Interesting cycle lane use

[Arch]

Walking back from the station last night I witnessed an interesting piece of cycle lane use. A little background: the road outside the station is one lane, but widens to 2 at Leeman Road, off to the left, when a left turn filter lane branches off. The cycle lane, which is, as usual, painted in the gutter and not very wide, doesn't follow the kerb at the point where the road widens, it follows the left edge of the ahead only lane, and feeds into an ASL. There's no lane painted on the left turn lane. So basically, if you want to go ahead, the cycle lane takes you between the ahead and left lanes and it you want to go left, you just drift into the left lane anyway. It's a prime spot for potential left hooking, and I'm always tip top wary of it, and any of us would probably take primary instead and ignore the green painted bit.

Anyway, last night, not much traffic about, and I notice (ironically mainly because he has no lights on and black clothes) a chap on a bike come past me, just about where the road widens, and follow the cycle lane into the ahead only lane. As he reaches the ASL, he looks over his shoulder, and indicates and turns left! It didn't look like it was a last minute "oh, shoot, I wanted to go that way" decision, it looked like he really thought he had to follow the cycle lane, even if he wanted to go left! And he didn't look like a devil-may-care yoof on a bike, but someone who cycled to get about.

Makes me wonder just how little some people on bikes actually know about roadcraft, HC etc....

 

[Arch]

Not THAT interesting, obviously...

 

[wafflycat]

Whaaa? Did someone post something?

 

[magnatom]

We are all just too busy doing work!!!

It just shows you the mindset of some road users. I say 'road users' because I've seen this sort of behaviour in car drivers as well, blindly following road markings.

I am beginning to understand the point of view that all road markings etc should be removed. Road users would have to think for themselves. That has to be a good thing.


P.S. What is this I hear about there been romance in the air. I expect to be invited to the wedding. I'll film it if you like!

 

[Maz]

Is it this bit of road? It seems to fit your description, anyway.

Sounds a bit scary if that's how he normally rides. How fast do cars go on that road?

 

[Arch]

Is it this bit of road? It seems to fit your description, anyway.

Sounds a bit scary if that's how he normally rides. How fast do cars go on that road?

yeah-ish, I had to pan left to find it. The cross roads, with yellow hatching, just at the apex of the triangular park bit, near the circular park feature... There are two red triangular bits of flowerbed on one corner. If you zoom right in, you can see the cycle lane and the lane arrows.

Traffic speed is variable - a lot of the time its fairly busy and jammed up and therefore not so fast. But if you're going straight on, you do have to, in effect, move out a lane, and it needs a bit of care (although, last night, at 9.45, it was pretty quiet). Generally it's a place where stoking the pace a bit is worth doing, as there's some one way stuff going on and a bit of a gyratory system, so people are generally in the wrong lane/lost/trying to get across. Add in the fact that there's a coach pick up point and lots of bus routes, it's not the most restful part of York!

Mind you, more impressively, not so long ago I saw a lorry turn right at that point, up the bit of road where you can see a white car, just under a tree. Impressive because that's on the wrong side of the road, and he was going against the little one way system in place at that point!

Magnatom, as I said to Waffles when she wanted to know if she needed to buy a hat, we don't envisage that sort of thing, but at some point we may well have a large celebratory tea party, so you can come and video that...

 

[marinyork]

The biggest problem with the area for cyclists is predatory buses like the FTR .

 

[Arch]

The biggest problem with the area for cyclists is predatory buses like the FTR .

Partly, although at that particular spot they've generally only just stopped outside the station, so are going rather slowly. But yes, once they get over Leeman Road, and need to get over to the left and over Lendal Bridge, they are a bit of a menace. To be fair to the drivers, it's a pretty congested and confusing (in terms of lots of stuff going on around you, no matter how well you know the road) area, and I wouldn't fancy having to drive an FTR round there.

 

[magnatom]

Magnatom, as I said to Waffles when she wanted to know if she needed to buy a hat, we don't envisage that sort of thing, but at some point we may well have a large celebratory tea party, so you can come and video that...

Only if you promise that there will be lots of incidents, i.e. close passes

 

[GrahamG]

I know where you mean, I can understand the confusion as so many people think that you simply must use the cycle lane. I used to hate going over Lendal Bridge, no space to overtake, constantly congested. My favourite crazy York cycle lane was one that appeared just before I moved back to Brum - some mini-roundabout up past Rowntree's out towards that huge shopping park on the Northern bit of the ring road with a cycle lane all the way around the circulatory carriageway.

 

[marinyork]

Well people can disagree with my opinions but a senior councillor had concerns about the tinkering with the road layouts in that area and the FTR going through there. The wall and road were there long before some numpty decided to design a stupidly inefficient and inappropriate bus to go through it.

I rarely cycled through York city centre prefering to bypass it. It was too crowded with vehicles and peds and too many Mike Usherwood types. The one thing I did like about York's cycle network was they weren't afraid to have cycle lanes in different lanes and not just on the left.

 

[Arch]

Oh, I don't disagree that the FTRs are utterly stupid for most parts of York - especially anywhere in the centre! Even a normal bus can struggle to get round, once you add in other traffic (dippy drivers not leaving room for turning vehicles, peds wandering out in the road, yes, even daft cyclists...)

I don't mind cycling in the cente - well, it's a good thing, since I live in it, I'd never get out! I'd never expect to be able to go fast, and I choose my route to avoid one or two nastier bits.

Graham, I find with Lendal Bridge, the congestion helps - most drivers can see that even if they could get past, they'd be stuck behind the car in front. I know the roundabout you mean, I think. I gather it was designed by a non-cyclist...

 

[hackbike 6]

Cyclecraft is a book right?

 

[marinyork]

York and it's mini roundabouts. There were some fantastically dangerous ones. I saw some people going up fossgate once, wanting to cycle the wrong way up a heavily cobbled narrow street seemed a strange short cut.

 

[Arch]

Cyclecraft is a book right?

Yes. But when I refered to roadcraft, I meant in the more general terms of understanding how to use the road...

Yes, I think riding up Fossgate would be a bit rattley... And a rather inexplicable thing to be doing, since Walmgate at that end is also one way, the other way, so how they got there...