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Castle Street cycling

The ongoing saga of Sheffield’s Castle Street cycle lane

Castle Street cycle lane is a contraflow cycle lane on a one way street in Sheffield. It has been here since March 1997 and allows cyclists enter the city centre from the network of cycle paths on the East, avoiding some big arterial routes with no cycling provision.

A great cycle facility, allows cyclists to enter the city centre avoiding the big arterial routes.

For the past 15 years this cycle lane has been plagued by Hackney Carriage drivers parking illegally on this cycle lane, blocking cyclists access and forcing them into oncoming traffic. This has been the case for over a decade.

There is a taxi rank on the pavement side of the cycle lane, taxis often fill up this rank and overflow, parking in the cycle lane, blocking the way for cyclists.

Blocked – The taxi drivers use the cycle lane as an extension of the taxi rank
Categories
Castle Street cycling

Castle Street Sheffield – Cycle Lane Parking – Google and Bings Perspective

There is a cycle lane in Sheffield on Castle Street that provides access to the city centre for cyclists who wish to avoid the arterial routes that still dominate the area.

This cycle lane is a contraflow lane, it is clearly marked and has a solid white line to separate it from the oncoming carriageway.

There is a nearby taxi rank and for many years taxis have been using the cycle lane as an extension to the taxi rank forcing cyclists using it into the oncoming carriageway. Any cyclist who asks them to move, or takes photo’s as evidence, is met with angry taxi drivers.

Google and Bing have been recording this junction for some time, lets have a look at what they’ve seen.

A message to Sheffield Council: The Google Streetview car has been in Sheffield over the past couple of days, I wonder what the latest images will show…

Categories
cycling

Cyclists terrorising pedestrians – a review of the data

All data and sources for the post are available here: Google Spreadsheet

This morning I saw an article on the Daily Mail website

Another story about a pedestrian being injured by a cyclist breaking the law. You hear the same story repeated over and over, cyclists are dangerous, a menace on our roads, terrorising pedestrians. A lot of people are talking about the danger posed to pedestrians by cyclists but facts and figures are often missing. I suspect that this issue is being discussed by the public and media because of the increased use of non-segregated cycle facilities that permit cyclists to use the same pavement as pedestrians. These put cyclists and pedestrians in close proximity which will lead to more conflict.

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Uncategorized

Camping in Denmark – Overnatning i det fri

Overnatning I Det Fri BookOvernatning I Det Fri is a book listing over 1000 basic camp sites in Denmark. They are set up on spare pieces of land by private owners, organisations and local authorities. They range from small patches of grass next to harbours, to clearings in the woods, to sea side lookout points to lakeside plantations. The sites are for use by walkers and cyclists, some accept dogs, horses and boats! Many are completely inaccessible by car.

Categories
cycling

Sheffield Bike Boost

Bike BoostBikeBoost is a fully-supported cycle-to-work challenge working in partnership with employers and local authorities, to increase the number of journeys to work regularly made by bike.

http://www.bikeboost.org/pages/about

My employer in Sheffield has been invited to take part in Sheffield Bike Boost 2012. It involves a partnership between Sheffield Council, Bike Boost and local employers to help increase the number of people cycling to work by giving employees the chance to try out cycling to work with no commitment.

Each person will be given 121 cycle training, maintenance advice and will be loaned a bicycle with tools, lights and panniers for 4 weeks.There is an optional purchase of the gear at the end of the 4 weeks.