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Church Road Stoke Gifford New Cycle path

South Gloucestershire Council builds unsafe cycle path (+video)

Auditors said path should not be constructed until planned subway was built and in use
by Alex Bowden
Tue, Sep 20, 2016 16:56
8

A cycle path has been built in Stoke Gifford despite it having been deemed unsafe by auditors when it was first proposed. South Gloucestershire Council said that the route will not be signed until other nearby elements have also been put in place and the route as a whole is ready to use.

The shared use path runs along Church Road and the auditors’ concerns centre on the point at which it meets Brierly Furlong.

A new subway under the railway line is planned to link the path with the entrance to nearby Parkway Station. However, road safety auditors concluded that until that is built the location of the dropped kerb would pose a risk to cyclists as well as to pedestrians with visual or mobility impairments.

Local cyclist Harry Stoke pointed out to road.cc that it would also be a difficult manoeuvre to get onto the cycle path from the road when approaching from the direction of the station.

Stoke put in a freedom of information request for the safety audit, which said:

“The auditors are concerned that the shared use path will lead cyclists (travelling from east to west) to a location which will mean they either have to cross Brierly Furlong or use the very narrow footway under the railway bridge, both of which will increase the risk of a cyclist being hit by a passing vehicle. In addition the installation of a pair of dropped kerbs and tactile paving at the mini roundabout may encourage pedestrians with visual or mobility impairments to cross the road from south to north to gain access to the station, in preference to the signed route via the signalised crossing on Brierly Furlong.”

The auditors recommended that the shared use path not be constructed until the subway was in place and ready for use. “If this is not possible, the new route should not be signed and the proposed dropped kerbs adjacent to the mini roundabout should not be installed to prevent the route being advertised as suitable for use by cyclists and pedestrians approaching from its east end.”

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said:

“This work is part of the Emersons Green to Cribbs Causeway Cycle Trunk Route, an ambitious ten-year programme which will provide a high quality cycle route connecting key employment, travel and residential locations through the area.

“With a programme of this nature, it is essential that we take every opportunity to source the necessary funding to deliver the overall scheme, even if that means delivering the route in sections. We have involved the local Cycle Forum who have received regular updates on this section of the route.

“The results of the Road Safety Audit were taken into account when designing the Church Road scheme, and after careful consideration, the decision was taken to carry out the infrastructure work, but not sign the route for shared use until the adjacent elements of the Cycle Trunk Route are delivered.

“We are at a relatively early stage of the Cycle Trunk Route project and we are actively working with Network Rail on developing proposals for a subway for pedestrians and cyclists under the rail line which would connect with Church Road.”

Stoke Gifford
South Gloucestershire Council
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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8 comments

Avatar
Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
0 likes

A lady was hit by a car here today (21st October) at approx 3:20pm. Not sure if pedestrian or cyclist, but looked pretty bad.

Avatar
oldmixte | 7 years ago
1 like

I really don’t understand why this has gone ahead when the money could have been used to improve all the other problems the South Glos cyclists complain about but are never implemented. Why the dropped kerbs are where they are is a mystery. They have lined up the new path dropped kerb with the one on the opposite side, so who in their right mind, is going to attempt to cross at that point with two busy streams of traffic whizzing past when all they have to do is use the older path when they don’t have to cross Church road to access the new path, enter the mini roundabout where they have some priorities and continue their journey into Parkway Station.
You have to wonder if the people who planned this have ever ridden a bicycle or have an IQ greater than 30.

Avatar
drjohn | 7 years ago
1 like

Blah blah fishcakes. ./*.  ;-)o-)))

I don't know Mr Stoke personally, but I commute this way every day on the road and frankly, it's a paradise.

Do you need a cycle path?

No. I agree no.

There are no parked cars to door you.

Practically everybody is courteous.

Traffic is light.

Compare it with many other parts of the cycling world and you will find that this is an orchard!

But I s'pose South Glos need to spend the budget somewhere sleepy that will not interfere with the public motor vehicle highway, and this, my friends, is it. No motorcommuters will be harmed during the completion of this project. Welcome to the Night Vale.

 

 

Avatar
Bristol Bullet replied to drjohn | 7 years ago
4 likes

drjohn wrote:

Blah blah fishcakes. ./*.  ;-)o-)))

I don't know Mr Stoke personally, but I commute this way every day on the road and frankly, it's a paradise.

Do you need a cycle path?

No. I agree no.

There are no parked cars to door you.

Practically everybody is courteous.

Traffic is light.

Compare it with many other parts of the cycling world and you will find that this is an orchard!

