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news
Linthorpe Road cycle lane (Middlesbrough Council)Cycle lane will be "clear getaway" for shoplifters and drug dealers, business owners claim
Middlesbrough business owners have spoken out against plans to build a segregated cycle lane outside their shops, claiming it will be a "clear getaway" for drug dealers and shoplifters, as well as stopping customers park their cars.
Plans for a new two-way cycle lane and reduced 20mph speed limits along Linthorpe Road, expected to cost between £1.3m and £2.4m, were approved by the council this week to the dismay of some shop owners.
It will be the second phase of the scheme, with works on a cycle lane between Borough Road and Ayresome Street already underway. Now, the works will be continued between Ayresome Street and Devonshire/Cumberland Road, in a project funded by Tees Valley Combined Authority.
Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston urged shopkeepers to consider the ways the infrastructure "could change the environment and way we operate and create a more pleasant experience" for everyone.
However, speaking to regional news outlet TeessideLive, plenty of business owners and workers came forward to criticise the now-approved proposals.
One worker from The Sleep Centre, a bed and mattress shop, said the cycle lane would be a nightmare for their business, and even went as far to say it would give a "clear getaway" to criminals.
"You see drug peddlers along here all of the time. They [council] are just giving people a getaway. All of the shoplifters that go into Iceland and Tesco and park their bikes outside for a second, run in, take whatever it is, and then they disappear.
"So what’s going to happen here is a clear getaway because there will be bollards so no-one can stop them and the police will have a field day trying to catch them."
Another person questioned by the website, but who did not want to be named, expressed concern about the lane being used by drug dealers.
The Sleep Centre employee also raised the most popular criticism of the segregated lanes — they will stop customers parking outside the shops. To accommodate the phase one lanes, 50 parking spaces will be lost, with the council suggesting the 86 spaces in a nearby pay and display car park on Amber Street would be enough to fill demand.
Phase two will see 19 of 42 parking spaces removed, although five disabled bays will remain, just in a new location.
"We could do with more parking spaces but the council is removing them," The Sleep Centre worker continued. "It’s creating a big impact because people are avoiding the area so it’s affecting business already. Turnover has decreased and the number of people walking by has decreased. It’s a very busy road, buses are struggling to get through. People are double parking just to take goods inside to shops…and they have no choice."
Lisa Ellis, owner of florist Daisys and Edwinas, said cyclists are a "nuisance" who are "always in the way".
"It’s older people who it will probably affect most who need to park outside. It might make it awkward for them," she said. "People are just a nuisance on bikes, they’re always in the way."
Another local shop worker added: "Our customers will have to park further away and if they park on the streets behind here they won’t have a car when they come back."
In reply to parking concerns about the phase two lanes, the council advised another nearby car park with 102 spaces is currently underused and could meet demand.
Mayor Preston told the council's executive meeting "nobody will be unable to park."
"I personally get some emails on this matter of cycle lanes, certainly, they are not popular with shopkeepers for a few reasons. The way I think of it is that it might make it a little bit more difficult for some of their customers to park sometimes, I do think it could change the environment and the way we operate and create a more pleasant experience for those who shop and it might get more people out over time.
"Keeping existing cyclists safe is obviously critical and important, encouraging new cyclists is great too, for their mental health and physical health. There will always be resistance, partly because it’s change and people don’t like change and partly because it will make parking for some people a little bit more difficult sometimes but nobody will be unable to park."
Shopkeepers do not appear convinced, however, with the co-owner of The Art House saying he does not see many cyclists on the route and "to lose any more spaces would not be good for business."
Despite this he did express support for building cycle lanes, just not when it impacts his customers' parking: "I think there should be cycle lanes, it doesn’t really concern me, it’s just a parking issue for customers. I don’t oppose it."
A store manager at Abdul's Cash and Carry added: "We are going to find it very very difficult to get the trucks in and unload the trucks. It’s a struggle as it is.
"We were the first cash and carry and we have been there for a lot of years and now there are several cash and carry there, all selling the same products, we are all fighting against each other just to get trade. Now we have got these bicycle lanes coming down."
Mr Halif said the changes would cause "chaos".
