“And they’ll still use the bus lanes”: Locals struggle to grasp new segregated cycle lane and its impact on using other roads; Review begins into cycle lanes blasted by Rupert Lowe as “central planning lunacy” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Locals struggle to grapple with cyclist's space on the road... again
Ah, a video showing the wonders of segregated cycle infrastructure. What could be wrong with that?
Ok, the music for a start. Seriously godawful. Silence is preferable to that. But the Cheltenham Cycle Spine itself is something to celebrate. It connects cycleways running from the town to both Gloucester and Bishop’s Stortford and will eventually be a part of a Gloucestershire Cycle Spine that councillors hope will run as far south as Stroud.
And you know what? The Facebook comments aren’t too bad…
“I use it to get to work and I see lots of people cycling both ways in the morning and lots of people walking as well.”
“I use the cycle path regularly and I always pass 5-10 cyclists going the other direction. So, yes it is used. Next time you are a passenger in a car, count how many you can see. (Obviously excluding early morning / later evening)”
“I’m pleased we have the cycle path. Now when I want to cycle into town my journey is enjoyable & feels safer rather than being amongst busy traffic. This part has also opened up a walking route past the racecourse. It can only be a good thing to encourage more activity.”
Then there’s the scepticism:
“I wonder how well used it is on wet and cold days! In order to make a quantum shift in cycling to work it needs employers to be better engaged; safe bike parking, showers and changing facilities. I wonder if any of the infrastructure funding was directed towards this?”
I’m already feeling sick just watching it, wibbly wobbly! How long before a pedestrian is knocked over walking across to the bus?
“Giving way at every side road whereas the main road just continues uninterrupted – doesn’t sound like it’s intended to make cycling easier 
” Note: the cyclists do have right of way.
And then there’s the outright hostility, for nothing must interfere with the holy car…
“They filter out the true comments that it hardly ever gets used”
“Most cyclists still use the road”
“You’ll have it all to yourself for most of the day.”
And, my weirdest spot… “And they’ll still use the bus lanes.” Based on the replies to this, I think this was a complaint, despite the bus lanes being explicitly shared between cars and bikes.
Maybe the internet is steadily improving? Although if you still have to put up with people who feel good about themselves using phrases like ‘quantum shift’ to justify not investing in active travel maybe there’s some way to go.
French nonsense
As we prepare for the biggest bike race of them all, we’ve logged into our ASO media portal, just to check everything is in order. And there are already some delightful photos from the official Barcelona Grand Départ conference that was held last year that might mildly amuse you as much as they did me. Like this of race director Christian Prudhomme handshaking with Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni. Across a tandem, naturally…
Or these photos of an ever-pensive Big Mig(uel) Indurain…
Or maybe they’re not that funny at all, maybe the heat is getting to me after all…
A bridge too far for one politician...
Daniel Benson’s excellent Substack has added credibility to the rumour mill going round that Paul Seixas faces no shortage of offers for a new contract, before even making his Grand Tour debut. Not only that, but Pinarello-Q36.5 are even reported to be considering a contract that would be the highest in professional cycling, higher even than Tadej Pogačar, and by some distance – you’ll have to breach the paywall to see the exact number but it’s 8 figures.
It should be said of course that the Frenchman has a contract until the end of 2027 and that Decathlon CMA-CGM is rapidly becoming something of a super team, internationalising its staff and signing several star riders. As a French rider on a French team, you would also have thought that the personal sponsor opportunities available to Seixas might be pretty sweet as well. But money talks!
Cycling footballers!
Hammersmith Bridge perfectly illustrates this.
1882: original bridge damaged by boat strike.
1884: temp bridge opens.
1887: brand new bridge completed (the one we know today).So far it’s been 7 years since it closed. The problem is we can’t afford either to fix or rebuild it. https://t.co/zLBCveOwWZ
— Neil Garratt AM (@NeilGarratt) June 26, 2026
Conservative London Assembly member Neil Garratt has chosen to spend his Friday bemoaning the state of Hammersmith Bridge. Why, I don’t quite know, because it seems pretty open to us!
