[Closed] Do you use a cycle lane?

So, I use the good ones and not the poor ones.

+1

rarely if you mean the bits painted on the edge of the road - too narrow. On the pavement - almost never - obstructed. Offroad ones on old railways - as often as I can - we have a network in edinburgh

I'd like to ask pedestrians if they ever use pedestrian lanes. Up near Prestwich Tesco, the pavement is divided for bikes / peeps but peeps just walk in the bike lane and tut when you ride by. Same happens in other places where the pavement is "shared."

Just outside Middleton centre there is a very thoughtfully provided cycle lane (green paint job) that runs for all of 25 yards.

The route to work has one short cycle lane in the 16miles, there is also one section of national cycle network that is off-road, not just off the road, rather on gravel, i tried it once, gravel and 23mm tyres don't mix. The section of cyclepath is not to bad, but does mean crossing a busy road twice so i only use it on the homeward leg when i don't have to cross the road.

Most of the routes i am aware of have far too many side roads, and some give priority to the pavement cyclepath, but are you really going to force a car to give way? Others are covered in leaves, grit, glass, etc. There are very few i would choose over the road.

I never use the shared use/pavement ones, or any that disappear at junctions (When you need a cycle lane the most!) or require you to give way at every single side road or driveway, or any that seem to think you're in a cyclocross race that requires you to dismount every time they can't be bothered to figure out where to put a cycle lane in, or the handlebar wide painted space at the side of the road full of sh1te.

But apart from that, sometimes.

On my commute there are a couple that provide a genuine short cut to rush hour traffic, even though they go share pavement. the ones at the side of the road are varisble

Every commute I make sure to use the cycle facilities as so thoughtfully provided by my council taxes.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]
(I use this one for practicing my Danny Macaskill style trials manoeuvres).

The answer is no I don't, they're all shit.

I tried one in Perth and hit a van. First time I'd used one and it put me off...

No, we don't have many round here and I only really ride on the country back roads anyway.

If it's just a split use sign on a pavement, not a chance. I do however use the ones on Hillingdon on my commute. They are however about 3 feet wide and on the road, and I ride on the edge in the Primary Position.

Yep! My commute is 18km and almost all of it is on cycle path of one type or another.

Mainly a lovely, completely off the road (NCN 72) path along old railway lines near the Tyne.

Oddly the section along the dual-carriageway has the choice of either shared-use pavement or a narrow marked cycle lane/gutter on the road - I stick to the pavement (no peds around there anyway) and annoy all the drivers by using the Toucan crossings 😀

Shared use along the Newcastle Quayside too - busier, but dodging dozy peds is a lot easier than getting snarled up in the circuitous road system and rush hour traffic around there.

the only one I regularly use runs from Tottenham Court Road in London to Angel. It is a pretty good one.
Plus the nearest 'road side' ones throughout the City and of course the Boris Bike Superhighway.
Shared use ones are pointless if you travel over 10mph.

I only use cycle lanes if:

1. It is going exactly where I want to go anyway.

2. It has no more junctions added to it than the road route. (side roads etc, i.e. priority is still with me)

3. It isn't full of parked cars

4. It isn't painted too close to parked cars

5. It isn't full of manholes/huge holes/broken glass/dog eggs/clueless pedestrians/familys on bikes

6. It isn't constructed in the manner of a 'cycle-lane facilty-of-the-month' horror story.

7. It isn't placed in 'turn-left without looking' territory.

8. It is no more than 10% longer than the road route, and dosn't include 5000ft extra climb over every and any possible minor obstruction.

9. The surface is tarmaced and in good condition (no moss, no cavernous holes, lot like riding down washboard).

10. You can carry good speed (i.e. isn't full of 90degree corners, blind approaches, diving off through back roads through housing estates).

11. Not marked out with litres of white paint, which, when damp, turns them into an ice-skaing rink.

The result is that I rarely use 'cycle lanes'.

Advance stop lines are ace though. I used to use the Bath-Bristol cycle path to commute to work on a lot too.

On road- yes as long as they're wide enough. Shared pavements- rarely, they tend to be on the outer edge of the pavement which means you're going up and down dropped kerbs, having to stop at side roads, and it's anti-social to ride at a decent speed on a shared path when there's other people about.

the pavement is divided for bikes / peeps but peeps just walk in the bike lane and tut when you ride by.

I once had a disgruntled bloke get all shouty that I [i]"should be on the road"[/i], despite the fact he was practically standing on the painted bike logo and next to a shared use sign.

