Manchester cycle campaigners have produced a spoof promotional video of Manchester’s Exchange Square to highlight flaws with some of the cycle infrastructure around the brand new tram line.
Hailing Manchester’s “integrated, multi-modal transport network” the video, produced by Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign, complete with RP English voiceover, nonetheless has a serious message about the dangers posed by cycle infrastructure that crosses tram tracks and is shared with bus and car traffic, and in places stops suddenly.
Exchange Square has a station on the first part of Manchester’s new Metrolink Second City Crossing tram line, part of a £1bn investment programme, which was fast-tracked thanks to a European grant. The new tram stop was opened in December, part of a plan to move the city's rapidly growing population.
The video narrator hails cycle routes “designed with the very latest in paint technology, with tram tracks to guide you on your way.”
At one point a woman is filmed cycling into a bike lane that ends suddenly with a kerb. “Oh look, a handy layby if you need to catch your breath,” the voiceover says.
It also shows footage of a bendy bus overtaking a cycle rickshaw driver and turning left, forcing the cyclist to stop.
“Good job the professional cyclist predicted what was coming,” the voiceover says.
There’s pedestrians walking along bike lanes – or “testing them on foot before trying them by bike” – and one cyclist bunnyhopping the tram tracks to avoid getting “integrated into the tram network”.
The clip finishes by admitting “cycling shouldn’t require such advanced skills; cycling should be for everyone.”
Transport for Greater Manchester is investing millions in dedicated cycle infrastructure, including a major protected cycle route on Oxford Road, as part of a bus priority scheme, and a recently opened bike track on the city’s “Curry Mile”. However, in recent weeks one cycle lane, on Portland Street, was removed at the junction with Oxford Road due to safety concerns, as cyclists were being forced to ride between a bus stop and bus layby.
New cycle lane in Manchester's Portland Street removed amid safety concerns
Cycling UK (formerly CTC) recently reiterated concerns over a lack of national design standards after a “flagship” Leeds-Bradford Cycle Superhighway, paid for with the same pot of Government Cycle City Ambition Fund money as Manchester’s Oxford Road scheme, was built just 75cm wide.
Meanwhile, in the New Forest, some new cycle infrastructure is similarly bizarre.
Designs for the Exchange Square tram stop, with its island-style platform, were intended to make the most of what is described as limited space in the busy shopping area, while allowing plenty of room for pedestrians. The original promotional video for the new tram station is below.
Exchange Square opening from Transformation Information on Vimeo.
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9 comments
Yes, you've mentioned the Leeds Bradford cycleway being 75cm wide 400 times before. (I think it was in one specific place, by a bus stop).
It may well be crap, but actually I think this is one occasion when road.cc might send someone out of the office to have a look, to find out for certain. Because all these references to the cycleway are based on some photos taken by a reader with (as one commenter pointed out) a potato. The jury is out, as far as I'm concerned.
I've seen various articles. The 75cm bit is, admittedly, the worst, but the rest of it seems to be generally low quality- not that wide, giving way to minor side roads, giving way to minor side roads with diversions off the straight line to do so, non-flush kerbs etc.
Is there any benefit in tram over a bus? It's more expensive to install, limited to infrastructure of rails and if one breaks down you can't go around it... If you want a tram, build it underground. Higher speed, weather is not a problem and predictable times.
The term "Cycle City Ambition Fund" gets me every time. Perhaps local authority planners got confused about what the ambition should be, because Manchester is demonstrating a clear ambition for people who want to cycle into the city to go elsewhere. Cycle City my a**e.
Yup. Doesn't surprise me one bit. Great that so many people went to his aid, though (I did laugh out loud at the teenager waving into the camera!).
Cycling parallel to shiny tram lines looks like a recipe for disaster to me. Quite amazing someone (presumably) thought that was a good idea.
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This is the result
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAVD4EXb8_M
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the one positive is the reaction of the other people to this.
You can see a link in the video info on youtube, tfgm were made aware that the street was a key link for cyclists through the city and said they would make provisions - this was not what we meant.
As I see it, if the route becomes a place mainly for trams or people walking, like mosley street, that's fine. It's the lack of exemptions for one-ways in the vicinity, and way too much motor traffic on the main through routes like Deansgate that do more to make navigating the CBD so hard on a bike and placed such an emphasis on this as a quiet cut-through in the first place.