Contraflow bike lane in Newcastle appears to pit cyclists against oncoming buses

Wow! I must admit it's some time since I drove through Newcastle let alone cycle, but you wouldn't catch me using that cycle lane at that point. a busy junction between Clayton Street and Westgate road, packed with buses, the junction is already a pinch point, and as someone mentioned the traffic exiting pink lane will be looking left, not right, so it's only a matter of time before someone get's battered.... and that's not a Clayton Chippy joke (which can be seen in the second picture.)

When I did cycle through Newcastle I would often cycle down Westgate road, past the long bar, and back round the central station, and never had any real issue with the traffic... as they were normally at a stand still and I could easily filter through (which used to wind some motorists up strangely). I can't say I've ever had much issue with the one way streets. Is this an actual concern to some people on bikes? I now have a 15 mile commute each way, so an extra half mile or so down to a one way system wouldn't phase me.

Not exactly new pictures. The QuayLink buses for example have been going about with new liveries for at least a couple of months now.

These road markings run out not far up the road in either direction. Its another useless white line painting exercise.

I don't understand why on such a wide road, a wider, segregated, 2-way cycle lane on the same side cannot be provided. Why is so much space given to cars and buses? They don't need it.

Long dashed hazard warning lines separating the 2 traffic lanes (bus and cycle), the bus driver is technically allowed to cross those lines.

Maybe a solid white line would have been at least 1 step better to demarcating the road, but I (like most commenters on this forum I suspect) don't hold any sort of qualification in traffic management and road layout design regardless of how counter intuitive the view from a couple of photographs might appear.

I suppose at a minimum it allow a cyclist to legally use the road in a contraflow, which is at least an improvement.

"I'm guessing the bus driver approached the corner, saw the lane was empty, and took the best path."

But here's a picture of a bus (and a car) not taking "the best path" :

https://goo.gl/maps/v9Mvv

It looks like the cycle lane has become advisory just at the corner, after starting out as mandatory - to allow vehicles to cut the corner?

More problematic is motorists exiting the side street (Pink Lane -bottom pic) now giving way to cyclists coming from the right around the corner. I doesn't look like the Pink Line drivers have been provided with much in the way of warning signs,

Whatever, including the thick white solid line down the middle of the street starting on a weird diagonal at Pink Lane and lack of indication of acceptable turns from Pink Lane it's all very strange.

Otherwise I agree with HarrogateSpa

A low smoothed curb is often used in other countries to separate cyclists from traffic in similar situations- perhaps £6million buys paint but not concrete? (Or perhaps most of the money goes to consultants and tender companies with little left over for materials?)

maj7667 [at] gmail.com wrote,

"I'm guessing the bus driver approached the corner, saw the lane was empty, and took the best path.
Most of us are also drivers and I'll bet a penny to a pound we'd all encroach into that cycle lane on a bend if it was empty."

I would have thought, using logic, that if the cycle lane is in the "best path" for the bus to take, that the cycle lane is definitely not in the best place.

There's one of these advisory contraflow cycle lanes in a small market town not too far from where I live. I used to use this cycle route occasionally as part of a Sunday ride. Two times out of two I was forced into the kerb by an on coming motorist encroaching the cycle lane as they exited the roundabout at the end of the road. Needless to say, I chose a different route. A few white lines painted on the road, advisory, at that, are pretty worthless in my opinion. Would it even be of use if the lines were solid?, from what I see on the roads daily, not really.

Highway code 127

A broken white line. This marks the centre of the road. When this line lengthens and the gaps shorten, it means that there is a hazard ahead. Do not cross it unless you can see the road is clear and wish to overtake or turn off.

Funny how the posts by Maj and Spen above are keen to ignore the rules when it's comes to blocking the road for cyclists. Would you block a junction for incoming cars too?

The spirit of all the rules is that you don't cross the lines or block the road unless you need to in order to get somewhere.

Highway code 151 and 152

Quote:

can we see a photo of a bus cutting the corner when there's a cyclist in the lane first?

It isn't about assessing whether a particular bus driver was at fault or not on one occasion. The question is whether this infrastructure is safe, and feels safe to use.

I suggest it is clearly not safe to create an unprotected contraflow where buses are routinely using part of it. Yes, the drivers may well move over when there's someone on a bike coming. But what if a driver is momentarily distracted by a passenger? And how will the 50+% of people who told a BBC survey that the roads are too dangerous to cycle on feel about cycling head on towards a bus a couple of feet away?

If we get a complete network of infrastructure which is clearly safe to use, we have a chance of persuading lots more people to cycle. This contraflow leaves no margin for error, and I don't believe it would persuade anyone to get on a bike.

It's also a discrtionary lane so the driver is doing nothing wrong and certainly nothing illegal. No doubt Newcycle would prefer to see a six foot wall seperating the lane from other traffic.

Hang on a minute. I'll always come down on the side of us cyclists when drivers put us at risk, but can we see a photo of a bus cutting the corner when there's a cyclist in the lane first?
I'm guessing the bus driver approached the corner, saw the lane was empty, and took the best path.
Most of us are also drivers and I'll bet a penny to a pound we'd all encroach into that cycle lane on a bend if it was empty.
If buses are doing this when cyclists are approaching, they deserve to be shot. But let's make sure there's a real story here before condemning.

Already buses cutting corner and running over contra-flow cycle lane