Farcility sightlines

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in another thread the latest attempt
by Suffolk CC to kill cyclists, approved by Sustrans. Yesterday I did a
quick survey of the site and got some figures.

The problem is that cyclists heading west on NCN-51 are on a scared use
path on the Exning Road out of Newmarket, and are directed to get off
the path and cross the road to join a 1m wide advisory cycle lane when
they get into Exning. The crossing point is close to the apex of a
corner (TL 622654 [1]). Visibility in one direction is about 250m, but
in the other direction it's 40m. So I took a stopwatch and timed how
long it took between a driver being able to see a cyclist standing at
the crossing point and actually reaching the crossing point. Or a
cyclist being able to see a vehicle coming and being hit by it....

20 timings: min 2.3 seconds, max 3.7 seconds, average 3.0

These cars, vans and trucks were all either on their own or the leaders
of a queue: followers in a queue were ignored.

Of those 20 drivers 2 were on a hand-held mobile phone (and faster than
average) and 1 was eating...

So, how do you fancy your chances crossing at that point?



[1] http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=tl622654&ll=52.263088,0.375697&sp n=0.001845,0.00456&t=k



Mike

Mike Causer wrote:

in the other direction it's 40m. So I took a stopwatch and timed how
long it took between a driver being able to see a cyclist standing at
the crossing point and actually reaching the crossing point. Or a
cyclist being able to see a vehicle coming and being hit by it....

20 timings: min 2.3 seconds, max 3.7 seconds, average 3.0

Sounds an absolute bloody nightmare. Have you bought this to Sustrans',
council's, etc, attention? And if so, what is their response?

R.

On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:14:42 +0000, Richard wrote:

Sounds an absolute bloody nightmare. Have you bought this to Sustrans',
council's, etc, attention?

Not yet, but I will. I think taking a 400mm lens down there for some
photos will do a good job of illustrating the problem.

In practice that crossing is quite unlikely to be used. All the local
traffic, kids & adults, who were already on the path /before/ it was
scared use will simply continue on the pavement. Any experienced cyclist
would be on the perfectly reasonable road anyway.


Mike