Ridiculous, this is speaking as someone who's lived in Netherlands for over 10 years. Really the bike lane should be where the unused unmaintained footpath is on the verge, a bike lane costs a fraction to build and maintain of what the equivalent square footage/metrage in road surface costs since it doesn't have to be as strong and put up with so much weight. However the diverging away from road traffic at roundabouts is part and parcel of that and is what you see in the Netherlands, but normally there are traffic lights to ensure that cars stop to allow bikes to continue and vice versa. In the UK there are lots of footpaths which are scarcely used by pedestrians which should be converted to bike lanes.
So Chris's main concern is having to give way at a road junction paid for by the Car Drivers. Cycle lanes should be well away from roads, like Milton Keynes & Harlow, however in Harlow the Cyclists will ride on a road when there is a safe, maintained cycle track running parallel to it – just because they can, this holds up traffic. Cars should respect cyclists, but cyclist should respect others, if there is a cycle track away from the roads, use it. We also see the phenomenon (In London) where the pavement is wide enough for two car lanes, there is a cycle lane -complete with it's own traffic lights, which cyclist jump out of lane when their lights are red, to use car ones which are green, imagine if a car tried that – Then there is the single lane shared by buses, taxis and normal traffic. Surely some of these extra wide footpaths could be adapted to keep cyclists safely away from HGV's and other traffic.
lf this was in Germany the cycle lane would be on the inside of the grass verge not right next to the road, complete lack of common sense in too many uk towns and cities !
I have been to the local council meetings in relation to cycling & the council representative has said the cycle lanes are not for cyclists but for the less confident people riding bikes. Needles to say pedestrians use them more than cyclists.
Whilst all the right sounds are made in favour of cycling, the hoops that have to be jumped through to secure the funding prohibit the development of the cycling infrastructure.
Too be honest we're I live cycle lanes are abit funky, meaning that where there is a cycle lane there is a lamp post in the middle of it 😂 I mean OK you do you I guess?!
We all talk about, laws, bring laws in to help cyclists and car drivers to share the roads – that’s fine, but it’s an attitude problem, some cyclists, some drivers just don’t give a damn. For me, I don’t want live with the guilt of hitting a cyclist, as a cyclist myself I don’t want to end up a cripple – but if the ‘law’ clearly showed both drivers and cyclists can be severely punished, things may change. Today,I ride and drive with common sense, observation and curtesy to other road users..I may be naive, but far to many just DGAF.
It’s now 2022, new laws are coming in that frankly will create a blood bath for aforementioned people who DGAF. Cyclists to have right of way to a turning vehicle, yeh right. So many will risk being severely injured just because they have right of way. Good luck out there. Fit a camera, cars and cyclists, you’re going to need them.
I cycle to work through the traffic. I find the best thing to do is to look at the driver and smile. You are then a human and not a cyclist! Then you can punch the guy if he drives dangerously knowing that you tried!
There's a cycle path on my commute that has a rough grippy surface that nobody uses because it slows them down. The council have just created dead space and made the roads narrower and MORE dangerous.
How many pedestrians on the footpath ? None, but the law and many cyclists, like Broadman, insist cyclists should stay on the roads for reasons of safety. Many of the urban footpaths alongside busy main roads are deserted, the British car bound public do not like to walk anywhere. The laws about cycling on footpaths are a 100 years old, introduced when few people owned cars, when the white van was pulled by a horse!
the cycle path is made for the politicians who can brag and boast about how modern, forward thinking and intelligent they are .. thus giving them the ability to pontificate that under their leadership they have installed x kms of cycle lane….. even though its an absolute joke of a system. i bet the person designed this system doesnt even ride a bike…+ they wont paint the road deliniationn markings as that would cost a tin of paint, a brush and unecessary wages…its all a load of shit !!
In the Netherlands we had a bike path make the news a couple of months ago, and the reason why will leave you flabbergasted after seeing this video. What happened was that the bike path was widened, wich in itself is a good thing. To widen the bike path a part of the sidewalk was used, and unfortunately the street lights which were placed on the edge between sidewalk and bike path, were scheduled to be moved a week after the bike path renovation was completed. So, the new bike path had street light poles placed inside it, a situation so news worthy to the dutch that it made the national news!
