Footway widths and shared spaces
Your comments...
I am concerned that shared use sections put pedestrians, cyclists, and cars into conflict.
Cheltenham Road is used by many pedestrians. This includes parents taking young children to school in large groups, the elderly and disabled. They will not have enough room if they have to share the pavement with cyclists. This will be extremely dangerous, causing collisions and accidents.
In shared spaces cyclists tend to give pedestrians little room and are as dangerous to pedestrians as cars can be to cyclists. In these proposals pedestrians are sometimes being put at a risk that is greater than a cyclist is from motor vehicles.
Many cyclists currently cycle on the pavement and don’t have any regard for pedestrians.
It is important not to forget pedestrians in the scheme, with the new road user hierarchy giving pedestrians a higher priority than cyclists. It is important at junctions or where the footpath/cycleway cross cyclists should be giving way to pedestrians and markings should reflect this.
Our response...
The most recent guidance from the Department for Transport (DfT) makes clear that the priority must be to physically separate and protect cyclists from high volume motor traffic, both at junctions and on the stretches of road between them. Cyclists who have historically used the pavement have done so because they do not feel safe and comfortable on the carriageway. The project aims to encourage Active travel as a whole and has incorporated many pedestrian priority measures, including at bus stops.
In some circumstances, where there is little available width or where no safer alternative, there are shared use footway/cycleway facilities. However, we have tried to keep these to an absolute minimum. More space has been dedicated to the cycleway whilst attempting to retain and increase as much footway as possible. In most cases, existing carriageway width has been reallocated to cyclists and pedestrians. However, minimum road widths dictate how much space can be reallocated whilst still ensuring large vehicles can pass each other safely. Buying private land to increase the space available is not a viable option in an urban environment and the presence of underground utilities can also influence the design. The proposed scheme balances the needs of all highway users and residents.
Several industry experts have approved the revised cycle path design and it has been subject to a rigorous assessment by the newly formed government agency Active Travel England
As a result of feedback received during the consultation, we have provided the opportunity for cyclists travelling eastbound, between Old Cheltenham Road and Horsbere Brook to exit and re-join the cycle track and cycle on the carriageway and avoid the shared use footway/cycleway should they wish.
