Well, they have already marked out one of the lanes going North on Hoe Street. Here it is :
Now, the "new" cycle lane is to the right of the car lane and presumably intended for cyclists going across the junction. This is pretty much exactly where the last markings were and are useless for the following reasons
1) Cars, when there is any type of a queue decide to turn the cycle lane and hatched area into a new lane so they can beat the queue. This completely blocks off the cycle lane. I have had cars come up behind me whilst I have been cycling through and slalom between me and the moving traffic queue.
2) Look how it is positioned. I mean just look at it. It appears that cyclists are expected to come up the left hand side of the road and then cross the left turn lane to enter the cycle lane. Which is fine if you want to be smeared across the road by a left turning vehicle as you try to cross the lane with your back to the danger.
It can be seen that the first user of the "new" cycle lane is the council to put another roadwork sign. At least it then lends the cycle lanes on the junction a certain symmetry as all of them have signs in them. And the cycle lights still hooded.
On that note, I do have to say that most of the signs I reported are still exactly where they were nearly a week ago. A couple have moved, but only in the sense that they have fallen over, not in the sense of anyone from the contractor or council being arsed to do anything.
I’d really like to force the people that designs these ‘cycle lanes’ to actually use them! I’d bring them grapes afterwards.
ReplyDeleteIt would be an interesting experience...
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the big problems with cycle provision. If the leaders of the borough cycled I suspect that they would be revised pretty quickly.