Hull City Council painted parking bays in new cycle lane

Cars parked in cycle lanes are frequently an issue – but they’re not normally there because the council has painted parking bays. Hull City Council has admitted doing just this, but says it was a mistake.

Hull Live reports that Spring Bank recently had a painted cycle lane added that is shared with buses, motorcycles and taxis.

All on-street parking spaces were to be removed with off-road parking bays retained.

However, four of the parking spaces were painted back in again over the weekend.

I’m still reserving final judgement but having two newly-painted on-street loading/parking bays interrupting the new ‘uninterrupted’ inbound cycle/bus lane on Spring Bank does seem somewhat self-defeating. pic.twitter.com/YXwTH2crkx

— angus young (@angus_young61) September 5, 2020

What a joke! Hull City Council seem to have painted parking spaces in the brand new cycle lane. pic.twitter.com/yFjNkuECu2

— HullCamGuy (@HullCamGuy) September 5, 2020

Each bay also has a sign saying it can be used as a loading bay for early morning and late afternoon commercial deliveries and for one-hour of parking for motorists between 9.30am and 4.30pm.

In a statement, the council said: "The parking bays on the cycle lane in Spring Bank are being removed. There is to be no parking in the cycle lanes."

Hull City Council was awarded up to £1.4m of emergency active travel funding to put towards cycling schemes.

Figures show about 43 per cent of adults in the city do not have access to cars.

Commenting on suggestions that cycle lanes were ‘causing congestion’ last week, the deputy leader of Hull City Council, Daren Hale, said this wasn’t true. He pointed out that a number of people were falsely ascribing to cycle lanes delays resulting from road traffic collisions and Highways England carrying out flood prevention works.

He also said that because of Hull’s “tight road network” some cycle lanes were in bus lanes.

“As parking occurred in many bus lanes off-peak, this caused pinch points forcing buses and cars, and cyclists into only one lane. If buses move more efficiently and are on-time, people will be more likely to use them. This will benefit all road users and not just buses and cyclists.”