Bolton Council says it will not take action against motorists parking bumper to bumper in a newly segregated cycle lane. A spokesperson said only that the council “would encourage all motorists to consider cyclists and their safety and ensure they park appropriately.”
An image posted to social media last week shows dozens of cars blocking the lane on Chorley New Road, despite wands intended to segregate it from motor traffic.
@AndyBurnhamGM new cycle lanes on Chorley new road Bolton working well! Perfect place for parents to park from @BoltonSchool and @ClevelandsPrep pic.twitter.com/yG0t8EIb5l
— Sarah Ashworth (@ashysara82) January 8, 2021
The road runs past Clevelands Nursery and Preparatory School, and it seems that most parking there are parents dropping off their children.
President of Horwich Cycling Club, Dave Headon, told the Bolton News that Chorley New Road was “very dangerous” for those on two wheels.
“The lanes have been put there to make it safer for cyclists. The drivers might be parking there because everybody else is. There needs to be education and enforcement comes after that I think.”
However, commenting on the situation, a council spokesperson said: “The existing cycle lanes running along Chorley New Road have been improved as part of a Government-funded initiative to encourage active travel during the current pandemic.
“This is a trial and will be assessed to see its effectiveness. There is no intention to enforce at this time.
“However, cars parked on cycle lanes pose problems for cyclists and it forces them onto the flow of traffic. We would encourage all motorists to consider cyclists and their safety and ensure they park appropriately.”
36 thoughts on “Council has “no intention to enforce” parking restrictions in segregated cycle lane where cars are parked bumper to bumper”
“We would encourage all
“We would encourage all motorists to consider cyclists and their safety and ensure they park appropriately.”
Excellent! As we are all only too aware, drivers always respond so well to encouragement; that’s why there’s no need for enforcement. Like speed limits, drink driving, oh, and illegal parking.
We need a bunch of Danny
We need a bunch of Danny MacAskill clones around the country who can be called out to hop onto cars parked in bike lanes. A few dented roofs and bonnets and maybe they will start getting the message.
Or scrambler riders. There
Or scrambler riders. There was usually a Mini or Marina to ride over on Junior Kickstart
“We would encourage all
“We would encourage all motorists to consider” == “Thoughts and prayers”…
Quote:
So encourage them by having a couple of traffic wardens wander up and down along there, spreading good cheer and parking tickets.
“This is a trial and will be
“This is a trial and will be assessed to see its effectiveness. There is no intention to enforce at this time.”
So at the end of trial, they’ll say “see, the bicycle lanes didn’t help. We’ll close them”, when the reason they didn’t help was that they didn’t make it possible to use them.
… But at least they spent some money from the emergency active travel funding, so that there is less money for other projects.
When they planned the trial
When they planned the trial did they think Parents would change their behaviour just because they put a few wands up? Did they expect all the children to start cycling just because they put in a cycle lane? Did they make other provision for the school run? I think that this was potentially set up to fail which would make it an irresponsible waste of money.
They must be thinking the
They must be thinking the wands perform some magic.
At a time of considerable
At a time of considerable financial stress the council is literally refusing to pick up money that Enforcement Officers are tripping over in the street.
I’m not sure if this is true.
I’m not sure if this is true. They don’t enforce parking outside of my local school. However, the parents don’t get out of the car. I suspect that if a warden turned up they would just drive around the block. It would be more chaotic than it already is.
However, it is surely an offence to drive in a cycle lane but I’m not sure who’s responsibility it would be to enforce that?
They never enforced it at my
They never enforced it at my local school until the people whose houses were being parked outside set up an organised flurry of complaining. Then we got traffic wardens and PCSOs for a week solid.
Unfortunately, the fines don
Unfortunately, the fines don’t go into the general pot, they are ring fenced for parking and some related stuff.
Round my way there is a camera car which goes out, so it would be trivial for the car to drive slowly past the cycle lane and fine everyone.
It would still mean that any
It would still mean that any surplus is available for next years budget
They’ve created an awesome
They’ve created an awesome parking lane as passing cars are less likely to ping their wing mirrors. Also, they’ve made cycling on the road more dangerous by reducing the carriageway and probably made the path less safe as people try and park their giant phallic status symbols between the wands!
