No road traffic incidents so far on Britain’s first cyclist-friendly ‘turbo roundabout’

It's great that this roundabout is 'safe'. What pisses me off is that the cycle budget was used to fund a scheme that improves flow of motor traffic, and therefore increases danger to cyclists and pedestrians. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of cyclists using it had dropped significantly and therefore cycle/motorist accidents too. In the culture of 'road safety' that would be a big success.

It's about time we spent the cycling budget on cycling infrastructure, and concentrated on reducing danger on the roads. That means restricting the use/speed of motor vehicles and separating cyclists where there is a lot of fast traffic.

This scheme is a disaster, the fact that so much cycling money was spent uselessly should be a scandal.

Seems like the same old story. Safety seems to be the only consideration in terms of cycling. Speed, convenience and even the old favourite 'traffic flow' don't seem to apply when talking about cycling.

Of course, this makes things very easy. Instead of having to design cycling into our transport infrastructure and make difficult decisions about the allocation of space and priority of modes they can simply maintain the status quo and design bikes out. Once bikes are out of the system cyclists are no longer in danger and the brief is fulfilled.

Strangely enough, when I rode over it last night on the way home, I did actually see someone doing what they were "supposed" to do from Union St, off the road onto the path, over the Clapham Road crossings, by which time I was over it so not sure where they were heading.

You hit the nail right on the head about getting cyclists off the road being the council's primary objective. Which doesn't explain Park and De Parys Avenue which I think are really good. For non-locals, it's a wide road, recently properly resurfaced , with cycle lanes painted on it. It's like a different country, let alone town.

below from the previous story on this here on road.cc when a lot of the discussion focussed on the description as "Dutch style" - it's a Dutch style "turbo" roundabout that would only be used on Dutch roads with high traffic volumes and separate dedicated cycleways (not crappy shared pavements)

"The upgrading of the roundabout will cost £490,000, which is largely funded by a £420,000 grant from the DfT’s Cycle Safety Fund" so if the council or designer can't confirm increased use by cyclists will the DFT claw the cycling money back?
Pour encourager les autres?

They got an award for this??

https://departmentfortransport.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/bedfordturbor...

Whoever gave the award is an idiot!

This looks to me like an exercise in trying to remove cyclists from the road without even the courtesy to provide a decent alternative!

I'm pleased this appears to be working to make for an all round safer roundabout despite not being totally committed to a really cycle friendly design.

But road.cc come on! That's poor and lazy journalism. The site image for this article shows a Dutch roundabout and although the caption underneath the image does say as much it's faint and easily missed. And your twitter feed has a larger image of the same Dutch roundabout.

Your readers managed to produce a correct image so stop being sloppy.

Inverted commas around "turbo roundabout" but not around "cyclist-friendly"?

love when motoring bodies, in this case the Motorcycle Action Group are proved wrong.

I also live in Bedford and use it more days than not.

As you can see from the drawing, there are no cycle lanes on it. There are no cycle lanes leading to it. I think I'm supposed to use the shared use paths, which I don't and won't as they're even less safe with sign and bollard obstacles. Clowns like councillor Royden think this is great, but as portfolio holder he can get the blame for some real abominations of suggested cycle routes.

The A6 trunk road dissects the town, north to south yet there is no provision other then using the road, so I do, every day. The A4280 goes east to west. That has a limited and not joined up amount.

If the money wasted on the improvements to this junction had been used for slapping cycle lanes on these and other roads, it would be a better all round experience for commuting through the town everyday.

If it's so good will we see all roundabouts in the borough converted?

I'd love to take a ride around town with Mr Royden and Mr Lingwood, but somehow feel they'd be busy that day.

Every morning, 7:15 top of the high street if you want to make a date!

Live in Bedford and go through this roundabout on a fairly regular basis.

The main issue with it is a combination of fast outside lane straight ahead/left traffic, and having nothing else to rely on except indicators to determine if the left turners really are. Well, as you might imagine this makes for a frustrating and scary joining experience, particularly if you're brave and wish to turn right.

Saying that though, it is definitely better than what was there before ... provided you don't get yourself killed getting onto it in the first place.

Live in Bedford and go through this roundabout on a fairly regular basis.

The main issue with it is a combination of fast outside lane straight ahead/left traffic, and having nothing else to rely on except indicators to determine if the left turners really are. Well, as you might imagine this makes for a frustrating and scary joining experience, particularly if you're brave and wish to turn right.

Saying that though, it is definitely better than what was there before ... provided you don't get yourself killed getting onto it in the first place.

No collisions between cyclists and motorists - because no cyclists travel on it. IIRC it was designed to 'keep the motor traffic moving' (tm) and the cyclists were relegated to shared-use paths around the side.

It's like saying that motorways are perfectly safe for cyclists because no cyclists have ever been killed on one.

First year figure (not not even full year) are usually favorable especially when the geometry of an intersection has been changed as people tend to be more cautious of it and people are often still avoiding the location because of the memory of the delays associated with the road works to implement the design.
I'm not sure pushing cycles onto shared use paths is really the gold standard we are after.

I attended a presentation by the designer of the roundabout (Patrick Lingwood) recently. Despite the fact that one of the stated aims of the design was to make the roundabout less offputting to cyclists, the council doesn't have any data on whether the numbers of cyclists using it have increased since the redesign.

How can the council claim that their 'cycle friendly' design has been a success if they can't measure whether use has increased? And presumably when it comes to the safety record, they're only counting collisions (note - collisions, not 'accidents') which have been reported to the police, rather than near misses or collisions which went unreported.

Frankly, I don't think the designer has really understood what makes roundabouts safer for cyclists in the Netherlands, and has just created a design that works for cyclists like himself, to smooth the traffic flow, rather than creating safe, inviting conditions for everyone to cycle.

that isn't what they built...

https://departmentfortransport.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/bedfordturbor...

Why has the article got a picture of a non-turbo roundabout? If

Could the story not be illustrated with a picture of the roundabout?

An interesting result, given the level of criticism. I think there is a level of truth to the argument that roundabouts with clear lane markings may be safer than those in which traffic will often cross lanes.

However, the danger is that is the only lesson that other towns will take from it, and ignore the criticism about speed and radius.

If I was given a direct choice between this "turbo" design and the newly opened Queen's Circus Roundabout in Battersea, with its festival of traffic lights, I suspect I might actually pick the turbo.

Bedford turbo.

Which is nothing like that good looking Dutch design that actually seems to treat cyclists as cyclist and not pedestrians.