Coned off lanes

[mr_cellophane]

Question for all you armchair lawyers.

If I come to a lane that is coned off for road works, am I as a cyclst breaking the law if I use it up as far as I can ?
I am sure most of us do this, I just wondered if it is likely to cost me £30.

 

[JamesAC]

I just think it's stupid. The lane is coned off for a reason: there are contractors working on the road. They expect to have absolute rights over the coned off bit, on which to tip tarmac, reverse large excavators or whatever. They do not expect to find an errant cyclist. That's why there are warning notices in place.

People used to stick their haeds out of train windows, just to see why the warning notice said they shouldn't. Several discovered the hard way, and got their heads ripped off by a train going in the opposite direction.

The signs are in place for a reason: you ignore them at your peril.

You might also have regard for Rule 262 of the Highway Code.

Cheers

James

 

[Plax]

I would never cycle down a coned off area. Not unless I was absolutely certain there was no work going on, for example they have coned off x miles before the work begins in an attempt to slow down/control the traffic. Then I might consider it. Otherwise no way, especially in the dark. I'd have thought it would probably be "illegal" or contravening some Highway Code.

 

[byegad]

Where I can see it's clear I tend to use the coned off area in order to avoid holding up traffic. If it's not clear, or I can't be sure it IS clear, I stay on the open lane.

 

[jimboalee]

Keep out of coned off lanes. They tend to be strewn with all sorts of rubbish. Broken glass, shattered coffee mugs, screws, nails, metal swarf, short lengths of wire, big splinters of a clipped hedge, portable toilets, etc etc.

 

[Plax]

Keep out of coned off lanes. They tend to be strewn with all sorts of rubbish. Broken glass, shattered coffee mugs, screws, nails, metal swarf, short lengths of wire, big splinters of a clipped hedge, portable toilets, etc etc.

I take it the highways department are on strike where you live then?

 

[jimboalee]

The highways dept are like blisters, they appear when the work's finished. The contractors sweep the open carriageway, but JCB tyres don't suffer from small bits of broken crockery like bike tyres, so they don't sweep the coned off lane. They would have to pay someone to do it.

Please take my advise, because riding straight into a portaloo when its door is open is not what you should be doing.

 

[John the Monkey]

I am sure most of us do this...

Not me - I expect to be treated like a part of the traffic, so I act like I am part of it, obeying the restrictions unless there's an explicit exemption for bikes.

FWIW, Highway Code rule 288 seems to apply (although it says "do not drive through an area marked off by traffic cones"). If anyone wants to delve further, the relevant legislation seems to be the Road Traffic Regulation Act.

 

[BentMikey]

Please take my advise, because riding straight into a portaloo when its door is open is not what you should be doing.

LOL, like that German driver blindly following his satnav instructions?

 

[mr_cellophane]

The case I was thinking about was where works start after a set of permanent traffic lights and the road is coned off upto the lights to prevent cars blocking the junction.
There is an example in Bishopsgate at present and there has been at Stratford in the last two weeks.

 

[CotterPin]

I have to hold my hands and say I will go through a coned-off road on occasions but I tend to cycle slowly watching out for workers and their vehicles, and with the expectation that I might have to get off and walk at some point.

Often it is 'coz I am the bolshie/lazy type and either (a) don't see why I should have to go round the houses with all the cars or (B) can't be bothered to go round... etc.

Having said that I did come a cropper once in the French countryside. I cycled past a "road closed" sign and around the corner, past a few road digging machines, only to discover there was no road left at all. It was not a hole in the road or the surface gone. The whole road was missing - just a pile of earth to show where it used to be. Turning back was not an option as it would have put miles on my ride. My only choice was to scramble over the pile of earth and across a field until I could rejoin the other side of the road. And all this in full lycra and in view of the workmen.

 

[byegad]

Cotter Pin you are lucky!! You see people working in the coned off lanes!!!

Round here you're lucky if you see anyone in the coned off area in the space of a week! They cone off vast sections of the A689 between Sedgefield and Billingham for weeks at a time and people stop, point and stare if they see a himan being in the lane!

Seriously it has become a H&S nightmare in County Durham they seem to cone off miles of lanes in order to do the smallest thing.