Cycle Lanes

[Kristian 11]

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[tom_common 10]

this is a really interesting thread

 

the problem in sheffield seems to be that the council put a lot of poorly designed, incoherent and stop-start cycle lanes on every road they can, thinking that this will encourage more people to cycle.

 

the comments that cars and bikes need to be separate (like all the way down Oxford Road in Manchester) is a really good one; you feel so much safer if there's a formal break between you. I also agree that paths running counter to the flow of one way traffic are pointless.

 

But I think equally important are having just a few really good major cycle lanes, that all meet up in the city centre. You could have the bitty, rather pointless ones leading into these: but once you were on a major one, you'd know it went straight to the city and didn't stop and start in between.

 

The best cycle paths can be very busy: the path across Dev Green or along Broadfield road are good examples. Cycle lanes don't even need to be along roads: through parks, across public squares, along rivers. They can be interesting routes into the city in their own right; but only if they keep you separate from traffic and don't disappear.

 

What I think this thread says is:we don't need more cycle lanes, we need better ones.