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Wands protecting cycle lanes

So, here in Bristol the 'protected' cycle lanes are 'protected' by three foot high orange-and-reflective plastic cylinders which screw into a base bolted to the road surface.

They only screw in a half-turn and are VERY easily removed (either accidentally, by a driver not exercising due care and attention, or on purpose).  They must lose so many of the things, too, where they've been knocked or thrown a long way from the actual cycle lane they were 'protecting'.

Now the students are returning, I'm sure its a coincidence but the ones around Park Row are all taken down on Monday mornings so that must be a fun time the students are having over the weekend surprise

And the council sends out Traffic Management teams Every.  F-ing.  Day.  to put the wands back in place.

So: my question is whether it would be better for the council to put more permanent things there.  Might be more expensive as an initial outlay, but surely it would save the time and money spent in constantly Forth Bridging it around the city replacing them all?

They could have a metal or concrete core, or (i don't know, just thinking aloud) release paint or something, upon impact.  They could be properly fixed to the roadway, instead of a half-turn of plastic, so that any shopkeeper can't just remove them if he thinks people "need" to park right outside his shop.

And I don't see what motorists would have to complain about - if they're exercising due care and attention then they wouldn't drive into them.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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brooksby | 2 years ago
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Well, the council replaced the old plastic screw-in wands with more permanent ones last week.  They sneaked them in overnight, as I suspect that they would not have been able to do it during the day because of all the parked cars...

(The blokes from the Greek pasty shop did start parking on the pavement on double yellows on the other side of the road, a couple of days... <eye roll>).

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brooksby replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

.

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Sriracha replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
4 likes

Interesting picture. The double yellows are effectively enforced by the wands - no more fudging the issue by parking in the cycle lane or on the pavement - either keep driving or try and park in the traffic lane.

So now it's a through route only, from elsewhere to elsewhere. At which point you have to ask why the traffic even goes through the High Street, it makes no sense.

Shoppers voting with their feet and purses have resoundingly said No to motorised high streets. Round here we have a sadly dilapidated High Street, and a thriving retail park. The retail park is mostly one huge mall where pedestrian avenues take the place of congested roads. Which would you rather stroll along - its a no-brainer.

Perversely, the business in the High Street have vociferously opposed all attempts at pedestrianisation, insisting that their salvation lies in a street clogged with cars, until only charity shops and pawn brokers remain. Even the banks and phone boutiques have gone.

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hawkinspeter replied to Sriracha | 2 years ago
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Sriracha wrote:

Interesting picture. The double yellows are effectively enforced by the wands - no more fudging the issue by parking in the cycle lane or on the pavement - either keep driving or try and park in the traffic lane. So now it's a through route only, from elsewhere to elsewhere. At which point you have to ask why the traffic even goes through the High Street, it makes no sense. Shoppers voting with their feet and purses have resoundingly said No to motorised high streets. Round here we have a sadly dilapidated High Street, and a thriving retail park. The retail park is mostly one huge mall where pedestrian avenues take the place of congested roads. Which would you rather stroll along - its a no-brainer. Perversely, the business in the High Street have vociferously opposed all attempts at pedestrianisation, insisting that their salvation lies in a street clogged with cars, until only charity shops and pawn brokers remain. Even the banks and phone boutiques have gone.

You've reminded me of some article I read recently that was questioning the U.S. design of roads and streets (roads being for moving vehicles and streets being for shopping etc). It highlighted the confusion in design that happens all over the place whereby shopping areas get mixed up with through routes and thus pedestrians have to put up with an unpleasant amount of traffic. I'll see if I can find it again.

Edit: searching for "stroads" helped me find it: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/10/30/the-stroad

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
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Video by Not Just Bikes based on the same concept and referencing the Strong Towns Articles
 

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

Looks good - I don't know if the bike sign's enough to legalise "no motor vehicles in here" but if so great (assuming that was actually enforced...). No expertise in this but I believe you need all the spells:

Solid white line outside any wands or bollards (which reduces the space a little). Double yellows (or red "clearway"). Double strokes on kerb for "no loading". Probably need some signage somewhere with "no stopping, no loading" conditions too?

Wands definitely not my first choice - or probably anyone's apart from the officials managing the budget for them.  I still wonder whether some ugly concrete Jersey barriers wouldn't be both cheaper and more effective / safer?  Maybe we've used all those for anti-terror use already though.  Of course what we want - in the absence of "almost no cars" - is an actual segregated cycle path. Bet that is more expensive though. (Always reminds me of the classic cartoon).

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brooksby replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

.

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brooksby replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

And finally, the Great Plastic Wand Burial Ground (outside Trenchard Street car park exit).

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hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
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Those new wands look very smart! Haven't been along there recently, so nice to see the pics.

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

Thanks brooksby !

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Awavey | 2 years ago
1 like

yes, I mentioned on one of the news articles this week, my impression back when these first came in was these wands were simply the temporary, cheap, quick & dirty option to trial something for cycling, which could be easily be removed if it didnt work out, often too quickly as it happened, but they were basically just an alternative to cones.

but they seem to have become the default left in place solution, where as Id prefer to see them converted to proper segregated lanes, because yeah none of the "wand" solutions and who knows why there are so many of them, really are that durable, they are easily knocked, bent out of shape, ripped out, even the ones that stay standing have quickly been covered in road grime, which reduces their effectiveness as visible lane markers.

plus they do often cause access difficulties for trikes, bikes with trailers. So Im interested to see what they do with them

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chrisonabike | 2 years ago
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Council infra being normally insufficient / sporadic / actually a downgrade in places - but it's impossible not to notice the changes in Edinburgh.  That serves notice on people that times are changing.

As for "bravery" - check the council's surveys. Edinburgh is about the most cycle-positive I've known in the UK.  Even for "residents" being surveyed, for measures for improving things outside schools there's serious push-back: 48% for : 40 against, (others don't know / care).  That was the "best" result for active travel, things like bike lanes / what businesses thought about any change - you can guess.

So if you "listen to the people" you'll hear pretty much the same line as from politicians - "we support active travel / need to fix the climate / don't want little Becca squashed - BUT not this way, not here, not right now..."

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chrisonabike | 2 years ago
3 likes

Here in Edinburgh we have something similar.  In many ways I'd have loved it if they'd gone a bit ... radical, like say Seville:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/28/seville-cycling-capital-southern-europe-bike-lanes

"the kerb was raised to pavement level to offer more protection ... This also made it harder to give the space back to cars if a new government changed their minds."

Also read the line (can't find it now) about "they set the expectation that consultation was about how to add bike lanes to a street, not whether to add them."

(Nice video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz20rAJ7oIg BTW)

I guess because these were initially "for Covid" here there were limitations on (a) cash (b) "supplies" (both suitably angled kerbs and also suitably experienced planners / civil engineers - always being given as a reason for slow / no progress) (c) bravery to push this beyond "we drew some dots on the pavement two metres apart".

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