The Bath Anti-Cycle Infrastructure Lobby (video)

I'm local to this, living just up the hill from the Royal Crescent. I use this lane every weekday as part of my commute from central Bath to Central Bristol. 

It's not a great design to be honest. I would have much preferred them to stick a two direction bike lane on just one side of the road - wide enough that emergency vehicles could use it in emergencies (just like they use the Embankment cyclelane in london - actually allows for much faster transit by emergency vehicles). It's far too short - would be better used if it was longer - so in its current incarnation does not really provide a safe protected route for many (it would need to link the centre to the railway path to be genuinely useful, or at least to Locksbrook Road). 

Given I mostly see the lane when I am actually using it, I would say that it is lightly used, but that this is increasing. As the weather gets better I am seeing more people using it in both directions, morning and evening. More would probably use it if it was better designed, and there has to be an element of induced demand. Create facilities, and people will begin to use them, but it takes time. 

The park is not an alternative route - the road through the park goes in a circle and doesn't enable east-west transit. 

The river is not a great route, but is the most used one due to it previously being the only half safe option. It can be busy with pedestrians and is very narrow at points, so there is potential for conflict and danger. Large stretches of the river route are badly surfaced, and large stretches are unlit (if you are linking up with the Bath-Bristol Railway Path). 

Yes, there are some vulnerable residents along the Upper Bristol Road. There are just about anywhere. Having done polling along the vast majority of the road though, I know that the majority of residents are not elderly or vulnerable. A very large proportion of the residences, especially where the bike lanes are, are rented. The north side lane (running east) borders the park, is almost half B&Bs. There is a rear lane (admittedly narrow) providing access to all of these properties, including offroad parking for almost every property. 

The south side lane (running west) does primarily border houses. Again though, it is worth taking a look at a satelite image on google maps. Many of these have rear access lanes. A number of the housing blocks have rear parking. 

One final point - the turning from Upper Bristol Road onto Marlborough Lane. This was an accident black-spot, with vehicles turning in at speed ignoring pedestrians and then getting in to trouble as the road is pretty narrow (with cars parked down one side, two vehicles can pass as long as they are being careful and are not both very wide). Building out the pavements has made it much easier and safer for pedestrians to cross. Most large vehicles manage to make the turning without too much drama. It is not designed as a major thoroughfare (although it is quite busy) - it is a 20mph mostly residential road. 

Any right minded, freedom loving person should be opposed to the concept of 15 minute cities. As a cyclist, I often empathise with motorists and the constant politically-motivated attacks on their liberties, but this despicable idea veers into dark, dystopian territory.

15 minute cities are a Trojan horse for population repression, forced surveillance and a totalitarian global government, and are a direct descendant of a Soviet centrally managed economy. It's hardly any surprise that some of the main cheerleaders of this plan are Anne Higaldo, hard-left socialist mayor of Paris, and Sadiq Khan, the pipsqueak populist responsible for the ghettoisation of London.

You can find out more about 15 minute cities on YouTube: I'd recommend https://youtu.be/-VH11YOwPY4 as a primer.

Well done to the brave residents of bath for speaking out against this threat to our entire way of life.

Well of course the residents would object - if something doesn't benefit them then they're hardly going to be praising it. Plus they are all old and old people don't like change (based on my limited anecdotal research).

I actually tend to use the river path in question but there are two important things to note here: that section is joined up which makes it more convenient for me to get from the Bristol to Bath path to where I work in town. If the road section was joined up infra I would probably opt for that route all the way until the Bristol to Bath cycle path starts. Everyone's use case is different though, and for other people I'm sure taking the upper Bristol road is more convenient than the river path. Jesus, do drivers only have one road to get from A to B??

Why would I choose to use the less convenient route for me? This leads me to my next point: the river path is shite. Yes, there's a nice relatively new section with loads of room, but otherwise it's narrow, bumpy and dangerous and the lighting is non existent. I've lost count of the number of peds dressed all in black that I've almost hit and launched into the river because they're walking in complete darkness. Also dogs wandering across the path. Sigh.

