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Bradley Wiggins on the A63 (via YouTube).jpgHighways England wants to ban cyclists from the UK’s fastest time trial course
Highways England is reported to be proposing a ban on cyclists using a stretch of one of its roads near Hull. The A63 Trunk Road forms part of the V718 course on which Marcin Bialoblocki set the 10-mile time trial record of 16m35s in 2016, but Highways England wants all cyclists excluded for safety reasons.
Writing on the Hull Thursday Road Club Facebook page, Club Time Trial Secretary Paul Kilvington said that he had received a number of reports that Highways England was proposing a Traffic Regulation Order to ban cyclists from the A63.
He later posted a copy of the document.
In a ‘statement of reasons’ Highways England writes:
“Concerns have been raised for the safety of cyclists using the A63 Trunk Road between North Cave Interchange and Daltry Street Interchange. Cyclists are travelling on a carriageway that carries average speeds of 65mph for traffic, at a rate of over 2,500 vehicles per hour. In the last 5 years there have been six accidents involving cyclists, including a fatality in 2013.
“In the interest of road safety, Highways England Company Limited is proposing to ban cyclists on this stretch of road, including the associated slip roads.
“East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Kingston upon Hull City Council and Humberside Police support this proposal.”
The document states that the consultation period closes on February 19.
Written objections can be submitted to the office of the Director, Operations Directorate (Yorkshire and North East), Highways England, 3rd Floor South, Lateral, 8 City Walk, Leeds LS11 9AT, quoting the order title “The A63 Trunk Road (North Cave Interchange to Daltry Street Interchange) (Prohibition of Cyclists) Order.”
In 2013, a coroner’s court returned a finding of accidental death after a rider in a time trial died following a collision with a stationary caravan on the A63.
Christopher Auker, 65, riding in a tuck and looking downwards, realised the danger at the last moment and was unable to avoid hitting the caravan, whose driver had pulled over after a puncture. He sustained head, spinal and thoracic injuries and died at the scene.
Speaking after the incident, Auker’s widow Elizabeth said: “Neither Chris nor I had any worries about this course – we both felt time-trials were safer on a dual carriageway where there is room for traffic to overtake.
“This was a freak accident that could not have been foreseen and nothing to do with the time-trial course.”
In 2015, then World Time Trial Champion, Sir Bradley Wiggins, rode Hull City Road Club’s 10-mile time trial on the A63. Footage of him riding the course can be seen here.
Highways England has been contacted for further comment.
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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116 comments
He's not biting. 1950's racial slurs, what else would you expect from a plasterer; No Blacks, No Irish, No Cyclists...(?)
The bigoted stupid English c**t Plasterers Helmet should be careful what he says about the Irish. Erin go broagh
If you want to troll then at least learn the language you USian fool.
Are they going to close roads to motor vehicles where motorists have killed themselves or others?
They will run out of roads very quickly.
Plasterer's Helmet. What's with the Irish jibe You fucking English cunt!
Might be a reference to the no point mailing driver story but still not one of the best comment ever posted (jiyw had an Irish grandmother)
Suck it up slaves! Highways England? Members of the same "Thought Police " who would make cyclists wear Helmets.
OK, can I chuck in my five pennorth?
I'm a late starter at this cycling and TTs mullarkey, and I'm proud to be one of the slowest fattest cyclists ever to complete the NDCA BAR....
I know some of you aren't really meaning to be judgemental when you describe people as being mental or cazy for choosing to ride on dual carriageways, but guess what? That's how you sound. Choosing to ride in TTs on my local dual carriageways is in no way connected to any mental health problems I may or may not have. It's a decision about how I perceive risks.
Up here in Northumebrland we have everything from dual carriageway drag strips around Cramlington and Ashington to hilly tracks round the Tyne Valley or some very, ahem sporting tracks around Pennine hills. The one course I won't ride, because of how I perceive risks, is a 25 drag up and down a single carriageway A road where the contours are challenging, the sight lines aren't great and the thought of doing a U turn in a road end when knackered is not my idea of fun.
Let me make my choice. No-one rides a dual carriageway course without knowing the risks, but we all see them differently. The idea that the HIghways Agency can seek to ban a class of vehicles because of how they perceive the accident record is simply scary and will lead to roads being closed to cyclists at the whim of badly informed regional managers for no better reason than becaus eit gives HIghways Agency's managers something to do....