Hammersmith Bridge is very much open https://t.co/gtPuK7UiIC pic.twitter.com/wbO0HgQllg
— OpenChiswick (@OpenChiswickW4) June 26, 2026
When put to him in the comments that the bridge “is still open for the kind of traffic for which is was built,” Garratt engaged in some tremendous whataboutery, arguing that support for Hammersmith Bridge was equal to arguing “Crumbling infrastructure is good actually, because horses and carts were good enough for my great grandpa so they’re good enough for me.”
Talk about missing the point…
Regulations and rebounds: e-bike round-up
Maybe if Manuel Neuer hadn’t been cycling to training he would have had the energy to react quicker to either of Ecuador’s goals last night.
*Frank Lampard voice* No but seriously, you love to see it, cycling footballers all the way. And on Canyons no less!
⚽🚴 Dünya Kupası sahnesinde ter döken Alman Milli Takımı antrenmana bisiklet ile gidiyor.
Alman Milli Takımı oyuncularının, Alman bisiklet üreticisi Canyon’un bisikletlerini kullandığı ise gözlerden kaçmadı.
Futbol tamam da, bisikletin karizması başka. 😎 pic.twitter.com/CrycKJHkUo
— Cyclist Türkiye (@CyclistTR) June 25, 2026
New ‘learn to ride’ bike park opens!
Halfords’ bike division has been something of a canary in the coal mine for the bike industry in recent years, and Ryan actually did a deeper dive on their accounts and the cycle industry not that long ago…
> Bikes driving Halfords’ renewed “momentum” as retail giant’s cycling sales jump by over 6%
Meanwhile, bike registration is surely one of those strategies doomed to fail. Registration stickers and a mandatory driver’s license can’t exactly help with encouraging active travel either. All very odd…
British National Circuit Championships
It’s Friday so let’s have a little bit of feel-good news from Leeds, where a new bike park has opened, encouraging children to learn real road layouts.
Located at Temple Newsam’s golf club, the centre includes mock traffic lights, black box junctions and a level crossing. Cllr James Gibson is “thrilled” by it all…
“The bike park is such a fun and unique place for children to enjoy themselves and also practice their skills and learn a little bit about traffic signs.
“Along with the playground and the new café this will be a great new space for the community to meet up and spend time together.”
If only the bike park could teach children how to cope with bad drivers. Or even teach bad drivers for that matter…
Lizzie Deignan's back!
The crit championships can be a funny thing. You always want to see the best riders battling it out, but it’s probably for the best if a domestic racer wins so as they can actually wear the jersey for the following year.
61 women and 70 men are on the provisional startlist, with both races taking place this evening in an effort to attract bigger crowds – and probably also avoid the heat! The women’s race starts at 6pm, with WorldTour riders taking part including Carys Lloyd and Robyn Clay. Scottish Continental team Handsling Alba have 10 riders on the startlist, including defending champion Kate Richardson and Madison world champion Maddie Leach.
Honourable mentions go to two-time team pursuit world champions, Josie Knight and Megan Barker and Paralympic gold medal-winning pilot Jenny Holl.
EF’s Noah Hobbs is the only WorldTour rider on the men’s startlist, although several development team riders including Finlay Tarling, Henry Hobbs and cyclocross specialist Cam Mason are set to line-up, the latter as defending champion. From the domestic scene, my eyes are on the Rapha pair of Matthew Bostock and Oliver Wood.
And, unlike yesterday’s TTs, you can actually watch tonight’s racing on YouTube, as you will for the road races this weekend.
Review launched into Rupert Lowe's favourite cycle lane
Feel good news for your Friday…
Show me the most road.cc comments you can... no that's too road.cc
How times have changed! In scrolling through our archives for this story, I found a story from 2012 that wondered if Great Yarmouth would become Britain’s cycling capital, there was even talk of a velodrome!
