Cycle lanes around parking bays!

[Kiwiavenger]

For the last couple of trips out ive not been sticking to my normal commute route and have noticed a few odd things. the most worrying and i feel dangerous is bristol city councils insitance on cycle lanes around parking spaces!

ive tried to find an example on google maps of the bath road in bristol (heading from paintworks to the three lamps junction) but alas it is out of date! road in question basically they have put a nice red lane going around the outside of the parked cars and made it a dedicated cycle lane. now im quite happy to sit in primary down this bit as its nice and flat and has relatively good visibility so i can get up to and maintain a decent speed however anyone with less confidence or slightly slower than me would think " hang on, this cycles lane looks good" only to potentially be doored by a motorist.

has traffic planning and management gone to pot? these seem to be springing up more and more around bristol and i think it wont be long until someone is seriously injured as a result of it. I also saw a lot of oil and debris around it in the wet along with how busy i know this road gets it could lead to something very serious!

what are your opinions on them? would any of you use them?

 

[gaz]

Hate them. Never use them

 

[Piemaster]

My local council seem to think its a good idea to paint a cycle lane around the edge of roundabouts .

Not shown on google but this is one where they have done it. Cycle from NW to SW past 6 exits/entrances on the periphery? No thanks.

 

[MossCommuter]

Like this

and this in Daveyhulme

Bonkers

I choose to ignore both "facilities"

 

[the snail]

what are your opinions on them? would any of you use them?

No I wouldn't. Trouble is cyclists will likely feel pressured to use them, or get abuse from motorists if they don't. It seems that the people who design these things don't have any understanding of cycling, or take the time to ask someone who does.

 

[HLaB]

what are your opinions on them? would any of you use them?

They are utter cr@p (to put it mildly) they guide the cyclist to the point that a collision is likely to occur and drivers wrongly get frustrated that a cyclist isn't using the nicely provided lane keeping out of their way. Numbskulls don't consider that it is more inconvenient if a cyclist is knocked off in front of them by an opening door or something rushing out between parked cars As is pretty obvious from that, I wouldn't use them.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

Im going to write to the council for an explanation to why they have implemented them. I have seen them before but they where on minor roads, this one is a major route into town so potentially very dangerous

 

[HLaB]

Im going to write to the council for an explanation to why they have implemented them. I have seen them before but they where on minor roads, this one is a major route into town so potentially very dangerous

By no means a solution, but does it have any buffer zone?

 

[cycleruk]

By no means a solution, but does it have any buffer zone?

yes, a little white line on the ground ,cycle lane designs are really bad in this country, this is oundle road in peterborough
http://g.co/maps/yn3wf
cycle lands on both sides are in the dooring zone, what plonker rodney come up with that idea and people wonder why we dont always use cycle lanes.

 

[HLaB]

yes, a little white line on the ground ,cycle lane designs are really bad in this country, this is oundle road in peterborough
http://g.co/maps/yn3wf
cycle lands on both sides are in the dooring zone, what plonker rodney come up with that idea and people wonder why we dont always use cycle lanes.

I can only guess they were trying to reduce the apparent width of the road which may reduce speeds but to do so with cycle lanes alone is idiocracy.

 

[Black Sheep]

By no means a solution, but does it have any buffer zone?

I used to use one in coventry as a buffer zone itself

got told off by a police officer for not using the cycle lane and obstructing traffic, we were stood in the cycle lane (he was asking me not to keep calling it a suicide lane when asking if we could continue the discussion on safety of the pavement), I started explaining I was using it as a safety device when a lovely old dear opened her door into him proving my point.

I was told to go on my way.

 

[HLaB]

I used to use one in coventry as a buffer zone itself

got told off by a police officer for not using the cycle lane and obstructing traffic, we were stood in the cycle lane (he was asking me not to keep calling it a suicide lane when asking if we could continue the discussion on safety of the pavement), I started explaining I was using it as a safety device when a lovely old dear opened her door into him proving my point.

I was told to go on my way.

LOL, how true

 

[gbb]

yes, a little white line on the ground ,cycle lane designs are really bad in this country, this is oundle road in peterborough
http://g.co/maps/yn3wf
cycle lands on both sides are in the dooring zone, what plonker rodney come up with that idea and people wonder why we dont always use cycle lanes.

I've ridden that road for years (actually did three laps of town tonight using that very stretch three times), and while its not perfect by a long way, you have to be hyper aware...but shouldn't we all be anyway ?. (Concentration concentration concentration, thats my motto)
While i appear to go against the grain in this topic, the authorities everywhere face an impossible task...to create safe cycle lanes where there just isnt enough room for everyone to travel 100% safely.

In simple terms, the roads are only so wide, you can't pull miracles out of a hat.

You also have to consider (in this particular case, as in many others i'm sure) there are safer alternatives, albeit longer ones. Ride parallel to Oundle Road alongside the river from Rivergate to the Orton Staunch which brings you back onto Oundle Road cutting out all of that dodgy section. Quiet cyclepath, off the roads.

I'm a realist..is it perfect, no, not by a long chalk...but where else is there to put a cycle lane ? I can't think of one and i've got intimate knowledge of that area.

 

[HLaB]

If there's no space for a farcility dont build one, thats the governments own line.

 

[gbb]

If there's no space for a farcility dont build one, thats the governments own line.

But apparently there is space, just not enough for everyone to be 100% safe.
They're between a rock and a hard place (the local authorities). People always cycled in the road, at least they've some sort of seperation now.
Perfect ?, no..it does create another problem we're all very aware of, the close pass, the cars in his lane, the bikes in his, there's only a white line between them, but its a white line cars dont generally cross if youre next to them...at least you gain that much.
I say this only with local experience...ive cycled that section of Oundle Road thousands of times, before and after the introduction of the cyclelanes...cars do not generally cross that line if your'e beside them, they come close, but you've got roughly a metre to play with to the kerb. Things are certainly not worse since they introduced the lanes. I believe they are better. I'm not aware of a single cyclist being knocked off while in those lanes in my 10 years of cycling in that particular area. The parking bays on the nearside...ive had one driver open his door in those 10 years, close but because i was concentrating, it was dealt with instantly.

Don't get me wrong, i'd like a safer option, but if i can't think of one and the local authorites can't find one...i'll take the one they've given me with some sort of thanks.

As said, i'm a realist. If there was a better option, i'd be shouting for it...but there isnt, so a romantic idea of cycling utopia is futile and a waste of energy.