Cycling UK Forum

Having read
http://www.glasgowsouthandeastwoodextra ... -1-3844981
I clicked on a random bit in Google StreetView and found this
https://goo.gl/DHGyEC
Why would anyonechoose to use the cycle lane rather than the main part of the road ?
LOL

EricD wrote:https://goo.gl/DHGyEC
Why would anyonechoose to use the cycle lane rather than the main part of the road ?
LOL

So it's not a case of "parking so as to cause an obstruction" ???? A law is in already in place to deal with this, but why isn't it enforced?

MikeF wrote:[ ... So it's not a case of "parking so as to cause an obstruction" ???? A law is in already in place to deal with this, but why isn't it enforced?

This bit is something I've tried to explain before, possibly higher up this thread, but I'm not going to plough through it all to check

Unless somebody is deliberately - "wilfully" - obstruction the highway, the usual offence is unnecessary obstruction. (Con and use regs.) This once powerful bit of legislation has been weakened by various decided cases in favour of the alleged obstructers. The relevant case here established that because parking in urban areas is generally controlled by yellow line markings etc, it's reasonable for drivers to assume that in the absence of a specific prohibition, parking is permitted. Apart from yellow lines there are obviously other prohibitions such as the zig-zags on the approach to a pedestrian crossing or where there's a central double white line, but a cycle lane marking on its own isn't a parking prohibition.

That's before it's recognised that policing priorities are now concentrated elsewhere.

As I understand it if a cycle lane is denoted by a solid white line then it implies a parking prohibition, if only because cars are not permitted to enter at all.

Where I live there is a mandatory cycle lane which lets bikes travel the 'wrong' way down a one way street.

It is often blocked by parked cars, often with the driver sat inside.

I tell the driver I'm going to ring the traffic wardens, and then I pretend to do it. That makes about half of them move away.

If I do happen to see a traffic warden I tell them of the blockage, and on one occasion I had the pleasure of seeing a motorist get a ticket because of my intervention.

However, traffic wardens are thin on the ground, and motorists know they can park on that cycle lane with only a small risk of a fine.

A local example: https://goo.gl/maps/v7JqJ

The local residents use the cycle lane as a parking lane. Thus rendering it completely useless.

It would be better in this case if the cycle lane was not marked at all.

Of course they would probably say that roads is far too narrow

I just had a look at one of my old favourites in North Somerset. Just where the cycle lane widens enough to be attractive, motorists always used to park their cars in it... but that's not what I saw this time!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.35414 ... 312!8i6656 currently seems to show a couple of motorists driving the wrong way down the cycle lane, as well as a Royal Mail van stopped in it to unload. It's only an advisory lane, though

There's a pink North Somerset Council sign in it. I think it says something about "Road Safe ..." but it's not really readable. I may take a look when I next visit if I remember.

West Norfolk doesn't seem to have as many cycle lanes. I think I'm glad

Mark1978 wrote:As I it if a cycle lane is denoted by a solid white line then it implies a parking prohibition, if only because cars are not permitted to enter at all.

AFAIK, you are wrong.

One of my problems is that I've dug this stuff out so many times before, I've lost the will to do it again. When last I looked, the guidance on mandatory cycle lanes said that they should not be installed if it was not possible to implement a 24 hr parking ban at the same time.

A practical point is that as yellow lines are enforced by CEO's (the successors of traffic wardens) there is at least a slight chance that they will be enforced. At present, most of the rest of this is the responsibility of the police: see what I've posted previously about priorities.

Ah yes. Gateshead Council recently changed a mandatory lane to advisory one of the reasons was to do with parking enforcement. Although they failed to include any parking restrictions.

thirdcrank wrote:One of my problems is that I've dug this stuff out so many times before, I've lost the will to do it again. When last I looked, the guidance on mandatory cycle lanes said that they should not be installed if it was not possible to implement a 24 hr parking ban at the same time.

I've read that too. I think it was because mandatory cycle lanes fall afoul of the same problem as footways: it is an offence to drive on them, but parking on them is not taken as proof that the motorist drove in them! It's shown as a MUST NOT in http://highwaycode.info/rule/240 but I didn't see what in the cited laws gives force to it

Let's push for a law change and for making parking illegal on both footways and cycle lanes unless specifically permitted.

Bizarrely, the prohibition for cycle tracks in the Road Traffic Act 1988 is of driving or parking on them... but I think enforcement's down to the police so falls afoul of the priorities problem thirdcrank mentions.

Mark1978 wrote:Ah yes. Gateshead Council recently changed a mandatory lane to advisory one of the reasons was to do with parking enforcement. Although they failed to include any parking restrictions.

Did they also say it was because the phase of the moon was wrong?

The solid white line cycle lane I mentioned in my recent post is enforced by traffic wardens up to 6pm when they finish work.

After that time people do park on it, but they also park on double yellows after that time too as they know nobody is around to book them.

After painting this lane in about 2000, the council didn't enforce it for years, and it was only after persuasion by cyclists that they bothered at all.

The council still doesn't enforce the large number of short solid white line cycle lanes painted at the kerb side of road humps, and these are nearly always blocked by parked cars. A councillor responsible for the borough's roads told me he wasn't even aware of these lanes and there is no intention to enforce them.

I think enforcement of cycle lanes is largely a futile fight. It is obvious that there is no real will from government, either central or local, to provide well designed and usable cycling facilities.