Pop-up Cycle Lanes and other Covid road-space restrictions

[DynamicSpirit]

Posting this to find out what people's impressions are of the changes to road layouts to favour cyclists, buses and pedestrians that have occurred in many cities over the summer in response to Covid. Are they a good thing because they help people to get out of cars, or a bad thing because they (allegedly) cause congestion? Do you have any examples of particularly good (or particularly bad) ones?

My own impression is that they are very good and well needed. I especially like the new cycle lanes that are protected by those regular thin bollard thingies (no idea what they are called) alongside them - which allow you to feel much safer on a bicycle. And in quite a few places where I live in SE London, ends of residential streets have been blocked off, making those streets much quieter and pleasanter. But on much of local social media, reaction seems to be overwhelmingly negative with people blaming them for increases in congestion. So I'm curious to see what people here think.

 

[E100]

So the perspective from someone living in Newcastle, as a keen casual (non-lycra) cyclist, though I am a highways civil engineer by trade.

I would say largely positive. There's been many put in that have finally taken back road space on previously bad routes that have helped encourage more utility and casual cycling (to me the main driver for this as opposed to purely exercise-based). Traffic doesn't appear to have been hugely affected with many still working from home. I would honestly say I do feel the UK is largely well placed for cycling and until recently this has been woefully inadequate in terms of infrastructure provision outside London. With the rise of millennials choosing not to own a car (such as myself), this is well-timed. Unfortunately, it does take time for habits to change and therefore the cycle lanes may be underutilised for some time drawing criticism of empty lanes but it's a chicken and egg situation.

Some of them are a bit suspect with some placement that leaves a bit to be desired and rightfully attracts some criticism. In other areas, they are unnecessary due to good existing provisions. They have also closed access across 5 local bridges. 2 of these have been useful however the other 3 are somewhat baffling as there haven't really been issues of note there. These minor gripes can sway opinion against them and I do hope a balanced approach is taken. A really important factor for me is that they must allow for actual journeys i.e. there isn't just a gap otherwise it will defeat the whole point.

 

[Mojo]

Overall positive, but I do feel that there appears to be more of an incentive to deliver more in terms of length of segregated or protected cycle lanes than there does appear to be any sort of thought about quality of said segregated cycle lanes. I do worry that because a local authority has installed however many kilometres of cycle lanes, they will congratulate themselves on it and think job done.

I can think of a few examples round here, one where an urban dual carriageway has had the left hand lane given over to a very wide cycle lane, but the bus stops have stayed on the kerb so any buses have to make a sharp pull into the cycle lane and then the same to get back out.

Additionally, it seems like almost all of these cycle lanes start after and end before junctions, one of the most perilous part of any journey. Many of them seem random in their placement and very few of the new ones at least seem able to allow someone to make a full journey as they have been installed in places that the road is wide enough rather than allow 90%+ of a journey between any two significant points to be made in them.

 

[JohnMcL7]

Overall positive, but I do feel that there appears to be more of an incentive to deliver more in terms of length of segregated or protected cycle lanes than there does appear to be any sort of thought about quality of said segregated cycle lanes. I do worry that because a local authority has installed however many kilometres of cycle lanes, they will congratulate themselves on it and think job done.

I can think of a few examples round here, one where an urban dual carriageway has had the left hand lane given over to a very wide cycle lane, but the bus stops have stayed on the kerb so any buses have to make a sharp pull into the cycle lane and then the same to get back out.

Additionally, it seems like almost all of these cycle lanes start after and end before junctions, one of the most perilous part of any journey. Many of them seem random in their placement and very few of the new ones at least seem able to allow someone to make a full journey as they have been installed in places that the road is wide enough rather than allow 90%+ of a journey between any two significant points to be made in them.

My thoughts are similar with the new cycle lanes here. The main change is they've taken a route where the cycle lane is the pavement alongside a dual carriageway, they've now closed off one lane of the dual carriageway for cyclists. It's a big improvement because it means you can cycle at a good pace which can't be done on the pavement but without having to mix with traffic. Unfortunately though I can't see it encouraging people who normally don't cycle since it's still the same at either end with a busy roundabout and busy junction and there's many other routes which still have minimal or no provision for cyclists.

I can't blame the council though because it takes a lot of time and money to do this type of work properly and even though it's likely a vocal minority there's always a lot of opposition to any cycling improvements here and it seems the same in most places. All of which is a shame because early in lockdown when the traffic was significantly reduced there was a big increase in cycling here both for commuting and leisure which was great to see but as traffic climbed back up towards the end of lockdown the cycling reduced back down to normal showing people will take to their bikes if they feel it's safe. I can't blame them either since I'm normally used to dicing with the traffic but really appreciated the quiet roads in lockdown when I racked up a lot of miles on the road bike and not done much since after some really dangerous near misses when the traffic started returning to normal.

 

[Cbob]

There are good bits and bad bits. Kensington High Street is brilliant and well used (although still needs junction improvements and might be removed by the intransigent council) whereas Uxbridge Rd in Harrow is super lazy and feels very much like 'we've provided x miles of cycle paths' dumping you onto crazily busy roundabouts and not follow any typical cycling flows, the road more being a kind of bypass road.