Cycling on the road when there is a cycle lane

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Cycling on the road when there is a cycle lane

42 posts & 31 voices | Started 1 year ago by HoratioHufnagel | Latest reply from Lifer

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HoratioHufnagel - Member

Does anyone make a t-shirt with something like "YES I KNOW THERES A CYCLE LANE BUT ITS RUBBISH, I'M ALLOWED TO USE THE ROAD YOU MORON" written on the back in massive letters?? sheez..

sorry, stressful commute, feel like giving in/giving up sometimes!

cycle lane in questions is an awful unlit, shared use pavement, barely more than 1 metre wide at points, wall on one side, 50mph cars coming directly towards you on the other. argh! It would be safer if they hadn't "built" it at all, not that they did anything other than stick a few signs on the lampposts to get cyclists of the road and out of the cars way.

Rant over...

Posted 1 year ago #
monkeychild - Member

Whilst at some temporary traffc lights. I was quizzed by a portly chap on as to why i wasnt on the cycle path. I asked him why he wasnt on a bike as he clearly needed the exercise

Posted 1 year ago #
Trekster - Member

All the time
Got a shout from a fellow cyclist recently that I "should" be on the cycle path because that is what it was built for. Get loadsa toots from car drivers and the odd gesture

Posted 1 year ago #
AnalogueAndy - Member

Top Rant

Same here, alongside the A4 Bath to Bristol at Saltford. Cr@p from the start (narrow, obstructed by trees and street furniture, crosses the mouth of junctions with 'Cyclist Dismount' signs) And that's even before you add: Full of kids, dogs, joggers wearing ipods, strewn with litter / broken glass, moron drivers pulling straight out of their drives without thinking / looking.

Yet I still get moron drivers honking and gesticulating at me and the path - a few weeks back some derranged middle aged woman passenger even leant out of her window and screamed "USE THE CYCLE PATH" at me

Posted 1 year ago #
druidh - Member

Nah - it's never happened to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

Never happened to me either.

Posted 1 year ago #
pixelmix - Member

I occasionally see cyclists cycling on the A9 between Inverness and Perth, and if I was of a shouty persuasion (I'm not though), I might have a word. Not because I'm annoyed that they are on the road, but you would have to be suicidal to ride there, as the cycle path would be a lot safer than a derestricted trunk road.

I can see your point OP. Cycle lane design in this country is awful. Get yourself a t-shirt made up for the commute, and write to the road department at your local council.

Posted 1 year ago #
druidh - Member

I rode a couple of short sections of the A9 last year. Ballinluig north for about 1k on the dual carraigeway was the only bit where I was "concerned"

Posted 1 year ago #
Lifer - Member

The worst things are those weird traffic islands that make you leave and rejoin the road in the space of 5 metres, whoever thought that'd make cyclists safer is a freaking idiot.

Eg:http://tinyurl.com/6dovr7k

Posted 1 year ago #
tonyg2003 - Member

cycling on the road where there is a cycle path is illegal in Belgium, but the cycle paths over there and massively better than over here.

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

WTF is a derestricted trunk road?

Posted 1 year ago #
hh45 - Member

For some reason this issue seems to wind up motorists more than almost anything. Quite odd really as in most cases I can think of the roads are wide enough for themm to whiz by without having to slow down much at all. The fact is that road bikes just are not safe or reliable on lots of bike paths due to glass, pot holes / drain covers, moss, leaf lould / muck generally and that is before one adds in dumb ar$e walkers with ipods etc. For your sake I wish you had an alternative route.

Posted 1 year ago #
pdw - Member

Happens round here often enough. People who don't cycle genuinely don't realise just how dangerous and inconvenient many on-pavement cycle paths are.

I read some study ages ago that I've never managed to find another copy of, but the figures were something like on pavement cycle paths were generally 3 times more dangerous than staying on the road, rising to 13 times more dangerous at junctions.

