Cycling UK Forum

WrightsW5 wrote:Advisory Cycle Lanes might as well be called Chocolate Fireguard Lanes - or Car Parks.

That about sums it up!

... it's a cycle lane ...deal with it ... tonight while your worrying about your 'rights ', and cars parked in a cycle lane, a patrol of young men go out into the hell that is Afganistan .... let's just put this in perspective guys and girls ...

Has anyone said we can't care about both?

(And numurous other things)

WrightsW5 wrote:Has anyone said we can't care about both?

(And numurous other things)

Just in case there is any confusion ; you dont care about our troops, our soldiers?

What the hell are you talking about? I never said any such thing!!!

WrightsW5 wrote:What the hell are you talking about? I never said any such thing!!!

Apologies .. i think i read that wrongly ..sincere apologies if i offended..

Ok

MartinGT wrote:Is there anything I can do?

Invite this resourceful chap to pay a visit to the problem area.........................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fWN0FmcIU

Or ride a recumbent and copy the new york cyclist...
Just ram them with a chain ring...

Thanks for the replies.

Landsurfer, I do care about the guys & girls who fight for our forces globally. Ive just re-read my OP and cant really see where I have blown it out of proportion for such a reply from yourself, if you're (look I used the correct context there ) posting on here for a cheap troll please look elsewhere.

I THINK it is a dashed line, I think. I do know about the solid / dashed line.

Like some people have said, cyclist, bottom of the food chain. Oh well.

MartinGT wrote:On my commute home there is always a parked car outside a local takeaway in the cycle lane.

It is your assertion that the car is "parked". The owner might contend that it is "loading". For the casual observer, it is often hard to tell the difference. I have observed vehicles taking several hours to carry out their "loading", with very little visible activity for most of that period.

Whether "loading" is permitted in the cycle lane, and if so at what times, depends upon the specific notices that are displayed, there is not a general rule.

Even if it is not permitted in that place at that time, my observation in central London is that vehicles get away with impermissible loading frequently, even if it completely blocks the road or causes widespread gridlock. A rare exception I observed was when two lorries decided to carry out loading in the morning rush hour at Cambridge Circus (the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue) in such a way that vehicles travelling westbound could not proceed on the correct side of the traffic island on which the traffic lights were located; I got the impression the police present were impounding the vehicles. The fact that the drivers even thought to attempt such a thing gives an indication of the level of contempt in which many drivers hold the law on this.

The bizarre thing is that unless the traffic is gridlocked, drivers are generally quite sanguine about obstruction by parked vehicles but tend to suffer from apoplexy when a cyclist, even one moving at some speed, is peceived briefly to impede their progress.

Turns out its a mandatory lane and it was "parked" there again this evening.

Ill give the council a call tomorrow.

The council is only responsible for enforcing yellow lines. They employ Civil Enforcement Officers for the purpose. Whenever forum members have posted about complaining to the relevant council, the common reply seems to have been that the responsibility for dealing with specific obstructions is with the police (who take the line that yellow line parking enforcement has been decriminalised and so is nothing to do with them.) Afaik, enforcing a mandatory cycle lane TRO is a police matter (as opposed to any accompanying yellow lines) but it won't be any sort of a priority.

The typcal council will do everything possible to facilitate parking outside shops and will only effectively restrict it if there is a wider purpose than promoting cycling, such as keeping the traffic moving fast.

Try setting up your own Facebook page called something like "Inconsiderate Parking in [name of your town]" and invite people to upload their own photos of said problem. Once you've got a few photos on there (including your own), notify the local press of the page's existence, with a suggestion that they run an article on it to highlight the scale of the problem in your home town. Perhaps when the council are approached for a comment by the newspaper and have publicly been made aware of the problem , they may start to take the issue seriously. (Note: may not will.)