Father calls for cycle ban(after son's death)

[Steady rider]

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5219363 ... 2?hl=en-GB

Designing for motor vehicles and not for people walking and cycling, inclusive design is needed for all urban areas.

[slowster]

From the various reports it appears that the rider was killed on the section of the A338 between Ringwood and Bournemouth, rather than further south where the A338 passes through the main conurbation of Bournemouth and where it's relatively easy to avoid using the A338.

To state the obvious, such dual carriageways are probably far more dangerous for cycling than a motorway would be: vehicles travel at motorway speeds but the sightlines will often be worse than a motorway, the entry and exit slip roads have much tighter curves resulting in reduced thinking/observation time to plan to join the carriageway combined with a need for harder acceleration or deceleration because of the speed of the traffic on the carriageways, and there is no hard shoulder. So in that respect I can understand the various authorities not wanting cyclists to use the A338 between Ringwood and Bournemouth.

However, there are only two alternatives to the A338: Matchams Lane to the west, and the B3347 to the east. On the face of it they would appear to be much pleasanter country routes (the B3347 runs along the River Avon). However, I suspect both tend to be used as something of a rat run by drivers avoiding the A338 which has major ongoing roadworks and can often become congested. Both roads have 60mph/NSL limits and there are lengthy sections of straight road which many drivers speed through at 60mph (or more), and many fail to slow down sufficiently when the road bends and the sightline is greatly reduced.

So IMO the authorities' statement that they do not want to encourage cycling on the A338 is disingenuous. The alternatives are also dangerous (probably not equally so, but I would not cycle along either of those roads by choice), and actually providing a reasonably safe route for cyclists would entail either proper cycle lanes next to the A338, or reduced speed limits on the other roads with active enforcement in the form of speed cameras.

[horizon]

One of the reasons you might end up on the A338 from Ringwood, is that safe access to Matchams Lane for cyclists is almost impossible - you might be forgiven for thinking the road doesn't exist. Once on it, yes, it's a motorbike fairground run (Think Bike, think unalloyed, heartless nutter) but it's narrow enough to encourage taking the lane and ensuring slow overtaking. If a person cannot get angry about what the road engineers did to Ringwood (it's illegal to cycle into Ringwood except on the A31) then it is hard to believe that they are human.

[slowster]

If a person cannot get angry about what the road engineers did to Ringwood (it's illegal to cycle into Ringwood except on the A31) then it is hard to believe that they are human.

I agree the road options in and out of Ringwood are appallingly bad for cyclists travelling east-west. I would use the cyclepath between Hurn Lane and Castleman Way to leave and enter Ringwood itself, although the pavement alongside the A31 at that point is a shared used pedestrian/cycling path.

[horizon]

although the pavement alongside the A31 at that point is a shared used pedestrian/cycling path.

At that point the A31 road is (AFAICS) eight lanes wide of filthy polluting traffic, tarmac, noise, mindless morons driving their moronic vehicles, road litter and concrete. The shared path (that's cyclists and pedestrians, dogs, pushchairs, children holding parents' hands and cyclists in both directions) is about one metre wide and overgrown. This is all in an exceptionally attractive part of southern England right next to a national park. The young man who was killed is a sacrificial victim to the motoring class. The new A338 was a lunatic attempt to cut congestion and speed traffic into Bournemouth. Of course, nowdays it has regular traffic jams. So, all for nothing. If anyone wonders why I have nothing but loathing and utter contempt for Britain's roads lobby, they need just visit Ringwood.

[The utility cyclist]

I don't think they are and a ban on cycling might at least prompt alternatives.

Banning cycling is the thin end of an already thin wedge, no thanks, we fought hard to stop a ban on another dua carriageway in East Yorkshire, any talk about bans on anything other than motorways is regressive and damaging. Build infra first to a minimum standard, let's say 2.5metres wide in both directions that joins up to every side road with priority at all junctions AND gets proper maintenance, cleaning and snow/ice clearing, THEN you can say, right, we're designating this into a motorway. Anything less I'm not interested because it will just be yet more shoving out the way on to inferior 'infra' that is convoluted, narrow, unkempt and stop start, all the things that does not and will not ever encourage cycling!

[CJ]

The A338 looks to be one of those motorway-in-all-but-name roads, about which I'd usually be quite happy with a cycling ban, since it's completely additional to the pre-existing road network and doesn't provide unique access to any adjacent premises. You can take it off the map and I can still cycle everwhere I used to be able to cycle before it existed.

Except:

1. But sometimes the construction of such roads leads to the obliteration or stopping up of bits of the pre-existing network, that the new road replaces. I can't tell if that has happened here, but if it has that's a fundamental injustice that needs putting right ASAP!

2. Or sometimes the new virtual motorway leads to the development of adjacent new suburbs, hospitals, shopping centres and places of employment, between which it provides the only expedient link. Again that shouldn't have been allowed in the first place, not without making the developers to pay for the construction of cycling and walking connections that are even more convenient, so nobody feels tempted to ride on or walk by the virtual motorway. It looks like this probably has happened here, there's an awful lot of new stuff in Bournemouth for which the A338 is the daisy-chain.

3. And sometimes the new road provides a vital missing link in the pre-existing network. That is certainly the case where the A338 crosses the river Stour, providing the only crossing for several miles. Imagine if you worked at Bournemouth Airport and lived in Townsend. How could you resist the temptation to knock nearly 2 miles off your journey by riding a mile and a half on the A338?

[Steady rider]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Bou ... 0769?hl=en

i don't know the area but it seems a possible river crossing may be near Troop Road and could connect to the airport?