Infrastructure

There’s some interesting historical cycling infrastructure in Sheffield, and one in particular of a *semi* protected straight on with a left turn lane in Ecclesfield. The design for this movement is quite innovative for the UK. The phasing of the traffic lights means that people can cycle down the left of queuing traffic, turn across the front of the queue and get to a position in front of traffic queueing to go straight on. ...

The new Sainsburys opened this week in Hillsborough near where I live in Sheffield. I thought I’d cycle there, film it and do some commentary. It’s almost comical just how bad this journey is by bicycle. As the planner/engineer said in the council meeting where the highway design was approved, “No one’s going to cycle to the supermarket. Absolutely right, when the environment is this bad for cycling, no-one in their right mind would. ...

If you feel strongly about this, please join me in taking direct action as part of a protest on 22nd March. Facebook event here. When a football match takes place in Sheffield at Bramall Lane, coaches carrying fans need somewhere to park. This task is managed by South Yorkshire Police who direct them to park along Asline Road cycle track. This is part of the Sheaf Valley Route and is one of the few safe ways to avoid cycling along the terrifying Queens Road or London Road. ...

Are these cycle lanes? Perhaps the cycle route signs give an obvious answer? If you think they are cycle lanes then you’d be wrong. These are not cycle lanes.. These ’lanes’ actually indicate areas of danger according to information presented to the Sheffield City Council Cycle Forum. As part of the Supertram project, red surfacing and white lines were introduced to indicate to drivers how to avoid the tram tracks and to guide them onto a conventional surface. ...

This was the title of a piece in The Sheffield Star newspaper this morning reporting on a petition to Sheffield Council discussed at last weeks general council meeting. I’ve written about cycle audits in the past and Sheffield’s failed commitment to conduct them. Recently CycleSheffield members were encouraged to write to their councillors and ask for cycle audits to begin ASAP. Many many people did this and I’ve heard that the council was inundated with questions from Councillors trying to get information. ...

On my commute to work I very rarely stop for traffic lights, even when they are red I normally just cycle straight on past the queues of cars waiting at the stop line. I do this all perfectly legally and safely without breaking any rules. How can I do this? Because I cycle on an off road cycle path where these traffic lights do not apply. This cyclist doesn’t need to worry about sitting in the queue of cars at the red light, he’s using the shared use path at the side of the road ...

I attended the Sheffield City Council Highways Cabinet Committee meeting earlier in the week and asked a question about a new preliminary junction design in Broomhill. A pedestrian crossing with a mid island is being introduced along with a new slip road to allow left turns. Broomhill preliminary junction design - approved without any consideration being given to people on bicycles ...

Earlier in 2013 Norman Baker, the Transport Minister, announced the £30 million Cycle City Ambition Grant. On the 15th February guidance on applications was published for the 28 cities eligible to apply. The guidance document is an amazing publication and I believe it should be a model for how transport funding is allocated. In the introduction along the report states that across OECD members there are “ambitions for cycling are growing to move cycling to the mainstream offering it as a realistic choice for quick, reliable and convenient short journeys within cities”. It supports the idea that we are “facing declining levels of physical activity together with a range of public health impacts” and that these are “influenced in part by car dependency and sedentary lifestyles” and that there is “a significant opportunity to improve integration of transport and health”. ...

The A57 between Sheffield and Worksop is one of those roads you dread to come across as a cyclist. It is a very busy single carriageway road with very little room for vehicles to overtake. There is a scheme currently being constructed to make this road a dual carriageway, a couple of the ojectives in the planning statement are: Promote and improve safety for all road users Improved facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians I’m interested in this as a cyclist, so what are the improved facilities for cyclists and how will safety be improved?

