Thursday 18 March 2010

The Muller Road disaster

While some of the cycling troublemakers complain that the Cycling City money isn't having any effect, our complaint is that in the parts of the city where we drive -clearly not places the troublemakers go- it is impacting our commute.

Take Muller road, the high-speed, high-traffic-volume route from Horfield to the M32. It is for this road alone, that the M32 includes signs for Horfield. Yet what is happening?

At the end of the Farm Pub Path, they really are putting in a wide, separate, bike lane. We had hoped that the money would be frittered on a bike lane with trees in the middle of it, as with Coronation Road. One that is no use to bicycles, but justifies us beeping our horns when there are cyclists on the road.
Fortunately, it seems to run out after a short distance, forcing the bicycles to do some kind of crossing thing, or run into whatever vehicle will be parked on the road where it widens.

As well as this long-term disaster, we are pretty unhappy with the traffic chaos. Yet this roadworks didn't get a mention in the EP's "city under siege from roadworks" article. Look at this -the M32 traffic jam is beginning about 500 metres before it normally does.
One car has broken down and only just managed to get to the pavement, where the AA Van EU58LYW has come out to rescue it.

What we fail to understand is why the Farm Pub should merit such a path, if it will only encourage people to go there, drink Doom Bar Bitter, and cycle home drunk afterwards. How will that improve road safety?

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