Cycle Facilities in Milngavie

Milngavie is a small town just outside Glasgow where a main road has had cycle lanes installed as part of a traffic calming scheme. So far so good, but the cycle lanes have now been extended into the town centre and someone has been let loose designing things that just don’t make sense.

So there's a cycle lane on the main road. All good and well. But what is the bit going off to the left?

It's a cut-through into a residential side street. One with parked cars in the end bit.

Would any other class of vehicle be asked to follow this shape of lane?

If it's a quiet residential cul-de-sac, why should there be a cycle lane in the first place? And did the designer not think where cars would be parked before designing the cycle lane? Someone pays for this work to be done. Is it money well spent? I think not!

This is good. In fact, this is very good. Here is a cycle lane, where it's needed, well positioned, well proportioned. If only the rest of the scheme was as good as this. Note: it is possible to have cycle lanes on dual carriageways. This one has a 30mph speed limit and is quite suitable for cycling on.

But it doesn't last very long. Here the lane just stops and cyclists are invited to make a right-angled turn onto a path off to the left. The junction ahead would be a better place to end the cycle lane because some cyclists may be wanting to go left there to get to Mugdock Country Park or to residential areas, or straight on for the station and residential areas, or to turn right into a supermarket.

Another view of this corner shows just how tight it is. Let's work out the radius of the bend cyclists are asked to negotiate: Typical cycle lane = 1.5m Centre of cycle lane therefore = 0.75m That path no wider than lane = 1.5m Radius of corner = 0 (not curved) So, radius of turn = 0.75m (without swinging out) Now, the back wheel doesn't follow the front one exactly, so the cyclist will have to make the turn very carefully to avoid hitting the kerb in the wrong place, and will need to drastically reduce speed in order to avoid falling off!

The path here varies in width, from quite narrow to very narrow, and will almost certainly get blocked from dumped rubbish associated with the recycling bins. When the bins are emptied, the path will be blocked by the loading and unloading process, and cyclists have no other alternative route. This is not good enough!

The path ends here. Suddenly. There is cycle parking off to the left, but this is not indicated either here or back on the main road. Cyclists who have followed the route are just abandoned here with nowhere else to go. And, oh yes, what's that car doing in the pedestrian precinct?

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