Leeds responds to Lizzie Armitstead’s #ChooseCycling letter

Some of our roads in Leeds are in a horrific state. Especially in the centre. Wellington street looked like a bomb site last time I decided to test the rigidity of my wheels.

Pudsey,
Fair enough, I was harsh but painted paths do nothing for cyclist safety as has been proven in London. LCC painting on roads in the door zone which is mainly to be seen taking action rather than actually taking action.

I really am not sure after reading Leeds cycling campaign which is worse, them or LCC. They are the ones who have agreed and seem to think these new painted "cycle lanes" are acceptable, I think they have spent that long in the dark they are willing to accept any scraps from LCC's feasting table.

Take a look

http://www.leedscyclingcampaign.co.uk/?q=node/603

ProfPing
You are bit of a dick arent you?

A Leeds resident getting ready for the Le Tour

Sounds like Leeds Council is populated by pie eating slobs. At the Grand Depart we will see just how fat and lazy the people of Leeds really are

It's only a matter of time before roads get so clogged it'll be quicker to walk, let alone cycle. The sooner these councils wake up the better.

I get tired of cycling on Leeds roads everyday, I have to ride on the outer ring road for 3 miles to avoid Meanwood road, a road full of pot holes, no cycle lanes (for what they are worth), heavy traffic, poor road design to the point a mini roundabout path was extended to create a pinch point leaving cyclist with nowhere to go. I now travel over to Woodside and drop down to Kirkstall road and keep my eyes peeled for left hookers, one cyclist today was left hooked outside the Vesper Gate, said e. on driver was trying to defend himself for 1) ignoring passing the cyclist and turning into him 2) not checking his mirrors whilst crossing a cycle lane.

LCC do not have a clue about cycling, has anyone seen the pathetic cycling lane on Cookridge street? My god I have not seen anything so poorly planned and ill thought out in my life.

I really am thinking about sticking to club runs in the evenings and weekends throughout the summer, least I wont be hit again or worse.

SSDD.

Quote:

He cited the council’s hosting of SkyRides and the £29m Leeds to Bradford cycleway as examples of its commitment and said the council “wholeheartedly supports” ChooseCycling.

This is what these people do, they talk. Councils support anything that means they can avoid real commitment or making tough decisions. Piecemeal tokenistic infrastructure ticks their boxes. It looks like they are doing something but very little changes.

They might, if you are very lucky, build one single piece of infrastructure (as in the L-B). They then pat themselves on the back and leave it at that. If the usage doesn't soar they can cite that single project, as if one stretch of traffic-free path somehow solves everything. It's like building a road across the Sahara and saying "Look, we've conquered the desert!"

what does a path from Leeds to Bradford achieve for cyclists not wanting to travel between the two. How does this help cross Leeds or cross Bradford riders.

Talk is cheap.

Sky could do a lot more...ok, British cycling are slowly pulling people in and the people are just great super super optimistic about cycling which nearly makes ya eyes water! but Sky, massive team...what has football done with mass-money pointing towards the iconic BIG CAR done for motoring ?? - a bloody LOT.

And the attitude that goes with it!

"Responding to Armitstead’s letter, council cycling champion Roger Harington said: “As a council, we are firmly committed to making Leeds as cycle-friendly as possible.”"

Contradicted by the fact that LCC is building another piss poor, obstacle-ridden bike path on the roll out road for this years TdF

It is correct to say that it will never be built. They might paint some lines or put up some signs, or even paint the tarmac blue as per London's cycling "superhighways". However, real infrastructure requires building. This is the bit that will not happen.

Shortly after the triumphant launch of a few km of white lines up the side of death-trap roads, immediately after the Tour, riders will notice that the areas supposedly reserved for their use is full of parked cars, vans etc.

Then they will notice that it is neither cleaned nor maintained.

After 3 to 5 years the logos of bicycles and the lines themselves will be wearing away, caused by innumerable cars, buses and lorries driving on them. Neither the council nor the cops will do anything about this.

By this time, several people on bikes will have been run over within the "cycle paths", often by drivers overtaking and turning left across them, the cause of which is a combination of the fact that the "facilities" will not be segregated from traffic, and the fact that the drivers simply don't care and all know full well that their actions will go unpunished by the cops.

Despite this, the council(s) will massively congratulate themselves on the enormous "improvements" they have so benevolently and generously deigned to dribble down to the lowest of the low of road users, the helpless saps that choose pedals. They may even have the downright cheek, the sheer brass neck to mention the Netherlands, as if to imply that any bike path Leeds has ever built or planned is even remotely comparable to the average Dutch "fietspad", even one designed in the 80s.

No change in modal share will be measurable (although some will be made up in fictitious figures labelled in the small print as "traffic models" or "predictions".

How do I know this? This is what has happened before and is happening right now with other suicidally dangerous, badly designed or unmaintained cycle "facilities" in Leeds.

Get someone from the Société du Tour on the phone and have a listen to how the French pronounce the phrase "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

Leeds is the city that broke me. I was a devoted, obsessive bike rider. I abjectly refused to drive, insisting on going from anywhere to anywhere else in Leeds by bike. The desperately bad reality of "The motorway city of the seventies" (and eighties and nineties and noughties and today) made me absolutely refuse to ride in the city, ever again.
So what will it take to get the ordinary citizen to sling their leg over a bike and ride to the shop, to school, to work, or (shudder) into the centre? It will take a very, very great deal more than what very, very little the council will "build".

Liverpool have their own Roger called Tim. It's what could be called a Council Cycle Constipation gambit; Plenty of gas but nothing solid in sight.

Until enough voters insist on change nothing will change. Unfortunately unless the roads are safer those wanting to cycle commute will not be enough to trouble councils. Councils are not in the business of 'Build it and they will come.' They respond only to 'Build it or we'll vote you out.'