UK Cycle lanes of the month!... not... Good for a laugh...from afar! :)

[JWestland]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-the-month/index.htm

Some hilarious how-no-tos in here. Builder toilet block parked on cycle lane, bollards smack bang in the middle, very narrow fences at the end of a downhill lane...

Good for a laugh...from afar!

[Andre Jute]

In Cork, all the cycle lanes converge on the Accident & Emergency Gate at Cork University Hospital.

Do the road planners know something we don't?

Andre Jute

[triaesthete]

Jawiine, it's not funny here   The only good thig about them is that we don't have to use them.
The universal principle of UK cycle lane design seems to be "the cyclist must give way to everything at all times and be forced to stop as often as possible".
Ho hum
Ian

[JWestland]

LOL maybe the doctors there cycle due to a secret death wish? Straight into work

I cycle in Belfast, UK Ian so I know exactly what you're talking about

A rather good one is an advisory cycle lane in the door zone in a one way street...going the wrong way.
(and the A&E is not anywhere near it lol)

I find blocking the lane, assuming stupidity from everybody else on the road and copious amounts of road rage excellent coping mechanisms

Drivers here are mostly OK, just they don't indicate. Ever. Just...don't. You learn to work this by learning subtle driver body language and path deviations in cars...

[triaesthete]

 :)Maybe there is hope though. Take a look     at these vids from Transport for London. Selling cyclng as a life enhancer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynG83aPpyrI&feature=autoplay&list=SP8281EC987D620154&playnext=5
Who'd have thought it?
Maybe cars will go the way of smoking in the next twenty years.

Ian

[JWestland]

"I feel so much safer with this blue around me"

OLOL they respect cycle lanes over there? And nothing about some extremely dodgy crossing there either...however new sights to the city, being refreshing (especially on a day where it's bucketing down...) totally agree!

Cynicism aside, it's great to see the UK making a half-assed effort, if we keep pushing it might become a proper effort.
In Belfast so far it's come down to a lot of green on the road, but at least it makes the drivers more aware that cyclists exist.

It would be flipping nice though if the subjective awareness that cycling in risky reduces, but that will only happen if there will be more room, separate cycle lanes, more respect from drivers and people get rid of helmets while commuting as these make it seem like a risky activity.

Cars will go the way of smoking the way petrol prices are going...

[Danneaux]

Hi All!

I'm reading about the UK cycle lane situation with great interest...from afar...and thinking how closely it relates to what I am seeing here at home.

Yesterday, I heard some Big Noises while in my back garden and set out to investigate. Turns out the City is creating another new connector from the on-street paths of River Road to the off-street riverside paths, just four blocks away from me (pic). It will be nice to have the new bridge and the connector over the new salmon estuary. By summer's end, many of the riverfront paths on my side of the water will be torn up and renovated, aging 40 year-old asphalt replaced with highway-grade, reinforced concrete 12ft wide. To see the area in Bicycle StreetView, go to GoogleMaps, enter "Copping and Formac, Eugene, OR" (no quotes) and place the GoogleMan's green circle just southeast of that intersection for a look-see. Google hasn't connected car Street view with the bicycle one, so you have to jump the gap this way.

It may look idyllic -- and in many ways, is -- but there are problems. Cyclists (other than me) aren't using our on-street bike paths, preferring instead to use the sidewalks, which are often root-heaved and crossed by a zillion driveways.  It's deadly for pedestrians (I walk 5 miles/day myself in addition to cycling regularly) as Wheeled Death closes from behind with no warning and sometimes a bare 2cm of clearance.

I really think if we are to get more people riding, it is going to take dedicated, separated off-street paths much as in The Netherlands, with individual corridors for cars, cyclists, and peds. The trouble is, now we have a good start on the bicycling infrastructure...and over the course of thise same 40 years, it is proving to be the wrong flavor. It is going to cost a lot to change it...more than is available. Part of th eneed for a new paradigm is worsening traffic and driver behavior. In-car cell phone use is a big factor, as are other distractions. Often, while stopped at traffic signals, I can look over and down into the cars next to me and see people are driving their living rooms! The new Popular Distraction (besides steering with knees while texting or buying things on eBay with the smart phone while carving through traffic) is watching television. Several local shops are doing a brisk business installing sun visor monitors and half-silvered rearview mirrors with 4G "push" so the drivers don't miss a single episode of Jersey Shore. Thanks to widespread alcohol and methamphetamine use and minimal police presence (the city/county jail was recently closed due to budget cuts), there's a lot of impaired drivers as well.