Spot on on the state of mind comments and on risk perception.
I know the course you mean. I've ridden it several times. Personally, I find it a lot less worrying than the 10 up and down the dual carriageway that turns at the roundabout, requiring you to cross lanes of fast traffic, or the 25 that does much the same twice, but I know others who don't like it.
I've never ridden the V718 - there's no way I'd get in and driving that far seems like a bit of a waste of time, but I've driven that road a lot, including when an event's been on. Personally, I'd not feel safe riding it and wouldn't want to - the junction design IMO would make it more dangerous than the M62 which runs as far as South Cave, and from which cyclists are banned. The sight lines are great, but there are a lot of junctions that aren't really adequate and mean that you'd rely on a lot of drivers to anticipate your speed and movement accurately.
Should cyclists be banned 'for their own safety'? Maybe - That argument makes me a bit edgy, but if cyclists are 5% of all accidents when I doubt they even make up 1% of traffic seems high to me - but we probably need more evidence to see if there's a pattern, and if there is, asking whether it can be fixed. Because if there is a pattern, it almost certainly relates to all traffic, not just cyclists...
CTT should probably look through national accident stats for all TTs to look for this kind of pattern - who knows, maybe they do, or maybe there just aren't enough to make a significant sample.
Well that's crap. You can in theory faff around the B roads through Riplingham and Kirk Ella, but those types roads are more unsafe for cyclists. My experience of fast dual carriageways is that they're safer, notwithstanding the higher vehicle speeds. Sight lines are clearer.
Added to my list of things to do Sunday morning. And making myself available for protest rides up and down the V718 course, if they're on a weekend.
Quite apart for the "thin end of the wedge" point of view, it's this attitude which almost totally kicked us out of competitive international cycling for an entire fucking century, and we're just breaking back into over the past decade, including, bizarrely, the TdY in the same county as this proposed restriction. Whilst France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain and the rest of Europe revelled in a culture of competitive cycling, we snuck onto A roads at silly o'clock on a Sunday morning on a nod and a wink. Racing, Officer? No not me no sir. Just popping out for a pint of milk. I really, really need a pint of milk, that's why I was riding so fast. See I got pockets in the back of my jersey specially like.
Some of the comments here are a bit silly. This is a road designed not for cyclists, but motorists. Full stop. And the cyclists who want to use this road do so in the name of sport, not commuting or travelling to a destination.
https://goo.gl/maps/DwGvsrcE3kr
Seriously, who wants to ride on that? Nobody. Except some time triallists.
There's a time and a place for cycling, no matter the purpose - and a road like this is not the place. Ever. Find an alternative route, I would.
what business is it of yours to tell other people where they should or should not want to cycle?
Because that road was not designed for cycling. Ever. It isn't designed for pedestrians either. Ever. It was built purely for high speed motoring, nothing else.
People driving up those slip roads aren't looking for cyclists doing 15-20mph, they're looking for cars and lorries doing at least 50mph. It's no more suitable for cycling than the elevated sections of the M5 and M6 through Birmingham. I'm a vocal supporter of taking the lane and cycling on any road its feasible to use, but only a zealot would say that the A63 is fine for cycling. I would take an NSL single carriageway B-road over this any day of the week, in fact those are the roads I cycle on most of my time and they're far less dangerous than the A63, less dangerous even than a typical urban centre.
Of course you may think that cycling is fine on that road, but tell me - would you go for a walk there, down the centre of lane 1? No, would you hell.
yeah, this road was not designed for cyclists. in much the same way as the vast majority to town centres in this country weren’t designed for motor vehicles. But it doesn’t stop motorists bitching and moaning about the thought of having there access restricted. you only have to look at any of the mini Holland schemes in London or closing the gates of a royal park to through traffic for a few hours a day for the examples.
No, most town centres weren't originally designed for cyclists either. More likely horse and cart or pedestrian use. I don't understand your point.
I don't support a cycling ban on this dual carriageway but those arguing these dual carriageways are safe or sensible places to ride are deluded. People ride here purely to set a fast TT time and should - and probably do - accept the risks.
I wouldn't, but each to his own.
no, I wouldn't, but it would legal for me to do so, if I chose, and I want to retain that choice.
Nor would I presume to tell other people where they should or should not walk. Your preferences, and my preferences, are not rules for other people.
I don't tell other adults how to live their lives, except when they tell me to live mine. Then I tell them to fuck off.
