Bollocks infra - with still wet paint & tarmac

Durham County Council have been busy for the last few months converting what was a fairly unexciting roundabout at the north end of Chester Le Street shown below on Google Maps



They have changed the layout to accommodate more lanes and signals at the roundabout.
The project page is here along with links to the plan, and the consultation report.

The consultation report does mention access to properties, but nowhere does it mention any consultation with groups or organisations representing the cycling community. This is surprising, not least because it is the route of the Sustrans NCN 725. I am presuming the give way markings are appeasements to locals.

Durham County Council replied to a tweet about the markings to Tim Beasley stating

@TimBeasley101 Hi Tim, we put the markings in place following local concerns to help keep cyclists safe. Thanks
— DurhamCountyCouncil (@DurhamCouncil) September 9, 2014

They have removed grass verges and squeezed footpath space to make the extra room for vehicles and in the process created some fairly tortuous and frankly extremely poor space and routes for both pedestrians and cyclists resulting in plenty of potential for conflict.

The southbound route has been largely completed with the exception of signal installation, and the full horror has been revealed.

A167 north of the junction is now a massive 5 lane beast of a road as you can see from the photo below

Southbound approach from the A167. The have removed a section of the southbound painted label as part of the lane widening before meeting the off-road section which is segregated. Notice the give way markers for each private house driveway 

A closer look at the markings giving driveways priority over people cycling. Why? just why?

Here you can see a traffic light signal smack in the middle of the segregated cycle lane. You can also see just how much space has been given over to motor traffic compared to people walking and cycling

This is the shared path around the corner at what will be a signaled crossing across the A693 Blind lane.
That's a Moulton which is about 1.3m tyre to tyre. I estimate the width of the path at about 1,5M wall to kerb, but of course the signal pole reduces that considerably. It is also quite a tight turn for bicycles,

Looking across Blind lane from the traffic island, you can see that for some reason the path humps up with a high stepped kerb. This is on a corner so not a bus stop. Given the posts and the corner I could foresee this being a conflict point with potential for a serious fall if you come off the kerb.

This is a view of the above kerb from the path. Not very person friendly at all.

This is a view showing the exit to the A167 Park road South and on the right the new slip towards Chester Le Street town centre. The large island on the right has shared paths crossing it which are also shown below, which again will be signalised

There is a smaller island as well with more shared paths crossing it, these are not signalised though. This is the north-south route most cyclists will need to follow, unless the want to mix it on the now 3 lane carriageways . Once over both lanes, the southbound route picks up the existing off road path which continues south for a few hundred metres before changing into a painted lane.

Still some work to do northbound, but it still gives priority to private drives over cyclists. Also the cycleway has give way markings where it joins the road just before a bus stop (increasing risk of conflict). Previously there was a painted lane which has disappeared in favoure for 2 exit lanes, and now starts a few hundred metres further up. Could they not have linked up?

Washington to South Tyneside - Recent Developments

Been toying with putting this post together for a while, and KatsDekker from Newcycling spurred me into action.

Below are a few photos showing the highlights of the cycling facilities between along Pattinson Road in Washington and upto the A1290/A19 junction at Downhill Lane in South Tyneside, which makes up a few miles of my daily cycle commute. Whilst not completed and even end to end, the facilities makes the journey doable. Without it the route on roads would be so risky and nerve wracking that I would chuck in the towel.

The photos were taken SW to NE.

This is the start/end of the shared path along Pattinson way West from here, you need to mix it on an uphill drag for 1/2 mile on a busy rough road with cars, vans and LGVs. Quite unpleasant at peak times.

Washington has floating bus stops too. Just past the stop on the right is a Sainsbury's store with cycle parking stands right on the route which is handy for picking up essentials.

For a distance the C2C route runs along the shared path.As a scenic leisure route it is fine, but as a transport route along this stretch it is twisty, convoluted and has some badly surfaced sections, unlike the shared path, which is actually has a better surface than the road 

One of the typical crossing points on the shared path along Pattinson Way. In the distance is the roundabout at the junction with Barmston lane. If you are heading straight on, you need to mix with traffic across the A1231 junction. An very quiet alternative is to head right along Barmston lane, and then left around the back of the Asda depot.

Once round, there is a quiet bridge over the A1231, again you kiss the C2C route here, which heads off to Sunderland along the narrow path to the right of the photo by the bollard.

