Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

"Omnishambles" cycle lane fenced off just one week after opening

The "dangerous" new contraflow cycle lane on Nelson Street in Bristol had been heavily criticised during its one week in operation...

A new cycle lane in Bristol labelled "dangerous" and an "omnishambles" by users has been fenced off just one week after it opened.

For the brief period it was in operation, the contraflow infrastructure on Nelson Street pushed cyclists into the same area where pedestrians walk on the footpath, with an apparent lack of clear signage and segregation.

In addition to this the entrance to the lane is at a sharp angle, and directs riders into the path of a street light, with the lack of clarity made worse by parts of the footpath still being fenced off for works — further squeezing pedestrians and cyclists together.

> Key Bristol cycle lane to be scrapped – because council claims it causes flooding

Martin Booth, editor of Bristol news website Bristol24/7, noticed the lane had been fenced off once again over the weekend and said he is still waiting for a response from Bristol City Council about "how such a dangerous piece of infrastructure had been allowed?"

 Mr Booth has been sharing thoughts and video of the bike lane since it opened, describing it as an "omnishambles" and the decision to close it as "sensible" as it was "completely unfit for purpose". Bristol 24/7 shared the following video on its YouTube channel...

Last week, the council's cabinet member for transport Cllr Don Alexander suggested they had been limited by space in this instance: "The aim is to produce the best possible scheme with the space available. If we could start with unlimited space then of course all modes would be segregated. That rarely happens in Bristol."

> "Too ridiculous": Cyclist reports motorist for driving on the pavement... and is threatened with fine for 'cycling on the footpath'

This is not the first time Nelson Street infrastructure has caused cyclists a headache. A temporary lane built in 2014 was branded "silly" by the Bristol Cycling Campaign as it zig-zagged past trees and other obstacles, similar to the bizarre Leith Walk cycle lane in Edinburgh.

The temporary lane was installed during building work, and a council spokesperson admitted it was "not ideal".

The latest alteration to Nelson Street's infrastructure comes following post-Covid transport improvements, and promised a new protected bike lane and improvements to pedestrian crossing facilities.

In summer 2020, Bristol's mayor Marvin Rees said he would be "taking bold action to create a better, more connected future for everyone and to help Bristol emerge from this crisis in a more inclusive and sustainable way."

"The pandemic has had huge impacts on our usual travel habits and, despite its challenges, we saw air pollution levels drop by almost half during the months of lockdown with big increases in walking and cycling," he said.

"We want to capture those benefits and protect the long-term public health of the city as well as the viability of our public transport services that provide real value to our communities.

"This next phase will strengthen the new schemes and we will be talking to communities across the city to determine the next steps for creating more liveable neighbourhoods that are free from traffic congestion and pollution."

In 2019, a forum post on road.cc outlined issues with another previous version of the street's cycling route. "The contraflow used to be up on the footway (separated by a painted line) [as it appears to be now] but there are building works, so they've moved it out as a contraflow painted lane on the carriageway instead," road.cc reader brooksby wrote.

"Except I'm not convinced that they've told any of the bus drivers, nor have they considered actually enforcing the double yellow lines along there."

road.cc has contacted Bristol City Council for comment. [Image: Martin Booth/Twitter].

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

Add new comment

25 comments

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

This shared use path is still completely closed off.  Not even pedestrians can use it - its got builders' fencing all along it, and vans parked on the various loading bays.

Which would be (just about) acceptable if they hadn't also burned off all the markings for the contraflow cycle lane which was on the road...

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/new-cycle-lane-is-an-u...

Quote:

Bristol Cycling Campaign’s infrastructure lead, Toby Wells, told Bristol24/7 that the new lane highlights the issue with councils relying on property developers to design and build cycle lanes.

Wells said that each developer has their own style, “resulting in a lack of consistency across the city and of course lanes which start and end abruptly at the boundaries of the development”.

This is what appears to have happened at either end of the cycle lane on Nelson Street and Quay Street.

