A Shropshire Council committee have agreed to launch a “rapid task and finish group” after backlash over a protected cycle lane and ‘floating’ bus stop were built in the place of a two-lane road.
The concerns centre on the bus stop island apparently being too narrow, and accusations the overall layout has created congestion that has been slowing down emergency vehicles. However, the floating bus stops prevent cyclists from having to overtake stationary buses, and the protected cycle lane is designed to make the route safer for people on bikes.
The chairman of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, Cllr David Minnery, told a scrutiny meeting that fire engines have been “using the cycle lane” to get past traffic jams.
Cllr Minnery said that this is “not a solution” and could be a risk to cyclists who are hard of hearing or wearing headphones.
“It is putting lives and property at risk, and solutions need to be found,” he said. “We are very disappointed at the lack of consultation on this.”
The committee also heard that there was a video on social media of a fire engine “embedded in traffic” and “unable to proceed”.
Council leader Heather Kidd said “I have never known the traffic as bad as it was on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was far worse than I have ever seen it. In the early morning it was horrendous.
“It has been taking me on hour and ten minutes to do a trip supposed to be 40 minutes.”
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However, a road.cc reader got in touch and told us, “As a Shrewsbury local, I can help clarify, this so-called ‘cycle lane” is nothing but a tick in the box exercise for the council to say they have added cycling infrastructure. The lane itself is 100 yds long at most and adds no benefit to the previous share path.
“Shrewsbury town centre itself is a permanent traffic jam, this new infrastructure is aimed at reducing this encouraging people out of their cars, all well intentioned.”
Another road.cc reader said, “It’s not the greatest of designs, but outcry of ‘the floating bus stop goes straight onto the bike lane’ ignores the fact that for years the bus stop was actually on the shared usage path anyway with no island.”
The scrutiny meeting followed a petition with over 6,000 signatures, set up by local live music venue The Buttermarket.
In a post on Facebook, they jokingly invited former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “officially open AND close the new cycle lane.”
“The committee meeting is a real opportunity for accountability and change – and rest assured, the people of Shrewsbury are watching. Let’s hope common sense finally prevails and safer, more practical solutions are recommended,” the post continued.
In the petition, they call for the ‘floating bus stop’ to be removed, and instead designate the “left-hand lane exclusively for cyclists, taxis, and buses (and critically important access for the EMERGENCY services) — as it already operates along Castle Gates and Castle Street.”
The petition also said, “The bus stop could then be sensibly relocated to its previous position, right outside the station, where it naturally serves passengers best.”
As well as the position of the bus stop, there has also been criticism about its width.
Whilst ‘floating bus stops’ allow cyclists to cycle past buses without having to move into the middle of the road, the one built in the case is narrower than the size recommended by the Department for Transport’s guidance, issued in 2020.
The guidance suggests it should be between 1.5m and 2m; however, when the BBC measured the buffer area between the road and cycle lane, it was only 1.1m wide.
Disability campaigners and wheelchair users have criticised this, explaining that the narrow island is dangerously small.
The BBC contacted WSP, the authority’s transport consultant, but they previously said that the island ended up smaller than planned because workers found unexpected underground utilities.
“As a councillor, to some extent you have to trust what paid professionals are telling you about a site,” said Councillor Alex Wagner.
“We treat the WSP with quite high regard for getting design, quick design in particular, that we might need all around the county.”
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On Facebook, Cllr Wagner wrote that the proposal had been “solely lacking in detail”. However, plans to completely remove the new cyclist lane and ‘floating bus stop’ were not possible due to “lots of strings attached” to central government funding.
Brendan Mallon, the deputy group leader of the largest opposition party on Shropshire Council, Reform UK, said that the floating bus stop needs to go, and the new cycle lane should be made into a lane for traffic again.
12 thoughts on “Local politicians claim cycle lane is “putting lives at risk” amid reports of fire engines being forced to use it — but resident claims complaints are from those who “obviously don’t want the cycle paths””
Quote:
‘Supposed’ according to whom?
God obviously, the same God
God obviously, the same God that decides what speed certain roads are really meant to be.
God, and the Downs-Thomson
God, and the Downs-Thomson Paradox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs%E2%80%93Thomson_paradox
As a firefighter, I have been
As a firefighter, I have been held up for that amount of time or longer at queues to any number of sets of traffic lights. Frustrating when it happens, but it seems to me councillors just put it down to heavy traffic until there is a cycle lane involved then it’s open season.
It’s strange how they never
It’s strange how they never complain about parked vehicles on the sides of the roads, causing delays to the emergency services. In London, about 50% of the public road space is used as a private car park.
Watching that video, it looks
Watching that video, it looks an awful lot like a load of cars are holding up the fire engines. But that can’t be the case, of course.
Strange … everyone seems to
Strange … everyone seems to be saying that the “traffic” is terrible, that occasional buses or even more occasional emergency vehicles are getting stuck in the “traffic”, that making properly separate marked space for an alternative to “traffic” (cycling *) (which some even acknowledge *can* be used by emergency vehicles to avoid the “traffic”) is a terrible idea …
… and yet the solution is somehow to facilitate more “traffic” by making more space for it?
This article seems appropriate:
* I would agree that if as locals say this is just a disconnected section its utility is likely low – but as well as “so bin it” there is an alternative eg. “build more to connect it to a network”.
It covers more than just
It covers more than just bus stop bypasses or even “travel hub congestion” but I’ll just leave this one here, in case any councillors happen by:
We could argue that making
We could argue that making cycle lanes wider, would actually help the emergency services:
“Cycle Superhighways Delay Emergency Vehicles” (sarcastic title)
We could argue that making
We could argue that making cycle lanes wider, would actually help the emergency services
Not very convincingly, when they’re all full of parked cars
Sorry, to avoid confusion, I
Sorry, to avoid confusion, I’m talking about the fully segregated ones (like the one in the Youtube link) built to a decent standard rather than the simple “paint on road” ones.
True enough – nearly all of
True enough – nearly all of them in Preston are sufficiently plagued by parked cars that they can’t be used. However, there is a good one about 1 km long in Penwortham which is properly built, segregated and marked for 2-way cycling. That one works well- it’s like a Shangri-la.