Once over the bridge, you can either keep left along the single track lane, or use this short 25m stretch of permissive path to join the new road leading from Turbine business park to the traffic lights 2 photos down.

If coming in the other direction and wanting to use the single track lane, then look for the narrow tree lined entrance marked by No Through road signs.

This is taken from the same position as the above photo. The Turbine park road joins up at the traffic lights. The path up Cherry Blossom way & to Nissan starts on the left at the lights, hop on to the path even though the shared path signs have not been installed yet.

Once around the junction, you can easily see the widened path, and the concrete blocks designed to stop LGVs from parking on the pavement. Most of the time this stretch of road is a linear truck park with inter-continental lorries parked nose to tail along the full length.

Cherry Blossom way swings east at this roundabout with gates to one of the Nissan pounds for new vehicles. There is a typical crossing here, where the shared path switches sides for the rest of the run up to the A1290.

Just before the A1290 (that's it in the distance at the roadworks) the wide shared path terminates at the Unipress factory entrance. The now narrow path continues up to the A1290 and around to the right.  

The photo above shows the narrow path, and where the newly widened path along the South side of the A1290 ends. I understand this is to be continued as a future phase around to Unipress. 

The shared path is unfinished and is still waiting for it's top dressing, and as you can see below is a bit rough. Still preferable to the seriously deadly A1290 for all but the most hardened road warrior though, and quite well used already.

Once past Nissan, head along the old Washington road past the Transport museum, and over the A19 pedestrian/cyclist bridge to Washington Road on the edge of Hylton. 

There are various works ongoing (July 14) heading east, but if you are heading north, there is another widened shared path which runs to the junction with the A1290  

Currently when you get to the A1290, you are confronted with this crap junction,which is being rebuilt currently. If heading North,you need to cross the junction into Downhill lane, and then jump onto the footpath to join the cycleway heading north. There's no dropped kerb to get from the road to the cycleway. It will be interesting to see what a mess South Tyneside Council make of the cycling provision

Sustainable transport funding on South Tyneside - A joke

WooHoo, CTC has crunched the latest PR from the Government and broken down the totals for local sustainable transport funds to LA level.

South Tyneside is going to get less than a quid per person per year until 2021

That's not just cycling though, that's walking, buses, Metro and anything else the council can tag with the labels local and sustainable to fund.

Crumbs, actually not even crumbs

Compare with the £4,000,000 pinchpoint bid to ease rush hour congestion between these two roundabouts That's about £27 per person on less than 1/4 mile of roads, which will last only a few years before congestion chokes it again.

Even worse is that inactivity related conditions costs South Tyneside about £43/head/year based on figures from Sport England in 2013.

The Get Britain Cycling report recommended £10 per head per year. That is less than a quarter of what treating inactivity costs. Surely that would be value for money for tax payers, even leaving aside benefits from reduced congestion, and reductions in air pollution and the lower healthcare costs that will bring.

Durham "celebration ride"

A couple of weeks ago, Newcastle Cycling Campaign forwarded an email about a "celebration ride" showing off some of the new cycle paths around Durham city. A infrastructure safari in other words then.

As I work in Durham and usually cycle in, I thought I take some time out, and would have a look down.

My strava track of the ride showing the route is below
The group met at Prebends bridge in Durham at 10:30 and there was some media attention. You could spot the DCC ride leaders in the obligatory council issue hivis vests.

After a few speeches from the leaders and a local councillor about the ride, and the new routes.
The group then headed off down to & across Prebends bridge itself before heading up and past the Cathedral to the Market Place. This section of the route has been carefully and sympathetically resurfaced using specialist teams due to the World heritage site status of the Cathedral and surrounding area. Although the climb on cobbles was fun, but that's Durham for you!

From the market place the ride ran along the narrow shared path over the Milburngate bridge, and then beside the A691 up to the DLI museum.

We then joined the first piece of new infra, which was a path heading from the DLI besides Ackley Heads, and then up to Pit lane at Newton Hall.

The path is well surfaced the whole way,with good clear access the whole way.

At the end of the path where it joins Pit lane at the Carr House Drive junction, Victoria (the ride leader and organiser) explained that there are aspirations/plans to convert the existing pedestrian crossing to a Toucan and extend the routes up to the busy shopping complex at the Arnison centre.

