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I was wondering if there might be interest on this forum in trying to organise a cross Scotland petition to make it illegal to park in cycle lanes. Has anything like this been attempted?
With all the frustration about the Nice Way Code at the moment, and the relative lack of serious cycling infrastructure being built (in Edinburgh at least) I thought it might be a positive way of at least making the cycle paths we have on the roads a bit more useful. Any thoughts?
Sounds like a good idea. How would it be taken forward though? Private member's bill in the Scottish Parliament? Is there not already an inconsiderate responsible parking bill trying to garner more support?*
* - which is aimed at pavement parking mostly, and by the way has received no support from KB or the Scottish government.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_MembersBills/20120328_Responsible_Parking.pdf
http://www.livingstreets.org.uk/responsible-parking-bill-scotland
You mean the ones that don't have parking bays on top of them?
That furniture shop FKA Annie Mo's and before that Olympian Pine - next to diggers is having a refit and the vans are illegally parked in the cycle lane before 9am is my view when I like to give them a wee shout
It's a shame they cannot stop pavement and cycle lane parking, by making it legal to walk or cycle over cars parked where they shouldn't be. Cheap, and no doubt quickly effective.
I doubt very much I could cycle over a car - but with enough practise who knows.
You maybe wouldn't be able to cycle over it but you could make a helluva mess trying.
Wouldn't the petition be better to try and get the many miles of *advisory* cycle lanes that folk can legally park on turned into mandatory ones?
IMO, if it's legal to park in a cycle lane, it's not a cycle lane... but... some of the "cycle lanes" are on streets with residential homes.
An example would be just as you enter Musselburgh from Edinburgh. (Just after the left bend.)
Where would these residents park their cars?
@gibbo, not sure which bit of Musselburgh you mean: it's possible to approach from Edinburgh using several different routes.
Anyway, why the presumption that a private mode of transport should be dumped in the public road? Residents do not own the road in front of their homes.
I'm assuming that's the bit of road between the Cash and Carry and the Garage. There are always cars parked in the cycle lane outside a little grouping of houses that were obviously built before cars were common and therefore don't have driveways.
Obviously there are people who will disagree, and people who think that cars in general are 'wrong', but I personally don't think you can actively stop people from owning cars if it means them having to park them in the public highway.
Absolutely correct that you don't own the road in front of your house; equally there's no restriction on that (unless there actually is a restriction of course). Clearly that would change if the lanes were made mandatory - in this particular instance that would mean people having to park half a mile from their house (in another residential area). Again, some will think that's reasonable, personally I don't think it is.
But then while I can see the benefits of bikes, and think that in a city they make perfect sense, and more people should cycle, and there should be fewer cars on the roads.... I also don't mind cars, and don't necessarily think all roads should be given over to bikes...
(but I will always sign a petition to keep cars out of cycle lanes - I just think in this Musselburgh instance we'd find the cycle lane would be removed (or cut-ins created at the expense of pavement space)).
The reason for wanting a cycle lane in the first place is to get out of the way of traffic which has a lot more mass/speed/momentum than a squishy person on a bike.
I reckon you can tackle this problem in several ways.
Firstly residential streets with car parking can stop being through routes to somewhere else. Just make it possible for local residents to drive or cycle to/from their houses. Discourage anyone else from using that street. For instance by blocking off one end of it with bollards (which people can cycle through).
Secondly, slow down the remaining traffic to a reasonable cycling speed, say 10mph. Do that not just with "10mph" signs but by redesigning the road so that it looks like a 10mph road rather than a race track. The Haymarket Colonies has done this quite nicely by putting giant plant pots in the road.
As soon as there's only a little bit of local traffic, and it's going at the same speed as a bicycle, there shouldn't be a safety problem.
If the road has to be a through route to elsewhere, then vehicles with vastly different momentums will be sharing it, so there's a basic safety problem. That's when it needs proper segregated cycle lanes - by which I mean that it should be pretty much physically impossible for motor vehicles to get into them or block them or affect them in any way. If there's room for car parking as well, go for it. It won't affect a proper segregated cycle lane in any way.
Are you talking about here? http://goo.gl/maps/BWRHM
Cars actually parked on the footway here! Might be better if they were tucked round the corner in the side streets: plenty of space by the looks of it. Only 100 yards further to walk...
@WC @gibbo That's what I was also assuming. There's also often a van parked just beyond (east of) the lights at the Milton Road E junction (at least I've noticed it often enough to register). OK, not a cycle way but even with the ASL, by the time you reach the van traffic behind is right on you as you're trying to navigate round it, and just as two lanes merge into one.
Here's a solution: segregated cycelanes on the inside of the parked cars. Cars can park, cyclists can cycle. Roads a wee bit narrower, but I'm sure that drivers will be able to handle that by regulating their speed a bit, paying more attention to what they're doing and perhaps communicating a bit more with their fellow drivers.
@crowriver That's exactly where I meant (google street view managing to catch 2 vehicles parked in the cycle lane!).
One of my parking bugbears with residents is the all-too-common case where residents with perfectly good driveways constantly parking on the road, and usually in a cycle lane.
I can sympathise with those who don't have a designated spot for their vehicle(s) but if you have one it should be mandatory you use it in my opinion unless you can demonstrate a darned good reason why you shouldn't (and for which you'd then get an exemption badge for the front and rear of your vehicle). Otherwise, it's just selfish and dangerous for other road users, especially cyclists and pedestrians.
My own street is bad enough surface-wise without the large stretches of cycle lane I can't enter if I want to because of cars blocking it instead of using their empty driveways.
The furniture shop at diggers was completely mental today. About ten vans all in cycling lane, one right up at the traffic light and good chunk of the bike lane cordoned off with tape. Hopefully they will get their stock in at weekend. There is a back lane at ardmillan but maybe no good for that shop? Will google, ah no, that is one block west
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