A ‘great way forward’ or a ‘huge green elephant’? Locals have their say on recently installed cycle superhighway

Lucky buggers!

If only my local council could be so forward looking.

Apart from a leisure path that meanders up the side of the River Derwent and gets flooded every year to the point that much of it is unrideable for 6 months every year, we have absolutely nothing of this quality anywhere throughout the city.

Well done South Ribble B.C.

The most depressing thing about this article is that such schemes are in any way controversial.  We desperately need to get more people cycling and walking and therefore new infrastructure is needed to help them do that, but the media, while acknowledging the need for change, sabotage it at every opportunity.  They create controversy, seeking out the tiny minority of radical anti-cyclists to boost their ratings in a ferocious click war, all the while ignoring the real elephant in the room; the massive, overwhelming benefits of a change to active travel.

Contrast their coverage of this story with anything about building a new road, which will be reported in glowing terms "congestion-busting, reducing jams" etc, while conveniently skating over the incredible sums these roads cost, while they never actually achieve their stated objectives.

The Guild Wheel is brilliant for families, kids and people who don't want to take their life in their hands cycling through Preston Marina or Strand Road. The bike lane down the hill from Penny is fantastic as well - it's unfortunately emboldened the gammons to scream at you when riding down the hill on the road, on your road bike (not particularly safe to hit 60k/h in a bike lane, and it's easy to achieve that down there), but it's a small price to pay to have a safe route for families and people who otherwise would hate riding down there to have a safe place to ride.

The Lancashire Post is just about the most anti-cycling local rag in existence, and always has been

I've used this many times as instead of riding through Preston on the main roads when coming back from my sunday ride, I get on the Guild Wheel near the Mercedes garage and ride along to the new superhighway, then back along the tracks near the river to Walton Le Dale, avoiding the Guild Wheel through Miller and Avenham park as it can get too busy. Theres a lovely track alongside the south side of the Ribble all the way to Walton Le Dale, which is currently shut as a new footbridge is being installed.  It's great. I see loads of cyclists using this, and any motorist getting confused about which lane to be in, quite clearly should not be behind the wheel as the road layout is very clear.

Ignore the miserable bastards. Lancashire Evening Post and Blog Preston are very anti cycling. They love to print biased anti cycling stories which always get the knuckle draggers foaming at the mouth, with the same depressing comments.

.

All nice and good.

.

But will it get me to the Lamb and Packet any quicker?

.

“I'm here a lot and I don't see too many people come down here,” Joe Shackleton told the paper. “It is quite a large cycle lane and I don't think it warrants that

Joe Shackleton and the other deadbeat locals can go and boil their collective and dysfunctional heads- or they could take up cycling. Well done, Lancashire County Council!

Excellent news, and I now realise I crossed the works for that CYCLOPS junction when I took a couple of wheels down to Paul Hewitt's in Leyland last Friday. The view is from the Preston side looking towards Liverpool Road, with the new green cycle lanes on the right side of the carriageway by the far bus. The excellent clockwise Guild Wheel route comes in from the left and heads off right past the Nissan dealer. Although it's no use for Leyland I will sample this new superhighway when I collect the wheels

Fantastic forward thinking from South Ribble. I wish my council was this proactive. It amazes me how some people simply can't join the dots. With  many people complaining about the cost of living increase and even suggesting that fuel duty be reduced, a council is criticised for providing infrastructure that conveniantly allows their constituents to save money by leaving the car at home and get more healthy at the same time.

I am a very fair weather commuter so this week has been perfect. The distance is less than 10 miles each way but still probably a fuel saving close to £4.00/day. I know it's not for everyone but we also know a huge number of bikes have been sold over the last 2 years and if councils remove obstacles to cycling & walking then the only excuse left becomes "habit".

If you build it they will come.

Edit: quick calculation, if the spend is approx £300,000 and fuel costs on average 20p/mile then the cost is equivalent to 1.5m miles (seems alot) but if the population of south ribble is 100,000 then they would only have to convert 15miles/person from driving to active travel for this project to cover the council tax investment. How is that not cost effective.

Bravo Lancs Council! Ignore the few naysayers, they haven't expressed informed opinions, just gut reactions against any kind of change.
We need this kind of infrastructure in my area but the Tory council haven't grasped the importance of actually doing anything to encourage active travel - yet.

Looking at streetview history, would definitely prefer the after. However I also hope there is plans in place to "streetclean" the leaves in the autumn. 

I like how it is the cycling lanes fault that people can't tell the difference between a dual carriageway and single lane dual flow. 

Looking at the example picture - although this may be "for illustration" - am I the only one thinking "look at the width of tarmac still allocated to motor vehicles"?

That includes some of the "pedestrian refuges / islands" because of course without motor vehicles they, like traffic lights, would be entirely unnecessary.

There is an elephant in this room but it's not a green one.

RE: "Green elephant" - quite right, nowadays we're could use this as an opportunity to signal more inclusivity (although I'd much rather the UK just picked one colour and stuck to it everywhere to help everyone understand the carriageway / footway).  Perhaps more like this?

Looks great, but how can anyone have an opinion on how good a scheme is, in terms of encouraging users, until it is open in full? Do we assess a new bypass based on the first few miles? It is only when the whole route is opened that the more reticent cyclists (i.e most people) will start using it.