Vorpal wrote:I'm not sure I understand why this is an accident waiting to happen? It is common in other countries to have parallel crossings for cyclists and pedestrians. It's not as beneficial an arrangement in the UK because there is no legal obligation to give way to cyclists in an uncontrolled crossing, but I doubt that drivers will deliberately run someone over just to be right. Anyway, for the time being, most drivers are not familiar with the legal details of cyclists using crossings, and will probably err on the side of caution.
In Denmark it is illegal for cyclists to use pedestrian crossings (there are usually separate/delineated parallel crossings, if a route is shared), but drivers stop for them, anyway.
The width of the crossing is the same as the width of the footpath plus the segregated cycle route. It implies to me that cyclists on the cycle route have priority over road traffic. There are no signs for cyclists to say otherwise.
Whenever I use a zebra with my bike, I will get off and walk. Most of the time I see other cyclists using zebras, they either walk, or cycle at no more than about five mph. Once cyclists start thinking they have priority, some will start moving a lot faster, and motorists generally won't be on the lookout for fast moving cyclists, looking only for people at walking speed.
Road traffic heading west, and turning left into Queen Charlotte Street will have cycle path traffic on their nearside, where it is harder to see. Cyclists heading west should cede priority to traffic possibly behind them, on to their right.
When the design of junctions confuses priorities, makes people think they have priority when they don't, bad things will happen.
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