Saturday 2 April 2011

Old Filton Road

We'll cover this more over time, but here is a video from Yangtse55:



People will look at this and say "oh, this is the usual half-arsed cycle lane put in by some idiot". But it is more than that. It is a road that was closed to through traffic, and re-opened with a half-arsed cycle lane, due to councillor pressure.

For a year this was a nice road. No need for a cycle lane. Cars had the A4174 ring-road, this was the quiet alternative. Yet the need to provide a rural rat-run forced the road to be reopened and this piece of shite-cycling-facility to be rolled out. The cycle team probably worked hard to produce the least mediocre design they could given the constraints, but the key constraint was this "re-open the road to cars".

That was the mistake, and the blame goes above the cycle team. No, this lies at the Councillor level.

Bwian, was this your idea?

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, not the best road for cycling - I'm not sure what is more hazardous, going down there or crossing the M32 if you choose the ring road route. Anyway, concealed entrances are a pain but Highway Code rule 154 provides the appropriate advice for motorists AND cyclists.

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  2. Don't like this cycle lane? Why not try the "shared use path" opposite (cunningly disguised as a narrow pavement with the odd cycle sign painted on it) kindly provided by the council when they reopened the road.

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  3. Shawn, that's a one-way cycle pavement, and you should know better to even think of cycling eastwards on it. There is a big sign at the UWE end telling you not to cycle on the pavement away from UWE.

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