Nine years on and Chris Boardman is now National Active Travel Commissioner to oversee the implementation of the Government’s ambition for Active Travel. One challenge is to keep the Government involved and not say –“ATE does that”. His bigger challenge is to persuade local authorities that they have to do this! LTN 1/20 has many very good things but there are so many caveats and get-outs that it could all turn in to a massive box ticking exercise by councils that follow what they see as public opinion (more roads please) instead of leading it (e.g. better public health please).
As an example, the « cycle lane » from Hampton Wick (Kingston) to Hampton court is a painted white line and a filthy band of nasty tarmac less than 2 feet wide. It actually encourages close passing by cars.
Cycle lanes in the UK are a farce mainly. They should be created completely separate from vehicular traffic. Everything is done on the cheap in this country. How cyclists survive on our crazy roads is a miracle. I try to give them the widest space possible when I am passing them, but sometimes it is not possible due to sudden road narrowing or unexpected oncoming traffic. The government in this country – of every stripe, give lip service to the encouragement of cycling, but really do nothing to make it truly easy and safe. Occasionally they go overboard and create short lengths of super cycle lane, but it often ends up that they are under-used or themselves create unintended consequences for other road users and even pedestrians. Government is asleep on the job in reality and spends billions on unnecessary things instead of what is required by the citizens of this country.
29 Comments
Why not just stay on the road no?
It's pathetic
It’s bloody thingwall asif
Revolting to see how cyclists are neglected and the ones in charge will always tell us how they care about people safety, saving lifes.
I always want to know who the idiots are that design these and how much they get paid
Ridiculous, this is speaking as someone who's lived in Netherlands for over 10 years. Really the bike lane should be where the unused unmaintained footpath is on the verge, a bike lane costs a fraction to build and maintain of what the equivalent square footage/metrage in road surface costs since it doesn't have to be as strong and put up with so much weight. However the diverging away from road traffic at roundabouts is part and parcel of that and is what you see in the Netherlands, but normally there are traffic lights to ensure that cars stop to allow bikes to continue and vice versa. In the UK there are lots of footpaths which are scarcely used by pedestrians which should be converted to bike lanes.
Cycle lanes in the UK are for keeping emergency services, hospitals and morgues busy.
They’re a complete afterthought. They’re a reason for car bores to write into their local newspaper and complain about cyclists not using them.
One other thing to note is that, while the road gets salted the cycle infrastructure was quite frosty.
So Chris's main concern is having to give way at a road junction paid for by the Car Drivers. Cycle lanes should be well away from roads, like Milton Keynes & Harlow, however in Harlow the Cyclists will ride on a road when there is a safe, maintained cycle track running parallel to it – just because they can, this holds up traffic. Cars should respect cyclists, but cyclist should respect others, if there is a cycle track away from the roads, use it.
We also see the phenomenon (In London) where the pavement is wide enough for two car lanes, there is a cycle lane -complete with it's own traffic lights, which cyclist jump out of lane when their lights are red, to use car ones which are green, imagine if a car tried that – Then there is the single lane shared by buses, taxis and normal traffic.
Surely some of these extra wide footpaths could be adapted to keep cyclists safely away from HGV's and other traffic.
lf this was in Germany the cycle lane would be on the inside of the grass verge not right next to the road, complete lack of common sense in too many uk towns and cities !
I have been to the local council meetings in relation to cycling & the council representative has said the cycle lanes are not for cyclists but for the less confident people riding bikes. Needles to say pedestrians use them more than cyclists.
Whilst all the right sounds are made in favour of cycling, the hoops that have to be jumped through to secure the funding prohibit the development of the cycling infrastructure.
To me as a person living in the Netherlands this is the infrastructure equivalent to 'we've barely tried, but frankly don't even really give a crap'
I always use the shortest posable route and the easy .every route a bike route
Too be honest we're I live cycle lanes are abit funky, meaning that where there is a cycle lane there is a lamp post in the middle of it 😂 I mean OK you do you I guess?!
