Extension to Middlesbrough protected cycle lane set to be scrapped due to safety concerns

ChuckSneed wrote:

Why are people getting so obsessed over bike lanes? Just cycle in the road

Why are you repeating this question?

Cycle lanes are to encourage people who would otherwise be too afraid of road traffic to cycle. Ideally, the lanes should also be a faster route to use when not too busy, but we seem unable to grasp the basics of designing for cycle traffic in this country and instead prioritise motor traffic at all side roads etc.

I didn't think I was getting obsessed. Thanks for the advice though, very useful.

Cyclists! Don't waste time and alienate others by obsessing over "cycling infra". Simply ignore all the motor vehicles around you, the angry shouts, the holes in the road and ride on! Or stay at home on the turbo then travel by car like any normal person, you weirdo.

Have you got your free pizza yet from Pure Pizza ?

I was torn by this - it's a nice gesture, I'd like to support them and not cost them extra and there are lots who could use a pizza more than me. On the other hand it's free pizza.

As happens the dilemma has been removed as I've had to be away from Edinburgh temporarily. Had some other (non free) pizza the other night though and thought of them.

chrisonatrike wrote:

travel by car like any normal person, you weirdo.

Sums up the majority opinion nicely.

NOtotheEU wrote:

chrisonatrike wrote:

travel by car like any normal person, you weirdo.

Sums up the majority opinion nicely.

Had almost exactly that conversion with a relative a few days back. Kindly concern that I should grow up (in my middle years) and just get a car like other normal adults.

HLaB wrote:

How does a cycle lane cause drug dealing 🤯

All cyclists use drugs, so if you increase the number of cyclists there will be more drug taking.

Or all drugs are delivered by children on bicycles, therefore it will make distribution easier.

Or something like that.

There is a certain class of individuals who just associate white lines with recreational pharmaceutical use. Probably something they learn at boarding school.

Mungecrundle wrote:

There is a certain class of individuals who just associate white lines with recreational pharmaceutical use. Probably something they learn at boarding school.

Ticket to ride, white line highway
Tell all your friends, they can go my way
Pay your toll, sell your soul
Pound-for-pound costs more than gold
The longer you stay, the more you pay
My white lines, go a long way
Either up your nose or through your vein
With nothing to gain except killing your brain

hawkinspeter wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

There is a certain class of individuals who just associate white lines with recreational pharmaceutical use. Probably something they learn at boarding school.

Ticket to ride, white line highway
Tell all your friends, they can go my way
Pay your toll, sell your soul
Pound-for-pound costs more than gold
The longer you stay, the more you pay
My white lines, go a long way
Either up your nose or through your vein
With nothing to gain except killing your brain

"I wanna run out in the street and stop traffic, and point out the white lines you can't touch a classic"

Braintax - Biro funk

This isn't the first time that I've read about fear of crime and fear of drug dealing in particular being used as an argument against a cycle path or cycle lane...

brooksby wrote:

This isn't the first time that I've read about fear of crime and fear of drug dealing in particular being used as an argument against a cycle path or cycle lane...

Weren't the anti-cycle hangar residents of Brighton trying to claim recently that bike hangars provided a "focal point" for drug dealers? Because you can just imagine them turning up to sell some gear on a Friday night and then saying oh hang on lads, there's no cycle lane or cycle parking around here, we haven't got a focal point, better turn it in.

Sounds like the usual cycle. After much effort a scheme is planned. Further consultations then as a "trial" an isolated section is built. Turns out this was not good design / just not good *enough* (given humans will use it). Council gets defensive ("insists the cycle lane was built in accordance with national guidelines" here). Council possibly - as here - spends more effort / money attempting to patch things. The rest of the project is dropped. Finally the "trial" part is pulled out because "no-one uses it". (Not surprising, it not having been connected up.)

It's very familiar and depressing. It's the opposite of how most other infra projects are run eg. motor infra. (Cycling infra as we have it *is* motor infra, unnecessary if there were no cars).

Less "predict and provide", more procrastinate, paint, placate protestors, park project and pull out.

belugabob wrote:

And nobody has ever tripped over a kerb?

Not in Middlesbrough apparently.

She was the least drunk, the rest couldn't make out where they had picked up the cuts and bruises when they woke up the following day 🤔🤣

Probably, since it's likely the lane will softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again...

They could of avoided these injuries if motor vehicle operators behaved properly and all this segregated infrastructure simply wasn't required in the first place.

Or if we could all simply fly by sheer strength of will..

...or if they'd simply opened up their web browser and googled "dutch cycle infra" and done likewise. Sadly that would be so far beyond the "paint and planters" budget levels (and literally beyond belief for many in the UK - though we can watch videos of this in action) they'd give up.

Like "appropriate technology" for a "developing nation" the UK is only ready to cope with something more basic currently. But it must still be adequate. So something on the Copenhagen level?

But we live in a motocentric world where someone tripping over is more reported than someone being hit by a car