Aha! Thanks Slowcoach. I now know that the tactile surface we loath is the "Cordurouy Hazard Warning Surface" and the little ridge in the middle is the "Central Delineator Strip".
5.1 Purpose
- The purpose of the tactile surface used in conjunction with a segregated shared cycle
track/footway is to advise visually impaired people of the correct side to enter.
- The purpose of the central delineator strip is to help visually impaired pedestrians keep to
the pedestrian side.
The specifications should be that the "delineator strip" is 150mm wide, 12-20mm proud and narrows a width at the top of 50mm.
The ribs on the "tramlines" (cyclist's side of the cordurouy) should be 30mm wide and 70mm apart. Those of the "transverse" (pedestrian's side) should be 20mm wide and 50mm apart. Therefore the same slabs are not be suitable for both sides. Broomhouse Path clearly does use the same slaps for both sides therefore this suggests it is non-regulation.
More interestingly;
"The central delineator strip should run the entire length of the route, creating a 'kerb' between the designated pedestrian side and the designated cyclist side... ...A painted white line is not adequate for this purpose as it will not be detected by visually impaired pedestrians."
According to the regulations, therefore, the Broomhouse Path is further non-compliant.
On the whole though, those guidelines are 76 pages of evidence that our traffic engineers think that pedestrians and cyclists interact like cars and need treated as such, being fenced apart by walls of paint, markings rumble-strips etc. Interesting that most of this decorative junk doesn't apply if you have a shared path like the NEPN. So the very act of creating a segregated path requires a forest of signs, special surfaces and poorly construed junctions to satisfy the desktop regulations.
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