We all talk about, laws, bring laws in to help cyclists and car drivers to share the roads – that’s fine, but it’s an attitude problem, some cyclists, some drivers just don’t give a damn. For me, I don’t want live with the guilt of hitting a cyclist, as a cyclist myself I don’t want to end up a cripple – but if the ‘law’ clearly showed both drivers and cyclists can be severely punished, things may change. Today,I ride and drive with common sense, observation and curtesy to other road users..I may be naive, but far to many just DGAF.
It’s now 2022, new laws are coming in that frankly will create a blood bath for aforementioned people who DGAF. Cyclists to have right of way to a turning vehicle, yeh right. So many will risk being severely injured just because they have right of way. Good luck out there. Fit a camera, cars and cyclists, you’re going to need them.
I cycle to work through the traffic. I find the best thing to do is to look at the driver and smile. You are then a human and not a cyclist! Then you can punch the guy if he drives dangerously knowing that you tried!
British cycling infrastructure. Not at all thought through. Fucked-up, one might say.
Wholeheartedly agree with this video & Chris.. Would love all councillor's & MPs to see this…
There's a cycle path on my commute that has a rough grippy surface that nobody uses because it slows them down. The council have just created dead space and made the roads narrower and MORE dangerous.
How many pedestrians on the footpath ? None, but the law and many cyclists, like Broadman, insist cyclists should stay on the roads for reasons of safety. Many of the urban footpaths alongside busy main roads are deserted, the British car bound public do not like to walk anywhere. The laws about cycling on footpaths are a 100 years old, introduced when few people owned cars, when the white van was pulled by a horse!
the cycle path is made for the politicians who can brag and boast about how modern, forward thinking and intelligent they are .. thus giving them the ability to pontificate that under their leadership they have installed x kms of cycle lane….. even though its an absolute joke of a system. i bet the person designed this system doesnt even ride a bike…+ they wont paint the road deliniationn markings as that would cost a tin of paint, a brush and unecessary wages…its all a load of shit !!
In the Netherlands we had a bike path make the news a couple of months ago, and the reason why will leave you flabbergasted after seeing this video. What happened was that the bike path was widened, wich in itself is a good thing. To widen the bike path a part of the sidewalk was used, and unfortunately the street lights which were placed on the edge between sidewalk and bike path, were scheduled to be moved a week after the bike path renovation was completed. So, the new bike path had street light poles placed inside it, a situation so news worthy to the dutch that it made the national news!
Nine years on and Chris Boardman is now National Active Travel Commissioner to oversee the implementation of the Government’s ambition for Active Travel. One challenge is to keep the Government involved and not say –“ATE does that”. His bigger challenge is to persuade local authorities that they have to do this! LTN 1/20 has many very good things but there are so many caveats and get-outs that it could all turn in to a massive box ticking exercise by councils that follow what they see as public opinion (more roads please) instead of leading it (e.g. better public health please).
As an example, the « cycle lane » from Hampton Wick (Kingston) to Hampton court is a painted white line and a filthy band of nasty tarmac less than 2 feet wide. It actually encourages close passing by cars.
Cycle lanes are for drivers to keep cyclists out of their way.
The spandex brigade are the problem, commuting on race bikes with inappropriate tyres & feet clipped into pedals . All trying for a starve PB.
Just look at the cycles the Dutch use & the speed that they travel at .
Cycle lanes in the UK are a farce mainly. They should be created completely separate from vehicular traffic. Everything is done on the cheap in this country. How cyclists survive on our crazy roads is a miracle. I try to give them the widest space possible when I am passing them, but sometimes it is not possible due to sudden road narrowing or unexpected oncoming traffic. The government in this country – of every stripe, give lip service to the encouragement of cycling, but really do nothing to make it truly easy and safe. Occasionally they go overboard and create short lengths of super cycle lane, but it often ends up that they are under-used or themselves create unintended consequences for other road users and even pedestrians.
Government is asleep on the job in reality and spends billions on unnecessary things instead of what is required by the citizens of this country.