After yet another driver making a point of passing dangerously close
when I chose not to use a cycle lane I finally got round to drafting a
letter to East Dunbartonshire Council regarding one of their cycle
farcilities. With his permission I stole some of Bob Downie's letter
to Glasgow City Council regarding the new cycle lanes in Kilmarnock
Road. For a picture of the farcility in question See
www.flickr.com/photos/24192247@N00/308662833/
Anyway my first draft is below. Any suggestions as improvement welcome
Iain
Corporate Director (Environment)
East Dunbartonshire Council
Tom Johnston House
Civic Way
Kirkintilloch
G66 4TJ
Dear Sir
Re: Cycle Lane on Milngavie Road
I am writing to you about the northbound cycle lane on Milngavie Road
, Bearsden,
It is a rule of the road for car drivers that you give parked vehicles
a reasonable margin when passing, so that in the event of a vehicle
occupant unexpectedly opening an offside door, no collision will occur.
Indeed, one may fail a driving test for not doing so. A similar
principle applies to cycles. It is accepted by those working in cycle
safety that cyclists should give a similar wide berth to parked
vehicles for identical reasons. The government approved text
"Cyclecraft"* (page66) suggests 1.5m/5ft as a minimum clearance. In the
case of cyclists the need to maintain a wide berth is even more
pressing than for cars, as the risks of personal injury are higher than
to a car driver.
. In view of the simple necessity to maintain a margin, I am
puzzled as to how I am to safely use the northbound cycle lane on
Milngavie Road. The lane varies between 1m and 1.2 m in width. Between
Manse Road and Mosshead Road the lane is placed immediately to the
right of parked vehicles with little or no gap. In fact the open door
of a car parked just south of Mosshead Road takes up the full width of
the adjacent cycle lane which is 1m in width at that point.
(Photograph enclosed) This means there is no point in the lane being
there as it is not safe to use it. This, the narrowest section of the
cycle lane, also follows a downhill section meaning cycling speeds are
higher and the consequences of a crash caused by an opening door are
more likely to be serious. Aside from any injury caused by the impact
with the open door cyclists involved in these types of collisions are
frequently thrown into the path of following traffic with fatal
consequences.
The cycle lane has the side effect of giving some drivers the
perception that a cyclist using the main traffic lane (to get enough
clearance from parked cars) should not be there. This sometimes results
in drivers behaving aggressively towards the cyclist. In other words
the situation for cyclists is worse than if the lane was not there at
all.
To conclude, I would be grateful if you would provide responses to the
following questions.
What design guides or standards did you employ when designing the cycle
routes? The route was clearly not designed using the Scottish
Executive's guidance on cycle facility design
(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/cbd/cbd-00.asp) which stipulates a
minimum lane width of 1.5m (Table 5.1) and an absolute minimum of 0.5
metres between the outside of the parking bay and the inside of the
cycle lane (Figure 5.4 and Table 5.3).
How do you feel that the finished cycle lanes enhance the safety of the
cyclists that use them? In particular I would be grateful if you could
provide a copy of the official Safety Audit that was carried prior to
the implementation of these lanes.·
Given the discrepancies between safe riding, for example as described
in Cyclecraft, and the present layout of the lanes in question, how can
the lanes now be improved?
Yours sincerely,
*Cyclecraft (The definitive guide to skilled cycling technique),