I do pretty well in traffic, but I can surely see why others -- especially those with children -- avoid the on-street paths.

To see the worst-rated intersections in the City for bicycles and car accidents, go again to GoogleMaps and this time enter "River Rd and River Ave, Eugene, OR", and you'll get an idea. Click on the StreetView thumbnail, and you'll see a sidewalk cyclist about to cross as a pedestrian. Rotate left (North) and you'll see the cyclists' blue-box (we've since gone to green) that crosses the freeway on-ramp. The cycle lane is set between traffic lanes, and car drivers consider the bike path to be a transition lane for entry. Worse, cars can turn from the middle lane over cyclists. A car chopped me off a couple years ago and lightly knocked my front wheel with the corner of the rear bumper, but okay otherwise. I have seen five motorcycle accidents at the end of the blue-box where cars turned across the motorbikes' paths; one where a pickup went entirely over the motorbike as the downed rider kicked away from it. That's the local park-and-ride lot there to the right, so the frequent articulated city buses also cross the path entering and leaving the bus bays. There's too much going on a in too-short space for cyclist safety. I worry I'm going to buy it there, but it is the main way to get north out into the rural farmland that opens with the Valley to the north.

The alternate, new off-street connector is great, but dumps one square-on into 55mph freeway off-ramp traffic with no path to the continuing shoulder onto Beaver St except through a corner cut by all the cars. Go again to GoogleMaps, enter "Division Ave and Beaver St, Eugene, OR", and hit the StreetView thumbnail pic. You'll see how abruptly the path ends and across the street...another bewildered sidewalk cyclist, unsure where to go but absolutely certain it won't be the on-street cyce lane.

I'm very glad and grateful for what we've got (there was *nothing* in the way of bike paths when I briefly lived in Mississippi before returning home to Oregon), but wish it was better...particularly with car traffic worsening by the day.

All the best,

Dan.

[JWestland]

http://belfastbikelanes.tumblr.com/

The usual irritations cycling here, cars everywhere, motorists not respecting advance stop lanes, some really iffy junctions.

And the cracker is that cycle lane going the wrong way (see blog above)

But being dumped into a 55mph road? Phew...I took a look and that's a really dysfunctional cycle lane start, of course starting in a corner...

I don't know how driver behavior is where you live, but here there's a lot of non indicating, parking everywhere with a smattering of giving WAY too little room when overtaking (4 inches? do you want to park on the back of my rack?) , the manfriend nearly got left turned by a car, and we both got 4 inches from a big lorry when touring. And another tour I got about 4 inches from a car.

A more hilarious incident involved both of us standing at the advanced cycle lane waiting for the light to turn green, with a guy in a car start starting revving like mad when he saw us. Lol, what?

How are the drivers there?

[Danneaux]

Goodness, Jawine!

Seeing the photos and examples in the blog link you posted, I'll never complain again!

When I compare what you have there with what I saw in Schiedam or Weert, NL...well, the difference is like night and day. I was a bit scared to drive in the short distance between Schiedam and Rotterdam out of concern I would somehow uh, "damage" a cyclist. There is such absolute certainly cars will stop...cyclists just don't.  Made for some "Yikes!" moments on my part with Great worry and concern. I do wish the transpo planners hadn't allow motorized scooters in the bike lanes, though. Scooterists all seem to get the imported expansion "stinger" exhausts and that makes their two-strokes deafening. Worse, it increases speed greatly as they carve down through the bike traffic and it is a bit irritating as they perform the Rev-Tuning Symphony while waiting for the bruggen to drop into place. The Domino's pizza delivery scooters are the worst. Ah, trouble in Paradise is all relative, isn't it? And, that's only in urban areas. Once out in the countryside on the ANWB maps and routes and VVV numbered paths...no worries at all.

