Car parked in cycle lane

jswba

Christ! Some arseholes in Sheffield decide that it's a good idea to park their 4x4s and their Golfs in a cycle lane at the bottom of a hill just 6 feet past a blind turn! What the fuck do they think they're doing? Luckily I slowed up near the bottom of the hill, otherwise it could have been a dented rear bumper for them and a quick trip to the Northern General for me. Bastards. And I bet they're the type that get annoyed with cyclists who give themselves more than 12 inches from the kerb.


Sorry, just needed to vent.

overmars

Take a pic of it. I would.

jswba

Curses! Didn't have my camera with me, and the cars will have moved by now....

MattBlackBigBoysBMX

If they're there regularly, have a word with your local traffic warden.

ricadus

If the boundary markings are dashes rather than a continuous line then the lane is provisional only and cars can legally park in it.

Solution: Just get some white paint and fill in the gaps.

baudman

ricadus wrote:

Solution: Just get some white paint and fill in the gaps.

That's GOLD!

redddraggon

ricadus wrote:

If the boundary markings are dashes rather than a continuous line then the lane is provisional only and cars can legally park in it.

Solution: Just get some white paint and fill in the gaps.

What's the point of cycle lanes if they are allowed to do that?

Yorkshireman

What's the point of cycle lanes any way? other than to confirm (some) drivers opinions that cycles are not 'real' road traffic, and should be kept out of the way of 'real road users' :roll:

nmcgann

Yorkshireman wrote:

What's the point of cycle lanes any way? other than to confirm (some) drivers opinions that cycles are not 'real' road traffic, and should be kept out of the way of 'real road users' :roll:

To allow the council to tick a box that says "provided X miles of cycling facilities" on reports to central government?

Neil

Yorkshireman

Ah! Forgot the most important one

RufusA

jswba wrote:

Christ! Some arseholes in Sheffield decide that it's a good idea to park their 4x4s and their Golfs in a cycle lane at the bottom of a hill just 6 feet past a blind turn! What the fark do they think they're doing?

Whilst I agree with your sentiment, there is a tendancy in the cycling community to not regulate the speed according to the road conditions.

IMHO no cyclist should be hurtling round a blind corner at a speed where they don't have sufficient time to stop if they encounter a stationary object (and clearly from your posting this doesn't apply to you).

If it's not a parked vehicle, it's a pedestrian, or a dog that's been let off for a run, or a group of youths with a penchant for hitting cyclists!

Rufus.

OnTow

My two favourites are a fast road just outside of Woking, with a bicycle painted on the road - that's it - nothing else....
and on the way out of Godalming, where they've designated the pavement as a "cycle lane" - only it's strewn with glass and gravel, a high kerb, turn-offs (where the traffic have right of way), is narrow, and whenever I cycle along the "lane" I get abuse from pedestrians - if I cycle along the road, I get occasionally shaved by motoristswho one suspects are annoyed at the guy on the bike not using the cycle lane!

Yorkshireman

I don't think that I quite agree with your point about "a tendency in the cycling community to not regulate the speed according to the road conditions. " Rufus (at least around my area). All road users should use care and common sense when using the roads, but sadly not all do all of the time. The difference between a lapse of road-sense between drivers and cyclists is that cyclists are much more vulnerable, and tend to pay dearly when mistakes are made ... and then there's the 'Darwin Award Candidates', but they tend to solve their own problems .

MattBlackBigBoysBMX

OnTow wrote:

they've designated the pavement as a "cycle lane" - only it's strewn with glass and gravel, a high kerb, turn-offs (where the traffic have right of way)

That's like the cycle lanes round my way (though not much glass and gravel, but then being on a MTB it's less of an issue), and it is the constant stopping to give way at junctions that dissuades me from using them. None of the junctions have good visibility, so even if there is nothing on the road you are following, you still have to almost stop incase someone is coming from the left.
Why not have a stop sign on the minor road just before the cyclepath, as any traffic (and it is minimal compared to the major road/cyclepath as the roads are all residential closes) needs to slow right down anyway due to the lack of visibility, and would cause the least inconvenience to the least number of road users?
Surely prioritising for the cyclists is the way forward?

Not that I am by any means anti-car, but then I doubt I needed to tell you that.

Yorkshireman

In my area there's at least one give way line on a very minor road (might even be a cul-de-sac) to give cyclists a clear run across. Quite a lot of cycle paths round here have a sort of kick back at the junction with minor roads to take the path a car length away from the main road so that if traffic is waiting to enter the main road a cyclist can proceed past the back of the waiting car and not be held up. What happens 9 out of 10 times? The car waiting to join the main road stops well short of the white stop line (a peculiarity to the Lincoln area I think), or if theres a queue to get out the car behind moves so close to the waiting car that there's no room to get past. When crossing minor roads on a path it's also a matter of looking down the minor road, behind for traffic intending to turn onto the minor road and ahead for traffic turning into the minor road, a fair bit of observation there