We then headed along Carr House Drive, and onto Canterbury road before heading on another section of newly surfaced path though the Low Newton nature reserve. It was explained that this path is surfaced with road planings.

The path lead us round to Dovecote kennels, where an arranged meet took place with the Kennels owner, and a regular user of the paths who uses a mobility scooter, who both explained how the new access had increased use of the path, and enabled more people to access it.

We then headed back to durham along a very minor (cosy) wooded lane which then broke out to poppied fields with a mile or two of the city centre. You can see the Cathedral in the distance of the group shot below. This lane is part of the existing Weardale way, and runs right into the centre of Durham along the river.

Once back in Durham it was a mishmash across the cyclist/pedestrian bridge and then up to the Market place. Some people darted off to get back to work, whilst several of us headed to a cafe for a post ride coffee and a chat.

Post ride thoughts.

The routes are great, and Victoria, & her colleagues are justifiably proud of their hard work.
There were comments about the funding being pulled from various sources, and to my view this indicates the shaky status of cycling within LAs. Even as leisure routes, cycleways like this are important tools to get people out and about on their bikes, and in my view deserves much better funding.

I was especially pleased to see the guy on the mobility scooter (sorry, really rubbish with names) as it shows how important easily accessed and inclusive paths like this are to the less able, and is something often missed when referred to just as cycle infrastructure.

It may have been me, but on the new routes, I did not see any signposting, which is a shame as people local and outsiders may not "discover" the routes. Again this is an issue that affects cycle routes across LAs.

It highlighted to me just how poor and disjointed some of the infra in Durham city centre is, especially across the river, up to the market place. Also across Millburngate bridge and alongside the A691 until past the viaduct. Again that's not a criticism of these routes

Councillors and space4cycling

I met with my ward councillors this afternoon after emailing them about supporting space4cycling.

One of them is currently the councillor lead on Health and Wellbeing for the council, and next year will be the mayor, so has quite an opportunity to promote and encourage cycling both to the public and within the LA.

They had an idea which was whether it would be possible or feasible to organise rides in a similar fashion to the Sunderland rides. The intention being to promote cycling in the LA area, as an overriding concern is the levels of obesity and inactivity especially amongst children. I've heard worse ideas from councillors. 

Certainly there are several cyclable routes staying more or less within the borough boundaries which are safe. If I'd offered to lead/organise I think they;d have bitten my hand off. Sadly I struggle to find real time for that sort of thing due to personal circs (pity cos I enjoy that stuff).

The only real stereotype I had chucked at me during the meeting was the cyclists on pavements, as one cllr had a recent tale of a young mother suffering a broken leg. While that's regrettable, it was pointed out in strong terms that vast majority of people on bikes are responsible and considerate, and that drivers present a far greater danger even on the pavement. I highlighted the recent local case where an OAP driver hit a pedestrian and didn't realise until the police tracked her down.

A discussion about safety and enabling cycling as opposed to expanding roads to cope with congestion followed. Enabling more cycling, and even reducing car use by 5% would have a massive positive impact on congestion, and this was agreed.

We moved onto routes, and I pointed out that there is a lot of navigable safe routes within South Tyneside, but that a  lot of it is "invisible", unsigned, and often has a detail like a missing dropped kerb, or a barrier, All of  which hinders cycling. 

I suggested the idea of a tube style map of strategic routes, and this was thought to be an excellent idea (yes I stole the Newcycling SCR idea), although I added the stations like used on the Edinburgh Innertube.

I also suggested signed leisure routes as self guided circular rides, and also to specific destinations, linked to the above map. Again well received.

The idea of a "quick wins" suggestion list to tackle the small stuff that can make a big difference was also suggested and agreed with. the concept being similar to this from Camden Cyclists

I was promised that my suggestions would be put to the officers, and that they would keep in touch and relay back progress. I did offer to act as an "expert" and that I would be happy to work with them on trying to improve the lot of cyclists in the area.

Here's hoping. It all sounded very positive and they were very definitely on board.

We got though quite a bit in a short space of time.

Chris Hoy hasn't earned my respect

The comments by Chris Hoy and published in the Telegraph deeply disappointed me, although they are just the latest in a line from high profile cyclists. I've ranted about the myth of mutual respect before.

