But undertaking traffic on a bike is....unwise, it could be downright lethal on a roundabout. If there's a queue then ride past it on the outside.
Paul obviously thinks they're compulsory:
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And if you are intending to cycle straight along the road, you will be fined and castrated if you don't make a left turn into the lane, halt at the white lines, indicate clearly and make a left turn to continue on your way. Come work for your Local Council, excellent wages and benefits package, free lobotomy provided.
- paul, milton keynes, UK, 24/8/2011 13:07 Rating 2
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So in fact it makes perfect sense for cyclist safety
Not really, if there's room to cross then there's room to move into the traffic flow. There's a roundabout ahead, so traffic should be slowing anyway, and there's the hatched area in the middle of the road which should give motorists plenty of room to move out to pass cyclists. But instead we end up with a cycle lane, used by inexperienced/nervous cyclists that keeps them away from traffic on a wide, safe looking road, and then spits them awkardly out into traffic on a massive roundabout. They're the same in a lot of places: nice, slow, wide road gets a cycle lane painted on the side of it. When the road narrows, or gets to a junction, 'traffic flow' takes over from safety and the lane disappears.
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I think I get it. So, assuming there's a queue of traffic, and you wanted to turn left at the roundabout, you would cross over from the main cycle path opposite, and the U-shaped cycle lane prevents you from having to do a sharp 90° turn around a queuing car on the nearside of the road
I've got to be honest, I'm a regular (100miles+ per week) cyclist and I didn't know that's what those lanes were for, not that I think there's any benefit to it anyway. Perhaps some signage would help. But if you look at the sharp turn of the path, and the fact it's covered with moss, it doesn't look like the kind of thing that can be taken at any speed, so the 'nipping' across would have to be done pretty slowly (hit wet moss on a slick tyred bike and you'll be eating tarmac in no time). Which brings us back to it just being easier to join the main carriageway without using the lane.