A controversial new cycle lane, costing £1.2 million, has sparked anger among local shop owners who claim it’s severely impacting their businesses. The Mail has more.
Business owners in Castleton, Greater Manchester claim a new bike path is preventing customers from parking on the road and near their stores.
The cycle lane, which covers both sides of a stretch of Manchester Road, cost £1.2 million and is part of a wider £4.4 million scheme of road improvements.
It took around 18 months to build but despite the time and money put into the path, local shopkeepers say it has killed off their businesses.
Mark Foster, 46, has owned the New Bridge chip shop for more than 20 years but says work on the cycle lane has battered his business and led to a 50% drop in trade.
He said: “As soon as they started digging up the road, there was four-way temporary traffic lights and massive traffic jams, so people were just avoiding the area.
“Even during the construction, there’s not been anywhere to park so our trade has dropped by around 50%.
“The council said that businesses wouldn’t be affected, but obviously they have.” …
Stephen Thomas, 60, owns Smith’s Bakery And Confectioners Ltd, but has been forced to close one of his branches because of the lack of footfall. …
Local resident Julie Jones, 55, thinks the cycle lane is “not a good idea” because she “never sees cyclists” using it.
She said: “I just live near the main road where it all happened.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea because you don’t see cyclists using it at all.
“I think I’ve only seen around three cyclists using it during this time, most people use the canal.
“I saw two people cycling up the road earlier but one person was using the pavement and another was using the main road.”
Worth reading in full.
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Govt doesn’t need business. It can print money. And will. End of.
Government does need business – big business! It is joined at the hip with big business. Corporatism is flourishing in the UK.
When you look at the picture carefully, you can see they have marked two bus stops on the remaining lanes. Traffic will back up behind the bus when it has stopped, unless they can safely navigate around it.
But the bus stops are only 100 yards or so apart and the gap between the end of one stop and the start of the other in the opposite lane is less than two cars long so if buses arrive at both stop at the same time the road will just seize up.
What a farce.
It’s called town planning.
Also called Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.
Without a doubt.
Spot on! SDA 2030 is the overarching blueprint of governance for all establishment parties, no exception.
No, it’s called traffic modelling …… and I’m astounded the traffic model didn’t reject two bus stops so closely aligned.
It’s called control, Councils spend taxpayers money on unused, and unwanted ‘facilities’, and destroy the local shops in the process. Great plan.
It’s a deliberate strategy to p!ss off the maximum number of people and decrease air quality.
The most infuriating thing about some of these schemes is that most cyclists (especially the ones favouring lycra) continue to use the road after they are installed… why? Is it considered pansy to use cycle lanes or something?
The road is faster, usually more direct with fewer disruptions (compared to dedicated cycle routes) and less likely to be covered in glass.
As a cyclist, I hate these sort of separated bike lanes and avoid them like the plague. You are boxed in on one side by the divider so you don’t have anywhere to go if there is an obstacle or a pedestrian walks out in front of you. I find them to be more dangerous when you reach cross streets because drivers don’t always see you and turn across the lane without giving way. My preference would be for the lanes not to exist and just have wider lanes that are shared with the cars.
I’m guessing the three downvotes have come from cyclists! It must be annoying for everyone to see money wasted on these schemes when no one seems to want them – even people on bikes. I’m just trying to understand the issues. Personally I much prefer a cycle lane regardless of all that (and I do see your points, and dislike the way they are being installed at great cost in unsuitable locations) because I feel for myself that riding in the traffic is more dangerous, but then I fully admit to being an amateur recreational cyclist!
I always get the impression that cyclists are campaigning for these things to be installed, but perhaps I’m wrong and they are largely government “green” initiatives?
Everyone always goes on about how we should be more like the Netherlands etc with their separated cycle lanes, I guess that’s where the idea has come from.
The concept is fine, the implementation is the issue and very often it looks like a token effort to tick a box. Some cycle paths are great, like old railway lines, but they are routes that were suitably designed. We can’t look at another country and culture and think their solution will translate directly to here.
Completely agree. Have cycled on roads for many decades and where I live there are no cycle lanes on rural roads. In some towns they have painted dotted lines on pavements with a bicycle logo but these cause continuous conflict with pedestrians and the frequent right angle transitions from pavement to the road are inevitably dangeous.
Another deliberate strategy to kill off small businesses.
Time for direct democracy.
There are more of us than them. Get mobilised.
North Tyneside council have done exactly the same thing along the sea front from Tynemouth to Whitley Bay, but with the additional insult of one way traffic.
The traffic was backed up for miles over the two nice days of the Easter weekend.
I saw many people give up, do a U-turn and drive elsewhere.
Loss of trade will be inevitable.
Nobody voted for this.
Clevedon, Somerset, did it too. Seaside with no parking and a massive cycle lane for a few bikes a day. Now to be reversed, again another £500,000!
Was any cost benefit analysis completed before this grotesque waste of money was implemented? How many end to end cycle trips are completed on a weekly basis? Was any consideration given to the businesses?
A ridiculous and deliberate waste of money intended to disrupt both cars and bikes and kill businesses at the same time.
Cyclists don’t use cycle lanes because if they do they cannot bob and weave in and out between vehicles, knocking door mirrors, scratching doors, nor can they mount the pavement and belt along it to the next Zebra crossing and zip across it to run down the opposite side to miss traffic lights.
Cyclists should be charged for cycle lanes and obliged to use them.
Go look at the millions spent on the cycle lane on the by pass from woodstock in Oxford if you really want to see how out of touch councillors are with the businesses that pay their fat salaries and pensions, its the main road on to the roads to London or Birmingham there are no cyclists but guess what they closed the road for nearly 3 years to build cycle lanes if 2 cyclist use per day I would be amazed but has slowed and disrupted the money making citizens, Let me tell you Oxford council is the worst thing that could ever happen to working people.
wink—–Having never been to Oxford I can just imagine what you are describing. I always remember these words “The best government is the one that governs the least” or words to that effect. ——–Thomas Jefferson or John Locke or whoever. —But today we have governments that govern the MOST. They want to mico manage every activity and control everything that moves.
Why have the lane both sides of the road though (assuming this article isn’t an April fools of course). even in Amsterdam, where a lot more people cycle their main North South road only has a cycle lane on one side.
Cycle lanes are not about looking after cyclists rather they are about causing disruption to the local population. They are the blatant manifestation of malice.
How many different ways can ideologically motivated half wits in National and Local Governments cripple us? If they don’t get us with then Net Zero, they get us with bike lanes, or ULEZ or 20 mph zones, but they get us all every which way in the end. ——So who is these dummy ideologues work for again?—It certainly is not us.
My feelings are that these cycle lanes are being constructed for the future when we have no cars. So it doesn’t matter that only one or two people use it now or that it destroys local business as it’s all part of the plan.
I agree. They’re putting in the infrastructure for the future they intend to impose.
Do all these cycle lanes get booked as road improvements ?
Cyclists are not paying.
As a question how much of the roads budget is cycle paths rainbow crossings etc ?
LGBGees not paying for the rainbows are they ?