Not sure about this cycle lane ?

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mustang1

Legendary Member
Location
London, UK
Forget cycle lanes! Try a SHARED lane where cars and trucks travel in opposite direction at 40mph!

There was a part of the North Circular Road near New Southgate. There were a total of the lanes for both directions. One lane to go eat bound, one for West bound, and the lane in the middle was a free-for-all and you had to have your wits about you if playing chicken. Ps: I'm not talking about a lane that isn't used much, I'm talking about a full-fledged 40mph chicken lane. A really mad design. Well, actually come to think of it, I'm not sure it was "designed."
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
Forget cycle lanes! Try a SHARED lane where cars and trucks travel in opposite direction at 40mph!

There was a part of the North Circular Road near New Southgate. There were a total of the lanes for both directions. One lane to go eat bound, one for West bound, and the lane in the middle was a free-for-all and you had to have your wits about you if playing chicken. Ps: I'm not talking about a lane that isn't used much, I'm talking about a full-fledged 40mph chicken lane. A really mad design. Well, actually come to think of it, I'm not sure it was "designed."

The Heads of the Valleys road in S Wales used to be like that. And I don't think it was a 40 limit either. Three lanes, one each way and one in the middle. Left side, right side and suicide.
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
The A61 berween Harrogate and Ripon had 60 mph suicide lanes which thankfully disappeared years ago. The road is now a maximum of 50mph.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Widespread in Norfolk, Cambridge, France, Benelux and all civilised places. If any driver gives you grief, send video to the police and help get the nobber off the road before they do harm. Ta.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
Forget cycle lanes! Try a SHARED lane where cars and trucks travel in opposite direction at 40mph!

There was a part of the North Circular Road near New Southgate. There were a total of the lanes for both directions. One lane to go eat bound, one for West bound, and the lane in the middle was a free-for-all and you had to have your wits about you if playing chicken. Ps: I'm not talking about a lane that isn't used much, I'm talking about a full-fledged 40mph chicken lane. A really mad design. Well, actually come to think of it, I'm not sure it was "designed."

Used to be very common in the UK. Thankfully most (almost all?) have now been removed.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
I ride a road like that most days. Hurst Street, Birmingham, in particular the bit between Bromsgrove Street and Inge Street, although the local Deliveroo riders like to use the contraflow cycle lane from Bromsgrove Street down to Sherlock Street to travel in either direction, making that bit more hazardous.
Entry point here - only contraflow as far as the parked-up white car on the left.

It it's defence, this road is very lightly used, and generally by taxis and other vehicles going very slowly, either delivering, dropping off or picking up, or trying to work out where they are, where they are trying to get to, and how on earth they ended up on that road.
 
There is a road in Widnes that has a "going the other way" cycle lane

seems to work OK

problem is normally the same as normal cycle lanes - just how do you get on and off the thing

There is also a 2 way separate cycle lane on the main dual carriageway between Widnes and Warrington
but to get onto it you coming from Warrington you need to
a) know it is there - there are no indications on the south side
b) cross the main road - and there are no cycle type crossing so - technically - you would have to get off and walk across using the crossing at the traffic lights
c) use the same concept to cross back over at the end

AND
d) when it ends there are fences stopping a bike getting onto the road (for good reasons)
but the walkway goes over a bridge across the road - no idea how a bike ( or mobility scooter) is supposed to get over that!


very good path - and works well in one direction



but "they" have not thought about the details at the 2 ends and how it is supposed to work
 

Solocle

Veteran
Location
Poole
Used to be very common in the UK. Thankfully most (almost all?) have now been removed.

I've used one on the A39 under NSL (I took the wheel on the way home). Not exactly busy, though.
IMG_8054.JPEG
 

Supersuperleeds

Legendary Member
Location
Leicester
A few of them in Leicester, one I use quite regularly and never have felt in danger on it.

This time of year the lane is clogged with leaves, so you have to go through the no entry signs


1756396511986.png
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
A few of them in Leicester, one I use quite regularly and never have felt in danger on it.

This time of year the lane is clogged with leaves, so you have to go through the no entry signs


View attachment 785187
That's a so-called "false one-way" where the no-entry only applies to the carriageway and not the short cycleway, which is what councils used to have to do before "Except Cycles" plates could be added to no-entry signs legally. They're much more expensive to build, having more road markings, a couple of bollards, a little traffic island, the signpost moving and electric supply rerouted to the traffic island. The legal paperwork probably costs about the same.

The one in the opening post is probably the cheaper "Except Cycles" type. We've both sorts in King's Lynn and I've had more hostile comments from drivers in the newer type, but faced more oncoming cyclists in the older type with a contraflow cycle lane marked. I think I prefer rude words to head-on crash attempts, so let's have more of the new!
 

Solocle

Veteran
Location
Poole
That's a classic example of the highway authority preferring to encourage motorists into head-on collisions than redistribute the space for bus lanes or bike lanes that emergency vehicles could also use to avoid queues.

While I get the point, it's just an old alignment of road that's never raised cause to be revisited. It's hard to imagine a queue forming there. The nearest traffic count point (the other side of Porlock, but still west of Minehead):
1756407080054.png

Frankly, I'd actually prefer the current layout as a cyclist. Take primary, anyone overtaking should have absolutely no problem finding opportunity to fully move into the central overtaking lane to overtake. Rather than have two half-width cycle lanes on a rural A road.

To put its quietness into context, the A855 on Skye, which is regularly singletrack, is nearly 50% busier.
1756407375724.png


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Finally, if you look at crash statistics, it does have a couple of serious collisions in the last 25 years, but fatal collisions have occured on different stretches.

1756407863322.png
 
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