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Active Travel Group sympathises with drivers “who feel ‘rather claustrophobic’ in their one tonne sofa-carrying steel boxes”

Local council and residents defend installation of new segregated cycle lanes in Bournemouth after motorists complain of feeling “hemmed in”

A Bournemouth-based active travel group has accused a local councillor of “stirring resentment” after he criticised the installation of new segregated cycle lanes in the coastal town. 

An 850 metre protected cycle lane is currently being installed along both sides of Whitelegg Way between the Redhill and Northbourne roundabouts. The work, which also includes resurfacing of the carriageway and the installation of new walking paths, crossing points and bus stops, is due to be completed in March 2022 and forms part of a new 13km sustainable travel route between Merley, Poole and Christchurch. 

Despite the broad public support for the proposals during the formal consultation process earlier this year, a handful of local residents have criticised the council’s decision to narrow the carriageway to allow for the cycle lanes, as well as the new six inch kerbs designed to segregate traffic and protect cyclists using the paths.

Last month, the Bournemouth Echo spoke to a firefighter who claimed that the segregated lanes slowed the progress of emergency vehicles on the road by minutes, while a local woman said that she felt “rather claustrophobic” and “hemmed in” by the kerbs.

> Row over Dorset cycle lane that drivers claim is “too wide”

Stephen Bartlett, an independent councillor for Redhill and Northbourne, told the Echo that “the new cycle lanes are a great example of how to waste millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

“We now have problems that are entirely self-inflicted. I think it will hold up emergency vehicles and it could be a serious issue as the road is part of a main route to the hospital.”

However, a spokesperson for Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council said that they work closely with emergency vehicle operators and have so far not received any complaints about Whitelegg Way, saying that “it is not necessary to mount the kerb and we would not advise any vehicle to do this.

“The carriageway on Whitelegg Way is between 6.4m and 6.6m wide, adhering to current national standards set by the DfT. It is able to be used safely by all vehicles, including emergency services vehicles, and has undergone, and will continue to undergo, a number of independent road safety audits.”

> ‘Britain’s biggest bike lane’ council awarded extra £247,000 for active travel plans

BH Active Travel, an independent community group, pointed out that new route was an important link for commuters to travel in and out of the town centre.

“The DfT approve and monitor all these schemes, built to current government standards”, a spokesperson for the group told road.cc.

“It’s concerning how ward councillors seem to know more about planning than the trained engineers that design and install them, helping to stir resentment in such an important period of transport shift rather than focus on facts.

“Emergency services are consulted prior to any builds and are encouraged to feed back – again, if a proposed bike lane will reduce road widths below new standards – they’re simply not built.

“Even from the [Echo] article pictures you can clearly see that if both sides of traffic move (as they are meant to) there is ample space for emergency services without mounting the kerb. Further to this, the kerb on the adjacent side is not at extra height, so drivers ‘could’ mount this easily if they felt they needed to. 

“We do of course sympathise with car drivers who feel ‘rather claustrophobic’ in their one tonne sofa-carrying steel boxes. Luckily, for those who are able there’s now a very safe lane they can use to alleviate this.”

The row in Bournemouth – manufactured or otherwise – follows a similar dispute in nearby Poole last month, when drivers claimed (incorrectly) that because of the new bike lanes, cyclists now had more space on the road than they did. 

On Monday Simon Brew, a Conservative councillor in Croydon who sat on the council’s Cycle Forum, also criticised the implementation of new segregated bike paths on the Brighton Road. 

“The more space you allocate to one form of transport,” Brew argued, “the less is available to other forms, which means that cars, for example, can't veer into the cycle lane to avoid a crash, or a pedestrian in the road.”

 

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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18 comments

Avatar
Gary's bike channel | 2 years ago
3 likes

Hg09foj.  Google it.  One Mile from there.   Why should we help congestion.  When idiots like her drive ? 

Avatar
Gary's bike channel | 2 years ago
3 likes

I grew up at this location.  There's nothing wrong with the lanes themselves.  The only issue is when it ends you have to then re join traffic to go towards parley.  Width wise it's no issue to pass in an ambulance.  I asked a paramedic, she said it's fine but only if people are paying attention and see you.  Mostly they panic and sit too far over so you can't get past.  Or are on the phone so aren't aware you're trying to pass.  The whole of Bournemouth is full of angry hostile people anyway and I got sick of it.  So I left.  Sod the area. Let them sit in traffic all day.  Just up from here is a hill to go to red hill park.  They built flats there with no parking spaces.  So the entire road  is blocked on both sides all day by people parking on it.  Leaving you almost always have to stop to give way to cars coming the other way when trying to drive down it. Why do we let people park on roads permanently.  If you haven't got a off road space or drive way why are you allowed to leave your car blocking it.  Make it narrow do fire engines and ambulances cant pass.  Oh wait.  Same issue.   But not caused by a cycle lane !   

Avatar
belugabob | 2 years ago
9 likes

The woman who feels "hemmed in" whilst driving down that road, should be invited to ride a bike along a road, of the same width, which has no cycle provision.

Avatar
GMBasix | 2 years ago
10 likes

Quote:

Despite the broad public support for the proposals during the formal consultation process earlier this year, a handful of local residents have criticised the council’s decision to narrow the road to allow for the cycle lanes

(emphasis added)

Please don't be sucked into the uneducated media's tropes and phraseology.  The road is not being narrowed one centimetre. The general carriageway is being narrowed.

And then, as others have said, this doesn't hamper emergency services, who are trained to negotiate all sorts of situations of vehicles getting in the way, and have consistently said that cycle schemes do not delay them.

