The three-day pop-up lane

[Arjimlad]

My local council South Glos really are spineless. Because of a lot of whingeing drivers they've removed cones which were intended to widen a narrow shared path under a railway bridge.

Even in a time of a pandemic with an infectious killer disease, drivers won't give us any space & cannot see that the addiction to private motor vehicles is the problem.

I will stay on the road but I am quite sure that the punishment close-passers will be encouraged by this. I intend to ride centrally on the inside lane to discourage that.

After all I will be doing over 20 mph.

https://road.cc/content/news/pop-cycle-lane-filton-scrapped-after-just-five-days-273983

 

[Slick]

That's disappointing to say the least.

 

[Arjimlad]

There was no evidence at all that this scheme produced more congestion than is normal on this road. They just gave in to a few vocal car addicts.

 

[Slick]

There was no evidence at all that this scheme produced more congestion than is normal on this road. They just gave in to a few vocal car addicts.

I bet there is lots of evidence it's the cars that are the issue. Ffs

 

[Arjimlad]

I bet there is lots of evidence it's the cars that are the issue. Ffs

Of course there is, the congestion is the problem, according to drivers. Comments from hospital staff about being unable to cycle for their commutes at unearthly hours (when I bet they would find zero congestion even with the loss of a lane), comments from drivers about ambulances being held up in traffic queues (as if they aren't usually held up in traffic queues there anyway). In London & elsewhere I understand that emergency vehicles can use cycle lanes to dodge traffic queues.

 

[matticus]

Pathetic "Car is King" attitude

The sad aspect is that if they've done this early in lockdown, the traffic levels might have been low enough for drivers to get used to it quite happily. This is why councils need to make changes NOW - strike while the iron is hot, don't wait until 90% drivers are back to their normal commutes (and joined by a few who are swtiching from trains/buses).

 

[tom73]

Well i'd settle for anything how ever short lived. Our council have done nothing to help at all and have no plans to do anything.
Other than move a bit of street furniture so people can socially distance waiting for the vastly reduced bus service.
When I did ask what plans they had for cycling I got called a zealot the official line is cyclists get in the way

 

[Drago]

councils are useless. Rather than repair a pothole when it's small and won't cost much, they prefer to wait until it's several metres across and requires very significant expensive repairs. And that's their way of making the highways repairs budget go further...

It should be like the US where key personnel are individually elected by the populace, and therefore are directly accountable to that populace, instead of over here where they're appointed by HR (sorry, People Services) professionals who couldn't tell a cycle lane from an aubergine.

I'd stand as roads maintenance and improvements commissioner, any day.

 

[mjr]

Well i'd settle for anything how ever short lived. Our council have done nothing to help at all and have no plans to do anything.

I can one-up (one-down?) that. We are in a two-council area: one has done nothing AFAICT to help at all yet, has ignored questions about whether they have any plans and have used the coronavirus as a reason to slow down repair work on cycling and walking routes; while the other has used the crisis to bury the bad news of trimming about ~30m off one end of a cycleway and to submit plans (to their own planning committee) for more motor-road-building on a park in one of the least-prosperous areas of town, between a primary and a secondary school.

It's difficult to say whether it's worse than actually blowing some cycling budget on building and then demolishing something in a week like South Gloucs have, though. Where's the West of England Mayor on this?

 

[Solocle]

If you want a pal at a social distance, we could elephant race in both lanes! I've ridden to Filton from university in Oxford before, with a detour across the M48 bridge. My home in Dorset is closer....

Might end up with cars going up the middle, though.