Has anyone else noticed the traffic around city centre getting worse?

[perplexed 10]

So that's cars holding up cars then?

 

Quite. When I'm on my bike, the cars hold me up at traffic lights if I can't get to the front.

 

As I'm waiting for the lights to change, I'm in the correct gear, ready to apply pressure the instant the lights change to be off. I'm watching the lights. Unlike many motorists (and I'm one of those too) who are busy with the "baby on board" or the phone, whatever.

 

And if I am at the front of the queue for the lights, I'm always halfway across the junction after the lights change before most of the drivers have got the ruddy handbrake off...

 

Incidentally, if I cycle into town at "rush hour" it takes me about 15 minutes. If I drive, its more like 35 minutes. I'm passing cars all the time, so I'm not sure how I would be holding them up

Edited March 2, 2010 by perplexed
Added a bit...

[Tony 10]

Yup, my downhill journey from Lodge Moor into town takes 13-15 minutes door to door on the bicycle. It takes at least 8 minutes in the car just to get to Hunters Bar and usually another 15-20 minutes to get to town, then another 5-15 minutes to get parked and walk to where I want to be.

 

Going back (all VERY uphill to the top of Lodge Moor) takes 25 minutes door to door - the same time that just the car bit of the journey takes if the traffic isn't too bad, then I've got to get to the car, get out of the car park, etc, etc.

 

Bikes holding cars up? Nah, not on your Auntie Nelly.

[Bonjon 10]

Yup, my downhill journey from Lodge Moor into town takes 13-15 minutes door to door on the bicycle. It takes at least 8 minutes in the car just to get to Hunters Bar and usually another 15-20 minutes to get to town, then another 5-15 minutes to get parked and walk to where I want to be.

 

Going back (all VERY uphill to the top of Lodge Moor) takes 25 minutes door to door - the same time that just the car bit of the journey takes if the traffic isn't too bad, then I've got to get to the car, get out of the car park, etc, etc.

 

Bikes holding cars up? Nah, not on your Auntie Nelly.

 

Fair enough travelling along Ecclesall road, but you get to a point where cars can move and you find them being held up, one good example where there seems to be loads of slow bikers is the Bernard Street/Cricket Inn road area of town. Along these stretches of roads I have often seen cyclists cycling >10mph 2 a breast.

 

I agree through standstill traffic a bike can sometimes move along faster, but as soon as the roads open up this is when the inconvenience starts.

[naomi2009 10]

In a morning I have to pass through town twice and I have noticed a very large increase in traffic, the main issue seems to be people setting off very slow from traffic lights, busses, cyclists holding cars up, the daft amount of ped. crossings, idiots who decide to jump lights and then block access for another lane of traffic.

 

I think if we removed all these from the roads things would run smoothly, for example, when the lights are out on Park sq. roundabout (which seems to happen alot) things run much faster, when the busses are on strike again things run smooth, when there is snow and no bikes things run faster.

 

Any one else noticed this?

 

not really always been busy

[fozzybear210 10]

Don't blame the buses, it's all the bloody car drivers. Buses would run a lot faster if it wasn't for all the car drivers that do as they please, taking half hour to move off the lights and the cyclists who take up a whole lane, knowing that people are trying to overtake. A lot of people making unnecessary journeys clogging up the roads. If you have to go to work- fine. If not- stay at home til rush hour is finished.

[mattleonard 10]

Buses would run a lot faster if it wasn't for all the car drivers that do as they please, taking half hour to move off the lights and the cyclists who take up a whole lane, knowing that people are trying to overtake.

 

The highway code is pretty clear that anyone overtaking a cyclist should allow at least as much space as they would when overtaking a car, so to a good driver it's not going to make any difference how much of the lane the cyclist is taking up - as the driver won't be overtaking within the lane.

[mapleboy 10]

Why would you need to overtake a cyclist? Half of them are of the footway, aren't they? Not that I'm criticising them, goodness me no, perish the thought. They are green and thus beyond any form of criticism, being greener, (and thus holier), than car drivers and the rest of us mere mortals. Bless 'em?

Edited March 3, 2010 by mapleboy

[Tony 10]

Most cyclists are car drivers you silly sausage.

[mattleonard 10]

Why would you need to overtake a cyclist? Half of them are of the footway, aren't they?

 

Well, there's the other half.

[carosio 186]

 

As I'm waiting for the lights to change, I'm in the correct gear, ready to apply pressure the instant the lights change to be off. I'm watching the lights. Unlike many motorists (and I'm one of those too) who are busy with the "baby on board" or the phone, whatever.

 

And if I am at the front of the queue for the lights, I'm always halfway across the junction after the lights change before most of the drivers have got the ruddy handbrake off...

 

Many drivers (as myself) pause for a few seconds when the lights go green due to the ones that dash through just after red, particularly on a "blind" junction.

[max 13]

The reason that traffic seems lighter when buses are not on the road is because the 40% of householders in Sheffield where there is no access to a private vehicle have to walk or blag a lift with someone who is already going their way.

 

If there's more traffic set off earlier, it's not rocket science.

[Cyclone 10]

In a morning I have to pass through town twice and I have noticed a very large increase in traffic, the main issue seems to be people setting off very slow from traffic lights, busses, cyclists holding cars up, the daft amount of ped. crossings, idiots who decide to jump lights and then block access for another lane of traffic.

 

I think if we removed all these from the roads things would run smoothly, for example, when the lights are out on Park sq. roundabout (which seems to happen alot) things run much faster, when the busses are on strike again things run smooth, when there is snow and no bikes things run faster.

 

Any one else noticed this?

 

Apart from the last bit it appears to be accurate.

I can't say that I've ever been held up by a bike for more than a few seconds, and in the snow the traffic was chaos, not as you claimed better.