“The Nelson Street lane is marginally safer than what was there before – the on-road painted line contraflow against buses – but has several obvious design flaws which will lead to conflict, mostly with people walking,” said Wells.

“The start and end points were meant to join up with lanes built by the council, but they haven’t built them yet so what you see is an unsafe bodge. We have no idea when/if they plan to finish the job.

“The gap half way along is a loading bay for the hotel, in theory only for use at off peak times but will likely be abused. So cyclists will come face to face with a parked van/truck and no clear way around it.

“The tactile paving at the start/end of the route is the wrong type, which may seem like a minor detail, but that paving is there to help blind or visually impaired people know where they are. With the wrong type, they can’t properly ‘read’ the footpath and find their way.

“Lastly, the build quality is very poor, and in some places it is already failing, with raised edges of blocks likely to catch bike wheels and trip up people walking. When it inevitably gets driven on by delivery vans it will get rapidly worse if it hasn’t been built properly.”

Avatar
eburtthebike | 1 year ago
4 likes

I would say that this was cheap and cheerful, but it looks expensive and dismal.

Avatar
Wammerz | 1 year ago
5 likes

Every time I'm in Bristol, I'm always amazed by (a) it's a "cycle city" with invisible or horrendous infrastructure
(B) how much the locals love just sitting in traffic jams.

Avatar
Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
2 likes

I'm just amazed those building works have finished. Oh, they haven't.

Avatar
davwil | 1 year ago
9 likes

I have asked the following of Bristol City Council:

We are very concerned about the delivery of Quay Street and Nelson Street pedestrian and cycle infrastructure.

In the short term can we have an update from BCC about the current issues with the infrastructure that was opened at the beginning of last week and closed 5 days later. Can you detail all the problems with the scheme and a timeline of how they will be addressed, please?

Also, can we have a complete breakdown of the decision-making process for allowing this scheme to open in the first place?

Who has funded the scheme and how much did it cost?
What were the aims of the scheme?
Was the schemed redesigned in the light of LTN1/20?
Who signed off on the delivery and thought it was acceptable to open the scheme to the general public?

Cheers David

David Wilcox
Councillor for Lockleaze 
Co Shadow Cabinet Member for Transport.
Cllr.David.Wilcox [at] bristol.gov.uk

Avatar
brooksby replied to davwil | 1 year ago
1 like

Good luck, davwil, and please let us know when (if) you get a response.

Reading the bristol247 article, it looks like the problem is precisely that the council didn't pay for it or design it but that the hotel people had to do it (equivalent to a section 106 payment?).  And the hotel people just did the absolute minimum to get it over the line.

Avatar
chrisonabike | 1 year ago
8 likes
Quote:

If we could start with unlimited space then of course all modes would be segregated. That rarely happens in Bristol.

Or indeed anywhere.  So it's just how you prioritise, isn't it?  It rather looks like the prioity is to create infra - "segregated" for one mode by fiat - everywhere.  Then "do what we can" with all the other modes, round the edges.  The "but this street is too small..." is nonsense given that there is very little segregated cycle infra about in most places.  Still can't do it?  You need to look at the network then - maybe the next street should be cycling and pedestrians only.

Motoring doesn't work without a network.  Why would cycling?

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
0 likes

The video has one of those self driving bikes advertised the other day. Deliveroon must have taken an order for them.

Avatar
chrisonabike | 1 year ago
10 likes

RE: Bristol cycle lane.  Looks unfinished and even if it isn't, it is.

However it would appear to be fully-featured per UK standards:

Sending you at oncoming traffic - check.
Swerving about - check.
Dodging street furniture - check.
Poor / no demarcation from pedestrians - check.
Regular width and surface colour / texture / height changes - check.
Quantum nature e.g. winks in and out of existence and changes its state (on / off road, cycle track, mandatory / advisory lane) - check.

It does seem to incorporate some drainage though - is that an oversight or a recognition that installing it might cause flooding?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
2 likes
chrisonatrike wrote:

It does seem to incorporate some drainage though - is that an oversight or a recognition that installing it might cause flooding?

