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“They would never leave a pole in the middle of the road, so why is it acceptable to do so on a cycleway?” Cyclists slam “poor planning” as new bike lane built right into path of zebra crossing pole

“They need to get cycling infrastructure correct and fit for purpose and that is certainly not fit for purpose,” one local cyclist said

Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lane? Because it was built directly into the path of a zebra crossing pole, apparently.

That’s the bizarre situation facing cyclists in Salisbury, anyway, after a new cycleway was completed earlier this week, only for baffled locals to learn that it leads them straight towards the existing pole – forcing construction workers to place cones around the potential obstacle and cycling campaigners to criticise the local council’s “poor planning”.

However, the company behind the project said the pole is set to be moved soon, while the council notes that the zebra crossing will be widened to allow cyclists to continuously ride along the path and cross the road without being legally required to dismount.

The new cycleway, zebra-striped obstacles and all, forms part of Wiltshire Council’s Salisbury River Park Project, a collaborative project with the Environment Agency to deliver essential flood alleviation and major environmental improvements through the central riverside spine of the historic city.

Alongside plans to alleviate flood concerns and create new wildlife habitat, the scheme aims to install 650m of new and improved cycle routes and 1,600m of new and improved footpaths. The council says this active travel infrastructure will “encourage a modal shift towards sustainable travel modes such as walking and cycling” and “provide carbon reduction and air quality benefits”.

However, the layout of the cycleway near Ashley Road, and the pre-existing zebra crossing pole stationed at the very end of the path, has left many cyclists unconvinced that the infrastructure will be delivered to sufficient enough quality to fully encourage this much-touted modal shift in Salisbury.

“This is going to be a main route for cyclists to get to Salisbury,” cycling campaigner Dr Jimmy Walker, a member of the Cycling Opportunities Group for Salisbury, told the Salisbury Journal.

“A fantastic route, and you can’t take this away from them, but this just seems to be very poor planning.

“Wiltshire Council would never leave a pole in the middle of the road, so why is it acceptable to do so on the updated main trunk cycleway along the new Avon Valley cycleway?”

While Walker noted that the bizarre layout may not represent the finished article when it comes to the active travel aspect of the River Park project, he nevertheless pointed out that the similar placement of a bollard blocking a cycleway near Amesbury in 2021 took an electricity company months to remove the obstacle.

“It isn’t good for people who want to use that route feasibly. It just doesn’t look good in the public eye,” he continued.

“They need to get cycling infrastructure correct and fit for purpose and that is certainly not fit for purpose.”

> Why don't cyclists use cycle lanes?

However, Kier, the construction company contracted by the Environment Agency to complete the scheme, wrote in its May newsletter that the pole will be removed at some stage from the end of the cycleway.

“Work is still required at either end of the path including moving the lighting columns on Ashley Road,” the company said.

Responding to the criticisms, councillor Tamara Reay, Wiltshire’s cabinet member for transport, said: “We are committed to promoting more walking and cycling in our Business Plan and making travel by foot or bike easier, in order to improve air quality, reduce traffic congestion, and cut carbon emissions.

“As part of the Salisbury River Park project, further work is planned to widen and upgrade this crossing to allow cyclists to more easily cross Ashley Road and travel along the Avon Valley shared use path without being legally required to dismount at the zebra crossing.

“The consultation for these works has now closed without any objections so we are now in the process of programming these works.”

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, 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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29 comments

Avatar
marmotte27 | 7 months ago
2 likes

What's stopping them moving the bloody post FIRST?

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chrisonabike replied to marmotte27 | 7 months ago
1 like

Seems crazy, but this is fairly common (certainly in the UK).  Might be:

a) I'm not a highways engineer but there are some very specific and somewhat fiddly legal regulations about permitted geometries of many road features.

b) "Scheduling" - when they could arrange to get certain things done, or the order etc.  Dates slip - of course sometimes due to cock-up.