Work on phase one of the project began at the end of February and is expected to be complete by early summer.
In response to a public consultation, over 80 per cent of respondents said they travel to the area by car, taxi or motorbike, with a little over 10 per cent saying they cycle.
More than 70 per cent said they did not support the proposals, with a similar figure saying it would be bad for business, and 40 per cent saying the segregated lane was unnecessary.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
Latest Comments
- Rendel Harris 14 min 41 sec ago
And a Happy Christmas to you, road.cc staff!
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 2 min ago
The odds of not being able to find a single pedestrian - just one, note, "any pedestrian" - in an area containing more than about ten of them who...
- Bungle_52 1 hour 21 min ago
It's actually not too bad at the moment. I suspect the shared sections will become a nightmare in summer though. It stops before it gets into the...
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I love how wannabe racer reviewers talk about fork flex under braking like their tyres are made of glue. I find traction gives long before fork flex.
- eburtthebike 2 hours 45 min ago
All children should be locked in their rooms with a playstation to avoid causing a nuisance to the NIMBYs, curmudgeons and gammons. When they get...
- hawkinspeter 3 hours 48 min ago
They don't make them like they used to
- LongitudeLatitude 4 hours 39 min ago
Thanks for using my picture of chocolate in your opening picture. The original can be found here, chocolate! | LongitudeLatitude | Flickr.
- lesterama 5 hours 6 min ago
Fair comments. I'll put my hands up and say I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. ¡Feliz navidad! Here's a pic for the season of goodwill.
- Mike Holmes 5 hours 10 min ago
A trip down memory lane (or street) for me - Harry Quinn's bike shop was at the top of our Street and I used to spend time staring at the bikes and...
- Bigtwin 5 hours 26 min ago
Because people aren't buying those cars. They are effecively renting them on PCPs or via companies. The bike market doesn't work like that.
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59 comments
Best close the road then. It's a route for getaway drivers, fly-tippers, and ram-raiders.
Wow... If only we could turn this incredible inventiveness in dreaming up bullshit to something useful. Very quickly there'd be no problems on earth...
They don't need to worry, if it's anything like Manchester, the segregated bike lanes quickly become segregated car parks, and the problem is solved.
From the same people who voted for brexit
What's this got to do with Brexit? The story is about a cycle lane.
The reference is probably something to do with ingrained ignorant opinion. You know the sort of thing - 350m a week to the NHS, cycle lanes cause congestion . . . . . .
Are they drug peddlers or drug pedallers?
I want to hear from the first, local, well heeled cyclist. To go in, peruse the goods of these backward shops. When then presented with point of sale. To say NOO. And tell them why.
I cannot believe local retailers are alienating a sizeable portion of their local community.
Well you don't want to make the shops too accessible..
"One worker from The Sleep Centre, a bed and mattress shop, said the cycle lane would be a nightmare for their business"
Nightmares. From a bed shop! Literally the last thing you'd want...
Bicycles being the obvious getaway vehicle for someone stealing a bed.
More nimble then a Transit
For a futon you need a flat bed truck.
Well...
https://mobile.twitter.com/kim_harding/status/1374652349239721987
It's just occurred to me - the existing pavements can provide a 'getaway' for all the shoplifters, drug runners and ne'er-do-wells.
What's needed is maybe some barbed wire, loose paving stones and multiple checkpoints installed on all the pavements near to shops - that'll boost their footfall, I'm sure.
But I thought they didn't want cycle paths (as designed and built in the UK)?
I think a proper analysis would show that currently 100% of criminals use the pavements for their getaway, whether on foot, bike or car. No "can" about it.
Therefore, digging up the pavement and replacing it with a fully segregated bike lane should see a significant reduction in crime as that will stop motorised and foot-bound criminals.
I could be wrong, but aren't bikes smaller, easier to park and generally faster to get about town? So by putting in some proper infrastructure to encourage more people to cycle, wouldn't that possibly increase footfall?
Personally, I avoid shopping around towns anyway, even as a pedestrian i find the avoiding traffic and parked cars an hassle. Until local shops embrace cyclists I will carry on supporting their biggest threat, by ordering most off my stuff online to be delievered. Giving me more time to be out on a bike.
