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Keep cycle lanes off the Old Shoreham Road



H

hornelius

New member
Mar 16, 2022
3
Hello all, on Tuesday night, the council approved the Local Cycling and Walking plan for Brighton and Hove.

Amongst other things, this means a cycle lane will be back on the Old Shoreham Road in less than 5 years. This MUSTN'T happen.

The temporary lane during Covid was a huge failure, causing congestion, pollution, delaying emergency services, and causing huge conflict between drivers and cyclists across the city, not just on the Old Shoreham Road.

Please sign the petition to get the council to remove the Old Shoreham Road from this plan - and please share it with friends, family neighbours - and anyone local. We need as many names as possible on there when this gets heard by the council on 7th April:
https://democracy.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=803&RPID=52309058&HPID=52309058
 






U

Uter

Well-known member
Aug 5, 2008
1,474
The land of chocolate
hornelius said:
The temporary lane during Covid was a huge failure, causing congestion, pollution, delaying emergency services, and causing huge conflict between drivers and cyclists across the city, not just on the Old Shoreham Road.
https://democracy.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=803&RPID=52309058&HPID=52309058
Click to expand...

Perhaps you could link to some evidence as to the above, in particular the claims about pollution and delays to emergency services. I don't think you will be able to.

I counted 93 duplicate names on this petition yesterday. Pretty sad that people are resorting to this.

Sooner we get a permanent cycle lane back the better as far as I am concerned.

There is room for cars and a segregated cycle lane.
 


Bold Seagull

Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,774
Hove
Very occasional congestion on the OSR, most of the time it runs clear. With careful planning, not squeezing down filtering at key junctions there is no reason the OSR can't have an integrated transport plan. Plenty of room for both as per [MENTION=12187]Uter[/MENTION].
 


Weststander

Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 25, 2011
63,875
Withdean area
I’m always pro cycling and cyclist, I cycle.

But the OSR cycle lane was rarely used. With hideous, avoidable traffic jams created eg westward to Station Road. Leading to the madness of cars driving down Olive Road, then right and right again in a silly circuit.

The evidence: I was down the OSR many times during the cycle lane period and it was empty.

The natural west-east arteries favoured by cyclists seem to be the seafront or Portland Road.
 




Bold Seagull

Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,774
Hove
Weststander said:
I’m always pro cycling and cyclist, I cycle.

But the OSR cycle lane was rarely used. With hideous, avoidable traffic jams created eg westward to Station Road. Leading to the madness of cars driving down Olive Road, then right and right again in a silly circuit.

The evidence: I was down the OSR many times during the cycle lane period and it was empty.

The natural west-east arteries favoured by cyclists seem to be the seafront or Portland Road.
Click to expand...

Loads of kids use the OSR for Hove Park, Blatchington Mill then Cardinal Newman and onto BHASVIC. For pretty much 21 or so hours of everyday this stretch of road is largely empty. Traffic goes in waves from the lights at Hangleton Road and Saville Road.

The temporary cycle lane didn't properly consider filtering East boundary after the Hangleton Rd lights, or queuing westbound. At Sackville Road the queuing traffic is no different because the inside lane is left turn only in each direction.

Other than the approach to the junctions you mention, no reason the rest cannot be down to single lanes and having bike lanes. The West bound queues you mention rarely ever go back as far as the Margery Road shops, so only needs to be 2 lanes back to say that point. A re-design of the Stapely / Olive / OSR junction could also greatly improve the safety there too.

Absolutely no reason a well thought out design shouldn't be able to accommodate both the queues you mention at peak times and cyclists having their own lane for most of the route.
 


Weststander

Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 25, 2011
63,875
Withdean area
Bold Seagull said:
Loads of kids use the OSR for Hove Park, Blatchington Mill then Cardinal Newman and onto BHASVIC. For pretty much 21 or so hours of everyday this stretch of road is largely empty. Traffic goes in waves from the lights at Hangleton Road and Saville Road.

