The council is proposing to re-design the junction to allow buses and taxis a convenient short cut (shown in red):
Why won't cyclists be legally allowed to use the new facility? Taxis will.
I suspect that the council is considering converting the pavement on the north-west side of White Street into a pedestrian-cyclist shared use facility. While that will work for slower cyclists, a lot of pedestrians use pavement at this point, so there will be conflict between pedestrians and cyclists hurrying to work.
Why not both a shared cyclist/pedestrian route, for the slower cyclist AND a shared cyclist/bus route, for the faster cyclists? Cyclists in a hurry can easily reach 15-20 mph, they won't hold up the buses over such a short stretch.
Hi George. That junction is a nightmare for everyone - it's bad enough for cars but worse for cyclists. The plans look interesting and I agree that cyclists should be able to use this lane. Where did you find the image? I contribute to OpenStreetMap.org (the wikipedia for maps) and it would be good to have a source of information like this so that I know what needs to be update on the map.
ReplyDeleteI took a digital photo of the proposed Traffic Regulation Order and coloured in the red and yellow bits with photoshop.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to read that someone wants to keep OpenStreetMap up to date. There's quite a few mistakes in the Coventry area regarding cycling. Eg. canal towpath is a footpath south of Stoney Stanton Road, new path from Kenilworth is missing, cycle lanes on Binley Road are missing, various footpaths are marked as cyclepaths and vice-versa.
Oh OK. So I assume that the Traffic Regulation Order is up on the lamp-posts in the surrounding area.
DeleteYep, we have a small group of active contributors to OpenStreetMap here in Coventry. Although we have someone who is a keen hiker, we are lacking a cyclist. Please do feel free to contribute yourself - give me a shout if you need any help. Alternatively if you let me know about any issues I can try and correct them for you (I've been meaning to do the Kenilworth route for a little while now - will see what time I have in the coming weeks).
Wait a few weeks and the changes will be finished on the ground.
DeleteOne day I suppose I could get my head around editing OpenStreeMap. I could probably make a number of changes from memory. E.g. the new path from Kenilworth to University of Warwick almost exactly follows the existing footpath. I think there's a diversion of less than 10m at the crossing of Cryfield Grange Road (for better sightlines).
You could persuade the council to publish proposed Traffic Regulation Orders and Street News on the web. Contact Martin Reeves!
DeleteThe council does publish a map showing where planning applications refer to.
I'm not suggesting that you copy anything from such a map apart from the latitude/longitude of the change and the expected completion date. The details can be seen once changes are truely in the public domain, when they have been implemented on the ground.
My Objection:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coventrycyclist.org.uk/roadscheme/12_11/objection.htm
The Council's reply:
http://www.coventrycyclist.org.uk/roadscheme/12_11/reply.htm
My response
http://www.coventrycyclist.org.uk/roadscheme/12_11/response.htm
It looks like someone is listening - your advice has been put forward as a recommended change to the scheme:
ReplyDeletehttp://moderngov.coventry.gov.uk/documents/s7647/Objection%20to%20White%20Street%20Bus%20Lane%20Traffic%20Regulation%20Order.pdf
Congrats and keep pushing for sensible changes like this :-)
Yes it's a pleasant surprise to get an objection upheld.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea that sometimes it's best that the route for faster cyclists diverges from that for slower ones is quite important.
Faster cyclists don't mind mixing with cars so much as slower ones but mix worse with pedestrians.
White Street is probably the busiest crossing of the ring road, for both pedestrians and cyclists.