New lane arrangement on Broad Street, Salford

[MrHappyCyclist]

I've been looking forward to the new bus lane being finished in the changes to Broad Street and Chapel Street. Now they've done the lane markings on the approach, I can hardly believe how crap it is for cyclists:

[media]

]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50kfyDw4Ik[/media]


The next thing to try is taking primary position in the outside lane from the first set of lights there, but I'm sure we can expect some road rage from the motons.

The reason for this awful arrangement is that the highest priority is to get motor vehicles down the the road to the left as fast as possible. Another triumph for urban planning in the stupid car-centric country we call home.

 

[Jezston]

Got a streetview link to what it was like before?

I certainly wouldn't want to cross two lanes of traffic moving at those speeds every day.

Be interesting to see what happens when a bus ploughs across.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i know that road well, and it's a horrible place to be on a bike, the motons feast on other motons. i agree the new layout is scary and i think it's only time before, either someone pulls out from the uni and forces a cyclist into the fast moving lane of motons, or a moton left hooks a cyclist trying to get down the exit lane at full speed.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

Got a streetview link to what it was like before?

I certainly wouldn't want to cross two lanes of traffic moving at those speeds every day.

Be interesting to see what happens when a bus ploughs across.

As soon as I get time, I'll post a video of how it was before.

(Using my phone to post at the moment.)

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

Got a streetview link to what it was like before?

I had a look back at my videos and they started the roadworks here before I got my camera, so here is a Google Streetview link as you requested. It wasn't perfect, but was a lot better than now.

The main reason for the difference, though, is that the main traffic flow was previously straight-ahead, but has now been diverted to the route that goes to the left.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to include the link to Streetview. It's in the now.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

i know that road well, and it's a horrible place to be on a bike, the motons feast on other motons. i agree the new layout is scary and i think it's only time before, either someone pulls out from the uni and forces a cyclist into the fast moving lane of motons, or a moton left hooks a cyclist trying to get down the exit lane at full speed.

I'm intending to post a video once they've finished it all. There was a real opportunity here to do something that would be good for cyclists as well as all others, but the way it is shaping up I think they have made a lot of mistakes. Coming in the opposite direction, they have put a narrow cycle lane on the inside of a bus lane, so the buses all pass far too close. It's just so frustrating considering how much of our money must have been spent on this.

 

[Richard Mann]

The location is by Salford Crescent Station:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=53.486121,-2.277029&spn=0.001864,0.004678&t=h&z=18

There's a bit more wrong with that road than could be put right with lane-markings, methinks.

(An engineering solution would be a track off the underpass road back up to the A6, preferably not dipping down too much, etc)

 

[davefb]

its been moronic ...

its the end of a very major route , the a580 which did go into that part of salford and tail off by splitting across a few major roads.

but they decided to kill it and direct traffic away earlier onto the already busy regent road , which assumes you want to be that side of town instead of the salford end..

so , instead of 2 lanes + bus lane, its now 1 lane + bus lane ( well that was my understanding).... so that businesses will come back apparently..

its also cycling home that way that forced me back into the car last year , when they were doing the road works, they removed the bus/cycle lane, so you were merged into a lot of unhappy motons.. ( unhappy due to stupid delays)...

its moronic, because they should have upgraded the alternate routes first, but they didnt' , they choked the only two lane entry to the whole of manchester from the north first..... the rest are one lane + bus lane.. (and regent road is the end of a motorway, so is hardly quiet itself AND its from the west, not the north!)

all that money, and its crap for the buses, crap for the motons and crap for the cyclists....


suppose i'm glad i dont commute into manchester any more!

 

[davefb]

hehe, and they removed that pedestrian bridge from your video mrhappycyclist!!!

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

hehe, and they removed that pedestrian bridge from your video mrhappycyclist!!!

Blimey, when did that disappear? I never noticed it was gone!

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

its been moronic ...
its the end of a very major route , the a580 which did go into that part of salford and tail off by splitting across a few major roads.

I do think that is a slight misrepresentation. The route as it stood before actually brought traffic together from the A580 (dual carriageway), the M61 (motorway), the A666 (trunk road), the A6 (trunk road), and various other smaller roads and channelled them into two lanes into Manchester. It was an awful place to be for pedestrians and cyclists alike, with concrete barriers and galvanized steel fences to prevent pedestrians crossing the road, and its only purpose was to get traffic into a city that was already far too crowded with cars.

The changes overall promise to make it into a place where human beings can actually life and breathe rather just than a river of steel. I think the objective here is not to divert people in cars onto another busy route, but rather to encourage people not to bring their cars in the first place. The congestion charge was rejected in a badly organized referendum, so this appears to be the only option following that. I, for one, am very much in favour of the changes in principle.

The problem is that the designers appear to have made a complete hash of it as far as cyclists are concerned, and lost a good opportunity to show how well it could be done.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

the bridge went about 3 months ago, iirc, they haven't done a very good job making good the pavements either. i'm glad my commute stops at the frederick rd junction.

 

[davefb]

I do think that is a slight misrepresentation. The route as it stood before actually brought traffic together from the A580 (dual carriageway), the M61 (motorway), the A666 (trunk road), the A6 (trunk road), and various other smaller roads and channelled them into two lanes into Manchester. It was an awful place to be for pedestrians and cyclists alike, with concrete barriers and galvanized steel fences to prevent pedestrians crossing the road, and its only purpose was to get traffic into a city that was already far too crowded with cars.

The changes overall promise to make it into a place where human beings can actually life and breathe rather just than a river of steel. I think the objective here is not to divert people in cars onto another busy route, but rather to encourage people not to bring their cars in the first place. The congestion charge was rejected in a badly organized referendum, so this appears to be the only option following that. I, for one, am very much in favour of the changes in principle.

The problem is that the designers appear to have made a complete hash of it as far as cyclists are concerned, and lost a good opportunity to show how well it could be done.

they should have either moved the road over behind the broadway bit, or moved the 'pedestrian area to behind' akin to pendlebury and like the wider bit where that horrid cross over you've got to do now... the 580 should be dual carraigeway to the ring road at least (or prioritise another of the roads in).. making the priority to move cars to regent road just makes the assumption thats where people want to be .. its a really short sighted decision .. even with the laudable idea of making the a6 nice again (its been getting worse and worse over the last 20years but so have all similar areas, along with the running down of industry which used to be behind these roads)...
i also dont understand in any way how this would encourage commuters to manchester to somehow stop in salford anyway. it certainly doesnt help get you onto the insanely overcrowded railways and as you point out, it makes a poor cycling area far far worse.
it just seems akin to if birmingham decided that to get themselves going again, the best way would be to make the m6 into 1 lane..

mind you for cycles, once you leave pendlebury, it should be a doddle for them to setup a decent straight lane to get into manchester, but instead they have a lot of little bits of path which help nobody....

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

they should have either moved the road over behind the broadway bit ... etc.

I think we are in agreement: a good idea badly executed.

 

[Tubbs]

Hehe - that was me talking to you at the lights!

It's a nightmare at the moment isn't it? It's not too bad for me most days because there's more traffic and it's going at a much slower pace. Have you noticed the set of traffic lights that are not being used yet, just where we need to change lanes? With the position of the give way markings on the road, I wonder whether this will be some kind of filter for buses and cyclists crossing the two lanes to go straight on? I hope so!