What is the point o...
 

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[Closed] What is the point of cycle lanes painted on the road ?

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Especially if your still classed as "filtering" when using them - is a car moving on the inside carridgeway of a queuing dual carridgeway also filtering ....or is he driving.

Its either a lane or its not - In law or otherwise. - As it is its just a waste of paint.

Id rather ride on the RHS of the traffic but feel i should use the lanes because the facilities are provided and the traffics been pushed out right to the white line leaving no space for RHS filtering. - yet as proved YET AGAIN yesterday i might as well be invisible on the LHS - although i suspect he just simply didnt look and followed the maneuver, signal look out the passengers window after ive turned method of turning into a junction - luckily it was anticipated and avoided because im used to the ****s on the road but it should not even get to that situation.

Then there are the cars parked in them , the cars using them and half the pavement to skip traffic , the cars that just queue in them rather than sit to the rhs in their own lane etc etc. .....

tuesday rant over.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 8:58 am
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trail_rat - Member

Especially if your still classed as "filtering" when using them - is a car moving on the inside carridgeway of a queuing dual carridgeway also filtering ....or is he driving.

Its either a lane or its not - In law or otherwise. - As it is its just a waste of paint.

Id rather ride on the RHS of the traffic but feel i should use the lanes because the facilities are provided and the traffics been pushed out right to the white line leaving no space for RHS filtering. - yet as proved YET AGAIN yesterday i might as well be invisible on the LHS - although i suspect he just simply didnt look and followed the maneuver, signal look out the passengers window after ive turned method of turning into a junction - luckily it was anticipated and avoided because im used to the **** on the road but it should not even get to that situation.

Then there are the cars parked in them , the cars using them and half the pavement to skip traffic , the cars that just queue in them rather than sit to the rhs in their own lane etc etc. .....

tuesday rant over.

3/10, would have been 2/10 but I gave you a cheeky extra point for getting the day wrong.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:09 am
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tuesday rant over.

Oh I very much doubt that... 🙂


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:09 am
 Bez
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Makes the road look narrower so cars slow down.

Pretty sure this is the only reason they've appeared in Reading / Wokingham, as actual routes for riding they're useless and dangerous.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:14 am
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From what I can gather from your post:

You were left-hooked in the cycle lane this morning.

Yep - I'm certain that riding up the left of slow/stationary traffic is often not the safest place to be, whether there's a line painted on the road or not. Like you, I filter on the right when possible.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:15 am
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Makes the road look narrower so[s] cars slow down[/s] car drivers get angry about 'bloody cyclists' taking space away from their precious cars

based on a recent 'discussion'


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:18 am
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i was left hooked (but without contact due to the tremendous lean angle that nanos still grip at) on the way home (which was tuesday oops) by someone following the aberdeenshire driving code - that is ....**** you im ok jack.

but it did set me think why do we bother painting that shit.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:33 am
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or paint them on the right if they insist 😉

Even cyclelaw says you should treat the lanes as filter lanes , slow and careful and then merge back from them into the traffic flow when traffic moves !

Can you imagine the uproar if you did that ?


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:34 am
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Why quote the OP in its entirety as the first reply? I'm not reading all that once, let alone twice.

There's a lovely new cycle lane painted on a road I use on a regular basis. You can bet there will be the same Discovery parked half on the path and blocking the entire width of the cycle lane every night.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:36 am
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or paint them on the right if they insist

http://www.benidormallyearround.com/5161-controversial-benidorm-bike-lane


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:40 am
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and you read the comments to that and i was right - uproar. What is the group name for a collection of non cyclists commenting on cycling infrastructure..... idiots 😀


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:44 am
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Even cyclelaw says you should treat the lanes as filter lanes , slow and careful and then merge back from them into the traffic flow when traffic moves !

Can you imagine the uproar if you did that ?

I do that every day. Never had a problem 🙂 I always give a thumbs up to the driver whose vehicle I've merged in front of.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:46 am
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yeah from the right i assume ? ive never had an issue doing that

but merging from the cycle lane into the traffic when ever traffic is moving ?


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:49 am
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Around here there are lots of painted white lines 3ft perpendicular to the curb with occasional "bike" symbols. It's for cars to park on apparently, well it must be because everyone does


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:50 am
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The ones I use I dont generally have a problem with, mainly as id be going the same speed or slower than the traffic, and drivers tend to respect it. When traffic is slower/stationary I do treat it like a filter though and try not to approach junctions at speed where a car could turn left, or cut through a gap if coming from the other direction.

Its better than most roads that dont have them or when they end, where cars they then take up all the lane, some hugging the curb and others on the white line so they can 'see' the traffic ahead for some reason.

Whats worst is where they dont continue the lanes through junctions, so cars just drift about until they get to the other side and suddenly realise they are not in their 'lane' anymore.

I can understand its worse in Aberdeen, the roads are too narrow around there for it to work really. In Newcastle I find them pretty much ok though (waits for GraemeS to pop up and shout otherwise 😉 )


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:51 am
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Yes - from the right.

There aren't many cycle lanes round here so no, I've never put into practice that advice about merging from the left!


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 9:55 am
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Decades ago (before painted on cycle lanes) we had a Chinese post-doc visit our lab and he cycled back and forth between Didsbury and the university in Manchester. It turns out he thought the double yellow lines were cycle lanes - what a great idea - a bit wider and they'd double as cycle lanes and no parking! Except that no-one seems to police crappy parking anymore, or is that another thread?


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:03 am
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Why quote the OP in its entirety as the first reply? I'm not reading all that once, let alone twice.

