Council that rubbished "completely untrue" claims about controversial cycle lane being too wide set to begin work on next section

The emergency services line is a red herring. Emergency vehicles can't get through because roads are clogged full of traffic. Drivers don't want to be seen to be part of the problem so they blame cycle lanes for there not being enough space. If they really feel this way then lets reduce space for cars even more and add an emergency vehicle lane

Ah - but those (space inefficient) motor vehicles have to be there!  You can be sure every single driver has an unanswerable response to any question as to the necessity of their trip.

But that doesn't matter, because it's their "right".  I'm mocking but a) UK law and much of culture are fairly firmly on the side of "if it's not banned it's fine" and b) in practice although most trips driven are for leisure there is of course a sliding scale, with citizens having (sometimes quite essential) caring duties towards themselves and others.

Anyway it's the cycling infra which is making a change - so if there are any negative impacts at all, it's the fault of that (and we should rip it out).

Traffic is cheltenham is rubbish and cycling so much quicker. Also the cheltenham road is a looP thorigh a smaller village between Cheltenham and Gloucester - if you're in a hurry you'd use the laser straight A40 dual carriage way so don't believe the whiners!

I'm glad they're doing something but it's only nearly good, which given the money is a bit of a waste. There is next to no drainage so is full of puddles days after rain.  The green surface is awful to cycle on (some people reporting flats due to it) and the side roads where we have priority have a terrifying lack of visibility across them - I've had a couple of very near misses. It was so much better before they put the green rumble strip finish on! And the construction seems to go out its way to cause congestion. That said, better with it and much quicker than driving  

I see what you mean about the A40 - folks will moan about anything, in a desperate attempt to oust anything cycling telated

This is in my neck of the woods and I welcome it but it does seem to have made the road quite narrow but fine for buses/lorries to pass each other if driven sensibly. As stated above motorists have other options for getting between Gloucester and Cheltenham so this should only be carrying local traffic. One guy in my office commutes on the bike lane most days and loves it with a few reservations similar to those noted above. His frequency of cycling has trebled since the cycle lane was created. Most local sentiment is negative though as car use is very entrenched.

I had a quick look at the layout of the road on google and it does appear the old configuration was overly gernerous in terms of lane widths at the junctions.

DMRB allows for lanes as narrow as 2.5m at junctions and ghost islands. the current lanes appear to be the max 3.65m this means tou could safely "Steal" 1.3m for a wider cycle lane and still leave a comforatable 3m lane for each marked manoeuvre at that junction.

Also regarding emergency vehicles. The legal maximum width of a Fire Engine in the UK is 2.3m, ambulances are typically 2.0m so ample space in a 3.0m wide lane.

Lastly in the narrow road scenario the highway code recommends that you slow down and pull in to allow the vehicle to pass.

I used this route with my wife last weekend to get our seed potatoes from Dundry nurseries which is just off the route. I would not normally cycle using this route but my wife has become nervous of cycling on the road having had recent experiences of inconsiderate and intimidatory driving.

It made for a pleasant, leisurely ride not having to worry about drivers for the majority of the route from Bishops Cleeve. We used the racecourse to keep off the roads between Bishops Cleeve and Cheltenham then got on the Honeybourne line before joining this route near the station. It turned out a lot better than I expected.

This section is far from perfect. It looks like it hasn't been cleaned since it was put in (not a problem for us as we both have Marathon tyres) and there were a few puddles even though it has been dry for a good while (would be a problem in winter). The rumble strips are annoying. The give way signs for cars at side roads are encouraging but I wouldn't trust cars to stop. Traffic light timings didn't seem to favour cyclists which was a little frustrating. Then of course there were the obligatory parked cars but they were blocking the walkway rather then the cycle path. A few shared use bits which seemed quite narrow.

As for narrow lanes I didn't see any drivers having a problem and traffic was moving smoothly with very little speeding.