Cycle paths adjacent to main roads

[ebikeerwidnes]

This must be UK stats as in 23 years of riding in Denmark, I have only seen 2 accidents on a shared cycle path. One where a drunk moped rider hit me and a woman hit by a car at a junction.

I think this is because in Denmark they know how to design them. But more importantly the population realises and accepts that they are shared and know how to behave on them.

That would make a huge difference

Too many people here act wrongly simply because they do not expect to find a bike on them
and the design being right would encourage a lot of people to use them
in some cases just knowing there was a 2 way cycle path on the other side of the dual carriageway would be nice!!

 

[mjr]

The cycling per-mile casualty rate for dedicated infrastructure is higher than for riding on the road for good reason.

That's not true, is it? It's usually suggested by dodgy tricks like ignoring user numbers ( so the rate is by mile of route intead of mile of use) or comparing very different route types, such as comparing quiet country roads with twisty urban shared paths.

Active Travel England claim to have recent research on this, but I've not seen the full published version yet.

 

[mjr]

Because they are not aware of the "recommendation" that cyclists doing over a certain speed should not be using them

There is no such recommendation - only an urban myth based on a stupid consultation that was shot down in flames. Since at least 2008, cycleways should have been designed to be safe at 20mph (basically an e-bike which has exceeded the legal power cutoff and is rolling downhill slightly). Of course, loads of council highways departments have been failures.

The highway code rules on distances and speeds when passing walkers still apply, though.

 

[mjr]

Yes - that is always the way

but if there was an incident
I can see a driver coming from the left pointing at teh Give Way line and claiming that he had a RIGHT to go to it and a cyclist riding out was at fault as they NEEDED to stop for the car

the signals the road design is giving are all wrong

personally I like the ones abroad where there would be separate Give Way marking before the cycle path showing that bikes can just keep going

If they propose that here I can see certain politicians and "media outlets" going totally berserk!!

You may find it interesting to make a freedom of information request to the county/unitary council for the most recent road safety audit covering that junction. Sometimes that is sufficient to make the council realise someone has modified the junction without checking its safety, leaving the council open to being sued, so they then reassess it and fix the problem.

Other times, it reveals that there's an incompetent auditor who misunderstood bikes, which is more difficult to deal with.

 

[mjr]

Well looks like a cycleway to me, not a road. The road is to the right. Use your eyes and ears and anticipate.

The cycleway is part of the road. The give way markings are in a wrong place, but also aren't sufficient to change the priority, which is that cycle traffic continuing forwards has priority over turning traffic. It's a mess.

 

[Mike_P]

The cycleway is part of the road. The give way markings are in a wrong place, but also aren't sufficient to change the priority, which is that cycle traffic continuing forwards has priority over turning traffic. It's a mess.

Give it a while and they will have faded to invisibility given the lack of on going maintenance.

 

[NorthernSky]

there is a multiuse cycle/footpath i use sometimes . it's not perfect and you need to keep your wits about you (a bell helps) but i'd take it any day over the alternative i.e. being on the road

 

[mjr]

Glasgow has a massive programme going on just now . The Avenues project.
Will it be any good ?
Need to wait and see .

If you can show us the plans, then we may be able to make a guess now.

If nobody can show us the plans, then it'll be even easier to guess!

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I use the multi use cycle path getting out of my estate but use the road coming back as it is slightly down hill. Riding the shared use, although it is marked cycle and pedestrian often people are walking anywhere and so you have to be alert. There are also quite a few side roads that cross the cycle path so there again you need to slow and make sure that nobody is coming out. Personally I feel safer riding on the road except for the pinch points of pedestrian refuges. I have seen some motorists drive on the other side of these so that they do not have to slow down. There is no easy solution and one size does not fit all.

 

[Mike_P]

I usually do the opposite, shared path into the estate as it uses a pedestrian crossing over an A road which otherwise needs a left turn onto the outside lane to do a right turn at a busy set of lights.
Conversely outbound unless its busy the opposing left turn right turn is reasonable, and due to the incompetence of whoever put up the cycle route signs is the directed routing

 

[blackrat]

I use the multi use cycle path getting out of my estate but use the road coming back as it is slightly down hill. Riding the shared use, although it is marked cycle and pedestrian often people are walking anywhere and so you have to be alert. There are also quite a few side roads that cross the cycle path so there again you need to slow and make sure that nobody is coming out. Personally I feel safer riding on the road except for the pinch points of pedestrian refuges. I have seen some motorists drive on the other side of these so that they do not have to slow down. There is no easy solution and one size does not fit all.

"..getting out of my estate"
Just a point of clarification; growing up in Norwich, the use of the term 'estates' was always for council estates where the great unwashed were kept away from the better educated and those of us who washed at least once a week, so is the current use of the term 'estate' now used for any housing development?

 

[pjd57]

If you can show us the plans, then we may be able to make a guess now.

If nobody can show us the plans, then it'll be even easier to guess!

Avenues - Glasgow City Council https://share.google/bsK6pi4bwNEyn7ayu

 

[Shearwater Missile]

"..getting out of my estate"
Just a point of clarification; growing up in Norwich, the use of the term 'estates' was always for council estates where the great unwashed were kept away from the better educated and those of us who washed at least once a week, so is the current use of the term 'estate' now used for any housing development?

It is a housing estate, not the open countryside. I wish I was on a rural lane but sadly not. Estate is either council or private and that goes back to when I was growing up in the 1960s. It matters not.

 

[Mike_P]

"..getting out of my estate"
Just a point of clarification; growing up in Norwich, the use of the term 'estates' was always for council estates where the great unwashed were kept away from the better educated and those of us who washed at least once a week, so is the current use of the term 'estate' now used for any housing development?

Yes - new build developments are often referred to as estates.

 

[blackrat]

Yes - new build developments are often referred to as estates.

Got it. They are platted as sub-divisions here and called neighbourhoods. Each has a name, often taken from a main road running through or adjacent or the historic district.
If the road, for example, is called: Victoria Street (where I grew up), the sub-division would be platted as Victoria Sub-division and people living in that sub-division would say they live in Victoria. I live in Tanglewilde sub-division, the primary street through the neighbourhood, so I live in Tanglewilde.
Which all in all, is undoubtedly far more information in which anyone here is interested.