Car/Bike Jousting, contraflow “bicycle lane” content.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/16034702.Cycle_lane_worries_continue__now_arrows_direct_cyclists_up_the_middle_of_a_one_way_street/#comments-anchor

There are contraflow cycle lanes in Cambridge that I am used to, but this is the first time I’ve seen councils try and get traffic to go head to head.

Utter madness.

It looks a bit daft from the photo, but if you go to other countries (Belgium springs to mind) then it’s quite normal for a road to be signed as “one way, apart for bikes”. It’s simple and effective:

There would be no cycle lines marking this out. It’s just expected that the car doesn’t kill the cyclist and that the two of them work out how to get past each other safely. I’ve always thought this incredibly sensible in cities, but it would need a complete mindset change from the many UK motorists who believe that they, and only they, have the right to use the roads.

There’s a cycle lane in Northampton that goes against traffic on a one way street. It’s usually fine until you get the cyclists going with the flow of traffic who move over to their right and cycle straight towards you in the lane.

Loads in London – dead handy too.  Requires some gymnastics with the road markings though sometimes when it brings you out on the wrong side of a two-way street and you then have to cross over. There’s one somewhere near King’s Cross IIRC.

We have a couple in Sheffield, this being one of them. Its a high speed rat run for cars who really do not like seeing bikes come the other way.

Its how pretty much every side street in every UK city is isn’t it? Parked cars on both sides. Two way traffic having to sort itself out. Only difference here is that cyclists have priority, although motorists may not be expecting them (actually that’s about the same too 🙂 )

We have one in Dunblane – one way uphill street, past a school, with no markings for cycle lane on floor, just signs facing outwards at each end…. I have been shouted at so many times using that road the ‘wrong way’ on a bike.

nickjb wrote:

Only difference here is that cyclists have priority

That’s what it claims in the article, though I don’t think it’s true (see article comments for further explanation – they’re actually surprisingly sane for comments on such articles).

As others have already said above, the only difference from a normal contraflow bike lane (as seen in Cambridge, which is the only place I can recall using one) is the lack of a line painted on the road. But given small residential roads like that typically don’t have any lines painted on them, then the only difference from a normal road like that is that cars aren’t allowed in one direction. Logically there doesn’t seem much wrong with it as long as drivers are made aware that cyclists have a right to go in both directions along there – who knows how much of a knobber the drivers will be in practice?