Well, the way I see it, it would be fine to ban cyclists from this route _but only as long as a very high-quality alternative were provided_. A route equally-direct, suitably wide, equally-well maintained and surfaced, equally clear of pedestrians, etc.
But I don't agree with letting authorities get away with banning cycling while not providing such an alternative, however nasty the existing route. In fact, agreeing to be thrown off of existing routes is one of the few negotiating chips cyclists have, so why on earth would you throw them away in return for nothing? Not hard to work out where that will lead once we start down that route.
Hell, I have no interest in sports cycling, but if sports cyclists are prepared to face such a ghastly road, thus creating such a barganing chip for the rest of us, I think they are doing the rest of us a favour!
I live 700 meters away from the A63 where they run the TT and i think anyone riding on that road is mental. It's the main road in and out of Hull and always busy and narrow compared to modern standards.
Having said that i hate to see any forced bans against any user group, it would be more appropriate if the local clubs withdrew from using it.
Other than the TT we never see any other cyclists on the road as the cycle paths are ok (not suitable for a TT obviously).
http://www.crashmap.co.uk/Search "A63 South cave" gives a breakdown of collision types for the course.
Doing a rough count, there seem to be 3 total cycle collisions out of 56 for all types in the last 5 years.
Don't know where the source data is from but a more accurate figure would come from there.
If a 5% make-up of all collisions is the basis to request a ban on cycles then the TRO should shows why these stats are significantly worse than other roads to justify it.
Forgive me if i'm incorrect, but if they do succeed in placing a TRO on that stretch of road, don't they then have to provide a similar road (distance wise) in place of it?
16m35s!!! WTF?
Motorists not the only ones who get a move on on that road..
If you ride on a road that is long a straight with few junctions and large numbers of the movements you can be pulled along the road by the slipstream of the trucks.
This is why they like time trial courses on these roads and why the rules have to stipulate riders must not ride on the white line between lane 1 and lane 2, and why a rider was disqualified for doing so.
That time is still an incredible performance, but the sane rider on the same day would not come close to that time on a non dual carriageway course.
However the response of banning the victims from the road is a damning indictment of the police in my view it says they consider they are unable to keep roads safe for all road users.
If the road is suitable and not the only access for many people then they should be looking at designating it as a motorway rather than singling out cyclists.
Any solution banning cyclists from this road must be accompanied by provision of 2m wide cycle paths (one each way) running parallel and not yielding priority to the various joining roads.
Too many muggings in one area why not ban mobile phones instead of policing illegal behaviour.
Exactly this ^^^^ , but don't forget the replacement surface quality and lighting and maintenance contract.
Hmm. Getting ride of V718 would upset a lot of people. But if the traffic count is over 2,000 when people are racing on there then that's too high. At stupid o clock on a Sunday you'd expect it to be a lot quieter.
The Christopher Auker incident is one of the reasons why CTT are so hot on people looking where they are going.
Hmm. Getting ride of V718 would upset a lot of people. But if the traffic count is over 2,000 when people are racing on there then that's too high. At stupid o clock on a Sunday you'd expect it to be a lot quieter.
The Christopher Auker incident is one of the reasons why CTT are so hot on people looking where they are going.
[/quote]
Except the figure is incorrect.
I know the 2500/hr count at the point in question is BS because I drive it on a Sunday every few months coming back from visiting the folks.
Found the actual stretch. A63/South Cave junction to A63 spur at grid ref E500250:N426350 (just east of north ferriby) this 6mile stretch takes in the course pretty much.
The traffic counts for this section is 16592/24 hrs or 691/hr or one vehicle in either of the two lanes every 5 seconds or every 10 seconds per lane.
Go bother to check the counts at DFT Traffic Counts and you'll find higher density traffic on single lane roads with similar speeds and much worse sight lines.
There's liads of evidence to object this bullshit!
Um, no, the roads belong to us.
What?
"That amount of traffic" is the problem, not one bike or two or three.
There's 3 people live in the house next door to me, 3 cars. Both parents work, one less than 5 miles away the other maybe 800 metres. The son goes to 6th form college on the same site as the school my children walk to.
That amount of traffic.
But it's still crazy to be racing on that road.
How many people have died from racing a bike versus how many people have died after being hit by an idiot in a car?
The road doesn't hurt anyone, the bike doesn't hurt anyone. Remove the problem not the victims.
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