So while you lot were no doubt at home watching telly I popped down to Sainsburys Archer Road to do the shopping and went for a ride. The council had asked me to tale a look at some of the new work that has been done by Streets Ahead so I took the opporunity.
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Leaving Sainsburys at about 9, headed up past Hutcliffe Wood to Greenhill and Bocking Lane negotiating all the pinch points with impatient motorists, up to Meadowhead where I had been asked to check out the new cycle lanes down to Bowshaw and back. These are OK on the way down except that the kerb line where you go on to the pavement to avoid going round the roundabout are not level. As you are likely to be coming at them at a fair speed and an oblique angle there is a risk of coming off. Noted the fair going on but decided not to visit and headed back up.
There is no cycle lane for the first 100 metres or so and this is where you feel the most exposed - people are coming off the Dronfield bypass at 70 and starting to decelerate as they realise they are back in the urban zone, it's not where you want to be as a cyclist. There is a footpath that could be converted to shared use, this should be a priority. Pedestrian numbers are low here.
Once you get on the cycle lane it feels safer although you are a bit exposed as the Low Edges turning comes in. When you get to the toucan crossing again the kerb line needs to be lowered to reduce the risk of slipping.
I went over to the shared use route to Norton College and then to the service road along Norton Lane - I could use this as far as Mossbrook and then it was onto the Bochum Parkway where no mercy is given to cyclists.. whatever happened to the plan for a cycle route along here? I guess it went the same way as the plan to raise the speed limit, and the same way as the Head of Transport Planning who supported that.
I didn't see anything in the way of a cycle lane again until I got beyond Manor Top. Here there was a short section of 1.5 metre advisory, and directly after that I came across a shovel in the road, which luckily I missed (see picture attached). This appeared to have been left behind by the workmen in the area & I hope they will be disciplined.
Beyond the Parkway roundabout and on to Greenland Rd. Nothing has been done here apart from the junction with Main Rd. Further down there was some advisory 1.5. I bumped back into town via Attercliffe Common and up the Sheaf Valley route. What a pity to see the Matilda pub standing derelict, with the Matilda building itself all done up but apparently empty. Maybe the hippies who took the Matilda should have occupied the pub.
The only other item to note was a car blocking the cvcle gate on Glover Rd.
I remember saying to Dutch engineers: "Well cyclists don't stop at the lights." And they said: "Well what's the matter with your design?" They meant what was I doing in the way of designing road infrastructure that is making cyclists feel it's better to break the rules. Or "is the signal timing too long?" — if you come up to a signal and you are waiting 120 seconds to cross you are more likely to jump it, not like in Holland or Denmark where the most you wait is 40 seconds. So now I ask myself 'what am I designing that's making people go wrong?'
Simon
