Stupid Cycle Path

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doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
This is the wonderful cycle path which the Raod Service have installed on a very small part of my route to/from work. I was complaining about this a few months back. Thought I would finally get round to doing a visual representation just to see whether this is par for the course or if it really is a very bad example.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14838736@N04/1536075346/

We don't really have any cycle paths on any of my routes so not that familiar with them and I often wondered what all the complaints about these could be about. If this is a typcial example then I understand a little better.
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
That one is very poor indeed.

Warrington Cycle Campaign's Facility of the Month shows just how ill conceived some of these things can be. I think there are a couple of flickr groups for useless cyclepaths too.
 

Abitrary

New Member
Yep, crap.

Also, I don't know why they paint them red. It makes you feel like you shouldn't be on there.

They should be green to make you feel more at one with nature
 
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doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
Abitrary said:
Yep, crap.

Also, I don't know why they paint them red. It makes you feel like you shouldn't be on there.

They should be green to make you feel more at one with nature

Have to agree. Strange thing about this path is that the parts of the path that go onto the road are in green. They must think that people can't see when they are leaving a path to go onto a road. If your eyesight is that bad you shouldn't be on a bike in the first place surely :blush:

I can't believe that this facility is safe and therefore how are these planners allowed to get away with putting them in the first place. Surely in the case of death arising from the poor design should they not be held responsible for that especially on a new path which doesn't suffer from older paths which are poorly maintained.
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Another shining example of what cycle lanes are really for. To get cyclists the hell out of the way, regardless of whether the lane provides any meaningful benefit to the cyclist.
 
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doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
gambatte said:
if they're that wide on the road, point out you're not supposed to ride closer than 700mm to the gutter.....

My thoughts precisely. When I am on the road I would cycle a minimum of the far edge of that cycle path away from the kerb and that is riding amongst traffic it therefore bewilders me how anyone come up with this in the first place.

Also interestingly as I cycle this road regularly I am therefore in a good position to see how it is being used.

I have never seen another person cycle this path at any time. I only done it out of interest as I have been moaning about it since it was built so though the least I could was give it a try. I didn't stay on it long enough to kill myself to make a point.

The majority of the cyclists I come across actually cycle on the path and they continue to cycle away from the cycle lane. I can only presume that it is because they too believe it is just too dangerous and these are people that aren't like myself who don't mind cycling on the road. I am sure if they had that cycle path doubled in width they would have no problem in using it as it would be roughly where they cycle now. Pedestrians would at least expect to see cyclists more here rather than in the middle of the path where it isn't marked for cycling.

I have written to the Road Service to explain my displeasure at their facility. I look forward to my response should they bother at all plus I have put a freedom of information request in to find out if any cycling organisations were actually consulted on the design of this facility because that would be interesting to know. Now that they are legally obliged to respnd to within 20 days so I look forward to hearing the answer to that one. Also asked for the costs involved in providing this waste of money.
 
Do have a look at thet Warrington link John-the-Monkey put up above.

You'll see that your council doesn't have a monopoly on creating ludicrous and unuseable cyclepaths.

Presumably somebody at the council has the task of producing x miles of cycle path and a budget of £y (or do I mean £ymillion ?) and this is the best they can manage...
 
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doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
andy_wrx said:
Do have a look at thet Warrington link John-the-Monkey put up above.

You'll see that your council doesn't have a monopoly on creating ludicrous and unuseable cyclepaths.

Presumably somebody at the council has the task of producing x miles of cycle path and a budget of £y (or do I mean £ymillion ?) and this is the best they can manage...

I did see that one and it is a horrendous misuse of public money. I think we should be asking what the public accounts committee is doing to challenge the shameful misuse of our cash. If of only a small proportion of the cycle lanes produced each year are of these low standards this would surely run into significant sums of money and somebody needs to be held accountable for that.

Public services are arranged differently here as for many years (indeed until earlier this year) Northern Ireland was under Direct Rule. That means that Government Ministers were responsible for the provision of most public services including Road Building under the auspices of the Department for Regional Development's Road Service Agency. Local Councils are limited mostly to refuse collection and planning requests for housing/business premises not road building however I am sure they would be consulted but the decision does not lie with them.

As from earlier this year responsbility for most Public Services has come under the control of the Northern Ireland Assembly with Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness the Deputy First Minister. However as they have only just assumed these powers again and this cycle path and most of the road and cycle network here was built under Direct Rule ie by the authority of the Northern Ireland Secretary, a member of the British Cabinet.

Given this the Government has direct responsibility for the misuse of public funds if this found to be the case. They cannot blame some council for this.

Sorry for those that didn't want a very brief and basic lesson in Northern Ireland Politics but in the context I felt important to share it.
 
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