Nothing -- no.thing!! -- like what you have there in Belfast, though. Mercy! My hat's off to you for simply surviving.

Here? Well, drivers and traffic have changed greatly over the last 20 years or so. The public monies are all gone, so little to no police funding and effectively no traffic-law enforcement. The incidence of casual, widespread methamphetamine use has skyrocketed (my father has decided to fire his attorney; she was impaired at our meeting last week and didn't know when the appointment was, why it was scheduled or the content once she finally made it there. She drove to the appointment, of course, and then back home again); there's a lot of driving impaired by that and alcohol. There has recently been a large influx of people from outside the state that contributes, too. It isn't a xenophobic thing with me; my complaint is the state has full license reciprocity, so the newbies don't really have to become familiar with local driving. When they change lanes, it isn't stepwise, but "dive for the far one" -- with no turn signal, of course. I've seen less action on Formula-1 starting grids when the lights go green and the race begins. The first corner is usually carnage in either venue.

Besides impairment, mostly what I see is a massive amount of distraction and great impatience. The distractions come from having too many things to do in the car besides driving -- nav system, anything related to having a cell phone, swatting the unbelted kids in the backseat, eating, shaving, applying makeup, performing stock trades, buying stuff on eBay. Driving has become something that is done "by the way" and usually by the knees, and both hands are occupied with some other task.

As for the impatience, that is manifested in a myriad of ways in every venue, but really affects the cyclist in traffic. Thought and action are one for drivers, it seems, and if a cyclist is in the way...too bad. There have been a number of serious car-bike accidents locally, and some deaths as well. For awhile there, the ghost bikes were popping up on street corners. A new trick I've noticed recently is car drivers waiting at stop signs till I'm nearly on then...then pulling out right in front of me. I've learned to wait in the bike lane about three cars back, so when drivers get tired of waiting and turn right-on-red...it isn't over me.

Though it is illegal, I see a lot of car drivers treating the bike lanes as right-turn lanes, so cyclists get the Big Squeeze on corners. This has collected a number of riders in Portland, to the north. Usually, it is big trucks like garbage trucks and dump trucks and such, and the outcome is usually fatal for cyclicts. Fortunately, we don't have that outcome here in Eugene; drivers seem to wakeup at the last moment. I've been tapped lightly by car bumpers (and lightly rear-ended once by a city bus!) occasionally over the years, but nothing serious, though I went down hard on pavement (shirtless on a hot day! ouch!) and broke a helmet on a curb trying to avoid a too closely-following driver back in my uni days. One learns to discern between headrests and heads in parked cars to avoid door-nailing, though one can't account for the driver who is reaching for a purse or briefcase on the passenger-side floorboards. They pop up like a jack-in-the-box and open the driver's door in one smooth motion. Now I no longer commute (I work from my home office), I avoid many of the places that were high-risk; no need to go there, so I don't. The university environment was worse, I think...other cyclists were the greatest hazard there.

So, "the usual" here, but not too bad. So much better than many, many (most?) other communities in the country, so my complaints are relative and should be taken in that larger context as being pretty minor. Surely not as bad as you deal with daily there in Belfast. Besides the drivers, you've got the dysfunctional infrastructure (wrong-way lanes?!? What were the planners thinking?!?) to deal with and what looks like some pretty ingrained Bad Behaviors (available lane = free parking!).

Do be careful, please! Same for your manfriend. Gotta keep you both around, safe and sound.

A more hilarious incident involved both of us standing at the advanced cycle lane waiting for the light to turn green, with a guy in a car start starting revving like mad when he saw us. Lol, what?

Oh, that's an easy one, Jawine. Y'see...the car driver saw what gears you two can pull and knew unless he got the jump on you, you'd beat him handily across the intersection. My money's on you two, any day of the week!

All the best,

Dan.

