6 September - Bikes on the pavement
A few neighbours thought that after paying half a million pounds for Bexley’s
latest initiative, cycle lanes on the pavement, we ought to show our gratitude
on a nice sunny day and use it. So off to Erith we pedalled.
Bexley council in the shape of Andrew Bashford their Team Leader (Traffic
Projects) says that lots of councils are mixing bikes with pedestrians. I don’t
know anything about that except that friends in Farnborough (Hampshire)
and Worthing suffer them and report at least one consequent death. Mr. Bashford
doesn’t want to talk about that of course. In fact he doesn’t really want to
talk about anything. Whether this is because he is not on top of his brief and
too easily out-manoeuvred, or because he isn’t proud of what he has inflicted,
or simply because he is too arrogant, is open to debate.
So what did we find on our travels? One thing that caught our attention was the
Soviet style barracks that have been put up near St. Augustine’s church. The
pavement was completely blocked there and nearby residents massively
inconvenienced with their driveways blocked. We noted that the pavement was not
only being widened but had been excavated deeply, quite unlike the work
conducted elsewhere. The deep hole was being filled with concrete and we did
wonder if it was the reason for no one being spare for deployment to other sections
for the past six weeks leaving umpteen trip hazards. One of our number
speculated that some deal had been done between the developer and the road
contractor to hasten the work outside the ‘barracks’. I suppose he should know
about these things, he’s the one who works in civil engineering, not me.
The cycle path itself was relaxing where it existed, but there were far too many
breaks in it and it was too easy to be just a little too relaxed when forced
back on the road. The frequent bus shelters were worrying. We were expected to
go between them and the kerb and hoped that a bus didn’t pull up at that very
moment and disgorge its passengers directly into our paths when they were
least expecting it. On a cycle lane the cyclists presumably have right of way.
Some bus stops appeared to be protected, in theory at least, from cyclists but
each bus stop adopted a slightly different arrangement. Some photographs
may illustrate the various hazards we encountered.
The first photograph shows a complex right turn for cyclists which sticks out
into the road tempting motorists to run down any cyclist foolish enough to wait
there. Fortunately there will be few cyclists as daft as Bexley council. If they are
intending to turn into the road on the other side they will either
be using the track on that side or will have ridden off the kerb earlier and taken a short cut.
Where cyclists need to cross side roads, slipways are provided at some junctions
but not all. It is too easy to go down one of those slopes from the relaxing
cycle track on to a busy road without glancing over your shoulder. The third style of
slipway is just too complicated. The solid white line appears to be telling
cyclists to get back on the road. Do you think they will take any notice with
that wide expanse of empty pavement ahead of them? Probably the idea is to
get cyclists back on the road before the bus stop at the bend ahead. But if so
why is such a weird construction not in use at all bus stops? Please don’t
expect a sensible answer; this is Bexley’s road planning department we are
dealing with.
We were surprised to find that the ride from Lesnes Abbey to Erith town centre
took almost 25 minutes. It wasn’t the photography that made things slow, we
walked out more than a week later for that. Perhaps it was because we slowed down and sometimes
stopped when we encountered pedestrians, unlike one cyclist a few days ago who
brushed my sleeve with his handlebars as he raced by.