I have very little doubt that if he was in a car and saw me on the road he would get all shouty that I should be on the cycle path.

🙄

I tend to only use them if they're better than being on the road.
So if they take a better route or the road is a dangerous one.

Most of the time I don't bother though. Every time people see a bike in an off-road cycle lane it reinforces their view that bikes shouldn't be allowed on the road.

[img] [/img]
[img] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-the-month/September2011.htm [/img]

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

Living in the same city as the to55er from Exeter FM i have the mispleasure of using some of the cycle lanes; which are invariably shared with other users (no problem with that) except the usual abuse you get because i dont have a bell to warn them when approaching.
The only decent cycle path we really have is along the canal, but still have to dodge pedestrians walking obliviously in the middle of it, despite having seperate walkway and playing field either side. Was told recently im the sort of person who gives cyclists a bad name becuase i shouted out "bike up" while sensibly riding up behind some dog walkers in the middle of the cycle path.

instant hit: just get a bell? If you can find one with a suitably polite "ting" then people get out the way and you'll get thanked for using it.

My experience with a bell, is that people either don't hear it, ignore it, or jump directly into your path, rather than staying put. These days I just slow down or avoid the 'cycle-path' altogether.

[img] ?v=1[/img]

Not ones like those. In general on road lanes are only there when the road is wide enough to ride safely without them. The net effect is to increase hassle from drivers as they don't understand why I'm not in the lane at places like these. Although, strangely, most other cyclists on this road ride in thne doorzone here.

I find a bell a great help on shared use paths and am often thanked for using one.

Yep. Halfords Bike Bell. pretty discreet, nice polite "ting", £3.

[img] http://washford.scene7.com/is/image/Washford/189731?$prod$ [/img]

Worth having just so you can smugly point to it when people rant about cyclists not having bells (as I did with my father-in-law 😀 )

[url= http://www.weirdcyclelanes.co.uk/ ]Weird Cycle Lanes[/url]

rarely if you mean the bits painted on the edge of the road - too narrow. On the pavement - almost never - obstructed. Offroad ones on old railways - as often as I can - we have a network in edinburgh

This.

Anything other than off-road cycle lanes (i.e. ones that are specifically set aside for cyclists, not shared with pedestrians) are more of a hazard than a help. They do more to divide road users than anything else. On pavement ones usually annoy both peds and cyclists as they're obstructed and both people think the other shouldn't be there. On road ones are generally ignored by drivers until yelling at a cyclist to be in them is helpful for them. We're all traffic, we should be on the roads and should be accepted and respected there, not forced into tiny lanes or made to mix with vulnerable foot traffic on narrow trails.

Have used the bell thing in the past but as pointed out by anotherdeadhero nobody hears it anyway, found a nice polite shout is usually more effective.
Anyway bell does not look cool and affects areodynamics on my road bike!!!!!!!!!!!

I tend to use them most of my journey. Apart from the one in Bury town centre. The conversation in the the town planning department appears to have been:

"Hi, you look bored, what are you up to?"

"Well. For a laugh I'm trying to work out what is the longest, most convoluted and nonsensical way of getting from A, here, to point B, 100 yards up there?"

Hmmmmmmmmm - well we could build a couple of inexplicable subways going underneath 2 roads, then cycle lanes across all the traffic lights leading up to them? They vear off the main road by miles

Yeah... that looks like a winner. Hey.... I've just noticed.... as a bonus, that will bring the cyclist out on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, after taking him half a mile out of the way, and he'll have to cross back over at another crossing

Result!

affects areodynamics on my road bike!!!!!!!!!!!

it's the extra weight that's the real issue 😆

An old favourite from my home town

[img] [/img]

I had a comedy old school bike horn for a while. That was teh amsuement. Sadly the rubber ball fell off eventually. You did have to use it a long way out to avoid giving anyone a heart attack, and mostly they just walked into your way anyway. A big hit with pissed students mind.

[img] [/img]

I think bells are great for shared paths. I find people do hear them and do get out of the way.

What I do find with shared paths/offroad paths/anywhere where you come close to pedestrians is....

No matter how thoughtful you are, how polite and courteous you are, how much out of your way to go to avoid causing pedestrians any problems, no matter how much effort you put into not killing or injuring them or their feral children/animals.....

The miserable buggers never, ever say thanks. Never. I just slowed right down, I went right off the path through the mud, I rang my little bell to let you know I was there and you couldn't even be arsed acknowledging it. I could have just ridden flat out, right up close. You'd have crapped yourself. But I didn't. Because I thought about you. How about just saying thanks for once. A quick nod will do.