For the past week I’ve not been cycling to work, I’ve been using the tram. I cycled in on Monday but the cycle path alongside the dual carriageway was icy so I used the road. It wasn’t much fun. Many cycle paths in Sheffield are still not cleared/gritted, even the ones adjacent to trunk roads. The cycle path is still covered in ice. How about the rest of the country? Here are some perspectives from Twitter. We’re at the Sheffield on the Move forum - having a go at poor snow clearance on footpaths & cycleways. #sotm — cycleSheffield (@cycleSheffield) January 24, 2013 Argh! Icy cycle paths, hasn’t snowed in Sheffield for ages! Look at the alternative, This is why I’ve not been cycling twitter.com/Mattturner86/s… — Matt Turner (@Mattturner86) January 25, 2013 The scene on Upper Hanover Way, Sheffield tonight. Roadway nice & clear:peds & cyclists sliding about. twitter.com/cycleSheffield… — cycleSheffield (@cycleSheffield) January 22, 2013

I’ve just had a talking to by a police officer for taking photo’s of a police van parked in the contraflow cycle lane on Castle Street. He wasn’t too keen on me doing this, he said that I was very conspicuous and perhaps putting myself in danger, he understood that I was there because of the taxis. I was stood outside the police station, scoping out current behavior, not taking photos, there are still plenty of taxis parking illegally, I saw 4 in a 15 minute window, I started taking photos when the police van turned up. He said that the police have to park in this location to drop officers off at the station, I asked about their car park, he said that the vehicles could not fit because of low clearance. ...

In Sheffield we’ve seen a number of transport schemes that have not adequately taken cyclists requirements into account. The council conduct Road Safety Audits on most highway schemes but these do not have a specific section where cyclists needs are considered. Sheffield Council have committed in many places over the years to conducting cycle audits for highways projects however this has never been implemented and none have ever been done. The DFT have published guidance on how to integrate cycle audits into the normal RSA process (already in use in Sheffield), and I beleive Sheffield council should use this guidance. ...

Sheffield City Council has in the past given cyclists assurances that they will design new infrastructure for cycling in line with best advice. At a full council meeting on 4th April 2007 the following motion was passed. x) requiring the design of cycle routes and facilities to be in accordance with advice and recommendations contained within the Draft Local Transport Plan.

A few years ago the Department For Transport announced £600 million investment for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, the LSTF. The biggest funding source for local transport authorities for Sustainable Transport is the LSTF, the fund was designed to pay for projects from 2011 to 2015, there are 96 projects across England. What did the Department for Transport hope to achieve with this? They set out their vision for ideas in this helpful illustration. The suggestions for cycle infrastructure don’t give me any confidence that the LSTF will have much of an impact on cycling.

Paul Blomfield, a local Sheffield MP, has recently written an article for the Yorkshire Post entitled “Tour fires starting gun for a cycling revolution”, a reference to the news that the Tour De France will be vising Yorkshire in 2014 for the Grand Depart. This is excellent news and seems to have been well received, I’m really hopeful that the tour coming back to England, along with all the recent positive (and negative) press cycling has been getting will help to increase the number of people using bicycles. Paul says that cycling has seen huge growth in Sheffield over the past decade and that a long term aim should be that cycling should be considered for all new road schemes, a view that I strongly support and have previously stated here. Unfortunately it seems that some new schemes in Sheffield still include dangerous cycle facilities. Sheffield City Council needs to do more to protect the existing cycle infrastructure from abuse, even from the organisations we expect to be protecting it. The real crux of Paul’s article is that the government should start investing in cycle training schemes. He states that cycle training helps cyclists to be safe and confident on the roads, that cyclists don’t need to stick to the edge of the road and that using the road in a confident and assertive manner will help to keep you safe.

I couple of months ago I highlighted the dangers to cyclists of a new junction in Sheffield City Centre at Furnival Gate/Pinstone Street. The problem is clear for everyone to see, there isn’t enough room to use both the cycle and road lane with the result that cyclists next to vehicles are dangerously squeezed out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzQpMB3AtUc Warning! This story is long and winding and may induce a feeling of disillusionment and hopelessness. Take a deep breath and prepare yourself before reading, we’re entering the mysterious world of local council highway design!