A new cycle lane in the centre of Hereford has been dismissed as an “awful job” by a councillor who criticised the quality of the surface and the potential for pedestrians to trip over a “hazardous” lip.
The contraflow cycle lane on St Owen Street, currently under construction, forms part of Herefordshire Council’s plan to “create a more attractive environment for residents, visitors, shoppers, workers and local businesses” in the city centre.
Located on the Town Hall side of St Owen Street, and pointing cyclists towards the city centre in the opposite direction to motor traffic, the cycle lane will be separated from the one-way carriageway by a row of car parking bays.
According to the council, the cycle contraflow scheme will establish “a safer cycle route from the east of the city, promoting sustainable and active travel, while at the same time improving safety for pedestrians and motorists.”
However, even before it has been officially completed, the scheme has come under fire from local councillors, who have criticised the new bike lane for its design and quality.
In late November, independent councillor and former Hereford city mayor Jim Kenyon filmed a video (above) of the “freshly laid” cycle lane, during which he raised concerns that sections of the path were flooded.
“We’ve had a light shower and, as you can see, we’re splashing along here. It’s halfway across the cycle track,” he said in the video. “There’s water across the road. It’s also sitting on [the parking bay] side of the white line.”
The councillor also argued that a “lip” on the edge of the lane will cause people to “fall over”.
Speaking at a meeting of Herefordshire Council last week, Kenyon said: “I made a video of the ‘pooling’ along the freshly laid cycle lane.
“It’s an awful job. Who appointed the contractors? The council should have its own inspectors, who could have picked this up sooner.”
According to the Hereford Times, the council’s transport portfolio holder John Harrington responded that the work, “including the issue of pooling, will be quality checked as a normal process.
“We have a response that the pooling was because of the heavy rain that day. I’ve said that’s not good enough, and to go and check it. We will pass on their response,” he said.
Kenyon also said that he had noticed cyclists were travelling in both directions to and from the city centre on St Owen Street (presumably using both the main one-way carriageway and the contraflow cycle lane), a claim that was repeated by Conservative councillor Carole Gandy.
Gandy, who also described the quality of the cycle lane as poor, said: “What I find bizarre is that cyclists are able to go in either direction.
“But if you park there, I can see drivers pulling out without looking for cyclists coming in the other direction.
“Why did we decide cycles could go in both directions, with a cycle lane only in the direction of the city centre?”
Harrington, a member of the Herefordshire Independents who, along with the Greens and the ‘It’s Our County’ party, control the council, replied: “You might ask your cabinet, because it was their scheme. It’s a very good idea in my opinion, because it’s a desire line, people were going up it anyway.
“The issue is, how do we protect people [from cyclists] going the other way [from traffic]? The previous administration’s scheme did that, but it wasn’t compliant with new legislation saying you had to segregate cyclists where you could.”
> “Moronic” much-ridiculed zig-zag cycle lane now blamed as cyclist injured by shallow kerb crash
Hereford’s new cycle lane isn’t the only piece of active travel infrastructure to come in for criticism recently due to the perceived poor quality of its design and finish.
Last week, we reported that an Edinburgh pensioner warned that the city’s now-infamous Leith Walk cycle lane is a “disaster waiting to happen” after he suffered a suspected broken rib and other minor injuries after hitting a shallow kerb.
John Kerr flew over the handlebars when his front tyre clipped a shallow kerb on the side of the bike lane – the butt of many jokes when pictures of its “moronic” bizarre zig-zag design emerged online earlier this year.
The city’s council says the lane is currently closed, with barriers and signage in place notifying the public, and will not be complete until early 2023, but the 69-year-old says he does not believe it will be any safer when officially open and that the “terrible design” could cause someone to be seriously injured.
21 thoughts on ““We’re splashing along”: Flooded new cycle lane dismissed as “awful job” by councillor”
Do kerbs on cycle tracks
Do kerbs on cycle tracks really cause people to fall over more than those on main roads?
Although I see that this one is very slight and could go unnoticed until it’s too late.
However my experience with every cycle track without grade separation is that people don’t notice it’s there and freely walk in it, and perhaps there is no way for a blind person to know they have strayed into one (are seeing eye dogs trained to recognise them?).
Whereas the ones with kerbs are treated like any other road. That said I think a constant dropped kerbs are needed for accessibility and for cyclists, though I’m uncertain what effect this would have on wandering pedestrians.
The lip doesn’t seem much
The lip doesn’t seem much deeper then slightly uneven paving stones or a drop kerb for pedestrians. The person giving an “example” in this video literally drags his feet along the ground to catch it.
I think the test is what do
I think the test is what do the Dutch do. I rather suspect this is a problem only in the mind of those with a vested interest in knocking things.
Been trying to write a post
Been trying to write a post on this.
Suspect “be like the Dutch” is not the key – more like “point out the UK planning precedents”, which should have more leverage in UK planning debates.
Somewhere there’s a blog post with 50 example of UK floating bus stops – some in place for half a century, for example.