Nope? No.

Depends where you are I think samuri. I start my commute in a fairly rural area: I get a lot of nice "Morning"s and "Thankyou"s from the various dog/child walkers.

But as I get closer to the city I hear fewer "mornings" and more tutting.

Bells are great, but the horn on the tandem when under the Windsor Relief Road in the tunnel is something to behold 😆 .

when I'm riding the stretch that matey on the radio is referring to you're damn right that I use the [b]well surfaced [i]traffic free[/i] Sustrans route[/b]..

That stretch of road is treacherous and the millions spent providing the alternative route for cyclists is a godsend and will save lives..

Plus you get a very picturesque ride along the estuary rather than along the shoddily maintained and heavily trafficked parallel A-road

that radio bloke is a wally but he has a point..

Quite a few bike lanes on my commute but they are mainly narrow ones so I'll be right on the edge of them anyway - which does cause problems when militant motorists drive 2" from the white line. Couple of sections run right alongside parking bays so prime dooring territory, I avoid those which winds up motorists unfortunately, sorry but [i]my[/i] safety is [i]my[/i] priority.

Couple of mandatory ones in good places where they would really help cyclists but lots of motorists ignore them and drive over them cutting you up or running you into the pavement etc.

Also a couple of dodgy mandatory ones which if you follow could well leave you in pretty serious conflict with other road users, I avoid these and wince when I see others using them.

I regularly ride on a DC the cycle friendly alternative has 3 subways 15 slalom gates and takes about 10 minutes longer and a lot more energy. When I don't feel upto the DC I use a shortcut of my own design including a short dirt road section and ignoring atleast 1 nocycling sign 🙂

<Edit>Proper offroad bike lanes seem to be a bit like motorways, supposedly taking you in relative comfort from A to B via slightly longer but easier to negotiate route and generally quicker. Unfortunatley bike lanes tend to get covered in glass, debris, slalom gates, dog eggs, random walkers etc. Hardly anyone would use motorways if they had similar inconveniences and worked out a lot slower would they?

I only use cycle lanes if:

1. It is going exactly where I want to go anyway.

2. It has no more junctions added to it than the road route. (side roads etc, i.e. priority is still with me)

3. It isn't full of parked cars

4. It isn't painted too close to parked cars

5. It isn't full of manholes/huge holes/broken glass/dog eggs/clueless pedestrians/familys on bikes

6. It isn't constructed in the manner of a 'cycle-lane facilty-of-the-month' horror story.

7. It isn't placed in 'turn-left without looking' territory.

8. It is no more than 10% longer than the road route, and dosn't include 5000ft extra climb over every and any possible minor obstruction.

9. The surface is tarmaced and in good condition (no moss, no cavernous holes, lot like riding down washboard).

10. You can carry good speed (i.e. isn't full of 90degree corners, blind approaches, diving off through back roads through housing estates).

11. Not marked out with litres of white paint, which, when damp, turns them into an ice-skaing rink.

+1 I'm with ADH here, so I don't use them too often either.
Like most cycling infrastructure they rarely seem to have had any input from anybody who knows anything about riding a bike for transport as a grown-up.

BoardinBob - Member
An old favourite from my home town

Samuri: ear buds/phones of the oblivious pedestrian!

Evolution gave us all this flight or fight instinct then it gets smothered by personal music playing/phone conversation. Every so often, if you are close enough, it kicks in and you get a "tut". 🙂

as others have said - where they make sense

- driving today i followed a guy riding on ringroad (st mary's gate sheffield)there is a cycle lane (edit sahred use pavement) but its only purpose is to allow [i]"traffic" [/i] to "flow"

i once hard an altercation with a driver on this section when he took me out (no injuries) on roundabout - he told me " you should be using the cycle path" - "but it doesn't go where i want to go!"

similar waited a couple of weeks after mrs antigee started a regular commute and then asked her if she road on the road or took the (shared use/lots of blind exits) cycle lane - she had chosen the road as safer

seems to me that a lot of cycle lanes routed through industrial areas/parked cars seem to be considered safer because any accidents are lower speed - but opportunity for them to me seems to be increased, rather than dealing with the problem of inconsiderate driving on busier roads

...drivels on

if it is direct, as not silly stops in it and goes where I want then yes..

Samuri: ear buds/phones of the oblivious pedestrian!