I expected more from Chris Hoy though, as he has always come across as a reasonable, intelligent, and thoughtful guy with a mature sensible point of view.

They legitimise the view among the ignorant  that all people riding bikes need to behave before any are treated as human beings, let alone equals.

If it was just the law that was expected, but it is the imagined laws.

"Cyclists should get off the road and on the path"
"Bloody cyclists always riding on the path"
"Riding all over the road 2 abreast"
"Riding in the middle of the lane"
"Not wearing a helmet"
"Wearing a silly bit of plastic"
"Not wearing hivis"
"Dressing up like power rangers at Christmas in silly clothes"
"Not paying tax"

There is a natural state that whatever cyclists do, there seems to be an equal and opposite reaction from the idiots and the haters.

Even suggesting that respect needs to be earned, just feeds into the hands of the bigots, as they will always invent another excuse or a made up reason to justify their hate.

So you wanna start riding to work/school etc? Part 2. You

The light nights and warm days are almost upon us, and some may be wanting to start cycling to work or to school.

Cycling will make any trip much more fun and pleasant than being in a car & what better way to round off a day in the office staring through the window at the sun than a bike ride home in it.

Riding a bike is simple and fun, And about the only special piece of equipment you will need is a bicycle. Here's some hints and tips which certainly for me make riding for transport a lot more pleasant and easier. Part 1 of this series covered the bike.

Do I need special kit? Nope.

You can easily and comfortably cycle in normal everyday clothes. If you are riding long distance or cycling for sport, then yea, don the lycra and cycle jerseys if you wish, but you don't need to for a short ride to the shops.

If it's warm, as there is nothing better than warm air on the legs, then walking shorts will be better than a pair of jeans, and less exhibitionist than a pair of lycra shorts. they often have plenty of zip up pockets for phones, money etc.

For colder weather, walking trousers are lighter and easier to ride in than jeans. If it rains while you are out they will not become as sodden for as long, although you can buy showerproof trousers as well. You can now even buy trousers from Marks and Spencer designed specially for cycling.

"Active" T-shirts designed for walking and jogging are often better than a heavy cotton t-shirt as they will wick away any moisture quicker and keep you feeling dry, and less smelly.

If you are cycling regularly, then investing in cycling shoes is wise as the soles are stiffened to maximise power transfer from feet to pedals, which also helps prevent foot fatigue and pain. A lot come in styles that look like normal walking/trekking shoes. Sizes vary so always best to try some on.

The other thing I always wear is a pair of cycling gloves. Gloves serve a variety of purposes.
Gloves improve your grip on the bars, and have padding for increased comfort.
Gloves usually have a towelling section for wiping your brow
Most importantly, if you do come off,  the natural reaction is to put your hand out. gloves can help against cutting or scraping your hands on the road etc.

Won't I be too cold or too hot? Possibly at times, but you wear several thin layers that you can peel off if necessary, rather than one mega-thick layer. When riding you will be creating your own inner heat anyway.

Won't I get wet all the time? It doesn't rain that often actually. Always carry a waterproof jacket unless you are just nipping to the corner shop. If it does rain, just grin and bear it.

Won't I get all sweaty, smelly and dirty? Possibly if you are really working it. If you ease back the effort a little bit and relax, then much less so. If you are riding to work etc, then a quick wash or a wipe down with wet wipes will easily freshen you up. You don't need a shower after every couple of miles riding.

If you are cycling regularly to work etc, then if possible keeping a change of socks/underwear and even keeping shoes and trousers at work saves having to lug them with you, and more importantly can be a blessing if you do get a soaking on the way in.

As for carrying everything, then stick it in the panniers you bought. Always line the panniers with tough plastic liners. You can buy expensive branded rucksack liners, but I recommend rubble sacks from the local supermarket.
Line the pannier with the sack, chuck everything in the liner, and then roll the top and tuck in, before closing the pannier. Unless you've pierced the liner, that will keep your gear dry through anything.
Always try and pack keeping the heaviest towards the bottom, and the lightest and most needed at the top

I've not mentioned helmets for a reason. Wearing one is a deeply personal choice.
I used to, but don't any more for regular riding as the risk is low. I'm equally at risk of tripping on uneven pavement walking to the shops, but don't wear a helmet for that. Helmets are of very limited and questionable use if a vehicle hits you as they are not designed for that.