[hawkinspeter]

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/invisible-cycle-lane-finally-made-more-visible/

Looks like they’ve finally realised what a stupid idea it is to make bike lanes the same colour as the rest of the pavement. If only there was someone they could have asked who could have let them know (hint: any cyclist in the world).

Topic

[hawkinspeter]

Two articles about the plan

Two articles about the plan to paint Bristolian cycle lanes red:

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/new-red-surface-cycle-lanes-could-reduce-conflict-between-cyclists-pedestrians/

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bike-lanes-bristol-painted-red-10166848

Seems like the lanes are so confusing that even an otter got lost in Broadmead:

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/an-otter-was-caught-scampering-around-broadmead/

[Bmblbzzz]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

11 minutes later, in fact… 

That’s why we all have two minute hands on our clocks

I don’t like the idea of two minute hands. Sounds Trumpian… 

[chrisonabike]

slc wrote:

slc wrote:

Could be ‘Bristol instant’, which is a minute or so longer than London instant.

Is that a frantic version of the Cornish / West Country “dreckly” – which apparently “approximates the Spanish mañana but without the same sense of urgency”?

[hawkinspeter]

Bmblbzzz wrote:

11 minutes later, in fact… 

That’s why we all have two minute hands on our clocks

[Bmblbzzz]

slc wrote:

slc wrote:

brooksby wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

In other local news, I’m sure there was an announcement in these hallowed pages that all stand-alone pedestrian crossings in Bristol would be reprogrammed to change instantly when someone presses the button. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

I think it was a proposed plan and they haven’t started doing it yet

I think that they HAVE started doing it: a couple of crossings I’ve used in the last couple of days felt like they changed almost immediately after I pressed the button.

Could be ‘Bristol instant’, which is a minute or so longer than London instant.

11 minutes later, in fact… 

[slc]

brooksby wrote:

brooksby wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

In other local news, I’m sure there was an announcement in these hallowed pages that all stand-alone pedestrian crossings in Bristol would be reprogrammed to change instantly when someone presses the button. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

I think it was a proposed plan and they haven’t started doing it yet

I think that they HAVE started doing it: a couple of crossings I’ve used in the last couple of days felt like they changed almost immediately after I pressed the button.

Could be ‘Bristol instant’, which is a minute or so longer than London instant.

[brooksby]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

In other local news, I’m sure there was an announcement in these hallowed pages that all stand-alone pedestrian crossings in Bristol would be reprogrammed to change instantly when someone presses the button. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

I think it was a proposed plan and they haven’t started doing it yet

I think that they HAVE started doing it: a couple of crossings I’ve used in the last couple of days felt like they changed almost immediately after I pressed the button.

[hawkinspeter]

Bmblbzzz wrote:

In other local news, I’m sure there was an announcement in these hallowed pages that all stand-alone pedestrian crossings in Bristol would be reprogrammed to change instantly when someone presses the button. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

I think it was a proposed plan and they haven’t started doing it yet

[Bmblbzzz]

In other local news, I’m sure

In other local news, I’m sure there was an announcement in these hallowed pages that all stand-alone pedestrian crossings in Bristol would be reprogrammed to change instantly when someone presses the button. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos it clearly hasn’t happened yet.

[Bmblbzzz]

Yep, a contrasting colour

Yep, a contrasting colour will help cyclists notice it’s a cycle path too. I’d been riding through the Centre for about two years before I realised I was using the “wrong” part!

[slc]

chrisonabike wrote:

chrisonabike wrote:

We’ve got that on a approx 50m section of “pavement” near me.  Doesn’t actually connect to anything, but for those folks who know where to look you can find small “low-viz” bicycle symbols on a few tiles!

So much of this crap appears to be because it was given to a (visually creative) design intern / new junior member of the team to “make a place” on the pictures and that was the most thought that it got.  “Hey – Sue – can you make one of your nice visualisations of the layout we’ve agreed here?  You know – pastel colours, trees, someone with a pram.  Oh – and include some bike stuff…”

Bristol architects have long competed to create idiosyncratic active travel infrastructure. The little carvings are good but not quite as exciting as the cheese grater.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-31517807

[hawkinspeter]

KDee wrote:

Not exactly local to me, but thought I’d take a look anyway. From the photos in the news article, it is kind of difficult to understand where the route for peds is. So then a quick look at Google Maps and I see the route through the little sort of park thing behind the trees. Is it a quicker route to walk on the bike lane, or just embedded behaviour that makes peds want to walk beside the traffic?

It depends on what’s going on in the middle bit as you can have various food trucks there and that tends to push the pedestrians to walk next to the road. Quite often, going by the road is the more obvious direct route and it should really be a different colour to give peds a chance of noticing the bike lanes.

 

[brooksby]

KDee wrote:

Not exactly local to me, but thought I’d take a look anyway. From the photos in the news article, it is kind of difficult to understand where the route for peds is. So then a quick look at Google Maps and I see the route through the little sort of park thing behind the trees. Is it a quicker route to walk on the bike lane, or just embedded behaviour that makes peds want to walk beside the traffic?

Six of one, half a dozen of t’other, I suspect.

[KDee]

Not exactly local to me, but

Not exactly local to me, but thought I’d take a look anyway. From the photos in the news article, it is kind of difficult to understand where the route for peds is. So then a quick look at Google Maps and I see the route through the little sort of park thing behind the trees. Is it a quicker route to walk on the bike lane, or just embedded behaviour that makes peds want to walk beside the traffic?

[brooksby]

On the next section of that

On the next section of that cycle path, when you’ve crossed the Baldwin Street access and go past Ka-fei, I’d swear I’m the only person who ever looks before crossing the CP.  And that’s mainly because I’ve ridden along there too and it’s a bl00dy nightmare.

[Author]

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