Please send in some footage of your local cycling infrastructure for us to all have a look at. This first video in this series is from Bridge Road in Stockport. What does this look like three years on from the footage?
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33 Comments
Much better than the cycling infrastructure here in Rolleston Nz.
It is a fast developing town but the council are still half-arseing the cycle ways
In Doncaster we had cycle path up until about 5 years ago.. They removed them under the EU traffic calming scheme and made the road narrower, now the area is full of parked cars even though its got double yellows.
Very good setup. Can see a few gaps in the system, but much better than anything we have in Belfast.
Sensible infrastructure for a change.
Never had any infrastructure by me never been an issue, then over the last few months they started putting in nonsense that cyclists are worse off using.😢
It would be interesting to see people's cycling infrastructure during rush hours. I can imagine on dark & stormy rush hours it'll probably be safer to cycle at walking pace past those driveways. At night there will be glare from road vehicles that will be distracting. Stockport should be given a pat on the back. I would be happy to ride that level of infrastructure on my commute. 👍 Nice MG at the start too!🙂👍👍
Yes this was a big project in our area a couple of years ago. An entire cycling network was planned and installed. It’s been a great success and will soon link to a tram or train station in Cheadle. It wasn’t just done as a sticking plaster to appease by put some green paint on the side of the road, it was properly planned, consulted, and executed. Should be an example for other areas.
Nice, unless you like grass verges.
It's basically an obstacle course. Why are we so bad at this in the UK?
I would have like a bar or post set back at request crossings (often can use the post that are switched but if to close to the road or someone there already), I ride with clip peddles and this would give Me a place to stop and wait without uncliping. It would also give Me a quicker get away – safer start as I would not have to clip back in when starting and crossing the road, I could just move off without having to think about My feet.
The solution to undulating bike lanes across dropped kerbs is to make them level with the most of the sidewalk and drop off into the main road at a much steeper angles. A maximum of 6 inches from the road to the level part should do nicely. That means that drivers will be forced to slow down more when driving onto or off them and this will make them even more safer for everyone.
Drivers are familiar with driving on and off sidewalks with virtually square edges where they are (or not) allowed to park. Steep angles at dropped kerbs shouldn't bother them.
I have to say, whenever I see stuff like this, it's obvious the designer is not a cyclist.
I live near Milton Keynes, which has an extensive network of 'redway' cycle routes. But what could have been amazing, has been completely nobbled by poor implementation. Take crossings for instance – they are grade separated and mostly use underpasses – which is usually good design. However, whilst the main road remains level, it's the cycle track that regularly goes up or down to cross the road. An underpass is usually preferred when this happens, as cyclists can build speed on the downhill and use that to power up the other side (rather than bridges, which are a slog up then on the brakes down, wasting energy). But in MK, there's inevitably a junction just at the bottom of the hill with very poor visibility, so you have to brake there and lose all your gained momentum. Very frustrating!
Meanwhile, the roads are really good, you can park easily anywhere and even at rush hour the traffic is not bad at all. So most people drive 🤷🏻♂.
Up and down every house, constant left and rights at crossings etc. Like a rollercoaster!! As a road cyclist I’d avoid this and stick to the road.
They could remove most dedicated cycle lanes and widen the road instead, using clear markings to indicate where cyclists have priority. When no cyclists are present, vehicles could use the lane at a reduced speed limit, treating it as a slow lane in case cyclists appear ahead or merge into it.
this is considered good? seems atrocious to me and if i'd be forced commute on this i'm definitely out in the road instead doing ~20
The cycle lanes in my area don't exist 😅 Best I can do is a small strip of paint demarking the gutter as "cycle area", which also starts and ends on the same stretch of road.
I have ridden this cycle path and it is like a rollercoaster going up and down where the driveways are
I dont bother with cycle lanes on pavements as if 2 or more pedestains walking together, they take up both cycle and pedestrian lanes. Would rather do 20mph on the road than keep slowing down for inconsiderate pedestrains.
Would be obvious to have the cycle lane painted another colour as it should be according to active travel recommendations? That way the crossings become obvious to drivers. Such a simple thing to miss
3:23 yes the solution is well known, in the context of pavements/footpaths it is called a continuous footway. Keep the cycle path and footpath as continuous and level as possible.
This can also be applied at side streets. Eg. the setup at 0:59 can be confusing because the cycle path has priority but it looks like the roadway is continuous while the cycle path is interrupted. That is why such crossings are usually marked, like elsewhere in the video. There will be less mistakes if the cycle path visibly interrupts that roadway.
My parents live on a road just off Bridge Lane, and the amount of cyclists you see using this lane is so minimal. Most just ride on the road, especially if they're heading in the direction this cyclist is.
0:34 would be much better if the road raised to the cycle path instead of the path dropping to the road. Creates a stronger message of cyclists having priority.
That kind of neighbourhood is definitely not what comes to mind when I hear "Stockport", it looks really nice! It's also not what comes to mind when I hear "cycling lanes in the UK", for the same reason. Though the lanes should be flattened instead of going up to pavement level and down to road level when passing driveways.
Cycle lanes around here deal with trees and driveways by not existing. A genius move!
The one thing we do have is junctions where the footpath continues across the junction and the give way line is pulled back from the main road. Unfortunately, the Council has chosen to exclusively install them in places where both sides of the junction have buildings or brick walls built right up to the foot path, and therefore drivers are forced to ignore the give way markings and stop on the footpath anyway if they want to be able to see anything. No traffic lights etc to enable them to actually work where they are installed, and more open junctions with better visibility where that sort of thing could work without lights left alone.ignore
Presumably they're intended for use by Superman and others with X-Ray vision.
