Bus Stop Issue in WGC

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hardshoulder
Bus Stop Issue in WGC

There is a desire to run a shared use cycle path on the pavement along the north side of Bridge Road in Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 6AB.  This would go from the pedestrian crossing and east to the main traffic light junction to join up with an existing shared use path.

However if you look on Streetview - http://goo.gl/maps/IP0Pi  there is a conflict with the existing Bus Shelter.

There is no space available at the rear, due to the elevated nature of the pavement. (Clue is in the road name). Apart from just having a 'cyclists dismount' section (which we would need anyway by the crossing outside Waitrose) what possibilities are there ?

Any ideas welcome, thanks in advance.

andreengels

The carriageway seems quite broad here. Judging from the width of the car here, twice the width of the bus stop would be plenty. When you use this space for the cycle path, I think it would be enough to allow for a left-passing-plus-island here. Still, it's not ideal - the island might be too small to accomodate the waiting area (what's the English name for that?), and the area for pedestrians to walk around it is already at minimum.

Perhaps a more interesting possibility is to move the bus stop to the right. Extend the traffic island for the pedestrian crossing which can be seen on the right of the picture somewhat, and put the bus stop there. Is there a possibility in the regulations to allow cars to undertake the bus in such a situation?

onlyanotherandy

Looking here, a shared use pavement that puts pedestrians and people cycling into conflict in a narrow space while motorists get the wide road simply isn't good enough. Encouraging pavement cycling is not exactly good either.

Looking at the road network, this road is one of the railway crossings. There is even unused space on this crossing and this one.

Wasn't the Cycling Embassy of GB formed to demand a fairer allocation of roadspace for good cycle and walking infrastructure? A large number of people could get behind such demands.

Suggesting marginal gains to the council (please read!) is wasting campaigners' time and sends the wrong message to politicians. I realise you are well-intentioned.

The eastbound side of the road only has 1 exit lane from the roundabout - that carriageway is only 2 lanes wide to allow cars to pass stopped buses. A rough measurement of the bridge width from Google Earth is 20 metres. You could reclaim that lane with a bidirectional cycleway, like this. The central reservation in the middle with streetlamps don't need to be moved, only the pavement reduced a bit (how many people walk here anyway?) and with new kerbs to separate cycles from the road. It will need good dutch-style junctions at each end, of course. Buses will stop in that single lane. Put a ticket machine on the pavement to reduce delays for both drivers and bus passengers (represented by the wayfinding sign). The metre of kerbed pavement between the cyclepath and road forms a bus-stop-bypass (or floating bus stop) as well.

To sell this to the council will need a strong case provided for dutch-style cycling. Do you have some kind of campaign group? We could use a website that gives quick, strong summaries of all the arguments: cheaper than roads, physical and mental health, pleasant living streets, negative effects of mass car use and car dependency, transport poverty, freedom of movement of: children, the elderly and disabled, etc.

sallyhinch

Just to add, that summarising  all the benefits in one place is one of the things we're working on. Hard to get them all in one coherent post, they are so many and varied!

AKA TownMouse

pete owens

Converting pavements to shared use is effectively reallocating road space from pedestrians to motors, and in any case results in rubbish infrastructure for cyclists, so needs to be vigorously opposed. Whatever you campaign for to improve conditions for cyclists, this should not be at the expense of even more vulnerable road users. 

sallyhinch

Shared space on pavements is just asking for conflict, except on fairly rural roads. Making space on the carriageway would be the first option. 

AKA TownMouse

tombaileytyne

as others say, looks to be some scope to take at least some space from the carriageway.  Part of the solution may be a bus stop where the shelter is cantilevered out, i.e. no ends. so the space under the shelter can function as part of the footway rather than dead space.

Al__S

It appears from a quick "Streetview safari" that the road is a sigle lane leading to this point, then becomes a single lane after the bridge. The extra lane here seems to only serve a purpose as "stacking space" for queues?

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