should cyclelanes be "kerbed off"?

always_tyred

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

....
One advantage, would be that it would stop cars parking on the cycle path, .....

It doesn't stop them parking on the pavement after driving over the kerb
:evil: :evil: :evil:

I was thinking of the kind of kerbing they use in Belgium, where the road and cycle lane are at the same height, but there is a raised kerb between them. Driving over those would rip the bottom out of a car.

I can't help but recall with a shiver the testamonials posted here by people who have to cycle there though. Not keen on doing that particularly British thing of copying everyone else's mistakes, in this case.

MrChuck

Bad idea, for the reasons that Always Tyred and prj45 have mentioned. They would just reinforce the notion that bikes don't belong on the road, and maybe make it more difficult in the event of an accident for cyclists who choose not to use them.

singlespeedexplosif

Most definitely not. Hard enough to find a council that sweeps/cleans/grits the non-kerbed-off ones right now, so I can only imagine the sort of debris you'd have to ride through on a kerbed-off lane...

il_principe

No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no.

And no.

For all the reasons mentioned so far.

lost_in_thought

jashburnham wrote:

No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no.

And no.

For all the reasons mentioned so far.

+1

homercles

Is this a thread where there is near universal agreement?

passout

Good for newbies/kids on bikes therefore no good for faster cyclists. How do you overtake? It's a no from me.

iain_j

Another no.

For starters, we know how well the authorities underestimate how wide a bike plus rider is. Painted cycle lanes are no problem with this, but imagine trying to ride safely in a 2-foot wide channel between raised kerbs? I've tried it - there's one around a junction not far from my house, it starts curving gently, then just past the point of where you can see round the bend, it suddenly turns sharply. Take it a bit too wide and you'd tumble over the kerb separating you from the road, into the path of traffic. The rest of the junction is engineered so it's hard *not* to use the cycle lane. I avoid it as much as possible.

Secondly, kerbed-off or not, cycle lanes aim to get cyclists off the road and segregated from the cars. Bad for both sides. Young/inexperienced cyclists won't get practice in riding in the traffic, and motorists won't get practice in driving with cyclists about.

Thirdly, they're restrictive. Cycle lanes go where their planners put them, which might not always be where I want to go to. I'm going along in a cycle lane tucked away off the left-hand side of the road, and I come to a junction where I want to turn right. How do I get there?

Fourthly, they're unpredictable and dangerous. I'm going along in the cycle lane, separated from the traffic, nice and safe, round the blind bend and I'm suddenly back in the road, in the path of cars. I can cope with that, but again what about the young and inexperienced cyclists they're aimed at?

itboffin

no unless the kerb path looks like this

prj45

itboffin wrote:

no unless the kerb path looks like this

Hah hah. I like the little thin bit, I mean what cycist (or ped) is going to even bother with the wide bit with that little thin bit there? What a waste of wood that wide bit is.

itboffin

imagine trying to SCR on that now that would be MTFUing big time.

iain_j

iain_j wrote:

Another no.

For starters, we know how well the authorities underestimate how wide a bike plus rider is. Painted cycle lanes are no problem with this, but imagine trying to ride safely in a 2-foot wide channel between raised kerbs? I've tried it - there's one around a junction not far from my house, it starts curving gently, then just past the point of where you can see round the bend, it suddenly turns sharply. Take it a bit too wide and you'd tumble over the kerb separating you from the road, into the path of traffic. The rest of the junction is engineered so it's hard *not* to use the cycle lane. I avoid it as much as possible.

I ended up coming home that way tonight - it's at the bottom of Penny Lane, as in the Beatles song. Slowed right down for the narrow cycle lane and carefully turned through it, and just around the blind bend, there's a bunch of three or four people standing in the cycle lane waiting to cross the road. I was going slowly anyway but I still instinctively swerved to avoid them, hit the kerb and came to an ungraceful stop.

bikesr4riding

lost_in_thought wrote:

No, I am not a fan of those kerbed cycle lanes.

They slow me down - I get stuck behind other cyclists, and they sometimes make it harder to get to the right area of junctions etc. if not well-thought-out.

I'll stick with the cars.

I agree with these comments. Could potentially result in more crashes if impatient (faster) riders want to steam ahead...

Depends how wide the lanes are I suppose, although I suspect in London there's not much chance of them taking priority over cars.