Pedestrian ahead, 20ft away - Tingting
no response start to slow down - Tingting
Nowt, slower - tingtingting
nothing, pull up to walking pace behind pedestrian - tingtingtingtingtingtingtingtingting
Sod this, ride passed walker who jumps a mile, swears and shouts "get a bell you ignorant sod!"

Are you refering to this?

think the guy is going to get himself lynched 😯

70% of my commute is on cycle path.

all of this is traffic free/ shared use pathway.

I am lucky that there are no cycle lanes on my route as they often seem a bit of an after thought. having said that they are improving

it depends

Depends here too. Some of the ones on my commute are sensible and either let me take a short cut (e.g. legitimately going the "wrong" way down a one way street) or avoid hold ups.

But some are just odd. The bits I find most bizarre are a couple of places where the council has just put bike signs on lampposts. There's no cycle lane marked on either the road or the pavement so I assume that they mean you should use the pavement but without the slightest attempt at making it a decent shared use facility. No way. Particularly as it's a student area and therefore a higher than normal percentage of dopey peds. I'd rather stay on the road.

And on most of my commute the cycle lanes have dashed lines and are mainly used for people to park in rather than for bikes.

Anyone on here use the one from Westhill past Kingswells into Hazledhead?

If you don't then WTF not?

TBH it's incredibly annoying when the perfectly good cycle lane which is not part of the dual carriageway but runs alongside it is overlooked by folks on bikes who do use the dual carriageway. Disturbs nice flow of traffic and introduces risk to the cyclists - particularly the numpty who weaves in and out with little in the way of decent lighting or reflective clothing.

Mate, are you on some form of confrontation or suicide mission or are you just to macho to use the good cycle lane?

to = too in last bit of course....

Disturbs nice flow of traffic and introduces risk to the cyclists - particularly the numpty who weaves in and out

presumably he/she is travelling faster than the flowing vehicles then

Check out this lane - just down the road from me
http://g.co/maps/w4q4a

Its a quiet back road. Go on the cycle lane you have to give way at the side road then a bit further along there are posts in the middle of it - and what are you supposed to do at the roundabout?

As I say, cycle lanes are devisive and tend towards the reduction of cyclists importance on the roads. I said this when a large surge of them were installed in the early 90s, and I haven't seen anything to say it's wrong yet. When you remove cyclists from the roads in more and more spots, the times where that isn't possible it makes them more and more of a "problem" to moan about. All cyclists should use all the roads all of the time if you want the other road users to take you seriously in future.

[url= http://www.citycycling.co.uk/Issue3/Gorillas1.html ]This rather good article on .citycycling[/url] makes the argument that cycle lanes often get put in because consultations ask non-cyclists what puts them off cycling and what could be done to persuade them to cycle.

And the answer is invariably that they worry about traffic and want "safe" cycle lanes.

So that's what they get - even though it doesn't always help people that do already ride.

cycle lanes have their place in making it safer for bikes thru junctions and so on. However thats not what we get. Normally we get lanes where there is no need and no lanes thru the junctions. this is an example of a junction where a cycle lane could be put in to allow bikes to make the left turn much more easily and safely. plenty of room for a left turn for bikes lane and it would save a lot of risk. Instead we get a shared with bus lane before and after the junction - at the actual junction we have to pass a taxi rank.

http://g.co/maps/as37t

Disturbs nice flow of traffic and introduces risk to the cyclists - particularly the numpty who weaves in and out

presumably he/she is travelling faster than the flowing vehicles then

Yes - generally roundabout and traffic lights can slow things or indeed stop them now and again.

Simply cannot get my head round why someone would care to cycle on dual carriageway when the nicely surfaced cyclepath runs parallel.....can you give me some clues? Perhaps anti-social person on a road bike who is concerned that they may have to have some fleeting social interaction with other cyclists on the cyclepath?

I use the Sustrans track between Inverness and Dingwall. 70% is fantastic, the rest is only fit for a mega travel freeride bike. As for punctures I average 1 a month due to the amount of debris chucked of the road about 6" away. Does it piss me off, the neglect? - absolutely.
But the alternative is to take your life in your hands on the A9, and even in the sunny Highlands, we have had numerous deaths from careless drivers.
I have to ask though, why do they spend so much money building these links, then completely forget to budget for maintenence. Another example of piss poor planning and a lack of accountability (rant, rant)

The cycle track next to the Cambridge Guided Bus is amazing.

Every cyclist in the country should demand the same sort of thing in their area.

