http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/feb/23/brighton-hove-council-cycle-highway

Is this as bonkers as it sounds? Have they got any idea how building up a network of proper cycle routes works?

Brighton and Hove council plans to remove cycle highway at £1.1m cost

The European-style cycle freeway is segregated from traffic and is key to getting more people cycling, say protesters

Brighton and Hove city council appears determined to abolish its cycle highway despite the fact that demolition will cost £1.1m.

Mary Mears, council leader, said the decision to remove the cycle lane which connects South Downs national park with Hove’s seafront was a response to “concerns” from residents and users. She said: “We remain committed to the safety of the cycling fraternity. Unlike some other cycle lanes in the city, the Grand Avenue/Drive scheme is not well used or appreciated. Furthermore its removal will improve traffic flow along the coast road from Shoreham Harbour and across the city.”

We’re talking about rather more than a simple cycle lane. It is a European-style “cycle freeway”, for the most part segregated from traffic by being set into the pavement behind the on-street parking. It was completed in 2008 as the centrepiece of Brighton and Hove’s successful bid to become a Cycle Demonstration Town, with £3m in government funding provided by Cycling England in the glory days of 2005. It is part of the infrastructure that won the Transport Authority of the Year award only last year, when the council was commended for cycling improvements that saw cycling in the city increase by 27% since 2006.

In Lund, Sweden where I live they spend so much money on providing cycle lanes and support and it improves your quality of life so much. I can bike most places with my children, from the age of 3 with the youngest on a Isla bikes Rothan push along, No need to get stressed wondering if someone is going to knock you over or driving like Toad of Top Gear hall.

I would say implementing something like this in all UK cities would be a big step to improving fitness and well being and generally making or cities nicer places to live in. Maybe thats why so many UK people aspire to “Escape to the country” while the Europeans like living in the city.

As long as we can fit more cars in the queue of traffic that is all that matters.

Online petition here for those who are interested. It seems an inexplicable decision by Brighton council for a number of reasons, not least of which is that ripping up the lanes seems an enormous waste of money.

Andy

What Brighton needs is quality cycle lanes like we have here.
Stills from yesterday’s commute

That’s just the road I work on, they don’t get any better.
BTW, that sign on the left in the second pic says “Considerate Constructors” ha ha.

I’ve said it elsewhere but that Brighton cycle lane is the worst designed piece of cycle track I’ve ever used.

have a look on google street view – it’s behind a row of parked cars and crossed every few yards by the entrances to flats and HMO’s – if there’s a van parked drivers can’t see if a bike is on the cycle track as they turn across it.

I always use the road there – it’s safer.

if they want to spend money then by all means look at improving it 🙂

Does that £1.1m include the cost of whatever replaces the “cycle Freeway” i.e. wider roads and/or pavements, and the cost of maintaining it? £1.1m is probably a deliberate underestimation…

Seems that the Tories are on a bit of a role now, first the forestry U-turn now they want to bulldoze cycle lanes without a reasoned case, all very can do, but they can’t distinguish Arses from Elbows when it comes to getting planes to Libia in a timely fashion, seems they have their priorities sorted…

I’m really enjoying living in the “Big Society” it’s pure comedy;

Nobody knows what it means, though apparently if you can string together some ropey logic biased towards either “Cutting costs”, “Cutting Bureaucracy”, “Cutting Waste” or “Cutting Benefits” you can justify almost anything, so long as the word “Cut” appears somewhere in your proposal…

Where does it all end?

Well I reckon it’ll get down to a Logan’s run style “Death at 35” policy simply to Cut pension Costs, of course Dave will be exempt… Nick won’t…

Have you ridden it? It’s an absolute nightmare of a death-trap! It should never have been put in. I tried it once, got halfway down it and diverted back into the road instead because I was too scared.

Whoever allowed it to be built in the first place should be prosecuted for misuse of public funds. Idiot.

I like cycle lanes when they’re properly implemented – and indeed the Dutch-style cycle lanes which are divided from traffic and thus safe and quick are fantastic. But this travesty is absolutely nothing like that.

So by the sounds of it, the previous labour council put in a poorly designed, waste of money cyclepath which the conservatives will spend even more on to make more space for drivers.

Neither sound particularly well thought through…

having ridden along the bit near the seafront, I can see why the idea was good (properly segmented from the road) but the execution is poor. That said, I can’t see why ripping it out would help – the road in question isn’t very busy – its not like it’ll turn into a 4 lane road -so why not leave it be..

I’ve seen comments that the council want to make the road one of the routes they encourage HGV’s to use to get into/outr of the City (hence the comment above about Shoreham Harbour)- it may be linked to that.

It’s only segmented from the road in theory – in practice there’s a driveway every thirty feet so you get to play Russian roulette with drivers turning across your path without warning as the visibility is blocked by the parked cars and the camber of the road.

I hate to think what great things could have been achieved if every penny spent on cycle lanes in this country had been done with real intelligence, foresight and understanding. Depressing…

Sorry, what’s the Tory connection?

Brighton and Hove city council is under no overall control

Brighton and Hove city council is under no overall control

it’s being run as a Tory minority administration – they normally get the lib-dem and independent vote which makes them equal to labour and green and then eht echair casts her vote for tories and it’s passed.