You also get some drivers who are just cretins. We have one on pavement cycle path on a road near here which would make a decent 4X course. Fortunately, the adjacent bus lane is very clearly marked as being for cyclists too, yet I've still had abuse off one driver for using the road not the pavement.

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

lifer - thats much better than this - there is not enough room for a car and a bike at the islands - so you geta painted line and a sign trelling acar drivers not to overtake bikes at the islands - lethal
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Penicuik+Road&sll=51.122275,-0.202753&sspn=0.000201,0.000431&g=Ifield,+Crawley,+West+Sussex,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&hq=Penicuik+Road&hnear=&radius=15000&ll=55.844097,-3.207321&spn=0.07903,0.441513&z=11&layer=c&cbll=55.843756,-3.206327&panoid=4PyIxJm-s3Ra9mwkI41mkA&cbp=11,210.18,,0,5

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Druidh - why were you riding on the dual carriageway? Why not the cycle path ? I thought the duelled A9 was out of bounds to cycles

Posted 1 year ago #
pdw - Member

lifer - thats much better than this - there is not enough room for a car and a bike at the islands - so you geta painted line and a sign trelling acar drivers not to overtake bikes at the islands - lethal

I some some of those when I was last in Scotland, and it seemed like a very good solution. Better that what is done round here which is just to make the cycle lane and the main lane a bit narrower, which really does encourage people to pass at traffic islands.

Posted 1 year ago #
chocolatehobdobs - Member

Have the same thing on my commute! "Cycle path" is especially bad at this bit...
http://tinyurl.com/6d4zepg

cycle path narrows to barely 1 metre, with cyclists coming the other way too, cars coming at you with dazzling headlights! lethal...

Just started doing this commute, googled the cycle lane and found this (skip to 10:30...)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZG5N1npyo

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

pdw - that one I put the link to is lethal - its only about 7 ft from the kerb to the island and its a very busy road. The islands were put in and cyclists complained - so this was the solution. Its one of the most dangerous bits of road design I have seen.

Posted 1 year ago #
druidh - Member

TandemJeremy - Member
Druidh - why were you riding on the dual carriageway? Why not the cycle path ?
I was following the line of the old A9. The National Cycle Network route cuts away over the other side of the valley and there is no cycle path on that short section.

About here

I thought the duelled A9 was out of bounds to cycles

Nope. What gave you that impression?

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Fairy snuff.

Posted 1 year ago #
druidh - Member

I've just checked the Streetmap images at the start of that Dual Carraigeway. There don't appear to be any restriction signs (like the ones on the A720).

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Sound - I was thinking of them and on the A 90 and I have seen them other places. Seems to be something that is creeping in

Posted 1 year ago #
aracer - Member

Clearly in those cases it's the traffic islands not the bike lanes which are the problem - traffic islands which typically are put in in the name of improving road safety by traffic calming! Round here we either have ones like in Lifer's link or a bit further down the road they don't even bother with that
I don't use the cycle lane where there is one - it's full of glass and other rubbish - and cycle right in the middle of the gap through both (going downhill I can break the speed limit so I'm not at all in the way, though I struggle a bit with that on the uphill!)

Posted 1 year ago #
cbrsyd - Member

Not quite off topic but I got done for doing 46 in a 40 limit so attended one of these driver rehabilitation course to avoid the 3 points. The guy running the course talked about road safety measures and explained that one of the main reasons councils put in cycle lanes was to narrow the road and therefore reduce the speed of motorists. First time I ever heard this but does explain some of the ridiculous lanes you see.
And there was me thinking they were for our benefit when really they are there to slow traffic down.

Posted 1 year ago #
chiefgrooveguru - Member

Has anyone had the pleasure of not riding down the recently added cycle lane down The Drive in Hove? They've separated it from the traffic by putting it between parked cars and the pavement, so when anyone living along that road decides to pull into their driveway they knock you off. Genius!

