New section of A30 to be an 'Expressway'

[drossall]

To be fair (not that I'm particularly inclined to be fair to organisations seeking to induce yet more car demand), the new Highways England cycle design strategy and guidance are pretty good:

As you say, it's all in the execution. When they build roads for cars, the only way they have to make sure that the new roads are used is to make them more attractive than the alternative. The danger is that, in building routes for bikes, they build something totally useless for actually getting anywhere, and then use legislation to force bikes onto it.

If a bike route is the more attractive option, few cyclists will decline it - but travelling somewhere has different requirements from pottering with the kids.

[Cunobelin]

What always annoys me is that it would be perfectly possible to build a proper cycle route adjacent to all these new roads

But what if this new route is a featureless steep sloped nightmare of a route suited to motor vehicles, like so much of the A30, and the old quiet route is a joy to ride ..... still want to insist on a cycle route along the new route or have money spent on improvements to the old route ....

Had that been what I suggested in the first place.....

Many routes for commuting are derived from necessity rather than idealism.

Ii the OP it is a route that is being "developed" and cycle use prevented. It is about maintaining similar amenity and access

I could divert and add 30% to the journey and use alternative routes, but as pointed out by another poster ...... what happens when it becomes the alternative rat run and an unpleasant nightmare to use?

Equally when it is that quiet route is being replaced and you will be diverted even further by a route that only has crossing places at 3 mile intervals?

The concept is to build a PROPER CYCLE ROUTE adjacent and maintain the accessibility of the present route. The hills, andd slopes are already there and will be unchanged

[landsurfer]

You assume the new expressway will follow the current route ..... it won't .... take a visit to the OneCornwall site.

[Cyril Haearn]

The North Wales Expressway is a curse (no need for a dual carriageway) and has generated a lot of extra traffic
The parallel cycleway is dodgy and hillier than the old road
There is talk of replacing the roundabout at Penmaenmawr with a M-way style junction, not sure where it could go, there is no space
There is a parallel railway, double track with spare capacity

[Richard Fairhurst]

So, a genuine question - who's going to be watching this and campaigning for Highways England to provide a good cycling route?

There's no local (Cyclenation-affiliated) campaign group west of Somerset. Most of the "new generation" cycle campaigning organisations (Cycling Embassy of Great Britain etc.) are predominantly urban-focused. Sustrans is changing its National Cycle Network strategy to focus on traffic-free routes like rail trails and towpaths.

Which I guess leaves Cycling UK...?

[ChrisF]

So, a genuine question - who's going to be watching this and campaigning for Highways England to provide a good cycling route?

There area few cycling groups located either side of the new A30 road, and Highways England are being very active in collecting views of cyclists (and pedestrians, horse-riders....). They appear to have been very accommodating (apart from one crossing-point, details of which I won't go into here).
The problem is (or will be) that, as someone mentioned above, the old road will be handed over to the local council. And, with bitter experience, we know in Cornwall that the local council is very poor in accommodating cyclist's needs, or properly consulting with them.

[roberts8]

I agree about encouraging bikes on the old route. Interesting about the comment that bikes should use trains, don’t quite get that but at the weekend I saw a chart that suggested in uk a train journey averages fifty pence a mile. In Germany it was 39 pence and Portugal 19 pence. Surely a subsidised rail system would be more cost effective way to move people as in Europe with great bike carrying facilities that build costly roads. My car costs 14 p a mile in fuel alone, I appreciate there are many other cost but most of these are fixed costs anyway. Next summer will be trips based on European train and bike. Just thought the comparisons are interesting.

[roberts8]

Sorry, I meant better than costly roads.

[mjr]

Equally when it is that quiet route is being replaced and you will be diverted even further by a route that only has crossing places at 3 mile intervals?

They'll probably do the same as Essex County Council and when the former A road to Harwich was being resurfaced, they brainlessly diverted all traffic onto the 70mph dual-carriageway A120. Some of our group double-backed and found another route while others braved the motorway-on-the-cheap.

The concept is to build a PROPER CYCLE ROUTE adjacent and maintain the accessibility of the present route. The hills, andd slopes are already there and will be unchanged

Amen!

[Cunobelin]

You assume the new expressway will follow the current route ..... it won't .... take a visit to the OneCornwall site.

I didn't...........

[landsurfer]

You assume the new expressway will follow the current route ..... it won't .... take a visit to the OneCornwall site.

I didn't...........

Good .... what is the route ??

[Cunobelin]

You assume the new expressway will follow the current route ..... it won't .... take a visit to the OneCornwall site.

I didn't...........

Good .... what is the route ??

No real interest, it is your decision to limit the conversation to this specific route.

If I had wanted that to be the case, and limit my post to the A30, I would have written:

"What always annoys me is that it would be perfectly possible to build a proper cycle route adjacent to the A 30"

My post reads "What always annoys me is that it would be perfectly possible to build a proper cycle route adjacent to all these new roads"


So, in my posts, it is between one point (lets call it A) and another point (lets call it B). A route that will have hills, slopes, bridges, underpasses, dictated by the terrain of the route, and unchangeable

My original post discussed the LRT which was between Fareham and Gosport with a hypothetical future extension to Southampton, and non-specific new roads in general. The rest of thh posts clearly states that it is policy that could be applied to all new roads, not limiting the discussion to a specific route

[MikeF]

They are designed to be capable of providing motorway standard journeys that are reliable and resilient to delay

If I want to drive that sort of journey I try to avoid a motorway.

Money doesn't seem to be problem for plans like these. Why is there never any money for cycling infrastructure costing a minute fraction of this??

[SA_SA_SA]

Would an absolute maximum speed limit of 60mph* on any non-motorway road have discouraged such expressways? *ie no higher limit may be posted but lower ones can.

I am assuming average speed enforcement/real police enforcement etc

[thirdcrank]

Does Cycling UK care? Or do they only care about urban cycling these days?

An interesting comment here from CUK in the context of driverless cars:-

Autonomous vehicles will initially be best placed to deal with the roads that are already the safest: motorways and dual carriageways...they are least equipped to deal with those that are riskiest - the urban streets used by pedestrians and cyclists.

Chris Peck, Cycling UK Consultant

https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/will-law ... t-cyclists