UKC

so I've just read my trusty conservative councillors campaign rag.

Apparently my labour council has wasted £150000 of council funds on introducing lockdown cycle ways (and then later removing them under pressure from our conservative MP Caroline Nokes - d/t inadequate consultation)

Wasn't this money awarded by central government for precisely that purpose - to create temporary cycleways. Now the conservatives are claiming that its all indicative of labour wanting to limit how people travel into town. 

I thought it was because driving polluting diesel cars in built up areas causes fatalities amougst children with compromised respiratory systems. I also though government was getting behind active travel because it reduces pressure on the health service due to those who choose active travel are fitter and less likely to be hospitalised with infections.

perhaps Councillor Hannides, and the right honourable Caroline Nokes thinks that labour are also likely to ban obesity and old age.

They are only interested in a false narrative so they can get the angry car drivers to tick the Tory box. 

You don't currently win elections with the truth. 

This guy is my MP. Check out this “consultation”. There is an obvious co-ordinated campaign by the Tories at a local level against the climate change policies that the government are claiming to be promoting.

https://www.chrisclarkson.org.uk/news/mp-wants-your-views-rochdale-councils...

Strikes me as very poor political points scoring but there is probably a very valid point about removing them.

Temporary cycle lanes that worked well during lockdown with hardly any cars on the road could be very dangerous and or impeded traffic too much once businesses opened again. 

Thanks.  Filled his survey in a few times too.

They ‘could’. However the evidence is that a lot of the ‘people’ using the cycle lanes were  children going to school instead of being driven by their parents. 

It would appear so:

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/for-professionals/infrastructure/walking-and-cy...

Some temporary cycle lanes were poorly executed, but what does anyone expect from a policy where there is a large pot of cash available from central government that must be spent in a very short period of time and in a period where there is great upheaval in working patterns in the councils expected to plan and implement them.

And this is on top of the fact that cycle lanes are usually poorly designed and built without any involvement of people who actually use them but by people claim to be cyclists because they have a rusty apollo halfords bike in the garage but drive their 4x4 into the city centre every day for work.

And you can't go blaming cycle lanes for all traffic issues because as can be seen from cameras monitoring the most controversial new bike lanes like kensington highstreet

https://www.trafficdelays.co.uk/kensington-high-street-church-street-london... 

These now removed cycle lanes have turned into carparks, despite the presence of hatchings to protect pedestrian crossings and double yellow lines.

Cycle lanes are one of the current battlegrounds MPs seem to have chosen to focus on and there is a definite campaign strategy for local Tory MPs to paint the implementation of better pedestrian and cycling facilities as a local labour council policy instead of a central government tory policy, claiming the "money would be better spent elsewhere" whilst denying the fact central government have repeatedly cut local funding and active travel schemes are often funded from a ringfenced pot dedicated for that use.

It's pretty depressing the speed at which these schemes are installed. Within towns and cities, without an affordable, regular and reliable public transport network, without a coherent network of cycle lanes and without a concerted effort to improve the pedestrian environment we will never convince people to make short journeys using other means of transport than private vehicles. We have had a generations being sold the dream of the private vehicle, the status is endows the owner, the amount of money people throw at a massive lump of metal that sits in one place, unused for 22hrs a day, we, as a nation, have totally bought into the necessity of a private car per person and it's an addiction that will be hard to break.

You look across at what Anne Hidalgo has managed in Paris, and the vision laid out for them, and compare it to the paucity of vision of our elected officials, who seem to strive to return to the status quo, for nothing to change, it's all quite depressing.

I'm not blaming cycle lanes for traffic problems. I'm pointing out exactly the same thing as you did above. Some were ill thought out and others were probably great when the roads were quiet but not now. 

Devils advocate time. How many of those parents are now back at work and unable to take the time to cycle to school and back with their kids?

For the record I think cycle lanes and bus lanes for that matter are a great idea. They have been digging up the road leading to my works for the last 2 months putting a cycle lane in. Its been a royal pain in the arse because its a busy road but once done the segregation between cyclists and motorists will be better for everyone. 

I didn't say anything about them being great when the roads were quiet but not now. I said that these spaces that the cycle lanes occupied are obviously not needed to drive on because, since the cycle lanes were removed, the space is just being used for parking. Which doesn't really help the flow of traffic.

That is in 1 place. I'm talking about Country wide. I travel a lot for my job and I have seen some temp lanes that were never going to be viable once the traffic was back and others that would be. Same goes for the walking lanes that some places set up. 

That is exactly what southampton city council have done. Removed cycle lanes to provide more parking spaces. It's now doubly dangerous for cyclists. The dedicated lane is gone and the bicycles are forced out into traffic to get around the cars. Use your vote if you have one to resist the ludite conservatives. They are no better than the machine wreckers of the 17th century. Cars have had their day. It's mass and active transport now.

As I understand it Money was only given to councils that came up with viable plans for cycling infrastructure. Some councils near to me got nothing. Others quickly painted a demarcation line on the road and drew a bike on it. Barnsley council near to me already had extensive plans to permanently improve cycling and have used this money to provide permanent off road cycle ways into and around the town. Although Boris’s stipulation of 3 metres wide has eaten up some of the cash.