But I s'pose South Glos need to spend the budget somewhere sleepy that will not interfere with the public motor vehicle highway, and this, my friends, is it. No motorcommuters will be harmed during the completion of this project. Welcome to the Night Vale.

 

 

Are you on some sort of strong medication ?  Stoke Gifford "sleepy" ? ! Traffic during the rush hour is horrendous, the road here goes under a low arched bridge so your likely to come face-to-face with an oncoming bus in the middle of the road, the pavements under the bridge are extremely narrow so cyclists have to ride in the middle of the road to avoid catching pedestrians arms and elbows, the road surface is rough and uneven, and you reckon this is paradise ?  

Avatar
drjohn replied to Bristol Bullet | 7 years ago
0 likes

Bristol Bullet wrote:

 

Are you on some sort of strong medication ?  

 

Yeahhhh. Wait. Does beer count?

Maybe sleepy is the wrong word. Slow moving.

And the lack of parked cars along the main roads really makes it safer, IMHO.

Avatar
Eton Rifle replied to Bristol Bullet | 5 years ago
0 likes

Bristol Bullet wrote:

drjohn wrote:

Blah blah fishcakes. ./*.  ;-)o-)))

I don't know Mr Stoke personally, but I commute this way every day on the road and frankly, it's a paradise.

Do you need a cycle path?

No. I agree no.

There are no parked cars to door you.

Practically everybody is courteous.

Traffic is light.

Compare it with many other parts of the cycling world and you will find that this is an orchard!

But I s'pose South Glos need to spend the budget somewhere sleepy that will not interfere with the public motor vehicle highway, and this, my friends, is it. No motorcommuters will be harmed during the completion of this project. Welcome to the Night Vale.

 

 

Are you on some sort of strong medication ?  Stoke Gifford "sleepy" ? ! Traffic during the rush hour is horrendous, the road here goes under a low arched bridge so your likely to come face-to-face with an oncoming bus in the middle of the road, the pavements under the bridge are extremely narrow so cyclists have to ride in the middle of the road to avoid catching pedestrians arms and elbows, the road surface is rough and uneven, and you reckon this is paradise ?  

 

Quite agree.  I cycle under that bridge twice a day on my commute and specifically avoid the rush hour due to the dreadful traffic.  That bridge is particularly bad.  I use the shared path but it is hopelessly narrow when pedestrians or even another cyclist is on it.  Plus there's the Parkway Nutter, who forces his small children to walk line abreast and force cyclists to stop.  Cycling in surburban Bristol is generally shit, with endemic speeding, red light jumping and close passing - I have reported two close passes to the cops in six months and they were just the really bad ones - i.e. inches from me.  I would have reportedly another but lens flare made the number plate illegible on video.

Avatar
Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
3 likes

What's frustrating is that the South Gloucester Cycle forum told the council multiple, multiple times about this, and repeatedly told them , that they should spend the money on other infrastructure projects that would be useful now,then revisit this one, once the subway was in place. I saw the various emails. I don't know why they carried on. Once the subway is in place , it will be useful. Until then it invites you to get run over. I cycle this bit (via the road) every day to work.

Avatar
burtthebike replied to Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
1 like

cyclesteffer wrote:

What's frustrating is that the South Gloucester Cycle forum told the council multiple, multiple times about this, ......

Of course.  SGlos has had a cycle forum for twenty years, but I can't recall a single instance of when they actually listened to anything we've said.  They have a list of outstanding issues, which just gets longer, and if it's a bit too difficult, they just quietly drop the issue.  Actually, they did announce that one issue had been resolved at the last cycle forum; a dangerous bollard had been removed, only a year after it had been reported, a record by some margin.

Last year, one cyclist asked what the point of the forum was, as for he'd been coming for ten years and in that time, he'd been ignored, patronised and lied to.  He was lucky, I've been going for twenty years.

Incredibly, at the last forum, they announced that their new Cycling Strategy was up for an award.  They had a new head of department who didn't know the history of this document so I quickly updated her: the decision to have a new cycling strategy was taken at a secret meeting, they decided on the criteria for employing the consultants, they decided what should be in the strategy, they decided the agenda, times and places of the "consultation" meetings, and only then, did they consult cyclists.  The consultation meetings consisted of giving us crayons and drawing our suggested routes on some maps.  After some rather furious conversations, they grudgingly included what we'd been asking for for twenty years; implementation.  The strategy was supposed to be published in three months, but it actually took eighteen, and is just a list of platitudes, and they admit it cost £10k, a figure I consider to be an underestimate.  The biggest joke is that they already had a Cycling Strategy, published in 2000, which they could have updated, but they had actually forgotten that they had it.

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