New expensive cycling paths in Stretford/ Manchester off A 56 and not far from Man United, are dreadfully chaotic: few metres straight, then in front or back of a bus stop, round rhe bend, disappear onto the road ( UK is winner of most " end of cycle path/ join main carriageway "- signs😅) .
The sheer amount of pavement kerbs to separate cycle paths from pedestrian paths and main carriage way is staggering. Like little mouse paths, completely inconsistent, barely 25 metres straight and take motorist a huge amount of concentration to follow the areas of potential hazards.
I drive past there with my artic , know area well , but find it a hazard for anybody not familiar .
My point is : road layout should be consistent all over the country and not differ from region to region , city to city or financial budget to less budget or political backhanders .
Cycle paths should be straight, same size and markings and similat position in relation to main carriageway.
The fact that rhey are bordered off makes them difficult and expensive to clean ( if they clean them at all in Uk😅) . Much cheaper and easier would be simply paint on road.
Result is that the cyclists dony use them are back on main road and we motorist have wven less space. Same for blue lights.
Look also how much dead space is engineered into that : bends traffic island, space which has no function except maybe a lamp post . Cleaning walker crisp bags will be more difficult.
No brains jn planning. Profits and poor useabel space for public.
As for my own area, we have zero cycling infrastructure other than a shared path alongside the 60mph roads leading out of town. But it's actually preferable imo to having painted bicycle gutters, and being a small town everyone is patient and respectful so no issues with cycling. I don't think any of our roads are anywhere near wide enough to build this kind of dedicated bicycle paths anyway.
It is very busy in that there are lots of give way. Street furniture and obstructions, driveways. more an obstical corse with poor flow than a viable alternative to taking the car, you will struggle to do much more than walking pace. It is however a much safer place as great effort has been made to keep pedestrians and cyclists out the way of motorist thus as safe as possible at the expense of it being practical. Shame they don't build cycle infrastructure with consideration for cyclists rather than motorists. I enjoy your channel both as a motorist and cyclist. Keep up the good work , we all need to, and can do better on the roads.
Wow, a piece of the highway without any potholes!
Respect for saving the lovely tree ❤ 🌳
It’s great to see this sort of carriageway infrastructure for the different road users. Greater Manchester has invested heavily in more economical forms of transport but creating cycle lanes be it shared paths, segregated or sharing space with the cars. They’ve also invested in secure cycle hubs across the region at key transport hubs be it at a town centre interchange, popular tram stop (space permitting) and Media City.
Such infrastructure makes cycling much more attractive to the different abilities as they’ve got somewhere to feel safe to cycle and somewhere secure to lock their bike when it’s not in use.
More infrastructure is needed though to get people out of the car and on a bike or bus for the short journeys IMO. Not just infrastructure of 100 yards for the wealthy but across the disadvantaged communities and in between too.
I’d love something like this running through the centre of my suburb as that’s a single carriageway A road but sadly infrastructure is limited to parks, traffic lights, East Lancs road and a nearby canal.
Bridge Ln
Such a simple thing for the council to do with such an amazing impact.
Very nice! Plenty of space given and clear markings on the road for drivers. Looks like a fairly posh area 🙂
the sideways on exposure in the Netherlands is the singularly most deadly zone for cyclist deaths there. The Dutch gov reckon on 29% of all cyclist deaths occur at this juncture of cycle infra/motor road. That's because the side on interaction, you can do virtually nothing if the motorist doesnt stop to avoid a collision.
The whole poiint of the infra is to oput responsbility on to those posing the threat of harm, and reduce the inconvenience for people riding and increase the safety. Most often tha not, segregated/seperated cycling infra does none of this.
You actually stating dont assume a driver will stop just highlights this from the outset. Children the infirm or elderly and even others even just making a slight error in judgement are vastly more likely to get struck and harmed in these scenarios.
unless you seriously modify the behaviour of those behind the steering wheel, the overall effect is ALWAYS negative, having studied this over decades not a single country, including the Netherlands, has better outcomes regards safety as a % of total road user deaths and taking nto account modal share, travel miles and actual motor traffic numbers also.
Since the 1970s cyclists in ntherlands have become far ess safe with the building of segregated lanes, the numbers are indisputable, and this in a country with four times fewer driving miles than the UK and 2.5-3 times the cyclist death toll. This only got worse since the latter part of the 1970s when cycling deaths had already started to go down.
Additionally, at 2:47, there is too much road furniture, too many posts which hinder and are potential hazards, there are SEVEN posts of varying kinds in a very small area, this stunts flow and decreases safety significantly, say for instance you have increased numbers of children cycling to/from school, this is a problem. This is one thing the Dutch do get right with not so many hard furniture in the way. Note how easy it is for people to get about by motorvehicle. If you make t easy to drive to get places, people will rather drive than cycling and be faced with obstacles , meandering/circuitous lanes that take you further to get to the same end destination.
Whilst being off the actual road feels great, the chances of the paths not being gritted, maintained, and as mentioned tree roots and even increased chances of standing water all combine with the decrease in safety as mentioned earlier, makes this not something that attracts people to cycle more, rather the overall effect after initial increaes, see things go back to normal. Any increaesd are usually because of how counts are done, where one counts from a singular place that cyclists are led/diverted to beleiving it's safer. This means that those cycling on non count roads wouldnt be counted in the past but are more drawn to use the infra so are added aas an overall increase to cycling numbers, but isnt actually true.
This has been done in many countries Netherlands, Australia, France (Paris specifically), that was done to justify certain aspects that had a positive effect on cycling numbers/safety, but hid the true story when you looked at other data sets regards Killed/seriously injured, car buying/driven miles etc.
be careful what you wiah for, because until we get full autonomous motorvehicles, cyclists and pedestrians will always suffer when this stuff is put in place and nothing is done to moderate the actions of those in charge of the killing machine.