Wednesday 1 July 2009

Warning: main road

This is the sustrans route from Pill to Portishead, links up with the avon gorge towpath, and provides a track to the city that allows cyclists to avoid getting stuck where the A369 meets the M5. You can ride all the way to the new harbour development now.



All the way but here, the Warning: Cyclists Dismount sign. Because there's a zebra crossing here



And it would endanger everyone if cyclists rode over, rather than walked over.

Some thoughts arise on a road that seems to lead to a surplus car parking area for the avonmouth complex

1. are bicycles required to walk over zebra crossings? Its not a pavement, after all?
2.  if it doesn't have the belisha beacons, is it actually a zebra crossing? And if not, what is it?

5 comments:

Quercus said...

And no zig-zag lines for cars to park on so definitely not a true Zebra.

No lights, so not a Pelican or Tucan.

Maybe a new breed. Lama?

Chris Hutt said...

I'm surprised you haven't sussed the underlying strategy here BT. It's a very subtle piece of anti-cycling infrastructure.

By placing elaborate warning signs on road crossings with virtually no traffic the council ensures that cyclists learn that warning signs can be safely ignored because they bear no relation to reality.

Then when cyclist come to a really dangerous road crossing they ignore the warning signs and get killed. And it's entirely their fault for ignoring the warning signs thoughtfully provided by the council. Brilliant!

SteveL said...

Seems to me it is more like a way of making bikes know their place in society -at the bottom.

Lama crossing - I like it!

Matt said...

I'm convinced that 'Cyclists Dismount' signs are anti-litigation devices.

If you ignore them and have an accident, you can't sue the council. If you ignore them and cause an accident, it was your fault.

Chris Hutt said...

Exactly Matt. It's called blaming the victim.

Same principle applies with cycle tracks alongside roads that give way at all the side roads. Cycle collisions with turning traffic, typically the fault of the motorist on the road, become the fault of the cyclist.

By the way at the time of the launch of the National Cycle Network Sustrans promised that there wouldn't be any 'Cyclists Dismount' signs on it!