Cycle Facilities at Charing Cross

Charing Cross is a major junction on the edge of Glasgow City Centre where several main roads intersect. It also has motorway slip roads joining in. Some cycle lanes were installed, but rather half-heartedly.

A cycle lane was installed on Sauchiehall Street, but was later scorched off the face of the road!

This cycle lane remained in place longer, but note how it didn't have any marking to indicate its status. Even this cycle lane has now been removed. Incidentally, the footbridge has steps at one side, but despite this, some cyclists still prefer to use it.

The cycle lane didn’t even stay the same width. It got wider...

...and narrower. The other lanes on the road aren't much better; how many lanes fork left? And why are there no cycle facilities for cyclists forking right on a route that heads north towards much of the north and north west of the city?

Making the cycle lane this narrow only encourages motorists to hug the inside of the road at this point leaving no room for cyclists, and maybe even to form two queues of traffic when the road ahead reduces to just the one lane, leading to merging conflicts.

The road that leads to the motorway has a cycle lane, and, irony of ironies, it's of a decent width! This is just getting silly!

Meanwhile in the other direction, the cyclists are not given a cycle lane, despite there being a large area of hatching where one could easily be provided. Consequently, many cyclists just cycle over the hatching as if it were a cycle lane.

So cyclists have to fight their way through several lanes of roadspace, as traffic from the motorway merges (without any traffic signals) into the rest of the road. Notice how close the motorist coming from the motorway is to the back of this cyclist!

This cycle lane on Bath Street still exists, and even has a cycle symbol to indicate its purpose. It's not very long, but it leads into the junction and...

...disappears immediately across the other side of the junction. There was a cycle lane here, but it has been erased and replaced with hatching. The footway across the far side of the next junction has been widened for a relocated pedestrian crossing so cyclists are forced to move out in any case, but at no point are any Advance Stop Lines for Cyclists provided to help them in doing this.

It's not just the cycle facilities that are done wrong either. Here, a pedestrian crossing has been relocated, but the stop line for vehicles has not, leading to the stop line encroaching onto the pedestrian crossing.

The cycle parking is also a disaster. Here, not only is the cycle parking behind both a fence and a wall, but it's also down a flight of steps. No wonder it's not well used!

If you have a cycle route that needs looked at then report it on Cyclestreets!