Sunday 1 November 2009

There are some good cycle paths in Leamington....

Lets start on a positive note, there are some good examples of cyclepaths in leamington-



This one for instance, although it runs into Warwick, but Leamington and Warwick are joined up so I think we can count this! it goes behind a newish housing development for about a Kilometre and is part of a "safe route to school".
but....





as you can see there is a pedestrian path alongside - the black slightly raised part and for some reason pedestrians don't like walking on black tarmac they prefer the red so often you are dodging walkers and dogs.
Then it rejoins the pavement alongside the main road -


and here you can see the strategically placed telephone pole to help you practice your bike handling skills! this is a feature I never saw in Assen. How difficult is it to move a pole?


Now comes the really good part - at every side road, and there are several, the cyclist has to give way to any traffic emerging. Contrast that with Assen where the cyclist has the right of way across the vast majority of junctions. Also the law is different, a car colliding with a cyclist in Assen would automatically be seen as the guilty party. If you collided with a car here it would be your fault as you did not give way.
Here is Assen, not the width of the path and the lack of pedestrian footway. also not on pavement but a true dedicated cyclepath.

and from david Hembrow's blog a photograph of a long crossing in the netherlands. Note the "sharks teeth" road markings - if the tip of the triangle points towards you you have to give way. Here they all point at the cars!

1 comment:

  1. Those pavement conversions mean that inexperienced and child cyclists will be expected to stop at every junction. They are not likely to always exercise due care. They would be safer on the carriageway, where motorists would be willing to yield to them at junctions with side roads.

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