"Cyclists Prohibited"

Strider590

Dual carriageways are not a place for cyclists.............

However there is a disease that's spreading across the country, one of blocking off minor roads to stop people using them as shortcuts or to avoid road works.

Take for example Worcester, all the small roads around the city have had sections pedestrianised or closed off to stop people taking alternate routes, forcing cyclists to use busy and often dangerous main roads during rush hour AND when there are road works, the result is a town/city that just grinds to a halt.

Sometimes, because of poor planning, cyclists have no choice.

Marco_Panettone

Strider590 wrote: »

Dual carriageways are not a place for cyclists.............

However there is a disease that's spreading across the country, one of blocking off minor roads to stop people using them as shortcuts or to avoid road works.

Take for example Worcester, all the small roads around the city have had sections pedestrianised or closed off to stop people taking alternate routes, forcing cyclists to use busy and often dangerous main roads during rush hour AND when there are road works, the result is a town/city that just grinds to a halt.

Sometimes, because of poor planning, cyclists have no choice.

It's a brilliant idea poorly executed then. Rat runs should be closed to motor traffic, but allow people on foot and bike through. It's called filtered permeability.

custardy

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

It's a brilliant idea poorly executed then. Rat runs should be closed to motor traffic, but allow people on foot and bike through. It's called filtered permeability.

to be honest its endemic in most UK city designs.
Here in Edinburgh we had a huge £1 billion team project. no cyclists infrastructure designed in. some after thoughts tagged on

NBLondon

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

It's a brilliant idea poorly executed then. Rat runs should be closed to motor traffic, but allow people on foot and bike through. It's called filtered permeability.

That's what I have in my neck of the woods - the minor road is closed to vehicles at one end with a very short cycle lane through the closure. I bet it varies between London boroughs though.

brat

JP08 wrote: »

brat wrote:

Dual carriageways are more dangerous for cyclists.

Do you have any stats to back that up ? - I'm not disagreeing with you, after all, you're in a position to know , but I'd be interested in figures.

Me too. No I don't have stats. I'm not sure that the raw data available would allow any meaningful analysis.

I avoid DCs whenever I possibly can, especially when there's no road edge line to 'hide' inside.
There are numerous reasons why I believe they are more dangerous

• Higher volume of traffic - more exposure to danger
• Higher approach speeds - higher differential speeds
• Late observation of a cyclist can often lead to a messy overtake, or an extremely close filter past the cyclist in the same lane.
• Many motorists especially drivers of large vehicles don't appreciate the effect that their deflected air can have on a cyclist if they pass too closely.
• Driver attitudes are different on a DC rather than a SC road. There is less expectation of a slow moving hazard.
• Drivers on DCs seem to see a hazard ahead, then mentally dismiss it for a while because of its distance. Because of this, cyclists and other slow moving or stationary vehicles require avoiding sooner than might have been expected, sometimes taking a less attentive driver by surprise.

We've had more cycle fatalities on motorways than you would expect, given the small proportion of cyclists that use them in our area. We've also had fatal and serious accidents involving slow moving horse drawn carriageways and broken down vehicles in the dual carriageway, because they are more likely to be victims of inattentive motorists who are less conditioned to expect slower moving or stationary vehicles in the live lanes of a dual carriageway.

Mids_Costcutter

Marco_Panettone wrote: »

It's a brilliant idea poorly executed then. Rat runs should be closed to motor traffic, but allow people on foot and bike through. It's called filtered permeability.

Why isn't this happening in Worcester then? Strider needs to get on their case!

Strider590

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

Why isn't this happening in Worcester then? Strider needs to get on their case!

The planners around this area are complete idiots, they seem to design road layouts to cause maximum disruption. It's so bad that it has to be deliberate, you couldn't get it that bad by accident.

For example, closing off a back road to a business park, so that traffic going to it, is forced to cross the M5 roundabout, thus creating more congestion for M5 traffic and complete gridlock if there is ever an accident. It's like they wanted to stop people "cheating" the traffic hotspots. Let's not get started on the one way system that snakes through the city and the constant road works going on in one location or another (and have been for the last 10+ years).

System

We've had more cycle fatalities on motorways than you would expect, given the small proportion of cyclists that use them in our area

That is really worrying that cyclists are using motorways.

Cyclists are totally banned from them

brat

!!!!!! wrote: »

That is really worrying that cyclists are using motorways.

Cyclists are totally banned from them

Ooops!

*Dual Carriageways

boliston

GingerBob wrote: »

.....
I'm not a cyclist as such, and that section of the A19 is not one you'd want to be cycling on anyway, but to me this is just the thin end of the wedge. It won't be long before similar restrictions are placed on many other roads, and eventually it will cover the entire trunk road network......

It would be difficult banning cyclists from any road where there are any homes or businesses on that road unless there is a separate "service road" for the site. Otherwise if your own home was on a trunk road (remember that many truck roads are still just ordinary single carriageway roads) you could have the unusual situation where the only legal way to leave or return to your own home would be by car! Pedestrians are usually banned from roads that ban cyclists so trying to walk to your home would not be an option.