Example of the 2nd is the Leith Walk tram changes - on at least 2 occasions for some time there were large poles actually erected right in the middle of the cycle path.  Once apparently because they needed to put poles to hold lights while waiting for the new tram power lines (also doubling as light supports), another time because they were waiting on contractors for some impenetrable reason.

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qwerty360 replied to chrisonabike | 6 months ago
1 like

Or more to the point - the cycling infra should be clearly marked as closed so long as issues like this exist...

 

Also councils should be restricted in how many open works they can have (I.E. they can't start road changes until stuff like this is finished to encourage it gets done promptly...)

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Săndel | 7 months ago
0 likes

I believe UK should just ban cycling.
Cyclists are just a nuisance for everybody, over there. They don't pay fuel taxes and insurance, they're just of no use for anybody.

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brooksby replied to Săndel | 7 months ago
6 likes

I honestly can't tell if that is over-the-top satire or if you're just a tw@t... 

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wtjs replied to brooksby | 7 months ago
3 likes

There's a tw@t jam here- at least 2 of them here, fighting for our attention

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Hirsute replied to Săndel | 7 months ago
1 like

Must be a touch of the sun.
Vehicle that does not use fuel does not pay fuel tax. Should these telsas be paying some extra ad valorum tax ?
I pay for third party insurance but then again as the thread - driver crashes into building shows, I unable to achieve those heights of destruction and consequent £10000s of damage.

Avatar
mdavidford | 7 months ago
1 like
Quote:

it was built directly into the path of a zebra crossing pole

If these crossing poles are wandering around the place, that suggests a bigger issue.

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chrisonabike replied to mdavidford | 7 months ago
0 likes

Clearly the poles should have priority in this situation so the cycle path is at fault. Although perhaps like redder lights maybe they have to be "established" first?

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Oldblokey replied to mdavidford | 7 months ago
0 likes

Here in Oz we drive on the left, and it is expected to walk and ride on the left. That is why a good proportion of our buttons for traffic lights are on the right.

right???

 

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hawkinspeter | 7 months ago
0 likes

What the UK should do is get rid of the requirement for Belisha beacons on zebra crossings and instead have the zebras on raised tables. That would allow greater flexibility for their placement whilst also providing drivers with the visual cues that the crossing has pedestrian priority.

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qwerty360 replied to hawkinspeter | 6 months ago
2 likes

I can accept the argument that we need signage for zebras that isn't ground based as that can be hidden.

 

But if tourists in an Austrian ski resort can cope with a zebra whose only visible indicator is a retroreflective sign because everything else was buried under snow (including the second sign) then the british should be able to cope with reflective signs and we really shouldn't need belisha beacons (and therefore power for built in lighting)

 

(seriously, I spent 4 days thinking the drivers were really really polite in stopping to let me cross to hotel before snow melted enough to realise it was a zebra...)

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chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 6 months ago
0 likes

Raised tables could be good.  I guess "since UK" it's "are they a nuisance for cycling" (since we've not yet got cycle paths)?

Wonder about the costs?  That's a lot of material and it needs to be well-enough made and substantial enough that it doesn't start collapsing under the traffic.  (IIRC there are a few ones about Edinburgh looking worse-for-wear).

In NL it would appear that poles are less of a feature except where it's full "traffic lights".  Even where there are more "formal" crossings of the carriageway for motor traffic:

https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/a-common-urban-intersectio...

However there are some more subtle differences which may make a bigger difference to the pedestrian experience?  The following (long-ish - but hopefully interesting) article sets out some.

https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/blog/2013/07/03/how-does-a-dutch-envi...

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Wheelywheelygood | 7 months ago
0 likes

Their only trying to save bikers the effort of going out of their way to hit things  maybe if they hit poles enough they'll stop riding into my wheelchair on the pavement 

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chrisonabike replied to Wheelywheelygood | 7 months ago
4 likes

I'm beginning to wonder if your wheelchair looks like a large car? We hear from court cases that cyclists are always riding into them. Or indeed under.