Final point - I'd love to know how the residents know no cyclists use the path? Have they done a count over the course of a day, week, or month? Have they done anything? Even if what they were saying was remotely true, there's the old saying: 'build it and they will come'. That said, until the city gets properly joined up infra this might not  be enough to encourage more people to cycle. 

Had a look on the map.  From OSM (not the best check...) Bath can't be said to have a cycling network at all (Compare with Assen, NL - of similar size).  For a small dense place it looks like careful management of motor traffic would be vital.

Formerly, Upper Bristol Road (which this is) appeared to have quite a bit of on-street parking (for the park presumably), it's a bus route in two directions, has terraced housing / flats on one side.  Further East - houses set back (small gardens) on one side, houses opening onto the street the other (no drive / garage space).  This road appears to be part of a main corridor from the west side of Bath (A4) - passing a couple of parks (hmm... how are those kids going to get there to ride their bikes?) and possibly being part of a route to the hospital.

The river path - doesn't look like I'd be cycling there.  Looks like "dismount if there's a pedestrian" territory.

The park - it has a bike-friendly road (!).  There's actually a fence round most of the park so it's not a free-for-all for routes.

200m north there's Weston Road - listed as a "bike friendly road" which streetview suggests may be full of cars, parked and moving.

Bath seems to have a far better quality of NIMBY/CAVE than I do.. you lucky bar stewards!

In all cases I can't help but be reminded of 1) 'Down with this kind of thing' from Father Ted and 2) "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

I got as far as the woman saying, 'No cyclists use this road - they've got the park if they want to ride around, or the path along the riverside', and then I gave up 

The number of people incapable of any joined up thinking... getting motor cars out of cities, making them walkable, cyclable, 15 minutes, - howsoever you want to call it - will make them livable for all and sundry.
I don't want to change my habits for anything or anyone, that's their baseline it seems.

P.S. : the way the say "cycelists", is that the Bath accent ?

NextDoor is a virulent forum for cycle hatred. I deleted my account years ago. It's unbelievable how much stupidity and vitriol there is against cyclists on NextDoor. I don't understand why it's permitted. It's supposed to be a forum recommending local tradespeople etc. but if anyone mentions a cycle lane then bingo - it's just an endless list of posts targeting people who cycle. 

Well I don't know Bath but it does rather sound like "I drive a car, and the've made the (what is clearly a busy) road a bit narrower and now there's lots of traffic!  Also not being able to park exactly where I want is really inconvenient".  Well... yes.

The talking heads here all seem to be car drivers so I imagine they're not fussed about the polution.  Or rather (since they complain about the road noise) they'd be happy with less if they didn't have to change or if all the other drivers went away.

Notes:

Totally inadequate consultation, they sneaked it in during Covid!  (I ... er... only found out about it because they put notices up on the lapposts...)
Ambulance blocked!  (Because... cars and buses.  But that's because the road's been narrowed a bit to accomodate bike lanes...)
Air pollution and noise!  Because... cars can't overtake buses.
There are no cyclists!  Anyway they could go down to the river or the park.
Coach trips have to wait until there's lots of space!

Again - I don't know this area.  I'm sure that as always there could be better consultation - but then reaching people with planning announcements is hard.  As a Covid-era change it's unlikely to have been the most brilliant and integrated design.  But possibly not just "using up the cash and plonking it there" or "leaving things we don't need now".  In my own Council's case they already had a "hit list" of places that they were looking at for better active travel infra (some in more detailed planning I think) and made use of that knowledge.  (They have pulled some out also, under pressure of "look ma no lockdown!").  On the "look - here are cyclists not using the infra" that is actually really a question, is it not?

I don't know the answers - neither do the residents it seems but that's not important to them.