That now all feels a very long time ago. I mean 14 years is quite a long time, but still, the rate at which attitudes have changed is remarkable. Today, Great Yarmouth has become the personal fiefdom of Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP who fell out with Nigel Farage and established his own party with an immigration policy even to the right of where the BNP once stood.
His Restore Britain affiliate in Great Yarmouth now hold the balance of power on Norfolk County Council, and have used their power to order council officers to review two newly installed cycle lanes in Great Yarmouth. For Lowe at least, this is a long-running vendetta.
Well, they’ve got their wish, with the Great Yarmouth Mercury reporting that the council has confirmed the review into the £500,000 Gorleston cycle lane “is currently under way and once complete, the findings will be shared with elected members before anything is published more widely.”
Disappointingly, the paper also quoted two residents, 83 and 64, opposing the scheme, although the latter, a cyclist himself, was mainly critical of the scheme’s cost rather than the final outcome.
So that’s something to look forward to, an effective use of council resources all round…
Red Bull & Jayco-AlUla unveil their Tour teams
Or maybe I should say off-road.cc…
We like to cross-post a little between our different sites. It’s a means of attracting specialist audiences interested in say, Mountain-biking or e-bikes, without alienating them by posting lots of stuff about active travel or pros doping. At the same time, a lot of people interested in all-things two wheels like to see all their interests in one place. And if you’re not interested, it doesn’t take long to avert your eyes to the next story.
That logic has served us well for quite a while, but it seems beloved reader Surreyrider has drawn a line in the sand on our recent post reviewing sunglasses for mountain biking.
“This is on ROAD CC. Take it down. If I wanted to read about MTB, I’d go to this site or MTB CC. I don’t. You’re just using this to pad out your story count. Don’t.”
Take it down? From off-road.cc? An interesting idea, let’s see what the rest of you think…
“One day last week, a Tuesday I think it was, just like St. Paul on the way to Damascus (don’t know where he was travelling from. Jerusalem? Seems a long way. Perhaps he had a donkey.) I had an epiphany – there was a blinding flash of light and I suddenly realised I didn’t have to read articles I didn’t find interesting even though other people might. I’m sleeping a whole lot better now, well, apart from the oppressive heat.” Thanks Perce.
Rendel Harris jumped in: “And so it came to pass that upon a certain day Saul was riding to Damascus and a blinding flash struck the shades from his eyes and lo a voice did cry out, “Saul, Saul, thou ridest a Dogma yet verily thou art clad in MTB sunnies, and this, as thou knowst, is against my law.” Thereafter Saul was sore afflicted until he was guided to that place where road.cc is pure and bought the same glasses but verily they were stamped “road use” and there was great rejoicing through all the nations, especially in Surrey.”
But my personal favourite was somewhat less biblical, from mdavidford, “Take this comment down. Put it on moan.cc where it belongs.”
Thanks all for making us chuckle, rest assured that one of us is normally reading the comments for your ‘wisdom.’ Or spell-checking…
Misleading headline of the week...
The startlist for the Tour de France is coming along nicely.
Whilst we were all failing to sleep, the Australian Jayco-AlUla team announced their eight man roster and have opted to hedge their bets somewhat, taking Pascal Ackermann for the bunch sprints, Michael Matthews for the reduced bunch sprints, Mauro Schmid for the punchy breakaways, and Ben O’Connor for the high mountains, though there’s no mention in the team’s press release of any GC ambition for O’Connor who struggled to make an impression during the Giro d’Italia. In an age of the super teams, you suspect a stage win and presence in the breakaway will probably be enough for the team’s sponsors.
One of those super teams, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have confirmed that Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz will return to the Tour de France as co-leaders racing for the overall.
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The team can count on Jai Hindley as a super-luxury-domestique-deluxe, fresh from his third career podium at the Giro d’Italia, whilst Maxim Van Gils showed his worth defending Luke Tuckwell’s podium place at the Dauphine a couple of weeks ago. Mattia Cattaneo, Jan Tratnik are both strong on the flat and can climb, whilst the selections of Nico Denz and Tim van Dijke over purer climbers suggest the team will be targeting the opening Team Time Trial as an early chance to nab the yellow jersey.