Meanwhile:

Quote:

“The more space you allocate to one form of transport,” Brew argued, “the less is available to other forms, which means that cars, for example, can't veer into the cycle lane to avoid a crash, or a pedestrian in the road.”

You shouldn't be driving such that you need to veer anywhere when there's a crash or pedestrian ahead of you. And that's not how you're supposed to react to it anyway.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
7 likes

I think the "holding up emergency vehicles" is a valid concern with the solution being that segregated infrastructure should be wide enough to accommodate a fire engine, with sufficient access points. After all, it is far easier for cyclists to clear the way than for bulky cars, vans, lorries etc. By doing this, it could be demonstrated that in many congested urban environments, that response times will actually be quicker, thus providing a further benefit to the wider community from high quality cycle infrastructure.

Avatar
eburtthebike | 2 years ago
6 likes

"“The more space you allocate to one form of transport,” Brew argued, “the less is available to other forms,......."

Are tories specially trained to talk complete and absolute BS?  He's only just come up with this classic double-think/double-speak nonsense which has been a truism for at least fifty years.  Allocate all the space for cars and there is no space for anyone else; public transport, cycling and walking, but it's the cars that cause the congestion, danger and pollution; he has no problem with that, but a cycle lane.....

I can only assume that this paragon of scientific analysis was on the cycle forum to sabotage anything that might work.

Avatar
qwerty360 | 2 years ago
11 likes

So the complaints are about narrowing a road with (from Google maps) a 40 limit to 6.4-6.6m

I.e. narrowing it to meet standard's that afaik on safety grounds advise it shouldn't be much wider than this because people tend to speed if you make it too wide, defeating the purpose of a reduced limit...

Avatar
ktache | 2 years ago
13 likes

It is of course not cycle lanes that hold up emergency vehicles but motor traffic and due to it's volume, congestion.

If at least some of these ever so concerned motorists wish to aid the emergency services perhaps they could get out of their unnecessarily large metal boxes, get onto a bicycle and use the cycle route, thus reducing congestion, aiding said emergency services, the recently worried about less than able who cannot cycle (though of course that might mean no parking in wheelchair accessible parking spaces, not even for "just a minute" or by using their BOLAS) and reducing pollution.

 

Avatar
stonojnr replied to ktache | 2 years ago
7 likes

my MP campaigned to remove a set of wands put in to segregate a cycle lane from a 40mph road in Ipswich, claiming his Facebook poll showed delayed ambulances was a major concern.

I rode the route the other day now they've ripped the wands out, and an ambulance with siren and lights still took as long to get down the road because drivers just don't think about the situation and the roads just as congested and less traffic calmed as well.

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Pyro Tim | 2 years ago
9 likes

Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Council. Basically Poole and Bournemouth are now 1. This is on my commute, and although looks great, is awful. It ends at a pelican crossing about 3 car lengths from the Northbourne roundabout, with no merge room. If going right at the roundabout, as I do on my commute, you are expected to press the beg button to cross. Onto a pavement, with no cycling allowed. Apparently there are plans to do something there, but not in current wave

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Pyro Tim | 2 years ago
11 likes

Pyro Tim wrote:

Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Council. Basically Poole and Bournemouth are now 1. This is on my commute, and although looks great, is awful. It ends at a pelican crossing about 3 car lengths from the Northbourne roundabout, with no merge room. If going right at the roundabout, as I do on my commute, you are expected to press the beg button to cross. Onto a pavement, with no cycling allowed. Apparently there are plans to do something there, but not in current wave

That's the beauty of joined-up thinking.

I'm concerned about all the crashes that are implied by

Quote:

“The more space you allocate to one form of transport,” Brew argued, “the less is available to other forms, which means that cars, for example, can't veer into the cycle lane to avoid a crash, or a pedestrian in the road.

Apparently they need extra space to allow for getting past all the crashes. Maybe something should be done to directly address all the poor driving and subsequent crashes rather than relying on extra space to allow vehicles to veer into the cycle lane.

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Hirsute replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
14 likes

I'm struggling with the doublethink here.

On the one hand, drivers are not able to process data fast enough nor look ahead to avoid a collision on the road but on the other hand, they can rapidly process and check that it is safe to veer into the cycle lane.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
10 likes

hirsute wrote:

I'm struggling with the doublethink here.

On the one hand, drivers are not able to process data fast enough nor look ahead to avoid a collision on the road but on the other hand, they can rapidly process and check that it is safe to veer into the cycle lane.

Bold of you to assume that they check it is safe

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Hirsute replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
1 like

That's part of the double think ! I mean no one would veer into a cycle lane to avoid something to cause something greater damage !

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Sriracha | 2 years ago
5 likes
Quote:

it is not necessary to mount the kerb and we would not advise any vehicle to do this.

They're giving advice to cars now?

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to Sriracha | 2 years ago
13 likes
Sriracha wrote:
Quote:

it is not necessary to mount the kerb and we would not advise any vehicle to do this.

They're giving advice to cars now?

Both my cars are fully road trained to stay off the pavement, and know they'll get a stern telling off if they jump on the road furniture

Avatar
OldRidgeback replied to Captain Badger | 2 years ago
5 likes

Captain Badger wrote:
Sriracha wrote:
Quote:

it is not necessary to mount the kerb and we would not advise any vehicle to do this.

They're giving advice to cars now?

Both my cars are fully road trained to stay off the pavement, and know they'll get a stern telling off if they jump on the road furniture

Do you give them treats when they behave well? 

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to OldRidgeback | 2 years ago
3 likes

OldRidgeback wrote:

.....

Do you give them treats when they behave well? 

If they've been especially good they get some super-unleaded as a treat.

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