[JWestland]

When I compare what you have there with what I saw in Schiedam or Weert, NL...well, the difference is like night and day. I was a bit scared to drive in the short distance between Schiedam and Rotterdam out of concern I would somehow uh, "damage" a cyclist. There is such absolute certainly cars will stop...cyclists just don't.
###In The Netherlands, the roles are reversed...everybody is bricking it because of the cyclists

Weert? No way...my parents live there! I lived there from age 14-21

 Made for some "Yikes!" moments on my part with Great worry and concern. I do wish the transpo planners hadn't allow motorized scooters in the bike lanes, though. Scooterists all seem to get the imported expansion "stinger" exhausts and that makes their two-strokes deafening.
###There are noise rules for those, whether these are enforced is part nr 2...

Worse, it increases speed greatly as they carve down through the bike traffic and it is a bit irritating as they perform the Rev-Tuning Symphony while waiting for the bruggen to drop into place.
###Rev-Tuning Symphony? LOL

Nothing -- no.thing!! -- like what you have there in Belfast, though. Mercy! My hat's off to you for simply surviving.
###Though in fairness, bar some hairy overtaking I haven't been dumped by a car yet! Unlike you.

Only accident was a slip on a wet manhole cover taking a sharp corner as 30 km/hour on brand new still too hard kevlar tires. Note to self: Do not do.

Here? Well, drivers and traffic have changed greatly over the last 20 years or so. The public monies are all gone, so little to no police funding and effectively no traffic-law enforcement. The incidence of casual, widespread methamphetamine use has skyrocketed (
###Yes that was on the news here also, that it's become the drug of choice.

There has recently been a large influx of people from outside the state that contributes, too.
###It seems every place has its own driving styles, here for example don't expect indicating, in NL watch the bikes. Not sure if a mandatory course is the way to go, as you said there's no public money left!

Driving has become something that is done "by the way" and usually by the knees, and both hands are occupied with some other task.
###Ow lovely :S

As for the impatience, that is manifested in a myriad of ways in every venue, but really affects the cyclist in traffic. Thought and action are one for drivers, it seems, and if a cyclist is in the way...too bad.
###Lovely...I have to say it's not as bad over here!

Though it is illegal, I see a lot of car drivers treating the bike lanes as right-turn lanes, so cyclists get the Big Squeeze on corners. This has collected a number of riders in Portland, to the north. Usually, it is big trucks like garbage trucks and dump trucks and such, and the outcome is usually fatal for cyclicts.
###Trucks are killers everywhere, same here. Lorry drivers killed two  cyclists last year only in NI, which is just 1.8 million people and few cyclists. Death on wheels, I stay well clear of them things.

One learns to discern between headrests and heads in parked cars to avoid door-nailing, though one can't account for the driver who is reaching for a purse or briefcase on the passenger-side floorboards. They pop up
 like a jack-in-the-box and open the driver's door in one smooth motion. ###Here the advice given to cyclists is: Do NOT cycle in the door zone. If that means blocking a lane, tough. I nearly got doored that near miss was scary enough.

Besides the drivers, you've got the dysfunctional infrastructure (wrong-way lanes?!? What were the planners thinking?!?) to deal with and what looks like some pretty ingrained Bad Behaviors (available lane = free parking!).
###Though drivers where you are seem legally blind compared to here, the bad turns do happen, but not in the frequence you report. Only hairy overtaking so far, and that's 3 years of commuting here.

The infrastructure is pretty bad though. And again cuts, cuts, cuts and widening roads costs a fortune. Then where there IS money they don't know what they're doing! Luckily there are some cycling advocy groups active.

Do be careful, please! Same for your manfriend. Gotta keep you both around, safe and sound.
###We just block the lane if we have to. Car doors here are a common hazard, so sometimes you need to take space. And if needed, walk a bit on the kerb.

Quote
A more hilarious incident involved both of us standing at the advanced cycle lane waiting for the light to turn green, with a guy in a car start starting revving like mad when he saw us. Lol, what?
Oh, that's an easy one, Jawine. Y'see...the car driver saw what gears you two can pull and knew unless he got the jump on you, you'd beat him handily across the intersection. My money's on you two, any day of the week!
###LOL it was straight road for a mile or so. I suspect a severe case of insecurity...