Whether their team leaders will have the knack of holding on to it when the going gets tough is another matter…
That's some saddle work...
As click-bait headlines go, this one actually worked. On our cycling brains anyway…
Our thought process went something along the lines of:
“What?! This is bonkers, why the hell should cyclists be subject to… ah no ok. Fair play, lovely stuff.”
To be clear, cyclists an horse riders will not be subject to a lower speed limit than other road users. Rather the speed limit on the road has been reduced for all road users, for the benefit of cyclists and horse riders. Lodge Road in Cranfield, Bedfordshire will be designated a Quiet Lane and “aims to improve safety.” Kudos to their sub-editor though, that got us engaged…
Council fails to mark its own homework
Impressive, although the caveat might have to be “The first person who BMXed Mont Ventoux… on camera.”
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I'm a little confused by your analogies. None of us would have sympathy with driver hitting a cyclist in the cycle lane and blaming barely visible lane dividers, because they should have seen *the cyclist*. Compensation claims for injury on hitting dangerous potholes are paid out when it is shown that the council are aware of their existence but didn't fix them. Why should this be any different?
If, as the inventors claim, accuracy is questionable above an FTP of 280, how many truly serious cyclists are going to be interested?
Some fast off road paths / circuits would be Utopia. With regard to 30mph limits and 20 mph limits in the villages in question, road surface, incline and bends mean that 30 mph would be unachievable and competitors are obliged to follow the rules of the road and cycle at a speed suitable for the conditions. I guess this last point, coupled with speed limits not applying to cyclists covers off the case where a course has a fast downhill section through a 30mph zone. CTT are stricter on 20 mph because it is far more likely to be exceeded in an event and because the zones are more likely to have chicanes, road narrowing etc, making racing so much more dangerous.
@Rendel Harris that was my reflex (same as with the folks who were laid low by the Keynsham "optical illusion" cycle lane)... ... but of course it's easy to say "I would never..." and we know (and civil engineers definitely should) that *humans* operate in the public environment. Seems foreseeable that low, tarmac coloured orcas/armadillos might cause more problems than they're designed to fix. I don't think the motoring analogy is quite fair. Cyclists already have all the tasks of motorists to deal with. Then additionally "monitoring if we've *been* seen". Plus much more interest in the road surface as you say. Ultimately cycle *lanes* - even ones with "protection" (short of concrete barriers) aren't good cycle infra either.
@jackcycles There was a great article in the Telegraph a few weeks back on why cycling Hard to believe!
What doesn't really help is that the cycle lane appears to be very narrow. Any cyclist pulling out to avoid a drain or pothole would come very close to those dividers. The dividers will be very difficult to spot in the dark against oncoming headlights. I also hope the dividers are not installed at any point where a cyclist may want to turn right off the road, as they are very close together
You are pirate Jacksparrowcycles and ICMFP! Given the general lack of any policing on the roads and almost complete indifference to things with two wheels that don't have a very loud engine ... ... I think you could just continue to do you on your bike with all the freedom one can expect as someone who seems to favour a world without "folly-swaddles" (eg. drivers making free also).
Well ... as with drivers who want to go faster you could always lobby for this or that route to get a different speed and (at least as i understand it) there are mechanisms to allow local authorities to make variations. On the other hand I think that could lead to awkward conversations around "yes to lower speeds to save the lives of vulnerable road users ... only not on those streets we like to cycle on. But do crack down on speeding drivers!" (Don't know what are the usual speeds for the groups you're thinking about but for the speedy folks 30mph wouldn't be enough...) Of course if only we had some "fast cycle paths" along the "primary road network" I think all could be happy?
The divider wasn't defective, it was deliberately designed in a dangerous manner? That doesn't sound like a great defence.
