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news
Dovecote Lane, Beeston (Google Maps Street View)Plans to encourage cycling by banning cars from “rat run” delayed
A plan to encourage cycling by banning motorists from a cut-through road described by locals as a “race track” has been delayed after a petition against the proposals secured over 1,000 signatures.
Last month we reported that Nottinghamshire County Council was planning to introduce an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) which would stop cars from accessing the narrow Dovecote Lane in Beeston.
The planned closure, which will be enforced using planters, is being funded by the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund and aims to encourage cycling in the area “for all ages”.
Residents and road users would be encouraged to offer feedback throughout the Experimental Order, which would stay in place for a maximum of 18 months and allow for alterations during the first six months. At the end of that period, after considering residents’ feedback and assessing the impact of the changes, the order can then be made permanent or scrapped.
Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council's transport and environment committee, said last month that around 80 cycle journeys are made on Dovecote Lane each day, "but the road is very narrow at the northern end and we are keen to make it more appealing for cyclists of all ages.”
Locals also expressed support for the scheme, with Roger Pinder pointing out that drivers took advantage of the road as “a cut-through to avoid traffic lights and a few people have used it before as like a race track. It's a miracle that no one has been killed or seriously injured before.
"The new plans will be an inconvenience for me because it's a handy shortcut but I think it's worth the sacrifice as cyclists and pedestrians will feel safer."
> Cars to be banned from "race track" shortcut to promote cycling
However, the implementation of the scheme has now been delayed after a petition against the proposals gained over 1,000 signatures.
Plans for further consultation before the ETRO is introduced are likely to be approved by Nottinghamshire County Council’s transport and environment committee on 9 February. The consultation is set to begin by the end of the month and will be reviewed in early spring.
"The Department for Transport have agreed to extend their timeline for the Active Travel Fund which the Dovecote cycle lane proposal would be funded from,” Neil Clarke said earlier this week.
"We spoke to them after a number of concerns were raised to us from the local community and these need to be considered very carefully."
The leader of the ‘Keep Dovecote Lane Open’ campaign, Peter Bone, told the West Bridgford Wire that he had “serious safety concerns” about the plans.
“I have lived here for 35 years and I have cycled up and down there hundreds of times. I have never really felt in danger. Cars naturally slow down where the road narrows.
"Our big worry is if the road is closed at the top and you've got a one-way system, all traffic has to go on to Queen's Road which will be very dangerous for cyclists and add to congestion,” Bone said.
"We are grateful for the delay but we hope that it allows an extension long enough for a proper consultation and for proper evidence to be gathered. We were concerned that we hadn't been properly consulted.
“There was an online questionnaire last February but there was no provision for residents to suggest what could be done about the problems.
“We never got any feedback and suddenly in January a letter comes through telling us about the plans.”
The Conservative MP for the area, Darren Henry, said: “I wrote to both Nottinghamshire County Council and the DfT last week pushing for an extension to the deadline.
“I am pleased to hear that an agreement has been reached allowing for more discussion and consultation with the local community.”
One resident, however, has criticised the opponents of the scheme, who he claims have “catastrophised” the proposals.
Describing Dovecote Lane as a “rat run” for motorists, the local said: “During lockdown, I sat at my dining room window and watched as cyclists and pedestrians used the road. Children learned to ride their bikes and toddlers practised their walking.
“Obviously as life got back to normal, all that has stopped. Toddlers are strapped back in their buggies, cyclists are the confident lycra-clad adult sort – not kids riding to play in the parks.
“I want the council to run the experiment. The residents of the surrounding roads have catastrophised the closure.”
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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14 comments
Looking at a map from afar is no substitute for cycling the route and the surrounding area. To get to the point in the picture, before travelling south down the road from which through motors would be blocked, you have to follow the local tram route, along which the cycling provision varies between half-baked afterthought and non-existent. At the other end of the road is a very busy crossroads that is very difficult to negotiate. The stretch between is a haven of tranquility in comparison. The objective of the ETRO barrier is to improve the experience of through-route cyclists going to the railway station and beyond. It's not going to contribute much (if anything) to that, and in the currently proposed location it will cause other problems. It's a complex issue, the campaign has put a pause on it and obliged the council to consult properly... in which process their attention will be drawn to the bigger picture. So it's a good thing.
Indeed like this excellent piece of cycle infrastructure, which unofrtuantely runs between one multi lane roundabout (with no cycle lane) and another (with no cycle lane)
Note; there is no cycle lane on the opposite carriageway, because this barrier has been installed to protect drivers from the weak flyover parapet (or perhaps to protect those below from drivers not stopped by the weak parapet), not to protect cyclists
Having worked in the immediate area for 15 years, I'm not convinced by the scope of this on the information presented here. There are other parallel "shortcuts", where the impact of this proposal needs to be considered.
