Crossing the ring road
It's proposed to use a toucan crossing. Some people think that would delay traffic and be unsafe. MoreCrossing Sandy Lane
Something like this is being considered by the council:
After crossing the recreation ground, cyclists would cross Sandy Lane just north-east of Caldecote Road and use a pavement conversion to reach Daimler Road.
Cycle paths on the inside of cars can have problems: cycling in the "door zone" and cars crossing from the carriageway. Newspaper report on a terrible piece of "cycle infrastructure" in Farnborough. Still in Sandy Lane there are no places where cars cross and there should be enough width for cyclists to avoid the door zone.
Kingfield Road
The council is considering widening the pavement on the west side, putting in a crossing, and widening the pavement on the east side up to Lockhurst Lane. Then crossing Kingfield Road again, using the pavement on the west side of Lockhurst Lane to the signalised crossing and then the pavement on the east side to Station Street West.I suspect there will be a significant safety problems with cars darting from the carriageway into the various side roads and factory entrances:
What works for pedestrians doesn't work for cyclists.
A pedestrian has a stopping distance of a few inches, allowing them to avoid a collision with a car darting into a side road from the main road. More than that, the Highway Code states that motorists turning into a side road should give way to pedestrians already crossing. Cyclists travel at least three times faster than pedestrians and so need about ten times the stopping distance. So if a cyclist is close to the side road he/she won't have enough space to avoid a collision. Slowing to walking pace before crossing any entrance or side road is no way to make progress. While a motorist can regain lost speed by pressing their right foot, a cyclist has to find the lost kinetic energy from within their own body.
Setting the side road crossing back from the carriageway offers a solution; cyclists can see whether a car is heading their way significantly sooner. Even better is to give priority to cyclists as well.
Bollards might be needed to stop pavement parking.
After dark many people won't want to use the path through the woods and park. I suspect faster cyclists won't use the new route; they will use the Kingfield Road carriageway.
Hi George,
ReplyDeleteI regularly cycle in this part of Coventry.
I would have preferred the crossing of Sandy Lane to have been at the mini-roundabout. There is space for a pedestrian/cyclist refuge there and this road can be quite busy so crossing in two halves would be useful. A correctly designed refuge would also narrow the road and slow down the traffic. I used to cross this as a pedestrian and the main problem was vehicles coming off the roundabout fast and “cutting the corner”. This isn’t helped by the parked cars, which it is proposed to retain. I find it hard to believe that somebody opening a car door and stepping out on to a roundabout conforms to current design standards.
The side path towards Lydgate Road/Cheveral Avenue is a good feature as it adds opens up the Radford area and also gives on-road cyclists from Daimler Avenue a route onto the cycle path without having to give way to outbound traffic on Sandy Lane. I have used the cycle path from the bottom of Lydgate road, but this requires coming almost to a stand in the carriage way to make the turn.
On Daimler Road most cyclists use the northern pavement as there is no ramp or dropped kerb at the railway bridge end. This can cause conflict with pedestrians, particularly where the undergrowth has halved the width of the pavement.
The railway bridge itself has three problems. It is at a slight angle from the path which, together with the hump gives very restricted visibility in an area where cyclists tend to speed up to get over the bridge. The security fencing gives no sideways visibility at the Daimler Road end of people stepping off the road or coming out of the side alley. Again the slope means that speeds are quite high and braking reduced. During winter the bridge freezes quite easily been all steel. Could the hand rails on the bridge itself be extended along the concrete ramps which are just as steep?
I cycled through Cashes Park last Winter and the back ground lighting, was sufficient so see where I was going.
Kingfield Road is a rat run with a high proportion of lorries and an on-road route would be unsuitable for novice cyclists. I have had cars accelerate to overtake me before the pedestrian island near Amtico. I currently use the right turn land to turn into Pridmore Road. Traffic heading into town tend to cut the corner across this land, sometimes even while I am waiting in it (with Hi-Vis clothing).
I think a shared pavement/cycleway wholely on the west side should be the preferred option as this is the route that cyclists will take, even if the “official” route crosses over to the east side. Endermere Road could be crossed with a setback crossing, similar to the one you suggested for Henley College. The “Mattesons” yard already has a (faded) “STOP” line at the exit so some paint and ideals a red traffic sign should be sufficient.
Regards,
Peter.
ps – There is a gate on Radford Rec near the TA Centre which seems to be permanently locked across the cycle path.
I've passed on your comments to the Cycle Coventry Infrastructure Manager (Jason.Griffin@coventry.gov.uk)
ReplyDeleteHaving a cyclist/pedestrian crossing close to the Chetton Ave / Sandy Lane roundabout makes the crossing more complicated; someone crossing can't be sure whether a car coming from Chetton Ave. is travelling towards Lydgate Road or Sandy Lane until the car is right at the crossing. Buses have to change direction to get round the mini-roundabout, which makes it difficult to find space for a central refuge.
On Kingfield Road, keeping the path on the west side has the advantage of removing the awkwardness of crossing and crossing back. It would mean moving the kerbline eastward, but the carriageway is pretty wide.
At the Cycle Coventry Advisory Group meeting on 15 January 2015, it was announced that work on most of the Kingfield Road part of the route would be suspended. Instead the Cycle Coventry Route 1 would be taken along Middlemarch Road and then past Joseph Cash Primary School, under the railway line and back to Kingfield Road. Zebra crossings are proposed to help cyclists travel between Middlemarch Road and the recreation ground
ReplyDeleteDetailed reasons for this decision were not given. However Cycle Coventry funding comes to an end in March 2015 and there may need to be extensive public consultation before widening the Kingfield Road pavements into shared pedestrian/cyclist paths.
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