Cycle paths adjacent to main roads

[Dogtrousers]

I'll dispel the gloom to report that there is a superb cycle path on the Isle of Sheppey. The only problem with it is, even if you ride the full length of it, you're still on the Isle of Sheppey.

 

[cyberknight]

This footway (adjacent to the A3 between Guildford and the M25). is a narrow shared-use path, is unguarded from 3 lanes of adjacent motorway traffic, and has all manner of tree roots pushing up the surface. Noisy & fume-filled too, but it serves a purpose of getting out of the north east side of Guildford, and after a couple of miles it heads into a village where smaller quieter roads can be picked up.

On the A3 the other side of Guildford, a pollution threshold was exceeded. I've seen speed limits lowered in other countries to address that issue, here they decided on another option - close the path! So much for active travel.

View attachment 801096

similar to the path i use on the a38 , in fact i have just made a report about the condition as although they have finally cut back the vegetation the soil and mud has encroached across the path so badly it is down to less than a foot wide in places .

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Just seen this

WHo had right of way??

View attachment 801180

I have got a few laughing comments on this - thanks for that

but actually I was being serious
the dropped kerbs across the whole width imply that bikes can just keep going
and teh colour choices suggest the same thing

BUT the Give Way lines and their placement show that the old "cars are king" applies and bikes are supposed to stop and check

Which seems to me to be just asking for trouble

 

[Binky]

I use cyclepaths if they provide a safe and decent alternative to the road. So, there's a couple of longer routes I do in the warmer months where I end up or would end up on a very busy A road. Perfectly legal to cycle on but personally I wouldn't as too fast/busy and there is a good condition cycle path parallel to this section so ideal.
However, far too often cyclepaths are short, badly designed, covered in crap etc so it's more of a danger to use them than road.
There's also cases where the cycle paths are good but get a lot of pedestrian "traffic", wheelchair users, dog walkers etc so again more of a hazard to cycle on.

It's always a case by case basis for me. The comedy cycle paths you get in some busy cities are a joke but not in a funny way.
The impression I get is most cycle paths are designed to keep the general public safe which is absolutely fine. They rarely cater for a cyclist who is intent on a 50mile run.
If we could magically have safe cycle routes side by side with regular roads across the entire country that would be great and I'd definitely use them. Can't ever see it happening.

 

[steveindenmark]

In the UK that would entail filling in the ditch and digging up the remnants of a hedge and possibly felling a tree or two...........not practical.

They do it in a variety of ways. The ditch is often left and the path is built inside the field. I do not know the ins and out of cycle path building in Denmark. But the Danes do not have the "not practical" attitude in anything. They have the "We will sort it" attitude, in everything they do.

 

[Mike_P]

I remember speaking to one of our local council leads in the cycling infra department, who'd been sent on a fact finding mission to Holland to learn all about Dutch cycle lanes, and this was in the era when Active Travel England appeared to be doing things properly. The thing they learnt from this, so they told me, was you could construct piecemeal bursts of cycling infra, only where it fitted and didnt disturb motorists space on the road, and cyclists would just automatically link up a route with all the bits in between, so you didnt need to build a route or a transport network for cycling on, just had to concentrate on small bits, make them abit nicer, and people would work out the rest.
.

North Yorkshire cannot even manage to do that. With big hype they provided an awful in places cycle route along parts of the Otley Road on Harrogate (the initial upwards part of the 2019 UCI circuit) . The awful parts fipping from shared pavement to road and back thankfully are off any normal route of mine.
Further to the west at the same time they widened a road junction resulting in the loss of trees that got incorrectly blamed on the cycle route. West of there the cycle route is a reasonably wide shared pavement on the north side. A road from the south joins and forms one of those "work out the rest" routes from another cycle route. I often use that heading north and had expected access onto the new cycle route to have been provided but no.

 

[Alex321]

I have got a few laughing comments on this - thanks for that

but actually I was being serious
the dropped kerbs across the whole width imply that bikes can just keep going
and teh colour choices suggest the same thing

BUT the Give Way lines and their placement show that the old "cars are king" applies and bikes are supposed to stop and check

Which seems to me to be just asking for trouble

For the sake of self preservation, you should always stop & check, or at least slow down enough to be able to stop.

But cars *should* give way to bikes there, regardless of the position of the lines.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

For the sake of self preservation, you should always stop & check, or at least slow down enough to be able to stop.

But cars *should* give way to bikes there, regardless of the position of the lines.

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!!

 

[wiggydiggy]

There is a similar junction to that in Cardiff that I used to ride regularly before I changed the route I use, but at that one, there is a button to press a couple of yards before the lighhts, and if you do that, then the cycle lights turn green long enough before the main lights od that you have chance to turn right.
View attachment 801147

I wonder if there's a design standard for that sort of junction, they are very similar.

The button is a great idea, I was in a Leeds sustainable travel meeting not long ago, I see if I can forward the idea to them.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Just seen this

WHo had right of way??

View attachment 801180

You are joining a main road and you’d obey the give way markings?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

You are joining a main road and you’d obey the give way markings?

for the cars - yes

but the cyclists appear to be on a straight through road
except they are not and presumably have to stop and make way for everyone else

 

[Ming the Merciless]

for the cars - yes

but the cyclists appear to be on a straight through road
except they are not and presumably have to stop and make way for everyone else

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

 

[fossyant]

I use cyclepaths if they provide a safe and decent alternative to the road.

Same.

My commute 'in' is mostly shared paths or roads with decent cycle lanes. Coming home, I avoid the shared paths due to the 'little darlings' that like to rob people, but my route is mainly main roads, many of which have a decent bit of paint for bikes (other than the bus drivers using it to undertake traffic).

 

[lazybloke]

the vegetation the soil and mud has encroached across the path so badly it is down to less than a foot wide in places

Like this? Hopeless!

 

[cyberknight]

Like this? Hopeless!
View attachment 801248

yup