I have every sympathy for Mr Simmons' injuries but struggling to muster much sympathy for his claim against the council. As a cyclist you've got to be scanning the road surface constantly for hazards, be they potholes, broken glass, bin bags et cetera et cetera. Would we have any sympathy for a motorist who hit a cyclist in the cycle lane and blamed the fact that they couldn't see the lane dividers? How about a motorist who mounted the pavement and hit a pedestrian and offered in mitigation the fact that the kerb was the same colour as the pavement? Sometimes you've just got to admit you made a mistake.
27 thoughts on ““And they’ll still use the bus lanes”: Locals struggle to grasp new segregated cycle lane and its impact on using other roads; Review begins into cycle lanes blasted by Rupert Lowe as “central planning lunacy” + more on the live blog”
I’d love it if the actual final report said “you know what, the cycle route is great”
(And, whilst I don’t want to get too non-cycling related, but Lowe’s party is accurately described as fascist. An over-used word for sure, but meets the Umberto Eco definition. For a start, their official spokesperson said that non-Christians aren’t truly British, which is definitely Nuremberg race laws in style)
I think they have to be better organised to be actual Fascists.
Less a “march on Rome”, more a slow, congested drive to Great Yarmouth
Valid point. Nowdays, fascist and nazi are used alternatively to shut down intelligent conversations and kill freedom of speech. That’s common practice in totalitarian societies (which all need new enemies of the State to maintain their population in complete submission).
@MaxiMinimalist Ah yes, the good old “You are but what am I?” argument beloved of schoolboys everywhere. Anyone who calls someone a fascist must actually be some form of fascist themselves or other form of oppressor. Hitler and his vermin used this to great effect, claiming that all they were doing was saving the nation from the oppression of communists, social democrats and trade unions, frequently portraying themselves as the victims of said oppression. There’s even a name for it in the psychology textbooks, DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.
I don’t believe that the Italian state under Mussolini was run particularly well. Their army were awful, their invasion of Greece failed, though their losses did draw Germany in because it threatened the flanks for Barbarossa. North Africa was also shameful, once again only saved by Rommel and the afrika corps.
If your talking national socialist, I’m never going to dispute that German efficiency and bureaucracy, however stereotypical, will always rate highly, but the state was run on the whims of a madman, surrounded by sycophants enacting policies derived by attempting to ingratiate themselves from vague concepts and hints from the aforementioned madman. Often in competition with pointless duplication of effort.
If Rupert Lowe is upset that cycle lanes are centrally planned, wait until he finds out about roads!
A slightly odd way of putting it. ‘Balance of power’ usually implies sitting between two larger groups, with the potential of working with either one of them. In this case, Reform are three shy of a majority, and no-one else is close. They could, theoretically*, form a majority with any one of four other parties with minor representation, and Restore would be considered to sit politically to the other side of them from the other three.
[* The Greens and the Lib Dems seem… unlikely, and presumably the Conservatives, who have one seat less than Restore, either refused or were considered a less amenable partner.]
Review of cycle lanes? What a waste of taxpayer time and money! Surely they were elected to look into:
– why all these foreigners are coming over here and how can we stop them.
– stop all these bloody unelected council officials telling us we can’t do things.
– some men and women aren’t married – that’s a bit odd isn’t it? We should check them out. Especially the ones we didn’t see in church.
– come to think of it I don’t know who the neighbours really are now. We should be investigating them. It’s not how it used to be any more, we knew everyone (and their business) then…
@chrisonabike
And look, some people aren’t Christian. Strip them of their citizenship!
(And don’t mention that this is exactly what the Nazis did)
Besides, you can guarantee that whatever the review says, someone will be straight along in the comments to complain that the details of the review don’t justify the final rating, that they’ve chosen the wrong sort of alternative infrastructure to compare it to, and that the price of infrastructure these days is taking us for a ride (literally!) and they could have built the bike lanes themselves for a tenth of that price.
