Author Topic: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  (Read 16402 times)

Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #50 on: 28 August, 2020, 10:24:14 pm »
We're on a 70s housing estate, built as one main through road with others off it. The main road (which is a bit of a road to nowhere really) has had cycle lanes for decades, but too narrow in places, and quite heavily used at one end for parking for the nearby station.

A County Council scheme to upgrade the lanes has been abandoned amid local opposition. Probably not too bad a thing to be honest. It doesn't appear to have been that well thought out in terms of addressing the issues, and anyway because it's a road to nowhere the natural travel lines are arguably orthogonal to the road, so addressing those would be more useful.

Seems to have been a scheme to grab some government money and put some more paint down or whatever, but without a real sense of priorities and strategy.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #51 on: 07 September, 2020, 12:18:53 pm »

Hull appear to have painted parking spaces... inside their new cycle lane...


https://twitter.com/HullCamGuy/status/1302162160043384832

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #52 on: 07 September, 2020, 12:23:34 pm »
Yes, even Hull occasionally follows standard UK practice in a few areas.  ;)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #53 on: 07 September, 2020, 12:25:42 pm »

I feel bound to be pleased about that!   ;)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #54 on: 07 September, 2020, 12:34:12 pm »
 ;D :D
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #55 on: 08 September, 2020, 10:32:01 pm »
Review of the Silly Oak to Northfield pop-up wossnames: https://twitter.com/Tdr1nka/status/1303359091729993730

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #56 on: 09 September, 2020, 11:31:39 am »
"This is not available to you"
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #57 on: 09 September, 2020, 01:41:00 pm »
"This is not available to you"

Probably a metaphor for the infrastructure.

(Works for me in an incognito window...)

I came down the new segregated cycle lane on the high street yesterday.  They've made a just-about-adequate width painted lane, then put plastic bollards up to keep the cars out.  Only, anticipating people damaging them by driving cars into them, they've thoughtfully set the bollards some 0.2m or so inside the white line, for their protection.  This leaves you a relatively narrow lane full of potholes, drain covers and a scary tramliney seam in the tarmac from utility works just about where you want to position your bicycle wheels.  They've also installed a concrete build-out at the bus stop, so you get a bit of bonus puddly pump-track action.

I note that I normally take a strong primary position on that bit, because the gradient makes it easy to keep up with traffic, and it's the only way to avoid all the afore-mentioned surface hazards.

The other direction is disconnected bollocks with confusing markings and shared-use footways in a busy high street.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #58 on: 09 September, 2020, 02:54:01 pm »
I tried it in an incognito window and it worked for me too. Perhaps I'm on some Twitter banned list.

Anyway, comparing to what we have in Bristol it looks decently wide but similarly disjointed. And way too much shared pavement stuff.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #59 on: 13 September, 2020, 08:28:49 pm »
Discovered one on the Scary Dual Cabbageway™ in Smethwick earlier.  I thought it was roadworks at first (it was one lane enthusiastically coned off, with that red tape stuff joining the tops of some of the cones), but after a while there were fresh bike symbols painted on the road surface.  Handily, some of the cones had fallen over (been driven into?), so I was able to ride across the downed tape and join it.

It then, somewhat inevitably, tried to funnel me onto the pavement near Rolfe Street station.  I nipped through a gap between cones and found myself in a nice empty left hand lane with a dense stream of traffic between me and my approaching right turn.

In summary: Usual cycle infrastructure problem of assumptions about where cyclists are going, but reasonably decent execution.  Could do with someone going and tidying up the cones.

On a related note, Birmingham has made further progress in dividing the city centre up into segments, with motor vehicle movements between them only possible via the ring road.  One particular filter seems to be being deliberately sabotaged by motorists (I'm guessing taxi drivers) moving the barriers so they can continue to ignore it.

Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #60 on: 13 September, 2020, 08:59:48 pm »
All TfL bus lanes are now 24 hours, at least theoretically, which should make cycling a lot more pleasant. Signs haven’t been changed yet and thus they’re full of cars. Parked, as it’s a Sunday and that’s what a lot of bus lanes become.

The situation with parking is confusing. The summary says parking will be banned everywhere, but they’ve also published a lost of specific locations where parking will be suspended.