It might, arguably, be better, for example, to turn it into a bicycle road, using the Dutch term, so that those who access their homes from Dovedale gain access from the town centre end rather than the A6005 end.
And a block at the end proposed may cut some people off from reaching their own town centre and divert them the other way around an A road which is gridlocked twice every day, or create problems with the one alternative backstreet route.
Though that area (Beeston-Chilwell) has a strong cycling lobby, so all points of view will get a hearing.
On the politics on the thread, the current proposal afaics is from a Conservative controlled County Council in a Conservative controlled district :-). Though it's quite funny that the head campaigner is called Peter Bone.
IMO this stuff needs to be very local, or it will just end up getting rejected in 18 months.
Google map:https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9230192,-1.2119292,16.3z
Just from a quick look at Google maps (by the way your link should be https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9230192,-1.2119292,16z) that road looks like a perfect example of a candidate LTN. There's alternate routes and a green area that would benefit from reduced traffic.
Obviously, I'm biased, but until LTNs are put in place for a few months, people are really bad at predicting the outcome, or at least some people are incredibly vocal about not having them.
I'd absolutely concur with that.
The road under discussion is the best walking / cycling route from Beeston train station to the Town Centre.
Thanks for the alternative link.
I admit Ive only ever visited the area briefly, so I could be completely mistaken about this, but my impression was places like Beeston/West Bridgeford areas of Nottingham were quite well served with a selection of public transport options, buses, trams and even trains seemed to be quick, frequent, cheap and efficient, so where are local people driving to in such numbers ?
nonetheless I know they still do in large enough numbers to make cycling on roads like the A6005, awkward shall we say, even with a large local cycling contingent such that people must be used to encountering cyclists on roads, that I think there are routes along the River Trent people prefer to ride instead.
but to me this is more than just about this individual rat run, which undoubtedly taken in isolation wont resolve any issues, its about resetting the defaults of peoples expectations that if you live in an area like this, driving your car on a short journey into town or the city is at the bottom of the list in terms of your options, and thats just the way its got to be.
Peter Bone is apparently the ultimate "I'm a cyclist myself, but...." With fake objections, fake "serious safety concerns" and fake "cars naturally slow down where the road narrows" And probably fake cycling too.
I bet if you asked all the people who signed the petition (were they all locals?) and the tory MP whether they supported more cycling, they'd all say yes, but not here. Getting even basic, sensible things done in the face of such utter car addiction is proving impossible. Maybe we need a revolution.
I'm ready to seize the means of transportation
Or just seize the means of consultation.
On the contrary.
Speaking as one, I can assure you signatories are locals, and best understand the wider concerns for the proposal in this specific location (not least the nursing home just beyond the road block which would require a multipoint turn for emergency services) - which others relying only on a map and a hackjob of a piece do not.
LTN are not 'one size fits all' - and the justification in the Report submitted for this 'experiment' was:
a) factually inaccurate - it is not an "official cycling route" (that's Station Road), is is not a "main road into Beeston" (again, Station Road) "1800 cars" per 24 hours (erm, that's not many? Also, see b) )
b) unsubstantiated. No baseline data.
The block will not "ban" traffic from the road, cars are just forced up the other way via Station Road (that *actual* Official Cycle Route /main road into Beeston, also via a notoriously bad junction). It's positioning also blocks off immediate access to two cul de sacs, and safe access to a nursing home.
It's almost as if the Cllrs. rushing this through without any consultation (so they could spend the £45k in time, on three planters made of shitty decking) were actually from some other area entirely and had no interest in where a good idea ends and a bad one starts ... 🤔
The petition actually sought further consultation with residents, and establishing baseline data for finding a solution which will actually achieve its aims. We appear to have bought more time.
I'd say that's a win all 'round.
Yep; an alternative solution won't be offered but if it was then it would involved unrestricted and unhindered use of motor vehicles with rat-runs performing a vital function of spreading traffic aroound. These people are part of the problem, not the solution; but boy can they kick-off and then the brakes go on. Would hope breaking this behaviour is an action in Chris Boardman's in-tray.
I don't really get the increased danger.
If you prevent rat-running down a road, then yes, that traffic will need to find a different route. If there's more traffic going down a main road (Queens Road) then surely their average speed will be reduced and won't that actually be safer?
There isn't a fixed volume of traffic, so some LTNs have led to reductions in traffic on surrounding roads too.
Induced and reduced demand:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand