Pop Up Cycle Lane

[Mburton1993]

On my ride last night I came across this:

(Not my pic - MENs)

From Droylsden (The Snipe) to city centre.

I can see why this this is being done, to encourage people to cycle into Manchester and avoid public transport and that particular bit of the A635 (Ashton Old Road) is properly busy at rush hour and this would probably make the route safer.

I think however, there is already a solution in place for Ashton Old Road, it's called Ashton New Road (A662).

It's a smidge longer but it still takes you to the city centre and has cycle lanes.

I've cycled both routes alot and the new road, I think is alot better.

So is it worth it, I've read it'll cost a fair bit and the residents of the route aren't keen either?

 

[mjr]

I think however, there is however already a solution in place for Ashton Old Road, it's called Ashton New Road (A662). [...] It's a smidge longer but it still takes you to the city centre and has cycle lanes.

Does it have continuous cycle lanes? Not on https://www.cyclosm.org/#map=14/53.4791/-2.1768/cyclosm and on https://showmystreet.com/#vubv9_-1awfc_1y.e_-7e43 (Sep 2020 Streetview) it doesn't entirely. The bit with the tram tracks appears on streetview to have dashed (advisory) door zone lanes but that seems pretty rubbish.

Also, looking at the map suggests that the next road clockwise with decent cycling support is Oxford Road / Wilmslow Road, so humanising Ashton Old Road would bring cycle routes closer to Gorton, even if Stockport Road under the railway also looks worth doing.

I've cycled both routes alot and the new road, I think is alot better.

So is it worth it, I've read it'll cost a fair bit and the residents of the route aren't keen either?

Looks worth it to me (although there might be places which should be higher priority) and I'll be astonished if it costs more than the nearest motorway junction upgrade.

Resident opposition is often over-represented by newspapers that are either shoot stirring or overcompensating in a misguided attempt at balance. Cycle route provision is massively popular now, 6.5 support it for every 1 that opposes:
View: https://twitter.com/ianwalker/status/1287999770011852800/photo/1


What arguments are there against improving Ashton Old Road? And do you agree with them?

 

[Mburton1993]

Does it have continuous cycle lanes?

Fair point, no, Ashton New Road doesn't have continuous cycle lanes but it has more than old road and I think the road surface is better too. The tram lines aren't too much of hindrance, I think they only cross the road 4 times. Old has had a portion of it's surface redone recently but the majority is still pretty crap. Forgot to mention road surface in the original post, fix that first!

Oxford/Wilmslow Road is great but I don't think it's an alternative to Ashton Old Road, it's a bit out of the way, same with Stockpot Road which I didn't think was anything special.

What arguments are there against improving Ashton Old Road? And do you agree with them?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c.../residents-fighting-back-against-pop-19360507 - them, the angry few.

I'm not really arsed one way or the other, it's not a route I do often anymore, just wondering if people had an opinion on it.

 

[Drago]

On my ride last night I came across this:

View attachment 561128
(Not my pic - MENs)

From Droylsden (The Snipe) to city centre.

I can see why this this is being done, to encourage people to cycle into Manchester and avoid public transport and that particular bit of the A635 (Ashton Old Road) is properly busy at rush hour and this would probably make the route safer.

I think however, there is already a solution in place for Ashton Old Road, it's called Ashton New Road (A662).
View attachment 561129

It's a smidge longer but it still takes you to the city centre and has cycle lanes.

I've cycled both routes alot and the new road, I think is alot better.

So is it worth it, I've read it'll cost a fair bit and the residents of the route aren't keen either?

The average car journey in Manchester is less than 1000 metres. Thats the distance an unfit person could comfortably walk in 15 minutes. If ever a town needed less cars and more bikes, it's this one.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

On my ride last night I came across this:

View attachment 561128
(Not my pic - MENs)

From Droylsden (The Snipe) to city centre.

I can see why this this is being done, to encourage people to cycle into Manchester and avoid public transport and that particular bit of the A635 (Ashton Old Road) is properly busy at rush hour and this would probably make the route safer.

I think however, there is already a solution in place for Ashton Old Road, it's called Ashton New Road (A662).
View attachment 561129

It's a smidge longer but it still takes you to the city centre and has cycle lanes.

I've cycled both routes alot and the new road, I think is alot better.

So is it worth it, I've read it'll cost a fair bit and the residents of the route aren't keen either?

How about closing the old road to motorised traffic and make the whole thing a bicycle, pedestrian and bus lane?

 

[mjr]

Fair point, no, Ashton New Road doesn't have continuous cycle lanes but it has more than old road and I think the road surface is better too. The tram lines aren't too much of hindrance, I think they only cross the road 4 times. Old has had a portion of it's surface redone recently but the majority is still pretty crap. Forgot to mention road surface in the original post, fix that first!

Oxford/Wilmslow Road is great but I don't think it's an alternative to Ashton Old Road, it's a bit out of the way, same with Stockpot Road which I didn't think was anything special.

Yes, that's my point really. It doesn't look like there is currently an alternative route: the next nearest are too far round and Ashton New Road looks both incomplete and crap.

You can fix the road surface as often as you like, but if motorists are still allowed to drive heavy vehicles on the whole width, they will keep on damaging the roads faster than we can afford to fix it.

What arguments are there against improving Ashton Old Road? And do you agree with them?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c.../residents-fighting-back-against-pop-19360507 - them, the angry few.

Wow, that's a shoot show of pathetic local newspaper reporting, isn't it? "Commandeer their parking spaces" in the headline - how are those spaces theirs? Have they paid for them? It's the side of the public highway and most of the houses pictured have driveways. That's the sort of selfish attitude which leads to people getting assaulted for daring to park outside a house when visiting its neighbour - which is used by one of the motorists as an argument why they themselves can't park on another road, apparently without realising the irony, which the newspaper report doesn't point out.

A few houses might not have driveways, but the newspaper makes no attempt to quantify how many. Sounds like a minority concern being used to mislead, but who knows? There is a quote from someone about "valuable parking spaces" which is probably the core of it, but again the newspaper doesn't challenge the complainers about whether saving £350/year or whatever a parking season ticket costs there is worth all the congestion caused by highway parkingsclerosis.

It seems like the MEN only approached the council, who are rather wishy-washy and not really wanting to upset anyone too much, and not any community groups in favour of the measures. It might be worth a complaint about press bias if anyone bothered to enforce press standards.

I'm not really arsed one way or the other, it's not a route I do often anymore, just wondering if people had an opinion on it.

Yeah, it's not a part of Manchester I've visited much, as I tended to be bouncing between main stations, Uni, NQ and Rochdale, but from the maps and imagery, it looks like a good idea to me.

 

[mjr]

How about closing the old road to motorised traffic and make the whole thing a bicycle, pedestrian and bus lane?

Making it resident-motors-only would be entirely in keeping with the current national government policy to disentangle sustainable and unsustainable transport corridors, but I bet Tameside Council haven't got the backbone to do it.