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Cycle Lanes

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starrymarkb

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Does anyone else think the UK doesn't really get the idea of cycle lanes. I've just come back from Amsterdam which has a full network of cycle lanes which are often separated from vehicles and are wide enough for cycles to pass.

Then over here there are such examples as the 10 yard long 2ft wide lane right up against a brick wall (no where to go if a truck is passing) and off road lanes that are too narrow for a pair of cycles to pass without one rider stopping and pulling into the verge.

So name and shame good and bad lanes!
 
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Simon11

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That a really great and funny website!
However November 2011 is really a non starter. It clearly says no entry on the road and a no entry sign. Therefore you won't have to "swerve across the path of oncoming traffic hurtling"
 

Bungle73

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That a really great and funny website!
However November 2011 is really a non starter. It clearly says no entry on the road and a no entry sign. Therefore you won't have to "swerve across the path of oncoming traffic hurtling"

The cycle lane clearly takes bikes across the road and through, so obviously it's not no entry for cycles.
 

DaveNewcastle

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This is my 'favourite' bit of daft cycle lane that I use:

Tavistock st cycle crossover resized.jpg[click to enlarge. That's London's Post Office Tower in the hazy distance.]

Its actually a very busy cycle route, running parallel to Euston Road / Marylebone Road in London. Yes, it is the Tavistock Street crossover! The left and right-hand lanes cross over each other.
 

142094

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As always, it is done better on the Continent rather than over here.
 

12CSVT

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There's a whole network of unofficial cycle lanes in this country, otherwise known as pavements. Problem is, that leaves nowhere for pedestrians to walk safely.
 

WestCoast

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Some European countries have graded pavements in certain areas (i.e. one half slightly higher than the other) to mark clearly the area for bikes and pedestrians. This tends to be where cycle lanes are absent and cycling is allowed on the pavement.
 

Mojo

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This is my 'favourite' bit of daft cycle lane that I use:

View attachment 12123[click to enlarge. That's London's Post Office Tower in the hazy distance.]

Its actually a very busy cycle route, running parallel to Euston Road / Marylebone Road in London. Yes, it is the Tavistock Street crossover! The left and right-hand lanes cross over each other.

Ah yes! Regularly used to use that when I lived in Fitzrovia and cycled to Kings +. The whole route is very busy, but quite narrow, particularly around Gordon Square which made me a bit uncomfortable (Streetview link).

The bit of 'wrong line running' you have linked to always made me laugh, and I'm sure I sat there for a few minutes one day and worked out why it looks like that, but going back on Streetview I can't work it out again. I'm sure the answer is obvious though!
 

33011

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The thing that annoys me are the times where i have been stuck behind a cyclyst when there is a perfectly wide cycle lane along the pavement that they refuse to use right by the side of them.
 

Bungle73

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The thing that annoys me are the times where i have been stuck behind a cyclyst when there is a perfectly wide cycle lane along the pavement that they refuse to use right by the side of them.

Maybe the cycle lane isn't convenient. There's no obligation to use them.
 

starrymarkb

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The thing that annoys me are the times where i have been stuck behind a cyclyst when there is a perfectly wide cycle lane along the pavement that they refuse to use right by the side of them.

Some paths are badly maintained and are full of holes and not good for riding!
 

Crossover

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There are some bad ones round here - it was pointed out to me just last night that one of them goes so narrow at one point, nothing could fit in the gap. A firm favourite round here is also to stop in the middle of nowhere!

Stafford was also quite annoying, as they tended to put cycle lanes on the pavement - albeit they usually took over more than half of the pavement and left pedestrian little room to walk
 

hairyhandedfool

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There is a cycle lane near me which I tend to avoid because to use it means I can't take the right hand turn I need without taking a detour (and the approaching from the other side).

The cycle lane moves onto the pavement just before the traffic light controlled right hand turn I need, then goes sharply downhill to allow pedestrians to use the subway and sharply uphill to road level again, it then stops about ten feet from a crossing over a motorway slip road, where it starts again, it then crosses another motorway slip road and heads downhill before stopping for a bus stop and starting again immediately afterwards. It then goes back on to the road on a roundabout between the dual carriageway road it has just been alongside and the dual carriageway that crosses it. To make it back to the right hand turn I want, I would then have to go right around the roundabout (in a cycle lane on the edge of the road) then head up the dual carriage way I have just come down. The cycle lane then moves to the pavement, but not next to the road and with no obvious entry point other than a pedestrian crossing. The cycle lane is slightly raised from the pavement at this point, but has pathways crossing it at the pavement level. It then takes you across two more motorway slip roads before dumping you on the road just before the left hand turn I would need.

I'm sure you can understand why I don't use it.

There is also a local cycle route (not to be confused with a cycle path, it is illegal to cycle on cycle routes that are on a footway/footpath) which goes along a not very busy road past three schools (yes there was some sarcasm there) that helpfully has a 'cyclists dismount' sign on it.
 

90019

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One I never understand is cyclists who refuse to use the path next to this road.
It's a shared path that never really has anyone walking on it, the surface is better than the road, and the road is NSL.
I just find it amazing that you get cyclists who insist on cycling along the road, as if out of sheer bloody mindedness.
 

DaveNewcastle

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Ah yes! Regularly used to use that when I lived in Fitzrovia and cycled to Kings +. The whole route is very busy, but quite narrow, . . . .

The bit of 'wrong line running' you have linked to always made me laugh, and I'm sure I sat there for a few minutes one day and worked out why it looks like that, but going back on Streetview I can't work it out again. I'm sure the answer is obvious though!
Its amusing that you say that, because I'm sure someone explained it to me once, and it suddenly made sense.

But, having used the route dozens of times since, I can honestly say that I can't remember the explanation, and it's certainly not apparent from using the junction! (I often use the Judd Street turning in both directions, to or from Kings Cross, and that doesn't seem to explain anything). In fact, the only hazard to cyclists is the crossover itself!
Here it is again but viewed from the west:

Tavistock st cycle crossover 2 resized.jpg [click on image to enlarge]
 
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deltic1989

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Click Here to see what the clever planners at Lincoln City Council thought would be a good idea. It's on Saltergate near the Central Library, its only about 20 Yds long.

And here is how cyclists are provided for on Skellingthorpe road, the path is just about wide enough for an avearge sized person to walk down, and there is certainly no room for cyclists and pedestrians to pass, added to that the total disregard that the local drivers (and bus drivers) have for the posted 40 mph speed limit, you have a recipe for disaster.
 
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