That street is a lot closer to sea level than Whiteladies Rd - it's only a few metres from the River Froome.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
2 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:

That street is a lot closer to sea level than Whiteladies Rd - it's only a few metres from the River Froome.

I hear that's very fast over quite a long distance.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
0 likes
chrisonatrike wrote:

I hear that's very fast over quite a long distance.

Well, "Frome" comes from British Celtic meaning "fair, fine, brisk", but it's only 32km long

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

Oh, so it's just a time triallist then.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like
hawkinspeter wrote:

That street is a lot closer to sea level than Whiteladies Rd - it's only a few metres from the River Froome.

Frome.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes
eburtthebike wrote:
hawkinspeter wrote:

That street is a lot closer to sea level than Whiteladies Rd - it's only a few metres from the River Froome.

Frome.

Correct, but in my defence it was historically known as Froom.

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes

I hadn't realised that they'd reopened this route.

The contraflow on Nelson Street is a really important route to get back to the Centre from Broadmead - the only alternatives are walking or going out onto Rupert Street (a busy dual carriageway).  The pavement on that side has been closed off for building works for the last couple of years while they converted old offices into a luxury hotel.

Pre the works, there was a painted contraflow lane on the road which became kind of interesting as you played chicken with oncoming double decker buses (it's a busy bus route) trying to get around parked delivery vans and not caring about encroaching on the mandatory cycle lane to do it...

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
3 likes
brooksby wrote:

I hadn't realised that they'd reopened this route.

The contraflow on Nelson Street is a really important route to get back to the Centre from Broadmead - the only alternatives are walking or going out onto Rupert Street (a busy dual carriageway).  The pavement on that side has been closed off for building works for the last couple of years while they converted old offices into a luxury hotel.

Pre the works, there was a painted contraflow lane on the road which became kind of interesting as you played chicken with oncoming double decker buses (it's a busy bus route) trying to get around parked delivery vans and not caring about encroaching on the mandatory cycle lane to do it...

Personally, I'd rather tangle with the traffic on Rupert Street as then you can travel without having to dodge round pedestrians and street furniture.

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like
hawkinspeter wrote:

Personally, I'd rather tangle with the traffic on Rupert Street as then you can travel without having to dodge round pedestrians and street furniture.

True...  I just find Rupert Street a bit scary at times - fast moving traffic racing to get from St James Barton to the Centre.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes
brooksby wrote:

True...  I just find Rupert Street a bit scary at times - fast moving traffic racing to get from St James Barton to the Centre.

Well, it's not fast moving when I'm taking primary in front of them!

I'm pretty confident when it comes to riding in traffic and I often tangle with the lane-confused drivers around St James Barton roundabout, so I'm probably not the best judge of which roads are suitable for most cyclists.

Avatar
BalladOfStruth | 1 year ago
8 likes

I like the 30cm ramp that you have to aim for at 0:48.

Avatar
HoarseMann | 1 year ago
3 likes

I wouldn't want to be too critical, as it does look unfinished. But a review is needed at this point to ensure things like the 90 degree turn-and-duck around a signpost are ironed out of the end result.

Avatar
StuInNorway replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
4 likes

It has possiblities to be good. 
Change access ramp to after lamppost and with proper angled access.
block paving is never ideal, unless very well laid the first artic parking on it will destroy that surface making it potentially dangerous. (Not to mention those blocks can be lethal with frost)
Better demarkation. Signage, and ideally coat the bike lane in a colour that people recognise as "bike lane"... 
Fix the off ramp, angled kerbs and a proper asphalt ramp to the painted lane aheas (if that's not getting upgraded too)

Avatar
Car Delenda Est replied to StuInNorway | 1 year ago
0 likes

I'd say coat the cycle lane in normal black asphalt, people tend to tune out cycle lanes.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Car Delenda Est | 1 year ago
1 like

Paint it bright pink then people won't even notice it to complain about it.

Latest Comments