lady Mrs Margaret Thatcher who spoke of a 'great car owning democracy' and sadly the saintly woman's dream is still a long way from being reality.

^^^ Dude, I think the Drive to Work day site is a piss take.

it would be funnier if there werent actually loads of old, white, fat, men
who hold senior positions in local government who actually* do* think like that

Precisely what I'm afraid of.

didnt know where to put this: http://www.vulpine.cc/Blog/british-cycling-companies/the-new-cycling

it would be funnier if there werent actually loads of old, white, fat, men
who hold senior positions in local government who actually* do* think like that

Precisely what I'm afraid of.

The site is a thought experiment and may be too subtle for some and may make some old fat white man (that's me) think.
Who knows...

(also has its own thread http://www.lfgss.com/thread93226.html so no need to clog up the cycle lane thread with this discussion )

.

no need to clog up the cycle lane thread with this discussion )

We have to form an orderly queue somewhere.

You mean they've 'Gone Dutch'?

Boom!

This is good;

A short journey on Vimeo

^It is brilliant and shows how fit for the purpose of getting cyclists out of the way of drivers many cycle lanes are. Better off here just to stick to the road.

Hm. Well-intentioned but a bit off. The video's obviously right to question the purpose of cycle lanes, and this isn't a particularly good example, but I always wish things were explained better.

What the engineers have done here is, as usual, crammed stuff in 'for cyclists', largely according to guidance, except for that badly-positioned sign gate, without widening the carriageway and with the usual method that 'any provision is better than no provision' (which is nonsense, of course).

The cycle lane is 1.5m, which is too narrow to have any real positive effect. The minimum useful width of cycle lanes is 2m, not achievable here without carriageway widening.

The carriageway doesn't narrow--the lane narrows when the central hatching gets wider in preparation for the right-turn lane (making three lanes in a 9m-wide carriageway, which before that point has a decent width for riding, although the narrow central hatching doesn't quite make for a wide kerb lane of a full 4.5m.

The cycle lane stops ahead of that junction because of the three lane layout. At that point, the video should contain advice to cyclists on positioning and to get cycle training. This is probably beyond the scope of what they wanted to do.

When crossing the road from the off-road path, the video should explain the importance of looking right and left. I appreciate that the camera is mounted on the handlebars, so that you don't see the looking in the video, but it should still be stressed in the inset text.

Obviously, the video merely asks a pertinent question and doesn't necessarily seek to give solutions. It also reflects a lay person's understanding of what's going on in the design of the road. However, it's not really clear to me what they want to achieve by it. There are always two possible interpretations--either lay out the carriageway differently to create a consistent wide kerb lane, get cyclists to ride through the main junction, etc. or build a different kind of separate provision for cycling. I can't remember if Chris Boardman has expressed views on that.

Also, unintentionally, the impression/implication is somehow given that cyclists have to use the cycle lane/path. It would be better if they went back at the end and explained that cyclists are allowed to continue riding in the carriageway and how this would work at the main junction.

But hey, you can't have everything.

I think it points out quite well that cycle lanes are there to get cyclists out of the way of cars. It intimates that cars are more important, and sends a message that cyclists an afterthought, and not seriously considered by highways designers.

This ^.