Broken Hips and Pavement Clutter

Wednesday before last a 71 year old lady was in collision with a cyclist on the pavement outside Boscombe East Post Office and suffered a broken pelvis as a result. The story can be found here ... http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9263062.Hunt_for_pavement_cyclist_after_pensioner_hurt/ 

Interestingly, the Echo allowed comments on this RTA straight away. It also printed an editorial opinion which seems to have already decided that the cyclist was completely to blame even before the Police have had a chance to conduct an investigation... http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/opinion/9266615.Look_out_for_coward_on_two_wheels/


What caught my eye, however, was the picture accompanying these articles - showing a shockingly overcrowded pavement outside the shop. I decided to take a look for myself.

Here's the approach from the North...

The pavement is hideously overcrowded. While one can expect a pillar box outside a Post Office, we also see a large green cabinet and a National Lottery advert. The pavement at this point is 315cm wide. The gap between the lottery and ATM signs is only 135cm! 


On the approach from the south there is a similar problem...

The free placement of advertising and other obstructions on the pavement is illegal, anti-social and dangerous. Indeed only 2 years ago this collision was predicted in the Echo by Philip Whitelegg who wrote:

I have received letters containing complaints about A-boards which they say regarding Boscombe is “awash with obstructions on their pavements”. The writers state that there are hazards of all sorts providing a situation where there are “accidents waiting to happen”. 

In the picture accompanying the articles we also see a Royal Mail van parked half on the pavement...

Just a little further to the north the pawn shop is also causing problems...

The main article quotes John Satchwell, Bournemouth Council's road safety manager, as saying these sort of events are not at all frequent. Surely, then, we must consider that this clutter has contributed in some part to the accident?

Charminster Rd/Richmond Park Rd/Alma Rd Junction 'Improvements'!

Over the first 6 months of this year, Bournemouth Council undertook a complete renovation and redesign of the junction where Charminster Rd meets Richmond Park Rd and Alma Rd. Part of the justification was that "Road safety for cyclists will also be improved with the installation of Advanced Stop Lines on all approaches to the junction."


I frequently pass this junction on my way to Boscombe and noticed that there was often no access to the ASL going north on Charminster Rd. So I decided to do a quick study. 


Today at about 12:30 I stopped at the King's Rd/Charminster Rd junction and waited for 5 minutes. This meant I witnessed 6 cycles of a red light for the traffic heading north along Charminster Rd. In those 6 cycles I saw the ASL being blocked twice...

 

In the second you can see the car has clearly entered the ASL as well as blocking access for cyclists.
Then I moved to the opposite corner looking at red light cycles for traffic heading south along Charminster Rd. In the 5 minutes timespan I saw the following on 4 of the 6 cycles...

 Twice access to the ASL has been blocked by buses, once by a car and in the last one we see a car that has entered the ASL after the light turned red.


No attempt has been made by the council to put in cycle lanes leading up to the ASLs. There's certainly room on the southbound road as things stand, on the northbound one the space has been used for right-turning cars. During my survey I saw no cyclists using these facilities.


Now, I understand we're not talking about a lot of data here, but I had defined my experiment beforehand and picked a random-ish time of day. It's not rush hour. It's not even 1300-1400 when most people take lunch. 


What people need to encourage them to start cycling in decent numbers is subjective safety and ease of use. The new junction layout achieves neither.

Crap Infrastructure and Roadworks

Old Christchurch Rd, Boscombe...

The photo above shows Bournemouth's ONLY piece of decent, desirable, segregated, arterial cycle lane. I won't say it gives priority to cyclists as it isn't long enough to reach any junctions. In fact, it's about 20-30m long. It only runs on one side of the road. When it ends, it turns into the standard, useless, narrow, dangerous, advisory lane we are used to. Here's a view from the far end looking back...

Unfortunately you can't see all of the lane in the picture as it's hidden behind a large roadsign. Turning back to face SW down Christchurch Rd we see another sign...

What handy places these cycle lanes are for putting roadwork signs!

My journey to Boscombe was along the recommended cycle route from Winton. Signage isn't too bad west of the A338 but on the eastern side it's virtually non-existant. Rather than use the (crowded) Ashley Road or (rat-run) Cleveland Road, I took the only crossing in between them, the bridge over the railway at the end of Palmerston Road...

For some reason this crossing is designated as 'no cycling' (although the DofT signage is so faded there is no red circle around the bike). It's wider than most pavements, the path taken across zig-zags which means it's virtually impossible to ride fast and visibility through the railings of pedestrians ahead is very good. In fact, the only hinderances are the scaffolding rails at either end. Why can't the council simply paint white bikes on the surface to make it a 'safe, shared use' facility?

Just after this we meet a contender for the title of 'Bournemouth's shortest cycle lane' straddling the pavement that divides the two halves of Boscombe Grove Road...

The eastbound section is about 3m long. If you look at it using Google Street View, you can see it puts you on Curzon Rd going the wrong way against the traffic (it's a one-way street)!