Organise Chaos! Lots of local
Organise Chaos! Lots of local cyclists get together and cycle up and down the main road, 1 mtre from the parked cars. Slowly. The cars on the main road will be held up. Someone will complain and the cops will arrive. The cycle lane parking mob will then, hopefully, be ‘spoken to’. I know, ridiculous idea!
lifeonabike wrote:
Just turn up and plonk a bike rack in the car lane and lock a number of bikes to it.
That won’t work looking at
That won’t work looking at the picture with those large gaps. Anyway as brooksby will tell you, the drivers just unscrew the wands and chuck ’em out the way and then stick their car there.
It’s true! They do!
It’s true! They do!
Might one suggest that
Might one suggest that affected riders simply cycle really slowly past the offending cars in the middle of the road. Might encourage more action moving forward… Just saying! ?
Maybe ride past while
Maybe ride past while carrying some long and pointy metal object on your rack…?
“This is a trial and will be
“This is a trial and will be assessed to see its effectiveness. There is no intention to enforce at this time.”
I think i can save them some time by predicting exactly how this will go then: Traffic will worsen as the road has been narrowed by a lane, and safety won’t improve, and may actually get worse since cyclists will now have to deal with dangerous overtaking, and undertaking from the lane to the left of them.
This is a curious story. At
This is a curious story. At our end of Bolton there is a parking enforcement officer on a moped who is very diligent, and would be very happy that these folk on Chorley New Road made their job so easy. However, you can probably guess the demographics of Bolton School from the type of parked vehicles, and might hazard a guess as to their sense of entitlement, and how likely they are to be supporters of the party currently leading the council.
On the other hand, I am delighted our cyclops has opened- I’m tempted to go down and do a few laps round what used to be a hideous scary junction.
On the plus side, it is one
On the plus side, it is one more photo to add to ‘why I don’t use cycle lanes’.
Quote:
Am I understanding this comment correctly? How will they assess effectiveness if the trial is scuppered cos they won’t enforce the lane?
Easy, they’ll decide it didn
Easy, they’ll decide it didn’t work because of all the parked cars and abandon it, wasting a load of tax payers money from central government.
iandusud wrote:
Of course, it all makes sense now…
lanes running along Chorley
lanes running along Chorley New Road have been improved as part of a Government-funded initiative
The comments suggest this is a blackshirt council- I can’t be be bothered to find out, but it’s certainly behaving like one. This council, and the government behind it, undoubtedly claim to be ‘in favour of cycling’, but the qualification to this pseudo-support is less often stated: just as long as no motorists feel they are being disadvantaged or slowed up. The council and government have colluded in spending public money on covert comfy-parking for toffs with children at private schools, in the same way as £billions has been spent on rescue funding for private hospitals.
I wonder why children don’t
I wonder why children don’t cycle to school anymore?
A lot of ‘key workers’ there.
A lot of ‘key workers’ there. I would suggest about 50 cyclists turn up and just stop in the road (both sides) and completely block traffic. Do that for 30 minutes a day and the problem will get solved.
This road is a fucking
This road is a fucking nightmare to ride on and always has been. And I regularly ride DCs, so I’m not exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to riding busy roads. It’s a de facto motorway (or at least feels like it with the speeds some of the stoned Horwich boy racers tool up and down it) and I thubk I’ve experienced more close passes on there than I have the A6 (which, considering the fact it goes through Little Hulton, Walkden and Swinton is quite some statement).
There isn’t a cat’s chance in hell I’d ride on that road with it narrowed that much due to a shit bike lane full of parked cars, which, I suspect, was Bolton’s plan all along.
Apparently Bolton School are
Apparently Bolton School are proud of how many of their children have done bikeabilty training!
Perhaps the council should
Perhaps the council should return the funding for the scheme. It’s obviously not going to work if they won’t do something to make it fit for purpose.
Anyone up for a “critical mass” style demo everyday at school opening and closing times??
Experience tells me that
Experience tells me that Bolton is not particularly cycle friendly.
What hope is there when the
What hope is there when the authorities are this useless?!
Christopher TR1 wrote:
What hope is there when they are deliberately this useless?
I wonder if Bolton council
I wonder if Bolton council would also not take action if a whole bunch of cyclists cycled line abreast down the motorway, blocking the whole carriageway for all the motor vehicles…?