Have exeter city council got the right idea?

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Matthames

Über Member
Location
East Sussex
Yesterday while I was on my way to be grilled, I came across this cycle facility:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&l...oid=EZw1LuThu9pn8amp3zkxsQ&cbp=12,117.21,,0,9

The only remark I should make about it though is the council should send a sweeper down it.

The pavement is marked for shared use and there is a cycle lane that looks as if it is a decent width. So all those that plod along can use the shared use pavement whilst those that are quick can use the cycle lane.
 

Jezston

Über Member
Location
London
Looks good ... how long is it?

Can't help worrying it's one of those lanes that's well designed, you are tootling along it merrily ... and then suddenly it ends for no apparent reason and everyone starts trying to run you off the road.
 
OP
OP
Matthames

Matthames

Über Member
Location
East Sussex
Jezston said:
Looks good ... how long is it?

Can't help worrying it's one of those lanes that's well designed, you are tootling along it merrily ... and then suddenly it ends for no apparent reason and everyone starts trying to run you off the road.

It is at least a mile long. Beginning at Pinhoe and finishing up at the roundabout at the entrance of Exeter business park. It looks as if it has been engineered to carry a large volume of commuter traffic.
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
That almost looks reasonable. It's interesting to note that both cars on that side of the road are fairly close to the lane marker.
 

dondare

Über Member
Location
London
As long as cyclists are regarded as a minority special-needs group then the real issues of road safety will be ignored whilst expensive, futile facilities are provided leading to segregation and resentment.
 

WJHall

Über Member
There is a section of the Portway in Bristol where a cycle lane was added alongside part of the existing pavement cycle track some time ago. The pavement is wider than this one. At the time there was some concern that adding a lane on the road might lead to closure of the pavement track, but this has not happened. Like this lane in Exeter it is too narrow to cycle in and I have never seen anyone do so. The main benefit it provides is that it pushes traffic away from the pavement.

This may be the intention in Exeter, with the additional feature of tending to slow traffic by pushing it towards traffic coming the other way, which is recognised as a traffic slowing technique. Putting hatching markings down the middle to separate the opposing flows is now recognised to have the opposite effect.

WJH
 
Cycle lanes are the reason that on Saturday I had an idiot blasting a horn and gesticulating to the gutter (despite my keeping up with traffic) at me around a roundabout because the council had put a foot of red gravel on the left.

If that red gravel was not there, the horn-blowing and resulting altercation (which led to the brave driver beeping me again only when he was turning off a side street behind me) would not have occured
 

tod28

Über Member
Unfortunately the OP is a little mistaken. The cycle lane on the carraigeway is diverted onto the footway only in the vicinity of the pedestrian crossing. There is no shared footway where the cycle lane is on the carraige way. The obverse side of the sign in the streetview shows 'End of route'.
 
OP
OP
Matthames

Matthames

Über Member
Location
East Sussex
tod28 said:
Unfortunately the OP is a little mistaken. The cycle lane on the carraigeway is diverted onto the footway only in the vicinity of the pedestrian crossing. There is no shared footway where the cycle lane is on the carraige way. The obverse side of the sign in the streetview shows 'End of route'.

I am not mistaken, there are more markings now than what there is in google street view. I went past this yesterday, hence my comments about getting a sweeper down it. There are signs every few yards denoting that the footpath is shared use.
 
Matthames said:
....hence my comments about getting a sweeper down it...

Except they won't. Or rarely will.

Hence cyclists will be forced to ride further out to avoid the detritus, flotsam and jetsam that gathers in cycle nanes and, because of the presence of a white line, motorists will feel justified in passing close because the cyclist "should be in the cycle lane" and it's "their own stupid fault"

Whereas in the absence of the white segragation line, motorists may be inclined to give more room as there would be nothing to indicate, from their perspective, that cyclists "shouldn't be there"

GrasB said:
It's interesting to note that both cars on that side of the road are fairly close to the lane marker

Case in point. The car is not encroaching on the cycle lane so its fine to pass with anything over a 1mm gap between the tyre and the lane marking because the magic white line is there so no need for moving out to pass.
 

Ivan Ardon

Well-Known Member
I ride that route occasionally, overall they've got it right, and it's far better than the commuter rat run it replaced when they put the link road in.

However, Exeter City Council can get it very wrong as well. Follow this one westwards, it's a mile from the first one and starts on a path, swings onto a road, back onto a narrow path, disappears, reappears on the road (down to 15 inches wide) then takes you straight into the door zone (outside of a convenience stores' parking bays if you're going eastwards).

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50....=50.739639,-3.4942&spn=0.000408,0.000862&z=20

Two miles of terror!
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
There are complaints from Exeter cyclists about motorists expecting them to ride on the pavement. One person I know, now elderly and not that fast, was told by a policeman that he should be on the pavement (a 'shared facility' I think). The following week, riding on the pavement, he was told by a policeman that he should be on the road. Which shows that everyone is confused by the current mess of coloured road paint and random white lines.
 
Matthames said:
Yesterday while I was on my way to be grilled, I came across this cycle facility:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&l...oid=EZw1LuThu9pn8amp3zkxsQ&cbp=12,117.21,,0,9

The only remark I should make about it though is the council should send a sweeper down it.

The pavement is marked for shared use and there is a cycle lane that looks as if it is a decent width. So all those that plod along can use the shared use pavement whilst those that are quick can use the cycle lane.
Thats what the guidelines recommend, I've seen this parallel provision abroad but I don't think I've seen it here.
 

Molecule Man

Well-Known Member
Location
London
Ivan Ardon said:
I ride that route occasionally, overall they've got it right, and it's far better than the commuter rat run it replaced when they put the link road in.

However, Exeter City Council can get it very wrong as well. Follow this one westwards, it's a mile from the first one and starts on a path, swings onto a road, back onto a narrow path, disappears, reappears on the road (down to 15 inches wide) then takes you straight into the door zone (outside of a convenience stores' parking bays if you're going eastwards).

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50....=50.739639,-3.4942&spn=0.000408,0.000862&z=20

Two miles of terror!

Ah yes, that one almost had me off once. There are a couple of places where the bike lane suddenly ramps up onto the level of the pavement, but without changing direction. I was riding pretty much on the line between the cycle lane and the main carriageway, and so found myself suddenly balanced precariously on the edge of the kerb.
Shocking design.
I seem to remember a few other weird cycle lanes in Exeter that were like mini roller-coasters, taking you up and down kerbs for no good reason.

Here's one.
 
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