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news
'Unsafe' cycle lanes in Telford removed days after being introduced (credit - Steve Coleman)“Ridiculous” and “unsafe” advisory cycle lanes removed just days after being introduced by council to reduce speeds
A council has been forced to remove painted advisory cycle lanes on a road notorious for speeding motorists just days after they were installed, following complaints from locals that the new lanes were “unsafe” and made the carriageway “too narrow” for drivers to safely pass.
Telford and Wrekin Council introduced the advisory cycle lanes on Bellpit Road and Colliers Way, The Rock, Telford, at the end of February, as part of measures designed to prevent motorists from “speeding at dangerously high levels” in the area.
However, according to the Shropshire Star, the lanes – marked with a broken white line, which allows motorists to enter them – were quickly criticised by local residents, who complained to the council that the new layout was confusing and potentially dangerous.
> Painted advisory cycle lanes increase risk of cyclist casualties, study finds
One local, Steve Coleman, claimed that he witnessed a near miss between two motorists on Bellpit Road and that the new cycle lanes ensured that “there is not enough room for two cars to pass safely”.
“I agree with safety measures, speed bumps etc, but come on, the road is too narrow for what they have done,” Coleman, who appeared unaware that motorists can, in fact, enter the advisory lanes if safe to do so, said on Facebook.
Another resident wrote: “I drove up there thinking they turned it into a one-way system, so I was driving in the middle of the road, avoiding going into the cycle lane, to then seeing another car coming down in the middle of the road. It’s ridiculous.”
Following these complaints, Telford and Wrekin Council swiftly removed the lanes at the weekend, with the local authority announcing that it will now a pursue “a more commonly known solution” – such as a new 20mph limit – to help curb the area’s speeding issue.
“Residents in The Rock along with the parish council asked Telford and Wrekin Council to help reduce traffic speeds across the area,” a spokesperson for the council said.
“The council has a duty to provide safe highways for all users and monitoring has clearly showed vehicles speeding at dangerously high levels on Bellpit Road and Colliers Way in particular.
“Following two rounds of consultation with residents, further views were raised regarding the new road layout underway at The Rock for which the council is thankful.
“We have listened and acted upon these comments where appropriate and amendments have been made. We will now continue to work towards reducing traffic speeds and implementing a 20mph zone.
“This will be achieved by a more commonly known solution in the borough with new centre and edge of carriageway lines as well as speed indicator devices. The project continues to stay within the approved budget.”
Telford and Wrekin Council’s hasty U-turn follows a similarly abrupt change in cycle lane policy in Edinburgh, where last week the city council voted to reinstate bollards on a busy bike lane just weeks after they were taken away.
In September, the City of Edinburgh Council agreed to remove the bollards on Drum Brae North due to safety concerns for cyclists “at risk when coming downhill on the steepest section of the hill”.
Councillors claimed that people using the segregated cycle lane, installed during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the city’s Spaces for People scheme, were in danger of colliding with the bollards if forced to take “evasive action such as if someone was reversing from a driveway”.
However, since the bollards were removed in January, images and videos flooded social media showing drivers treating the cycle lane like another lane of motor traffic, forcing councillors to criticise the “depressing lawlessness” of these bike lane-using motorists and prompting the swift reinstalment of the bollards along half of the cycleway.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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35 comments
On quite a few narrow rural roads there are already no centre-lines. On roads that vary in width the centre-line is often omitted on the narrower sections as the road becomes safer. Without the line drivers are unsure of how to progress and slow down, or give way, because they feel less sure of where oncoming traffic will be. Of course none of this stops close passes or drivers complaing about no road tax....
Centre-line removal is an LTN 1/20 design. It is only suitable for quieter roads (up to 4,500 vehicles per day).
I don't know how well it was working in this instance, but there's a case for letting it bed in and see.
I strongly suspect that the people complaining about it were (1) not experts in cycle infrastructure design and (2) not that interested in safe cycling.
It's a fast distributor road / thru route from a big roundabout intoa housing area.
Probably not appropriate for this.
Inevitablly there is ample room for proper cycle tracks,
Where would you put the cycle tracks? Is that verge area to the right of the photo consistently wide enough?
... and perfectly capable of negotiating a road that has been similarly narrowed, but by parked vehicles instead of cycle infrastructure.
it seems to work very well on the Eaglesham moor for about 10 years now, though East Ayshire councl may not agree as they removed it on there section a year or so after installation
I think there needs to be space for 2m cycle lanes either side.
But you forget that our illustrial councils dump a cycle lane in the middle of nowhere that serves no purpose and then claim they have made such provision. I don't recall seeing anything in East Kilbride and Newton Mearns apart from a couple of token ASLs and some decidedly ropey infra in Killie. Though I've not been that way for a while so things possibly may have changed. Renfrewshire also has it down to a fine art.
