Thursday 22 October 2020

Dangerous cycle lanes and why Cycling UK seldom challenge Local Authorities who build them

 


As the late comedian Ken Dodd would say: Well, Missus, I am most “discombobulated”. In my case I am discombobulated to discover an uncomfortable fact about our leading cycling organisation, Cycling UK.

Those defenders of cyclists’ rights, those  leading campaigners to make the roads safer, who tirelessly lobby government to fund cycling adequately – in vain - seldom challenge Local Authorities who build unsafe cycling infrastructure.

Can you believe that?   

Local Authority planners and engineers have turned bad cycle lane design into an art form. There are good works, of course. Some Local Authorities are better than others.

But around the corner you may suddenly find a hazard; a bus stop in the Kingston cycle lane (photo below); telephone boxes;




the cycle lane ends with no warning; switches to across a busy road; and worst of all, the cheap option, cycle lanes on pavements in built-up areas when this facility was only ever intended for inter-modal routes.

The irony is that if ever government coughed up the £billions needed for a national cycling policy, it will be the dodgy LA’s who will do the work, the very people who make a pig’s ear of the small offerings we have to contend with.

And yet these rogues are continuously allowed to get with it unchallenged by Britain’s leading cycling organisation.

This makes me so angry. And confused. Because over the years I have sensed the passion various campaign chiefs have brought to the task of promoting cycling –the many reports on health benefits, economical benefits and so on.

And I have felt their anger at government prevarication, the stalling, and the false promises.

So it follows they must be as frustrated as Hell because not only is government fucking them about, so are many local authorities. They may be well intentioned but with no proper understanding of what is required

When a few weeks ago this blog tore Kingston upon Thames to shreds over their building of bus stop cycle lanes – where bus passengers alight straight into the path of cyclists - I said I felt sure that Cycling UK will surely have complained to Kingston.

At one bus stop Kingston did  get it right, with the cycle lane curving round and out of the way of where passengers alight. But as in the case of the bus stop illustrated above, they simply just drove the cycle lane right through it.

Cycling UK, I have discovered,   have not so much as written a letter in protest.

What’s more their excellent bi-monthly magazine Cycle has never carried a story about the Kingston shambles, nor any shoddy work by any Local Authority, if memory serves me.

A picture story would suffice with a caption saying beware, your life may be in danger using this or that cycle lane. 

Why is there only ever cosy news such as the story on the new Cambridge traffic island built in the cycle friendly Dutch style? Good to see this, of course.

But, come on, let’s have some balance.

So what’s going on? What’s the problem?

Because Cycling UK staff were working from home, like many people are during the pandemic, it’s been hard to track anyone down.

Eventually a fellow journo gave me a contact and I was able to put the 64,000 dollar question.

Why do they not grab the LAs by the balls?

Do Cycling UK have any partnerships to promote cycling that might make criticism difficult – such as Grant Application Partnerships?

“No”, they do not have Grant Application Partnerships, a spokesman firmly told me. “Of course, we do have partnerships with various authorities to deliver programmes but that never has and never would prevent us from criticising an authority if we feel the need to do so.”

So why can't they tackle these misfits?

The answer is Cycling UK don’t have the financial resources necessary to go after Local Authorities!

So as well as being mad at the world I’m now both mad and sad. Sad that the defenders of cyclists’ rights are unable to take up the fight with local authorities who mess up.

Duncan Dollimore , Head of Campaigns, explained.

“To answer your specific question, no, I haven’t spoken to Kingston about this, and I’m almost certain that nobody else has spoken to them. In an ideal world, we would have more conversations with local authorities about inadequate infrastructure, but I’d need a much larger team of campaigners to have those conversations with every local authority across the UK about every scheme which doesn’t meet the required standards.

"That’s one of the reasons why we’ve been trying to build up a local campaign network, and better equip and support local people to raise issues locally.

"There’s no reluctance on my part to challenge local authorities, and we have done this, but there is an issue with capacity to do it.”

He added: “The good news is that the Government are planning to create a new inspectorate, Active Travel England, which will have oversight of standards around new infrastructure – withholding future funding if schemes do not meet required standards. They announced this in July, and the months seem to be passing without any sign of actual delivery of this commitment, but we are expecting this inspectorate to be up and running early next year.”

So there you have it.

They don’t have the resources for what is really vital work.

But why didn’t they say. Why have they not told us, the members, and the transport world at large?

Who knows, there might be some rich benefactor out there.

OK, we now know get why Cycling UK seldom directly tackle Local Authorities over such matters. As Dollimore explains, it is a question of money to employ a team to do so.

That in itself indicates how bad the situation.

Sam Jones of Cycling UK press office explained further.

“As a small national charity, it’s not possible for us tackle every single bit of egregious cycling infrastructure we hear about. Instead Cycling UK has focused on the problem behind the mistakes, namely the lack of national design standards, which now we have in England outside of London (and Wales). These standards will ensure councils don’t waste their money on inferior infrastructure, and will also allow local campaigners to challenge substandard work if they do encounter it.

“This isn’t to say Cycling UK is ignoring the problem of poor local infrastructure. We’ve just had to focus on where we can make the biggest difference with our resources. So instead of battling it out at micro level, we’ve geared ourselves to provide the support and tools to local campaigners to challenge the problems they encounter, such as newly launched Cycling Advocacy Network.”

To this I have to say there is in fact a perfectly good design guide. It’s been available since 1996!

It’s entitled: “Cycle-Friendly Infrastructure - Guidelines for Planning and Design.”

It was approved by the DoT (now DfT), the Bicycle Association, the CTC, and the Institution of Highways and Transportation. But universally ignored by Local Authorities.