You’d think! But things get
You’d think! But things get “names” and then they’re all controversial – “LTN” etc. although we’ve been building such things and converting existing roads since forever.
It’s probably “can we turn this into a story to scare lots of people (drivers)?” and that is clearly easy to do.
Ranty Highwayman amongst others seems to be a collector of “modern” UK cycling (plus bus, pedestrian) infra from 20, 30, 50 … years back.
I know.
I know.
Perhaps that’s what I would *like* to think.
My tentative view is that I prefer motohoons banging on about battles I think they have already lost, rather than finding the things that we still need to change in the systems.
With you on the need for a
With you on the need for a level difference. White line segregation doesn’t work well.
… and, as we local cyclists
… and, as we local cyclists are finding, pedestrians simply see the cyclepath as an extension of the footpath, for the best part not even realising. I’ve already had abuse, for having the temerity to cycle in the cyclepath, by a couple of old biddies walking along it towards me, ironically standing on the cycle symbol whilst doing so.
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Herefordshire CC – not a single Lay Bah Councillor.
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A LAAAAAY Bah-free Council.
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So, and I understand your
So, and I understand your username should be Brickwall Boy with the lack of any responses, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I mean your really really tiresome points and childish spellings normally point Labour involvement in bad cycling decisions, but in this case the initial plans were put in place by Tories when they controlled the council, and implemented without Labour involvement at all.
OK, that one is funny
OK, that one is funny
Ah I get it now. I’m rolling
Ah I get it now. I’m rolling on the floor laughing. My dogs looking at me funny. Why can’t I buy a tea cosy anymore?
Etsy mate.
Etsy mate.
Got a hand knitted Scottish breakfast one for the better half.
And a beautiful green satin with black lace overlay eye patch, when she needed one. It’s a burlesque thing apparently…
Thanks very much, much
Thanks very much, much appreciated. I’ll have a look
perce wrote:
Very nice. Looks like it
Very nice. Looks like it could double as a hat as well.
Quote:
“But if you park there, I can see drivers pulling out without looking for cyclists coming in the other direction.
“Why did we decide cycles could go in both directions, with a cycle lane only in the direction of the city centre?”
Tory councilor seems incredulous that cyclists can legally use the road in travelling in the correct direction on a one-way street, and not understanding the direction the other way is illegal without a shared path or seperately marked path. Although I do share her concern that a driver will just pull out of a parking spot without looking behind them, but that happens anywhere and anywhen.
Surely there was drainage
Surely there was drainage there before the cycle path went in, so they’ve altered the camber so that the water doesn’t reach the drain now, or they’ve blocked up the drain. Either way, a competent designer would have made it work.
They’ve laid new macadam to
They’ve laid new macadam to the whole road (largely uneccesary), which in turn meant raising all the gulleys, but they’ve still managed to mess up the falls. All we needed was buff paint and a traffic order, but when the government are handing out money, schemes grow out of all proportion, and not necessarily for the better.
I can’t tell a thing from the
I can hardly tell a thing from the micro-vid, except that the colour contrast seems good but the texture change does not seem to be standard and the incy-wincy drop kerb height difference seems a little strange, or the Councillor’s motivations from his comments. That height is not the 60mm needed by Guide Dogs – though I’m slightly of the thought that Guide Dogs may get a little too much attention given that we have only one of them per 15,000 people approx.
TBH I think the “Tory Councillor” rhetoric is an enjoyable (for some) distraction, and not the relevant issue. Any more that the Lay-Bah councillor sheep noises.
Is it a competent design that meets the National Standards LTN 1/20, or a pissing-away-money project of incompetent design by local staff who do not learn from elsewhere?
Apparent lack of clear marking for the parking bays seems strange, though car parking to protect the people who can be mown down by cars, separated from the cyclelane by a door-opening buffer, seems OK as a principle. This safety margin should perhaps not be designed to look like a narrow traffic lane the same colour as the carriageway – as it appears from the video.
What we need is industrial strength intervention at design stage, rather than post-implementation bleating (those sheep again) at County Councils. Some places do it with some impact; we need it everywhere. Trying to do my bit in my locality, but it’s a black hole swallowing my time here.
I live in Hereford – the work
I live in Hereford – the work is still under construction, not all the white lines are down – the ‘killing zone’ between the cyclepath and the car parking is demarcated part way, but not complete yet. There was supposed to be a kerb – it’s on the section drawings. We’re told this is a LTN1/20 compliant scheme, designed by Balfour Beatty, the Council’s retained highways managers. What is truly alarming is the cost – originally signed of at £235k, it rose to ‘way beyond £300k’ on tender when it went on hold. Some Government money became available, it was retendered at £770k, and rose to £1.1m with a week of starting – it’s not finished yet, should be next week, but it’s unlikely. Bear in mind this is for 250m of buff paint … albeit BB have hugely gilded the lily, adding in stuff that was never asked for during the 20 year consultation period (that’s not a typo) and which stakeholders, including myself, expressed serious concerns about. Needless to say, we were ignored. Locals will have plenty more to say when the finished scheme is unveiled.