A 44cm wide 'token' cycle lane has been slammed by a cycling club

The pictures on this story really don't do justice to how insane this lane is: I think they show the lane heading south from Belmont. The attached picture is of the lane heading in the other direction. It was taken just after the resurfacing & repainting. Since then, the lane has accumulated debris and overgrown trees to the extent it's entirely covered now. In a way, this is better, as it's so obvious to drivers that it's unusable that you don't get too much hassle.

Also, the point about Blackburn Council having received zero complaints is a srtaight up lie - I complained about this months ago. I assume they have decided to pay attention to zero complaints.

Just make it a dashed line 2m out from the curb

The sheer stupidity of this 'bike lane' beggars belief.. of course motorists will feel entitled to hug the line; far better would be to make the wide path shared space for pedestrians and slow cycling and let fast cyclists share the road with other vehicles, without a 'bike lane'.

Presumably the council statistics show that the pavement has significantly more pedestrians using it than cyclists using the road, or that these pedestrians are so large and fast that they should have at least 5 times as much road width as cyclists to avoid deadly collisions with each other. Cars hitting cyclists is not nearly as dangerous. 

"We try to do all we can to encourage safer cycling and the cycle lanes have been lined with the best intention of segregating cyclists and traffic."

This is a crystal clear example of the extent to which people responsible for these decisions simply do not understand what keeps cyclists safe and what puts them in more danger.

This lane will put cyclists in greater danger, as many will feel obliged to stay in the lane rather than take the lane, and many motorists will assume that if a cyclist is in the cycle lane that they don't need to give them space when passing.

Cyclists will be safer staying on the main lane now, so completely counter productive.

This is part of our club hill climb route. The council put average speed cameras in a while ago after cretins on motorbikes regularly used to fang up and down Belmont Road and Rivington Road at speeds of well over 100mph. A few years back, local rider Dave Hitchen was killed by one of them going over Rivington and got a desultory six month prison sentence.

This will undoubtedly make the road far less safe as motorists will feel justified in smashing past people at 50 mph screaming GERRINT BIIIKE LANE!

Still, it's pretty standard for Bolton council, who have never given a shit about cyclists and never will.

the most worrying thing for me is the council actually believe that a bit of paint on a road offers any safety and segregation for anyone brave enough to try and use it.

I guess my ICE ADventure HD would struggle then with its 875mm width

"we hope that it still offers protection and segregation for the cyclist from passing traffic"

It doesn't - advisory painted lanes like this make it less safe for cyclists

"advisory lanes increased injury odds by 34%"
https://findingspress.org/article/18226-cycling-injury-risk-in-london-im...

A 44cm wide advisory bike lane is even worse; Biekability teaches kids to ride 1m from the kerb. So whats' the point of a bike lane less than half that width?
I generally avoid cycling on roads with advisory lanes less than 1m wide; they're marking where you SHOULDN'T cycle but motorists expect you to be in the lane so they can pass without moving round you.

Perhaps we should petition the Government to pass legislation dictating the minimum width for bike lanes.  I say petition as we can't demonstrate these days, but it might stop lunatic councillors wasting tax-payers money on this sort of madness.