[Danneaux]

Weert? No way...my parents live there! I lived there from age 14-21

Way! One of my favorite (though all good) Natuurkampeerteerein (natural camping) sites was Wega at Weert:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwega%2Bat%2Bweert%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1173%26bih%3D574%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=nl&u=http://www.natuurkampeersite.nl/index.php&usg=ALkJrhgPV6QC1AzNDBNg-fX9JEUeTUlh6Q

The free hot water in the showers sold me, especially given much of that tour was in the rain and cold of September at the tail-end of an unusually cool summer for the NL. Friends in Schiedam had only had one backyard barbecue by the time I arrived. That second one was the last, due to weather.

So you lived in Weert?  Small world! I did the NL North-to-South through the middle and by the sea, East-to-West, and up-from-below (Vlissingen), since one of my friends was a Zeelander; stayed at his Oma's farm east of Middelburg, where he was born. It seems I'm always running into someone from someplace in the NL other than Amsterdam, and we both end up surprised. Last week, it was a woman from Oostkapelle (Zeeland) and last month it was a man from Assen (NE)...and I'm some Dutch by heritage myself (some of the family on one side fled England for Leiden and lived there for a few years on the way to America; the rest is the usual American mix...Scotch, Irish, English, German, and French. Dad recently found an old building from a land grant that had once been in the family. Built in the 1400s, it is still in use. Don't make 'em like that here).

Wish I could get my pickled herring here, on a paper tray with those little diced onions; I love the stuff -- Rottendam-style, using the tail as a handle!

All the best,

Dan.

[JWestland]

Hmmmm herring....only food I still miss after 10 years here 

Belfast, UK now, and you can camp in my garden or be too comfortable on a sofa/sofa bed if you ever make it down

[Danneaux]

Thanks, Jawine! What a wonderful offer! Same goes for you two if you make it over this way. 

Can't offer the herring, but there's other good stuff (smoked salmon) and you'd not go hungry!

Best,

Dan.

[Danneaux]

Hi All!

New York City is not exactly the UK, but it does have some challenges for cyclists who use bike lanes (from what I can see; I've yet to visit).

First, there is the infamous "cheat sheet" used to aid police in issuing citations for offenses...that may not be legally enforceable or even applicable in NYC:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/05/09/nypd-bike-blitz-cheat-sheet-tells-cops-to-enforce-invalid-traffic-laws/

Jasmijn Rijcken of Van Moof Cycles ( http://vanmoof.com/ ) was cited for wearing a short skirt while riding, under the premise she caused a hazard by distracting drivers. This was caught and commented on by the Amsterdamize blog ( http://amsterdamize.com/2011/06/30/celebrating-people-on-bikes-volume-i-and-ii/ ) who followed-up with brief coverage of the supportive "skirt rides" that resulted in protest. Commment has been worldwide:
http://www.google.nl/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Jasmijn+Rijcken+skirt&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=3UMMTrnAEtDrOcTCoagL&gbv=1&sei=BIkiUMrFKNSAqgH-4IH4CQ

Among the more common tickets issued are those for failing to ride in the bike lane:
http://transportationnation.org/2011/04/26/nypd-tickets-cyclists-for-not-riding-in-bike-lane/

This has resulted in a recent viral video ( http://vimeo.com/25037336 ) by NYC filmmaker Casey Nystat ( http://caseyneistat.com/ ) that has been scorching through the cycling blogosphere. In it, he took some amazing risks to illustrate the dangers of blocked bike lanes and everyday hazards facing those who use them. He wore no helmet or visible pads, and I am astounded he wasn't badly hurt or killed in performing some of his stunts. Still, it is a startling portrayal of what can happen when bike lanes are used by motor vehicles and pretty much everyone else for other than intended purpose.

Wow! It really is a jungle Out There.

Best,

Dan.

[NZPeterG]

Here is a cycle lane for BMX rider's
or Trials?