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Nottingham cycle graffiti artist strikes again

Sign appeared on busy main road saying "cyclist priority", while council defends road safety improvements and vows to remove graffiti...

Graffiti has appeared on Nottingham roads highlighting cyclist safety twice in one week.

An unidentified individual – or individuals – sprayed “unsafe bike lane” near tram lines last week, before a white stenciled bike logo with “cyclist priority” appeared on Mansfield Road, on a busy main road. It is not known if the two are linked.

Nottingham City Council has defended road safety in the city, pointing out £6.1m is being spent on cycle improvements, while condemning the graffiti as dangerous.

Warning graffiti appears on Nottingham cycle lane near tramline

Mike Mills told the Nottingham Post Mansfield Road is part of his daily 10km commute and more needs to be done for cyclists safety at the location.

He said: "This section, where the recent cyclist priority message was painted is well used by cyclists. But with no provision made for them, they are forced to mix with buses and taxis in the bus lane.

"Obviously, given that it is a steep hill, cyclists can be slow moving and the bus lane is heavily used. Less confident cyclists are forced onto the pavement, others that remain in the lane end up with three or four buses behind them leading to close passes or conflict between road users.http://adyoulike.api.omnitagjs.com/fo-api/pixel?event_kind=IMPRESSION&attempt=4544c47b6e70b42230b1327ca5440f9e&campaign=19fe8a2149beb4865a662b04e632d56b

"Over the brow of the hill where lanes merge the situation becomes worse, with no clear road markings for anyone, and you are forced to run the gauntlet with merging cars and buses with the only provision for cyclists being a metre-long strip suggesting you go up onto the pavement, where you would then be riding illegally.

"Given the large numbers of cyclists using this stretch, the clear conflict between road users and what appears to be plenty of space for improvements, it's pretty clear that better provision for cyclists should be made with wide or fully segregated cycle lanes.

"The argument could be made that the entire length of Mansfield Road from Sherwood to the city is seriously lacking in provision for cyclists."

A council spokesperson told the Post Mansfield Road has recently been improved, with further upgrades underway across the city as part of its £6.1m cross-city cycle project, thanks to Cycle City Ambition Fund money. She said: "The safety of all road users, including cyclists, is a top priority for the council.

"We have recently improved the traffic lights at the junction of Mansfield Road and Forest Road to make it safer for cyclists and Mansfield Road will eventually form part of the northern cycle corridor.

"There have been no reported collisions on this stretch of Mansfield Road in the last five years, so it is not a particularly unsafe bit of road.

"We will be removing this graffiti as it could confuse or distract motorists, which would be dangerous. We would also strongly discourage anyone from painting graffiti on a road as they are putting themselves and others at great risk."

Work started on Nottingham’s "cycle superhighway" in October,  one of a number of cycle routes being introduced across the city as part of £6.1m Cycle City Ambition Fund money from government.

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7 comments

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ironmancole | 8 years ago
2 likes

I think it's the public relations crap that causes so much offence and anger.  Lives are a priority blah blah, what you never get it the rest of it. 

Lives are a priority...as long as that attention in no way at all inconveniences anyone in a car.

To be honest I've been amazed over the years that the cycling and road safety lobbies have been so incredibly restrained whilst observing extreme violence, death and widespread intimidation on a daily basis.  Politicians continue to ignore the issue and motorists continue to spread their unique brand of terror completely unrestrained all the time calling 'no fair' if anyone has the audacity to question their conduct.

I've heard talk of people torching local car dealerships in protest, spreading large nails on the motorway and all sorts of other direct action to force the point that enough is enough.  It's only a matter of time before that sort of thing happens and who could really blame them?

Petitions don't work.  Secondly, if lives were being lost and ruined in any other realm just why do we have to start a petition?  Shouldn't government just do their jobs and safeguard society without continually being prodded?

Do you expect everyone at your work, your friends and family to start a petition to get you to go to work and pay your way in life?!

The only way things will change is if authorities, governments etc are sued for failing to act.  The evidence is massive and perfectly clear.  Quite why no-one in authority is acting is simply because the desires of private profit making industry is being placed ahead of public safety.

We need a few key and ground breaking legal cases to happen to force change.

Until then you simply need to accept, harsh as it may sound, that your life and that of your loved ones are considered expendible and wholly sacrificial to the need of the motor vehicle.

 

Avatar
nivagh | 8 years ago
0 likes

£6.1M would pay for approximately 300m of motorway (normally about £30m per mile). So frankly, any spend under about £100m is fairly irrelevant.
I take issue with the headline here though - scribbling on a road doesn't make you an artist.

Avatar
BikeBud | 8 years ago
2 likes

Headline states it is the same person, but there is no evidence to support this.  DailyMail.CC

This bit of road ended my cycling activity about 20 years ago - a fast bus cutting in on me that had me absolutely terrified.  When I stopped commuting by bike the weekend cycling followed shortly after.  I also witnessed a bus driver close behind a woman with a child in the child seat beeping the horn at her.  The drivers were a bloody disgrace.  

Once again the Councillors seem to be more worried about the paint than people's lives.  Perhaps the Councillor would like to experience the terror for herself, rather than relying upon statistics to tell her whether it is a problem.  

IMHO the cycle superhighway is a nice idea, but it only covers such a limited route for cyclings.  Personally I'd rather see the money spent on improving more junctions around Nottingham to improve cyclist safety over a greater area, and avoid spreading perceptions that unless cyclists are on dedicated cycle routes they're doing something wrong.  

 

 

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 8 years ago
6 likes

So, they don't mind endangering cyclists, but they'll spend money to remove the graffiti in case it confuses/distracts motons?

Avatar
maldin replied to hawkinspeter | 8 years ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

So, they don't mind endangering cyclists, but they'll spend money to remove the graffiti in case it confuses/distracts motons?

Which makes the assumption that drivers even read the road markings. I've seen plenty motorists stopping in cyclist boxes at traffic lights and plenty more chatting on mobile phones- I'd wager that few drivers will be distracted because few will even pay attention to the road markings. 

Avatar
ron611087 | 8 years ago
5 likes

"The graffiti is dangerous"

Eh?

More like the graffiti is making them look like a bunch of arses.

Avatar
LarryDavidJr | 8 years ago
7 likes

Not sure I'd be shouting about £6.10 on cycle improvements.  Did they just put up a couple of road.cc 'stay awesome' stickers?

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