Why show the climb of Mont Ventoux? It was a BMXer, although he was on the road, and he had no helmet on. What were his sunglasses? Road? Gravel? MTB?
I think I need to have a lie down, but not in Surrey!!
2026 UEC BMX European championships are now taking place in Sarrians, a mere 38 clicks from the top of Mont Ventoux. Good luck with the scorching heat and atmospheric pollution!
The Cheltenham Cycle Spine goes all the way from Gloucester to Bishops Stortford, now wouldn’t that be something to see !
@ChrisA Just for info it’s Bishops Cleeve.
I think the bus lane bit is about the section along Lansdown Road going out of Cheltenham towards Gloucester. This “cycle lane” has been in place for many years. The surface is bumpy due to tree roots and eroded surfaces, cyclists are expected to give way at junctions and it goes past many driveways so you have to be alert at all times. There are bus lanes alongside some of this section and, yes, I still use the bus lanes and the road where the bus lanes run out. This section is not green like the rest of the path and when the green runs out getting through Cheltenham and onto the Gloucester section is hit and miss to say the least.
The new green section from Bishops Cleeve to just north of Cheltenham town center is indeed well used and is much appreciated despite the lack of any cyclist priority at beg buttons. Cyclists do have priority at side roads, as in the picture, and motorists seem to be getting the idea. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the OpSnap reports I sent in on the occasions I had to brake to avoid a collision when it was newly opened, but things are definiteley improving.
It seems like a particular waste of money as I believe the work was funded by ATE. So the locals now have to pay to review something that was paid for by central government.
Perhaps if the review shows a great return on investment (as so many of these schemes do) then Restore will encourage the council spend more money on Active Travel. No? Because it’s just more culture war nonsense.
@IanMK yup – it’s like the self-appointed “citizen auditor” stuff I guess? All about the cultural aspect. Validation of one’s suspicions of “them” and perhaps “fighting the system”.
I doubt it ever has much to do with the (quite dull and complicated) business of public funds.
That bike park’s only just opened, and already someone’s strung some kind tape across the path where it could cause harm to unwary riders – absolutely disgraceful!
road.cc: “rest assured that one of us is normally reading the comments for your ‘wisdom.’ Or spell-checking…”
(1) While you’re reading, any update on the website migration issues, in particular the commenting / reply / edit functionality?
(2) “it’s impact on using other roads” doesn’t need an apostrophe
I would also point out that British English convention would suggest the full stop should go after the closing quote mark, but since I managed to miss an entire word out of my last comment, I won’t.
The mistake with Hammersmith Bridge was allowing motor vehicles over it in the first place.
A road bridge for motor vehicles should have been built nearby to deal with that traffic soon after the car was invented.
Hopefully that mistake won’t be repeated anytime soon.
Hammersmith Bridge needs those big green signs that say “Open to…” with figures showing people walking cycling etc.
RE: “New ‘learn to ride’ bike park opens!”
This is all good – I’ll just note that the Utrecht traffic garden covers the comments about learning to deal with drivers and vice versa – because they have pedal cars!
2026 UEC BMX European championships are now taking place in Sarrians, a mere 38 clicks from the top of Mont Ventoux. Good luck with the scorching heat and atmospheric pollution!
Is Paul Seixas worth 10 million euros per year? Maybe. If he wins the next TdF, his face value might double up. Will billionaire Saadé, owner of the CMA CGM Group, sign a big cheque with no guaranteed ROI? Unlikely. To be continued.
@MaxiMinimalist I see you retain your strange obsession with the claim that the only way Decathlon, a global entity with €16.8 billion revenues for whom the cycle team is an essential primary promotional tool for their kit and bikes, will be able to keep Seixas with a sugar daddy cheque from the owner of their co-title sponsor. Why is this? Incidentally Seixas is not winning the next Tour in any case unless Jonas and Tadej both crash out, so the question is unlikely to arise.
Caravaggio let you use his picture? If not then be careful as from what I’ve heard he’s got quite a temper.