There's a lovely new cycle lane painted on a road I use on a regular basis. You can bet there will be the same Discovery parked half on the path and blocking the entire width of the cycle lane every night.

Because he could have gone back and edited it, thus making my rant review appear overly harsh.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:08 am
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99% of the cycle lanes that I've ridden on are riddled with smashed lager bottles and/or huge piles of wet fallen leaves.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:11 am
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i was left hooked (but without contact due to the tremendous lean angle that nanos still grip at)

So how fast were you going up the inside of queueing traffic approaching a junction?


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:14 am
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as a matter of fact i was matching the speed of the moving traffic - the car infront then decided without indicating it would turn left by braking and turning and then indicate all at the same time which meant i was along side by the time he was crossing the lane.

Less of the victim blaming assumption thanks. You would think this was a car drivers forum. - oh wait.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:15 am
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So how fast were you going up the inside of queueing traffic approaching a junction?

Bollocks to that, he wasn't going anywhere inside traffic, he was in the correct lane for what he was doing and he was traffic.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:17 am
 nach
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They're sort of like the "Get a bell!/Bells are rude!" thing. Drivers love to moan about cyclists filtering on the left, but they also love to moan about cyclists not being in the special painted bit on the left.

I tend not to use them.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:19 am
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Use up the budget

Annoy drivers

Pretend you are cyclist-friendly

Err, that's it...


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:22 am
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Less of the victim blaming assumption thanks

I assumed nothing, I simply asked. Because it is relevant. And I apportioned no blame whatsoever. I am a cycling advocate and I support cyclist rights. Don't pin that shit on me.

The reality is that the rules do not cover everything. As we all know.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 10:59 am
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They provide (magic) protection from cars passing you. Regardless of speed differential if you are on the paint then you will not be affected by the lorry doing 60 next to you.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 11:28 am
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Riding down the hill into Glasgow from Newton mearns, there is a cycle lane painted on the RHS of the parked vehicles, right in the door opening zone. It's a bloody long hill that you struggle to stay below 30 on, I refuse to use the bloody thing, instead taking up a standard road position.

I've had the odd punishment pass, but at least I have the cycle lane there for a bit of room.

Bonkers idea.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 11:37 am
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I often wonder this. In particular what is the point of advisory cycle lanes without solid lines. There's one on my road. Mainly, I suspect, because it's a wide quiet road where it was easy to add lanes to hit a target without inconveniencing anyone. Cynical? Anyway, on one side of the road in particular people always park in it. There's nothing stopping them, there's no enforcement, so the lane may as well not be there. I tend to ride right up the middle of the lane to make a point rather than dodging in and out of it(the road is still wide enough that cars can pass me).

The other thing I'm struggling with at the moment is actually *not* being left hooked. There are a couple of junctions in particular where cars overtake me then try to turn left, they are aware that I'm in the cycle lane so they slow down or stop expecting me to go first. The thing is that I'm riding sensibly and carefully and virtually never go down the left of a vehicle indicating left. So I come to a stop too. Which then tends to lead to a bit of dithering around who dares go first. Meaning that it would have been quicker if the car had just waited behind me in the first place.

Oh, and don't forget the time when a car was dropping a passenger off, knew that I was in the cycle lane so rather than pulling up to the kerb pulled up to the edge of the cycle lane. Meaning that the passenger door would get opened straight into it. So I still had to go round the outside, but I was now going further out than I would have done had he just pulled into the lane. Not a major issue, I'm confident and aware enough to do that, but it does make you wonder about how safe the lanes are - even when drivers see that you're using one they seem to struggle to work out what to do...

I *do* use them, but mainly in places where they coincide with the road position I'd have taken anyway.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 1:01 pm
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They're so some, jumped up, moronic ****, from the council, can go, "look at us, aren't we great, look at what were doing for cyclists" etc.
Ignoring the fact that most cycle infrastructure has clearly been designed by someone who has never cycled.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 1:06 pm
 D0NK
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In particular what is the point of advisory cycle lanes without solid lines.
* all.

I'd quite like some bike lanes up the main road near our house to stop all the idiots driving 0.5" from the kerb (single lane single carriageway) that enables *s to tear arse up and down the middle of the road. Likewise on another similar road instead of chevrons up the middle (pushing drivers closer to the kerb and cyclists) some cycle lanes would be nice.

But yeah they aren't a fat load of good, even the mandatory ones in sensible locations are rubbish because those are the ones motorists will pretty much always cut into or block entirely.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 1:20 pm
 D0NK
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The thing is that I'm riding sensibly and carefully and virtually never go down the left of a vehicle indicating left. So I come to a stop too.
couple of big fast roundabouts on my old road commute, you'd come round and there'd be someone edging out probably to pull out *right* behind you, but it's tricky to tell exactly what you're doing so you slow down, they continue to edge out but slower, so you slow more, them too, until you're going at walking pace past them and they are waving you to hurry up. Don't be edging out while I'm coming passed, I'll just slow down.

Also people who overtake you right before a junction, [i][b]if you're overtaking with your left indicator on you're doing it wrong![/b][/i]


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 1:25 pm
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The reality is that the rules do not cover everything. As we all know.

Well OK, but the rules for drivers do cover checking your nearside mirror before you turn left, keeping a proper lookout, and checking that the way is clear before manoeuvring.


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 2:05 pm
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Am I right in thinking then, that these 'cycle lanes' with a broken/dashed line have no legal basis?


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 4:53 pm
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Id even have been happy with more than an "o shits" notice that he was turning. Ie use the ****ing indicators


 
Posted : 18/05/2016 4:56 pm

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