Posted 1 year ago #
plumber - Member

Yup - almost never use cycle paths - mainly because that silly paint they use is a pain - then the road debris can get a bit much

There a cyclw lane near chesterfield by the side of a dual carraigeway that was good for the 2 miles it lasted and all the ones in Belgium I came across were excellent

Posted 1 year ago #
Solo - Member

I've had the same on a section of road. There is a shared lane on the otherside of the road, but its so uneven its how I imagine riding a bike on an old wash-board would be.

When I cycle that road I stay on the road and the odd driver gets a bit upset.

Sooooo anyway, the upshot from this thread, for me at least, is that there seems to be a less than adequate specification for UK cycle lanes.

Why am I not surprized

Posted 1 year ago #
ebygomm - Member

We've got some contraflow cycle lanes in Nottingham. That tends to wind drivers up when they see a cyclist riding the wrong way down a one way street, more than the not using the cycle path ime

Posted 1 year ago #
13thfloormonk - Member

We've ridden sections of the A9 as well, because the cycle path frankly isn't suitable for road bikes.

There's a new cycle path going in between Oban and Ballachulish. Beautiful path, well built, but I still wouldn't take the racer on it, lots of leaves, sticks, families, junctions etc. If you want to get up a bit of speed its an accident waiting to happen.

I feel bad though, the council is actually doing something really worthwhile and I'm not using it

Posted 1 year ago #
pixelmix - Member

WTF is a derestricted trunk road?

I meant a main route where the restricted speed limit doesn't apply, so NSL applies instead.

I rode a couple of short sections of the A9 last year. Ballinluig north for about 1k on the dual carraigeway was the only bit where I was "concerned"

I hadn't seen your other post before - I enjoyed that. Obviously you had a good reason to ride the A9. I'm just a big wimp when it comes to riding on main roads out of town though - I don't find it particularly enjoyable if it is busy.

We've ridden sections of the A9 as well, because the cycle path frankly isn't suitable for road bikes.

I think this is true for the vast majority of long distance routes. Most NCN routes have at least some sections which you would want a hybrid for rather than a road bike.

I'm sure some drivers mean well, as they don't understand that the cycle paths are often inadequate, and think they are helping you by alerting you to the presence of a cycle path. It's probably hard to distinguish the well meaning drivers when they are passing at 30mph+ though.

Posted 1 year ago #
foxyrider - Member

Yup - once - lorry driver (abusive) and I gave him the bird and told him to **** off and mind his own business

http://www.nacg.org.uk/pavement_parkers.htm

This is the main reason I don't ride cycle paths and the fact that most of them are covered in glass, bolts, screws and slippery ridges for pedestrian crossings.

Posted 1 year ago #
bomba - Member

You can always quote the Highway Code at them:

63
Cycle Lanes. [...] Use of cycle lanes is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer.

I had a dig at a cabbie for not knowing the rules of the road when he started giving me jip for not using a cycle lane.

Posted 1 year ago #
Big Dave - Member

Cyclists were around long before numpties in cars and I believe were the first people to campaign for better quality roads so we have a right to be on them.

IMHO I think shared cycle and footpaths are a disgrace and just a cycnical way for local authorities to meet their green targets. I refuse to use them.

Posted 1 year ago #
crazy-legs - Member

The cycle paths near Manchester velodrome are nigh on useless as well - 1m wide section separate from the carriageway but then it spits you out into the main flow of traffic at every junction. Usually straight into the lane where everyone is turning left across your path.

Not wide enough for 2 cyclists, usually strewn with debris, they're awful. Shame cos with a bit of thought, the whole system could be SO much better, as it is, it's all cobbled together, usually to meet "green" targets or actually to be used as a traffic calming measure.

Posted 1 year ago #
samuri - Member

one of the main reasons councils put in cycle lanes was to narrow the road and therefore reduce the speed of motorists. First time I ever heard this but does explain some of the ridiculous lanes you see.

Councils put cycle lanes in because they get grants from the government to do so. Stop putting cycle lanes in and you lose the money.

Posted 1 year ago #

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