What's your town / city doing?

[Richard Mann]

I went to York this week. And thought 'be careful what you wish for'. An incomprehensible mess of cycle paths incompetently signed, and a town centre permanently choked with traffic. Following little blue signs to York Station I lost one path when it went up and over a footbridge and took another that went down a pedestrian ramp with two 180 degree bends in it and then across a car park. Following (discontinuous) signs to Heslington across some super-expensive bridge and down some wigglywindy paths led me to two cattle grids - I'd have been far better off just taking the A1079 out of town, and would have done if the signs on the roads didn't content themselves with saying A64 Ring Road to the exclusion of all else. (And yes, the map given to me by the Information lot dissolved in the rain within seconds).

Give me London any time - TfL have their failings, but they know how to put up a signpost, and the superhighways are heaven by comparison with York's cycle paths. I blame Sustrans.

I long ago concluded that cyclists need market segmentation - as best treatment of main roads as you can, and a separate set of routes if your priority is avoiding traffic. As I've mapped at: http://www.transportparadise.co.uk/cyclemap/

 

[subaqua]

Our council imposed a 20 mph speed limit in the town centre and motorists complained bitterly about it!

If you take a look at the kind of road in question you will see that apparently those drivers think it is okay to drive at 30+ mph down twisty, turny, narrow roads on steep descents with parked vehicles narrowing the carriageway further!

Gloriuos socialist borough of Waltham forest voted in a blanket 20mph restriction on residential streets last night, and the order fopr one way streets to be used the wrong way by cyclists l;ast night. £100K is the figure they have to spend. so in real terms feckall gets done.

 

[Manifietso]

What's your town/city doing?

Going backwards is what:

York is a great city for pedestrians, and so it should be. I understand it ranks #3 in terms of bike modal split too. I was there a few weeks ago and was planning on hiring a bike (which you can do at the station, another box ticked) but ended up just staying in centre and getting bus out to New Earswick (another box ticked, car free streets long before cars took over).

Coventry appears to be doing nothing re cycle safety.....if fact theyre creating a number of shared use areas where buses, pedesrians and cyclists can mix.
The first share space was opened next to the old colin campbell pub 4 months ago, so far 1 person has died.

If only they had looked 35km to the east, we'd be in business! Bike lanes not bandwagons please!

The City Council is of the view that cycling has much to offer the city in terms of relieving congestion, carbon reduction, health promotion and overall 'liveability'. To this end the City Council is now committing more funds and staffing resources to cycling than ever before. During 2011/12 and 2012/13 we will be committing in the region of £2.7M per year to cycling.

So that works out at a whopping £2.70 per person - about the same as a short taxi ride from the station. Centro's own LTP has admitted that Birmingham is well behind the national average in terms of cycling levels, and it is the one thing where Coventry can say we are doing better, even if not by much!

Partly with the advent of the Bike North Birmingham project, there are now in excess of 20 members of city council or partner organisation staff working on City Council led full cycling initiatives.

I wonder what the Dutch equivalent would be for a similar city - say Rotterdam? Also, they can plug BNB all they like, it is only one area of the city. Need to start from the centre (see another rant on this re: parking) and work out.

Give me London any time - TfL have their failings, but they know how to put up a signpost, and the superhighways are heaven by comparison with York's cycle paths. I blame Sustrans.

So it's not just me that is getting extremely p*d off with Sustrans?

 

[wiggydiggy]

Leeds

Seems to flit between absolutely nothing and some very good ideas that are flawed on implementation e.g. new bus lanes have opened which although offer good routes into the city share space with 40mph+ buses on that horrible 'red grit' surface so not ideal. Other dangerous (for non vehicles) junctions have had very good segregated facilities put in (Sheepscar exchange is a good example) yet others feature zero provision. The recent cold weather has highlighted that cycle lanes feature bottom of the list when it comes to gritting.

I think there are worse places to cycle, and it could do more, but on the whole its been dragged kicking and screaming towards becoming a true cycling city. A long way to go though....