There's a road in Hambrook, north of Bristol, that has a cycle lane that makes the road too narrow for two motor vehicles to pass without entering the advisory cycle lane. They didn't remove it - just left it there.
https://goo.gl/maps/QMyNCKvKWxbAcjj17
That's an interesting one, especially the cycle symbols on the path and road. But it also has that rarest beast - a pavement where pedestrians are banned!!:
https://goo.gl/maps/xPqu9q51ne6egraf9
As the problem is dangerous speeding by motorists, isn't it for the police to do their job and prosecute those drivers? Is it so hard to stick up a speed camera?
...and then be accused of 'aving a go at Otherwise Law-Abiding Motorists (TM)?
(Or having to count down the seconds until said camera was vandalised?).
It's only ridiculous and unsafe to complete morons who don't know how to drive and should not have a driving licence.
Good to see the sustainable transport budget getting spent well by the council.
There's an interesting video here about a similarly failed US attempt to emulate the Dutch use of a similar arrangement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIMy8PMdnhA
Wow! A Council that introduces a 'murder strip' to combat lawless motorists. Dumb as Dumbo.
I'd say it's an attempt by a Council to introduce a Dutch idea on the cheap without having the legal framework, the education, the culture or the supporting systems in place.
The basic problem is speeding, and they need to start from something more basic than sticky plasters.
I thought that where we are with optional cycle lanes is that they are a BAD THING.
A Lay Bah Council. A LAAAAY Bah Council!
.
The council is currently made up of 35 Labour councillors, 13 Conservative councillors, 4 Liberal Democrats councillors and 2 Independent councillors.
Unitary authority
Leadership
Mayor of the Borough of Telford & Wrekin
Cllr Raj Mehta,
Labour
since 19 May 2022[1]
Leader
Cllr Shaun Davies,
Labour
since 26 May 2016[2]
Structure
Seats 54 councillors
Labour (35)
Other Parties
Conservative (13)
Liberal Democrats (4)
Independent (2)
Motto
"Protect care and invest to create a better Borough"
Website
www.telford.gov.uk
Calm as normal service resumes.
Your point being...?
Telford has a pretty unique track record when it comes to keeping its people safe.
A Conservative government. CON-servative.
The Conservative party forms a majority government. Their current working majority is 66. This takes into account the non-voting Speaker and their deputies, and non-sitting Sinn Féin MPs.
Sorry, what was your point, FB?
that doesnt make alot of sense, the road is the same width right ?
these types of lanes have been used in the UK, maybe not extensively, but Ive never heard of problems with them, people get used to the "new road layout" if the council do their job properly explaining it.
Im not a great fan of them as I hate the idea it uses the cyclists as the mobile speed limiters, it doesnt in itself promote the cars to slow down even on fairly busy routes, they tend to take more risks to overtake you I feel sometimes.
Not sure if you have been this way but at Martlesham
https://goo.gl/maps/VDymetMAS8PsjY1y6
I can't comment on its effectiveness (despite being that way 3 times) , as I naturally take care knowing cyclists are about.
(a bit further north on the road - lines faded !)
At least they got rid of the centre lines. This one near me is utterly pointless, nobody gets a lane that's big enough!
All they've done is change the carriageway boundary line from solid to broken and brought it six inches or so in.
In the summer I've snagged my jersey on a bramble riding in the "cylce lane" along there so that's pretty much how it gets.
I have tried pointing out the to the council that, particularly in the down hill direction, most cyclists will be doing over 10mph and so I really don't need a cycle lane I need law enforcement.
Few times I think, its NCN1 route, but when it was in a much better looking state than it is now. Can't really judge its effectiveness as cycle infra, its there, whatever it does I guess its doing, but its no really different to the roads around it with no infra on.
Does it work ? Well the car on the right sure had to slow down quickly, not so much the car on the left.
It still gets visits from Suffolk police speed camera team, and is regularly used by motorists as a rat run to avoid delays on the dual carriageway to/from Woodbridge.
It might as well not be there for the little benefit it gives cyclists. Iirc the markings were partially removed, not worn away, in prep for resurfacing the road, which just hasnt happened yet.
And yet that seems to be many councils' official policy...
I'm pretty sure that when I did the Amstel Gold Race sportive, there were a quite a few rural roads like that, wiht two wide cycles lanes, but essentially a single carriageway for two way motor vehicle traffic.
the difference in infracture was that the cycle lanes were also red, so even more clearly differentiated, and the car drivers all seemed to understand that they would be meeting other cars head on- and both might have to slow down, even stop, until there were no bikes in the cycle lanes to pass.
I may be idealising it in my memory, but if i am right, the essence of it is a fundamental mindset change that the cyclists have priority and the car drivers have to work round them.
givven that is patently not the mindset of many car drivers in the UK at the moment, I can see that what in Holland seems to be a perfect solutoin for cyclists, might, here, now, be a death sentence for everyone.
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