Every LA in England has a copy gathering dust on a shelf, unless it was chucked out. It's a known fact that local highway chiefs think they know better.

Leaving it to local Cycling UK groups to engage in these matters will only go so far.

If the experience of my local group is anything to go by – and they include a professional engineer - planners listen for a while; go through the motions of listening, then out of the blue put down another crap facility without consulting anyone.

So Cycling UK need to get out the knives.

Just as they did when the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead threatened Velolife Cafe over the planning application for their premises. When was that, now? Last year, the year before?

Can’t recall. Time flies.

That was a nasty issue which saw the café owner and cyclists stopping there threatened with legal action for just meeting for a ride.

We may never know what drove the council to threaten this course of action, but it was all nonsense.

After a bitter struggle the council eventually backed down, climbed out of the hole they had dug for themselves and apologised to the café owner. But it took a lot of legal pressure from the combined forces of CYCLING UK and the racing organisation, British Cycling, and their legal team, Leigh Day.  

We know that Cycling UK have teeth.

They really need to bite the Local Authorities.

Monday 12 October 2020

IT'S ALL THE RAGE

 



This edition starts nicely enough. But it ends with a story about a cruel twist of fate – worthy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination – which befell a cyclist at the hands of the law after a serious altercation with a motorist.

I begin with a recent ride of my own, up a very quiet favourite climb of mine. It was a little after 8am, a lovely morning, clear skies, cold, the sun all of a sparkle, blue sky topping the downs. Not much traffic. Then as well as bird song in the air I heard voices.

Looked over my shoulder. Nothing. The voices persisted.  A casual conversation in my head. So this is madness at last?

Then they swept by, three on road bikes, moving at twice my speed of 7.8mph, all chatting amicably.

Good heavens, I thought.

And I called out – for despite my efforts I could, at this early part of the climb, still muster breath to speak:

“I must say I find that really disconcerting,” I said as the third rider hurried by, “for you to be chatting away and yet go past at that speed.”

They ignored me and disappeared around the second hairpin.

When I took the corner there was no sign of them ahead of me on the long, long straight!

Disconcerting!

Perhaps they had stopped talking and started to ride!

Only the day before, on the flat, I had been overtaken by a guy on an electric mtb. Whoosh – probably doing 30mph! This on a two-metre wide cycle path so he was too close for comfort.

Gave me quite a start.

At least I had some inkling of the threesome’s conversational approach.

 

After pausing at the summit to admire the view to the South Downs 30 miles away, I turned and retraced my route.

A rider overtook me just before the long descent and I laid off by some 10 metres. We were doing about 24mph, that’s all.

Then he inexplicably braked almost to a stop and with barely a look over this shoulder, swerved to the right, across my path to make a U-turn!

I think he’d spotted some mates going the other way! Even at 24-25mph I was closing on him rapidly.

I grabbed my brakes while this guy, unable to complete the turn, stalled and leapt off his machine in the middle of the road and I just missed running into him.

I gave him a foul piece of my mind,   *!!!!!*** I probably Breached the Peace.

“Sorry,” he called out.

Then I remembered.

It was a Saturday morning, the start of the weekend, when all the weekend cyclists get out!

Normally I avoid the honey pots at weekends.

I used to think it was good that so many more people have taken up cycling since the 2012 London Olympics.

Not any longer. There are too many unpredictable idiots among them, no road craft, going too fast into bends. Long queues in cafes – when we used to visit them!

Making U-turns!

But I also felt annoyed with myself for losing my rag.

It’s stress. Lots of stress on some roads, and in life generally, especially with the coronavirus persisting, resulting in lockdowns.

When I got home I checked my emails.  There was an awful story from Cycling UK which put my travails into perspective.  I think it’s since gone viral.

Cycling UK member David Brennan was put in fear for his life when a vehicle was suddenly driven to within inches of his back wheel. In the altercation with the driver which followed there was much shouting and swearing and he was punched in the face. 

Months later he was shocked when the police accused  him of a breach of the peace but let the driver off with a warning.

He was astounded. According to Cycling UK, the police had earlier told him they had seen the video (and I presume also heard the colourful soundtrack) - of the incident and were going to investigate ‘further criminality’.

But when they called at his house the police told him:  “We are here to give you an official warning for contravening Section 38 (Breach of the Peace).”

The warning stated:  that he: ‘Did shout and swear causing fear to others’.”

Well, it was strong stuff. But no wonder - he feared he was about to be run down.

Brennan was further shocked to learn that the driver had also been given a written warning when clearly he thought he should be investigated for dangerous driving.

The incident occurred after the rider, who had been following a slow moving line of traffic on his way to Glasgow, decided to overtake a vehicle on the inside.

There was plenty of space.

But no sooner had he cleared the vehicle, than the potentially lethal weapon changed its line towards Brennan – you can see it do so clearly on the film. It came so close as to pose a real threat.

Such threatening moves have been experienced by other cyclists,  as though the driver has taken exception to being overtaken by cyclist.

In this case, cue for the Brennan to slap the bonnet and the very angry exchange which followed.

The pair came to a halt and the driver got out. Both were loudly shouting at the other. The cyclist was shoved and then punched, leaving him with a swollen lip.  Then the driver drove off.

Another driver who witnessed the whole affair came to Brennan’s assistance.

Brennan reported the matter to the police. After a month he hadn’t heard anything so chased them up. He felt sure the footage of the film taken from his helmet camera would confirm the driver had made a dangerous manoeuvre on him.

After several more months he received a late night visit by the police to his home and his world turned upside down. It would seem that the police took no account of the dangerous incident which in itself “caused fear in others” and which had provoked the cyclist’s outburst in the first place.

Cycling UK’s lawyers are looking into matter.