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Tech Noir | 7 months ago
0 likes

Well something doesn't add up. If, as they claim, the zebra crossing is to be widened to allow cyclists to cycle across (i.e. converted to a Tiger crossing), why are there newly painted give way markings on the cycle-track?

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LeadenSkies replied to Tech Noir | 7 months ago
1 like

Because the pedestrian pavement alongside the road crosses it at right angles and one or the other will have to give way. Probably sensible for that to be the cyclists given that you have to stop 1m further on for the road unless you are simply going to blast through the crossing or you are lucky enough to hit it on green.

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brooksby | 7 months ago
5 likes

In the article they say that the project isn't finished yet, that the post will be moved when they widen the crossing to allow cyclists to cross. Maybe we ought to wait to criticise them until they've actually finished? (or is this the wrong crowd?  3 )

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jbuckx2 replied to brooksby | 7 months ago
7 likes

Your right, it's not finished, but if this was road works (for motorists) would this be acceptable? 

could you imagine closing a road for 2 months with no diversion then finally opening it but leaving a pole in the middle of it for 6 weeks?

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HLaB replied to jbuckx2 | 7 months ago
3 likes

Whilst a pole in the middle of a cycleway isn't ideal, it isn't going to cause a major safety problem temporarily that holds back the part opening of a usefull link.  I dont knows the ins and outs of what described by Dr Walker as “A fantastic route" but the alternative with it not in place may not be.   The route only opened this week give them time.  Rome wasn't built in a day.

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I love my bike replied to HLaB | 7 months ago
1 like

Note: this is simply a short re-alignment of an existing route. It is useful, but I wouldn't describe it as 'fantastic', though standards vary.

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HLaB replied to I love my bike | 7 months ago
0 likes

Not now it isn't fantastic but give them time.

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I love my bike replied to jbuckx2 | 7 months ago
2 likes

One woud think that a large company/plc would schedule the works so that the crossing was completed (inc moving the lighting poles etc) before re-opening the short length of cycle track?

Even then, the route is still blocked a few hundred meters closer to the city centre, so progress once again is hindered.

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brooksby replied to I love my bike | 7 months ago
3 likes
I love my bike wrote:

One woud think that a large company/plc would schedule the works so that the crossing was completed (inc moving the lighting poles etc) before re-opening the short length of cycle track?

  

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chrisonabike replied to I love my bike | 7 months ago
1 like
I love my bike wrote:

One woud think that a large company/plc would schedule the works so that the crossing was completed (inc moving the lighting poles etc) before re-opening the short length of cycle track?

Exhibit a - the Edinburgh arms-length trams company, and eg. Leith Walk. (Coverage of "large pole in middle of cycle path" aplenty in old articles in road.cc)

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Disgusted of Tu... | 7 months ago
13 likes

I think the basic prerequisite for cycle lane planners is as follows:

Q: Have you ever ridden a bicycle?
A: No, never.

Q: Do you have any interest in developing usable bicycle infrastructure?
A: No, never.

Q: Great! When can you start?
A: whenever but I'll be working from home only.

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jbuckx2 | 7 months ago
13 likes

This is all standard stuff as we all know. What is worse is while they work on improving these existing routes they pretend like we don't exist. Shortly after this intersection the route is blocked and there is a detour sign for pedestrians only (cyclists aren't mentioned but at least it means we aren't told to dismount as usual). The detour takes you to the A Road and then nothing else is provided.

Imagine just closing a road and pretending cars don't exist.

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chrisonabike replied to jbuckx2 | 7 months ago
1 like
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jbuckx2 replied to chrisonabike | 7 months ago
6 likes

Oh yes, the first time I encountered actual real diversions for 'people on a bicycle' because of road works in Netherlands, I realised just how much contempt we have to endure.

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