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Cyclists respond to Lord Adonis "use cycle lanes" commentsBradford cycle superhighway (picture credit Twitter usser LeeDotDash).jpg

Cyclists respond to Lord Adonis "use cycle lanes" comments

After the former transport secretary asked whether cyclists should be allowed to use the carriageway where a cycle lane exists, cyclists give the answer
by Laura Laker
Mon, Sep 25, 2017 13:13
37

Last week Andrew Adonis, Former Transport Secretary and Chair of the Infrastructure Commission, asked whether cyclists should be allowed to use the carriageway where bike lanes exist.

The comments came as he retweeted an article, titled “London cycling campaigners must learn from the Charlie Alliston case”, published on the website of former Guardian columnist, Dave Hill, OnLondon.

Adonis commented: “So sad. Worrying trend: cyclists dodge superhighway/carriageway to avoid traffic lights. Common in Parliament Sq”, adding in a second tweet “Should cyclists be allowed to use carriageway where there is a superhighway? Welcome views.”

The initial response was one of disappointment. Some say he should know better. 

Twitter users began by pointing out the green light for cyclists is short at Parliament Square – five seconds according to this footage, resulting in long wait times during busy periods.

Our man, Dave Atkinson gave his two cents: get the infrastructure right, he says, and cyclists won’t need to use the carriageway.

Other examples of when use of a cycle route might not be viable were readily available.

Guardian journalist, Peter Walker, makes a point about Adonis' choice of source.

In a fortnight that has seen cyclists singled out for accusations of being a much bigger danger on the roads than the evidence shows, Adonis' comments prompted a wave of sighs and collective sarcasm.

The most thoughtful of the latter, highlighting the prejudice usually reserved for cyclists, was from Mark Treasure, of the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain.

In a piece titled Superhighway users dodging infrastructure to avoid traffic lights, Treasure turns the dialogue typically reserved for cyclists to pedestrians, by a tongue in cheek piece accusing “militant walkists” of ignoring the infrastructure built at "great expense" especially for them. He says despite there only being a wait of several minutes to cross the road twice to avoid super sewer works alongside London’s East-West Cycle Superhighway, on the Victoria Embankment, with clear maps instructing them how to proceed, many simply walked along the cycle route for a few hundred metres.

Adonis appears to have blocked Treasure after he pointed out bikes with only one brake are common in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile Labour MP for Exeter, and champion of cycling, Ben Bradshaw, offered his help.

As chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, which advises the government independently on transport infrastructure, Lord Adonis reaps benefits for cycling, too. 

Earlier this year he tasked former London Cycling Commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, to work with councils and organisations in Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Oxford, "to create a vision of what is required for cycling to become a 'super attractive' mode of transport in these three cities". Gilligan has been looking at what can be delivered in these places, and what funding will be needed. This is part of a wider "growth corridor" vision.

A sensible suggestion, made by Adonis, is that three sides of Parliament Square should be cycle/pedestrian, reducing through motor traffic – an intervention the London Cycling Campaign has long called for. Well, two sides, anyway.

One person urged Adonis to consider the wider safety issues around physical activity, or a lack thereof.

Lord Adonis
Cycle Superhighway
Mark Treasure

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37 comments

Avatar
beezus fufoon replied to spen | 6 years ago
2 likes
spen wrote:

Cyclists demand "Dutch style" cycle facilities and have a hissy fit when politician suggests they should be made to use it, as they are in the Netherlands.  Discuss

I also demanded coffee shops and transexual phillipino whores, but I distinctly stipulated they be optional rather than mandatory!

Avatar
burtthebike replied to spen | 6 years ago
1 like
spen wrote:

Cyclists demand "Dutch style" cycle facilities and have a hissy fit when politician suggests they should be made to use it, as they are in the Netherlands.  Discuss

If the cycle facilities really were as good as Holland, there wouldn't be any need to force cyclists to use them, they would because they would be safer, more convenient, attractive, quicker and more direct.  Sadly, something seems to have got lost in translation between Dutch and English.

Avatar
Morat replied to burtthebike | 6 years ago
0 likes
burtthebike wrote:
spen wrote:

Cyclists demand "Dutch style" cycle facilities and have a hissy fit when politician suggests they should be made to use it, as they are in the Netherlands.  Discuss

If the cycle facilities really were as good as Holland, there wouldn't be any need to force cyclists to use them, they would because they would be safer, more convenient, attractive, quicker and more direct.  Sadly, something seems to have got lost in translation between Dutch and English.

 

Yeah the translation from Dutch to English involves "Stupid overprivileged corrupt trough snouters" on the English end 2

Avatar
spen | 6 years ago
0 likes

Dutch like this-       https://earth.google.com/web/@52.31854077,5.62434889,11.87224293a,0d,80.68385865y,355.95186426h,66.72951721t,0r/data=IhoKFkQzMkJfN0toWHJQU1FVWDcwN3dQeXcQAg

 

3m shared use footways, look familiar?  And of course you would have to use that or risk a fine

 

Holland isn't utopia

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to spen | 6 years ago
1 like
spen wrote:

Dutch like this-       https://earth.google.com/web/@52.31854077,5.62434889,11.87224293a,0d,80.68385865y,355.95186426h,66.72951721t,0r/data=IhoKFkQzMkJfN0toWHJQU1FVWDcwN3dQeXcQAg

 

3m shared use footways, look familiar?  And of course you would have to use that or risk a fine

 

Holland isn't utopia

One would think, with the frequency with which 'straw man' arguments are pointed out on the internet, that people would have given up using them by now.

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
0 likes
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

These days, whenever the 'bloody cyclists not using the purpose built cycle lanes' come up, I am trying to calmly say the following;

"Cycle lanes are provided as an 'enabler', to provide less confident / competent cyclists a safe environment that encourages more people to use the bike as a means of transport, thus reducing congestion. Cycle lanes have never been about getting bikes off the road, they are purely to encourage cycling not clear the carriageway of motoring obstacles" 

Or something like that. Don't moan about the quality of ifrastructure, don't say how they inconvenience you, just politely affirm what cycle lanes are hear to do. 

I have a rather more succinct response. It starts with F and ends with two more Fs.

 

Avatar
brooksby replied to ConcordeCX | 6 years ago
0 likes
ConcordeCX wrote:
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

These days, whenever the 'bloody cyclists not using the purpose built cycle lanes' come up, I am trying to calmly say the following;

"Cycle lanes are provided as an 'enabler', to provide less confident / competent cyclists a safe environment that encourages more people to use the bike as a means of transport, thus reducing congestion. Cycle lanes have never been about getting bikes off the road, they are purely to encourage cycling not clear the carriageway of motoring obstacles" 

Or something like that. Don't moan about the quality of ifrastructure, don't say how they inconvenience you, just politely affirm what cycle lanes are hear to do. 

I have a rather more succinct response. It starts with F and ends with two more Fs.

 

"Faff"? I'm not sure that word really works in the context...

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