Cyclists will not increase the footfall unless they can stop to shop, which they can't do without having somewhere suitable and secure to lock their bikes. Three Sheffield stands jammed against the pub wall won't do, so the cyclists will cycle on by. The illustration is at least accurate in that regard!
So the naysayers are not completely stupid, personal transport users won't shop if they can't park. What they are missing is that the mode of transport can be bicycles instead of private cars. They don't realise it, but they are actually asking for more, secure, cycle parking spaces.
The main reason I drive to my local shops is because my car won't get nicked, whereas my bike will.
Agreed and this is something lacking from new infra. Clearly the designers don't really believe many people will use it. As for the naysayers having a point I doubt that they've thought that far at all - given the designers don't.
Could there also be a genuine "safety in numbers" effect too? Few bikes - they stand out for the opportunist thief and the expensive ones are easier to see for the connoisseur. If most people "aren't cyclists" then maybe they don't react to bikes getting nicked (obviously some do of course - read it here)? Also maybe a larger percentage of bikes may be being nicked - so you're more likely to lose yours.
Dutch bikes generally come with wheel locks and are more of a PITA to carry away. Don't know if that makes a difference I note in this video that leaving them outside the shop is pretty common.
I get what you're saying.
Maybe our cities should follow the example of Paris and every now and then remove car parking spaces and add new bike spaces. More of an evolution then an over night thing.
As for secure cycle parking, a portable angle grinder beats locks as shown in other threads. How do you actually make it secure?
The freedom of a bike means that my cack bike can be leant against anything and pushed from shop to shop and locked if I knew I was going to be gone a while
There is a ton of data on this (sorry - not to hand) - that making cycling easier is a net boost to shops. Obviously that depends on weathering the disruption of building but I believe this is even the case in the low-cycling UK. Yes, customers are unlikely to take their double-bed, grand piano or tons of aggregate home with them on the bike. But then they don't do that in their car either.
Patterns of consumption may change also - so bike-equipped shoppers buy less per stop but visit more frequently. Not so many people do a weekly shop on a bike, though you can do that too - image here from article here)
Thanks for confirming what I thought.
The bed shop, doesn't matter if you arrive by car or bike, chances are you go in, make an order and arrange a delivery.
Exactly. I think the main "but I can't" for bikes vs cars is carrying other people. Which you can certainly do but that's definitely a win for the car. Like many things some of the advantage comes because we have designed for cars - getting the kids to school / relatives to doctor's appointments / hospital is actually not a drama if you've designed for bikes.
On "shopping benefits of bikes" - another point is that retailers often overestimate the amount of "business by car" they get. Anyway a quick few:
Good collection of links here but may not be so recent: https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/wiki/shopping-and-cycling-the-evidence
Most of the following also have numbers / further links:
Local impacts / shopping - papers here: https://ecf.com/groups/shopping-bike-best-friend-your-city-centre
Business benefits of cycling: https://bikeswelcome.org/bikes-mean-businesses/everyday-cycling-and-business/
(2020) why cycling is good for the economy: https://cyclingindustry.news/why-cycling-is-good-for-everything-from-retail-sales-to-property-prices/
Informative read
More on the economic benefits from a recent Australian study:
https://twitter.com/copenhenken/status/1513064777681190912/
And "Oxford’s residents have expressed overwhelming support for Broad Meadow" following the temporary pedestrian-friendly outdoor space in the western end of Broad Street.
https://theoxfordmagazine.com/news/overwhelming-support-for-broad-meadow...
There are examples and studies from all over the world showing the benefits but the decision-makers often just don't care.
To add to this, on average cyclists and pedestrians visit more the high street often. They are also more likely to stay longer per visit and more likely to frequent local bars and cafes while out. The effect might even be increaased if motor traffic lanes are reduced, making the setting a more pleasant place to visit with more greenery and outside seating.
Which would then attract more cyclists and pedestrians in a never ending loop
Oh FFS! What sh1t will they come up with next as an excuse not to support bike lanes!
"the police will have a field day trying to catch them"
Lol. How many do they catch now?
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