landsurfer wrote:Thats quite a good cycle lane .... not a painted line festooned with dead hedgehogs and tyre debris .... personally i'd have used it ... being squished by an HGV driven by a tired guy from Eastern Europe, while wearing my magic helmet of course ... would not be good ... moral high ground dos'nt work if your remains are only 6mm thick ....
I can tell you from experience there is a problem with that lane.
It both runs out and the road narrows, when busy cars will tailgate each other whilst passing you and suddenly you're being forced against the kerb trying to figure out how to get back into traffic flow. If there's a queue of right turning cars you can expect to have absolutely nowhere to go.
Your best bet is if you make it as far as the pub is to turn into the car park and walk/ride your bike across as a pedestrian. Drivers are a lot less tolerant of bicycles trying to get into traffic flow than they are of bicycles tailing other cars.
And so since I'm already in the traffic flow and keeping pace with the traffic it normally makes sense to stay where I am until I'm through the lights and there's space for everyone (as an aside the continuation of the bike lane is pointless, past the lights it's simply parking).
I'm not sure what your point about HGV's is, if there's an HGV at the side of you on that road then you're toast anyway.