Mar
Rule 58
The BBC has picked up the story, first brought to light by the CTC, about the proposed new rule in the highway code telling cyclists to “use cycle routes when practicable and cycle facilities … where they are provided”, and why this might be a gift to drivers’ insurance companies fighting claims by cyclists.
This has prompted us to feature a few of Greater Manchester’s cycling “facilities” which are probably best left unused.
The first one is a bike path running along a pavement in Stockport.
It goes for about a 100 yards but as soon as the pavement gets too narrow it dumps you, with the ominous word END, into the fast-moving traffic on the A6. The path was put there by Sainsburys when they built their new Hazel Grove store, with its massive car park, as a token gesture towards cyclists.
Here is another one on the A6 but this time in Central Manchester on the Levy side of the Mancunian Way.
It’s typical of so many bike lanes which simply stop when the road space runs out, creating, in this case, not so much a pinch point as a completely squashed point. Thanks to Doug Briggs for taking the picture (at great personal risk, we understand).
The GMCC has featured this next one before, but it’s worthy of another airing, not because it’s dangerous, just completely daft. It was put in by Stockport MBC in 2001, in Turves Road, Cheadle Hulme.
It runs for only a few hundred yards, but incorporates a whole series of stop lines, including ones next to traffic islands, and also wherever a house driveway emerges.
There aren’t any stop lines on the road itself, so it’s unsurprising that no cyclist has ever been seen to use this path.
Of course Greater Manchester has some cycle lanes and cycle paths that are well thought out and genuinely useful. But there’s also a worldwide debate about whether such things really do make cycling safer or just make it feel safer.
If you know of a Greater Manchester cycling facility, good or bad, that you think should appear on these pages, please mail a photo and a short description of it to BlogAdmin at gmcc dot org dot uk.
And have a look at Warrington Cycle Campaign’s Facility of the Month entries - they’re not just in Warrington.