Loading will still be permitted, and presumably as widely abused as loading bays are now, if not more so.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #61 on: 13 September, 2020, 09:39:25 pm »
Just next to Bristol Partway station is Hatchet Road, which has, amazingly, a railway bridge. In fact two side by side, one arched, one flat. The arch is a bit higher than the flat and obscures the flat if you're approaching from the north, which has deceived many drivers, the most recent being a bus driver earlier this year. I had assumed that was the reason the road had been narrowed with chunky red and white barriers ("rhinos"?) and tidal flow with traffic lights. But then I read that no, this is to increase space for social distancing! This has failed 100% as no one, on bike or foot, ever uses the supposedly reallocated space. In fact I'm not sure there's even a way into it by bike. One pavement has been shared use for years; it's a bit narrow but works, mostly – and virtually all cyclists continue to use this.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #62 on: 14 September, 2020, 04:14:54 pm »
All TfL bus lanes are now 24 hours, at least theoretically, which should make cycling a lot more pleasant. Signs haven’t been changed yet and thus they’re full of cars. Parked, as it’s a Sunday and that’s what a lot of bus lanes become.

The situation with parking is confusing. The summary says parking will be banned everywhere, but they’ve also published a lost of specific locations where parking will be suspended.

Loading will still be permitted, and presumably as widely abused as loading bays are now, if not more so.

I was wondering when they might get around to changing the signs.

Wandsworth has abandoned its LTNs so on my way to Putney yesterday I got to play chicken with the 4x4s which was lots of fun.

I found some poles on Garratt Lane and also in Colliers Wood on the way back. The bus lane on Garratt lane was also full of parked cars and at one point the tarmac did that 'wave' thing which on the Brommie felt a bit like I'd temporarily gone offroading  :hand:


quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #64 on: 17 September, 2020, 12:45:10 pm »
This is going well: https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-16-september-2020-277297

That's some first class fuckwittery.

Apparently the managler of the letting agency hadn't realised they were installing a cycle lane. Cos the blue paint and the fucking wands wasn't enough of a fucking giveaway.

Quite why the council couldn't get a tow truck there within the hour is I think the biggest issue. If we parked 5 cars in the middle of the M6, you'd expect them to get towed quickly. This is the equivalent.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #65 on: 17 September, 2020, 01:10:37 pm »
I don't think UK councils have had tow trucks since about 2004. The normal approach is to put cones out and pray.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #66 on: 17 September, 2020, 07:37:38 pm »
We of the People's Republic of Waltham Forest still have “lift the car bodily onto a flatbed” removal lorries.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #67 on: 18 September, 2020, 06:25:47 pm »
People with pitchforks are out and about in Crawley and Horsham, claiming the couple of pop up lanes herald the End of Times, if not worse. A petition has been started calling for their removal.  The Crawley ones are a mixture of cycle and bus lane plus a section where hopeful bike symbols are painted on "normal" road without, thus far, the benefit of a solid white line.

Meanwhile this was claimed to have been spotted in Crawley too. I can't place it though.

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #68 on: 03 November, 2020, 10:03:39 pm »
Just seen on the local newspaper website that
Quote
Today, November 3, the county council announced plans to remove all the pop-up cycle ways in West Sussex.

This comes not long after a reports of a van vs bike collision in Horsham
Quote
A Horsham taxi driver and cyclist is calling for the pop-up cycle lane to be scrapped before a fatal crash happens. Phil Reich, 58, said he wanted to speak out after witnessing the aftermath of a collision between a van and a cyclist at 9.25am this morning, October 27 at the Springfield Park Road junction.

He said: “I got there just after it happened. Thankfully [the] cyclist didn’t appear to be injured but his bike was completely destroyed. (I) don’t think this would have happened if cycle lane wasn’t there.”

Phil told the County Times he has used the cycle lane himself and witnessed motorists driving their cars into it by mistake.

By mistake. Hmm. I was in a line of cars this evening, adjacent to what is now a bus lane/covid cycle lane. I spied on motorist drive in what must have been a deliberate way into the it.  (I caught them up two sets of lights later...)
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i


quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #71 on: 29 November, 2020, 01:26:23 pm »


Looks like Kensington and Chelsea are being barbarian fuckwits again :(

https://twitter.com/RBKC/status/1332986891377856514

This map shows just how truly awful a decision this is.

https://twitter.com/citycyclists/status/1333002651143974914

Jay Foreman sums it up nicely.

https://twitter.com/jayforeman/status/1333034520484982785

I would suggest the next cyclist to have an accident on the route where the cycle lane once was should sue Kensington and Chelsea. The only way they are going to understand this is if they are made to suffer financially :(

Utterly barbaric fucking morons.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

ian

Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #72 on: 29 November, 2020, 05:10:16 pm »
Well, isn't it the council that occasionally burns its residents to death?

Kim

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Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #73 on: 29 November, 2020, 05:14:55 pm »
Well, isn't it the council that occasionally burns its residents to death?

Only the poor ones.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Pop-up cycle lanes, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
« Reply #74 on: 29 November, 2020, 11:08:57 pm »
Well, isn't it the council that occasionally burns its residents to death?

Only the poor ones.

Of course that's entirely their own fault.  And imagine having the temerity to complain just because their homes were clad with solid petril :o
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime