Invisible Road Danger
This is National Cycle Network Route 1, approaching Whitley Bay. It’s an on-road section of the route - what do you notice?
See the way the pavement is built out into the road? That’s because just after that, there’s a mini-roundabout - the build-out is to break the visual line of the road, and encourage drivers to slow down for the roundabout.
The problem you get is that if a car’s overtaking you as you approach the build-out, they make no allowance for it, and you end up in a situation where you’re running out of road very quickly. Or if the driver hasn’t started to overtake you but is planning to, they get very surprised when you notice the hazard and pull out in front of them.
This situation is made worse as:
- There’s no warning that the road narrows (with a sign like this ). If you’re not a local riding this road every day, there’s a high risk of being taken by surprise by it
- The hazard is over the brow of a small hill, so you don’t get much warning of it, and neither do the drivers of cars
- Because of that hill, you tend to be going faster than many drivers expect - they start their overtaking manoeuver too late to get past (or even properly level with you) before the road narrows
- The road surface is uneven on the approach to this point (you can see the repairs in the photo), so you tend to end up riding closer to the pavement than you otherwise would - that’s where the smoothest surface is
My solution is to use the gimlet-stare of power over my shoulder at the traffic, and then pull out to a very assertive primary road position from roughly the position shown in the photo.
But this is a solution that relies too heavily on my road sense. If you were in North Tyneside Council’s Highways department, what changes would you make to this junction to make it safer for people on bikes?
This sort of thing is happening all over Northumberland. Councils paint a line over the drains and manholes and boast that they’ve created x miles of cycle lane - but everywhere the road creates a potential hazard (like junctions, roundabouts, etc) the cycle lane simply disappears - exactly where we need that bit of protection. How do we lobby these ignorant people that control these matters?
Le sigh.
I am growing increasingly acute in my belief that road planning departments the length and breadth of the country are peopled only by people who fly in magic hover cars and never actually have to use the roads themselves. Let’s face it, this is crap for drivers and cyclists - what’s the supposed benefit of putting in speed - taming exercises if they themselves might end up being the cause of collissions? (Oh god, listen to me, I’m beginning to sound like one of those Association of British Nutters nutters!)
I see two things that make this particularly dangerous:
1) The obstacle is on the left - harder for a driver to see?
2) The obstacle is unusual - a driver won’t be expecting it.
So…and I’m not a road planner…wouldn’t a bog-standard island, like you get at most roundabouts, be an obvious way to achieve the same thing with less danger?
Then again, looking at my username, what would I know?!!
> Peter - It’s to help people like the Excellent Heather Evans do the lobbying that I’m standing for election to the CTC’s National Council. If you’re a CTC member* or not, Heather is a tireless campaigner - drop her a line (contact details via CTC.org.uk).
You can also take things up direct with local councils - I’ve forwarded the link to this post to my contacts in North Tyneside Council, and will also be taking it up with my local councilor.
*Of course, if you are a CTC member, make sure you vote for me in the election
>Mark - quite. The problem is that the problem with this particular piece of road only manifests itself under very specific circumstances. On paper it probably looks fine; it’s fine when you’re driving; it’s fine when you’re cycling . . . except during what passes for rush hour here, when you find yourself running out of road!
>Magicroundabout - I think that would just create a similar problem with the drivers running out of road and assuming that it must be clear to move left . . . crunch!
I think the solution is to route the cyclists around the junction completely. There’s a car park on the left of the roundabout, and the bike route could go around this, and over the top of the Rendezvous Cafe. This has two advantages:
o Avoids conflict with cars
o Avoids the dip down to the roundabout, making for a more level route.