It is wide enough for a big wide van to drive down (which the maintenance people very occasionally do). There's easily room for three cyclists side-by-side.

It is as smooth as silk. Maybe smoother.

When the wind is blowing in the right direction you can go at a quite amazing speed - whooshing along pretending to be the Flying Scotsman is brilliant fun.

(When it's in the wrong direction you need drop bars and determination to make any kind of forward progress but I think they are planting some trees to help with this).

It gets loads of people using it - especially school children on the last section where it's the only sensible way to cross the A14.

Late last year the County Council even bought a snow plough for it (though we haven't had any snow yet sadly).

Best of all, there's a cafe just beyond the St Ives end that does cream teas.

Lots of really joined up thinking bike tracks, using off road routes, the shared pavement ones are just accidents waiting to happen, where a car door opened onto atrack can injure a cyclist, then theres the muppets who reverse out of their drives and cant see you coming along, whats wrong with reversing in then, so much easier.

oh and could somebody point out the law where it says dogs must crap on the cycle track.

very few I am aware of near me [ except off road ones or trails] are actually safer to use...the only good one is ruined by pedestrians wandering on to the cycle [quarter of the path bike whit line dividing them big cycle signs] in an entirely random fashion.
I almost never use them tbh

Simply cannot get my head round why someone would care to cycle on dual carriageway when the nicely surfaced cyclepath runs parallel.....can you give me some clues?

Difficult to second guess someone else without knowing the route (got a google maps link?) but presumably there are left turns off the DC, are there a lot and do cyclist have priority? (and more importantly do they actually get priority from motorists?)
Lots of giveways signs/dangerous junctions would have me on the DC, 1 straight road should be easier and safer (and quicker) to negotiate that lots of junctions.

Benz do you use the cycletrack yourself? Your post doesn't seem to say.

Difficult to second guess someone else without knowing the route (got a google maps link?) but presumably there are left turns off the DC, are there a lot and do cyclist have priority? (and more importantly do they actually get priority from motorists?)
Lots of giveways signs/dangerous junctions would have me on the DC, 1 straight road should be easier and safer (and quicker) to negotiate that lots of junctions.

No I don't as I live a fair bit further away which does include a fairly busy A class road.

http://www.cycle-route.com/routes/Aberdeen_to_Westhill-Cycle-Route-4905.html

I'd use it if I needed to.

The cycle lane section along the DC doesn't look too bad, but predictably at junctions you have to give way (where you wouldn't have to if you were on the road). I'd quite likely use it on a slow day, dunno about a quick day.

Of course there may be good reasons for not using it.

At the end of the day cyclists are allowed to use most DCs and I've a vested interest in things staying that way. They certainly aren't the nicest place to ride and given a [i]suitable[/i] alternative I'd take it, but the definition of suitable depends on the rider, the bike, the conditions and all sorts of other things.
Just saying like.

I certainly use the one on my commute. There is no way I would ride the moor road in the dark not on the path. I occassionaly see people riding it and it's an accident waiting to happen unfortunately.

[i]An old favourite from my home town[/i]

Never noticed that boardinbob, think it might have changed now.

Sometimes, unfortunately the ones I use feel like they've been surfaced with green sandpaper, very draggy.

There's a cycle lane near me that runs alongside a 70mph dual carriageway for 1 mile which is nice to use (unless it's been raining as the cycle lane floods), but all that changes when you reach the roundabout half-way along it. The cycle lane exits into the left-turn-only lane when you really want to go straight over. And on the other side of the roundabout you have to cross a hatched lane divider to get back onto the cycle lane, otherwise you're left in the middle of the dual carriageway. I do use this cycle lane but have to be very assertive on the roundabout.

Further along my commute I do another 5 miles on dual carriageways and there aren't cycle lanes on any of that.

Here's a nice cycle lane:
[img] [/img]
-- In Colwyn Bay, from http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/what-goes-around-comes-around/

That's one way to avoid lamposts I suppose.

[url= http://g.co/maps/phkks ]This is my favourite local one...[/url] 🙂

Perhaps time for this old video of a committed cycle lane user?

Not through choice. The only one in town useful to me has two blind corners on the cycle lane, a constant covering of broken glass, standing water regardless of how much rain we've had and the usual idiots walking in the cycle lane.

avoid one 500m stretch that ends by forcing me out into the road just where a bus lane and normal car lane merge together using it would be a one way trip to hospital.. have to use one over a bridge into work, too narrow and is split in half with a rasied white line to seperate bikes from peds but the walkers take it as fair game...