The temporary cycle lane didn't properly consider filtering East boundary after the Hangleton Rd lights, or queuing westbound. At Sackville Road the queuing traffic is no different because the inside lane is left turn only in each direction.

Other than the approach to the junctions you mention, no reason the rest cannot be down to single lanes and having bike lanes. The West bound queues you mention rarely ever go back as far as the Margery Road shops, so only needs to be 2 lanes back to say that point. A re-design of the Stapely / Olive / OSR junction could also greatly improve the safety there too.

Absolutely no reason a well thought out design shouldn't be able to accommodate both the queues you mention at peak times and cyclists having their own lane for most of the route.
Click to expand...

We'll have to agree to disagree.

IMHO - all the way back to April 2020, until when the cycle lanes were removed, it simply didn't generate numbers of cyclists. It was largely a cyclists desert.

Comparing it to all the other cycle lanes in the wider city, it was a white elephant.

For various reasons I'm down that way many times, sometimes by bike, including during the school/normal rush hours.

For personal reasons to you, it was very beneficial, I get that.

But I don't think cycle lanes should be imposed anywhere, for the obvious benefits, when they're rarely used.

There's a price to pay. The vast majority of folk still use cars, trains and buses in the city. We don't and probably will never see the excellent light railway systems popping up all over Europe and in some lucky northern UK cities.

Reasons - boxed in by the sea and Downs, very dense urban landscape, not a sea of redundant industrial sites and a conurbation population of 334,000 doesn't appear to hit the magic number to make the multi £b cost work.

The price was ridiculous jams, westbound at Sackville and westbound at StationRd/BoundaryRd. It took countless phases of lights to get through. That's pollution, that's lost time for thousands of folk.

As an open-minded person on these matters, if it had seen big number of cyclists, I probably would have the opposite opinion. It simply never took off. This was covered in news articles at the time, where I think either journalists or opponents managed to find out the real numbers.
 


Bold Seagull

Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
29,774
Hove
Weststander said:
We'll have to agree to disagree.

IMHO - all the way back to April 2020, until when the cycle lanes were removed, it simply didn't generate numbers of cyclists. It was largely a cyclists desert.

Comparing it to all the other cycle lanes in the wider city, it was a white elephant.

For various reasons I'm down that way many times, sometimes by bike, including during the school/normal rush hours.

For personal reasons to you, it was very beneficial, I get that.

But I don't think cycle lanes should be imposed anywhere, for the obvious benefits, when they're rarely used.

There's a price to pay. The vast majority of folk still use cars, trains and buses in the city. We don't and probably will never see the excellent light railway systems popping up all over Europe and in some lucky northern UK cities.

Reasons - boxed in by the sea and Downs, very dense urban landscape, not a sea of redundant industrial sites and a conurbation population of 334,000 doesn't appear to hit the magic number to make the multi £b cost work.

The price was ridiculous jams, westbound at Sackville and westbound at StationRd/BoundaryRd. It took countless phases of lights to get through. That's pollution, that's lost time for thousands of folk.

As an open-minded person on these matters, if it had seen big number of cyclists, I probably would have the opposite opinion. It simply never took off. This was covered in news articles at the time, where I think either journalists or opponents managed to find out the real numbers.
Click to expand...

Well, regardless of cycle lanes or not, you don't need a dual carriageway all the way between Hangleton Road and Sackville Road. Maybe a bit for queuing to the lights and after for filtering. Could make it a tree lined avenue, whatever, but it's unnecessary as a dual carriageway through a residential area that has long be surpassed in it's original need by the bypass.

I don't disagree for the pinch points at the lights, but there is over a mile of road between the set of lights at Hangleton and Sackville. For at least 75% of that, a dual carriageway is really not needed.

As for the numbers, most of the data was collected during lockdowns, people working from home, schools shut, leisure facilities shut. Surprise surprise cycling numbers down. So much for long term planning and long term strategies for enabling transformations in behaviours.
 


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