New Dft Guidelines for councils - thoughts anyone?

[JohnInStockie]

Hi Guys

Just seen this and thought I'd throw it open for comment. This document is being circulated by the Dft amongst councils, so it will likely effect all planning for the next 10 years (if we are lucky).

Do people have any views on its content?

John

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tpm/ltnotes/ltn208.pdf

 

[flecc]

Thanks John. I've scanned right through it and it's good to see all the factors for local authority consideration brought together in a single document like this.

Not all of the recommendations are going to meet all opinions, but it's obvious that the cycling organisations have had considerable input and there's many illustrations of good practice. Indeed it would be wonderful if all of our facilities met those minimum standards and usage recommendations.

Taking into account the sheer scale and costs of everything that councils have to consider, it's little wonder they do get things wrong quite often. Such remarks as keeping facilities regularly swept clean are easy to say, but where does the money come from when government makes ever increasing demands on councils while restricting how much they can raise in council tax?
.

 

[Mussels]

Looks good, I have something to send the council now when I moan about their seemingly random cycle lanes popping up in unusable places.

 

[essexman]

Its mostly pretty encouraging. The lane design stuff was very good, although some of the mandatory lanes looked a bit scary.

My only quibbles were:
-Traffic barriers, no mention of trailer users and some of the images were definetly not trailer friendly
-Cycle parking no mention of trailers but mostly massive lack of ambition (eg if you scrapped all of cambridges cycle parking and then replaced it using these guidelines you'd end up with something much worse)

 

[Mussels]

Its mostly pretty encouraging. The lane design stuff was very good, although some of the mandatory lanes looked a bit scary.

My only quibbles were:
-Traffic barriers, no mention of trailer users and some of the images were definetly not trailer friendly
-Cycle parking no mention of trailers but mostly massive lack of ambition (eg if you scrapped all of cambridges cycle parking and then replaced it using these guidelines you'd end up with something much worse)

When I read the bit on barriers it mentioned allowing space for tricycles and child trailers but I don't know how you can block motorbikes without blocking trailers.

 

[essexman]

When I read the bit on barriers it mentioned allowing space for tricycles and child trailers but I don't know how you can block motorbikes without blocking trailers.

Your right. They mentioned it, but did you look at the photos of good practice? No way you'd get one through there.

 

[Mussels]

Your right. They mentioned it, but did you look at the photos of good practice? No way you'd get one through there.

I don't understand why they bother with the one that allows wheelchair access, if a chair can get through the gap then pretty much any 2 wheeled vehicle will as well so why not put a single bollard to stop cars?
I can't even get my panniers through the gates on the Sustrans routes and one of their gates involves a narrow ledge with a fence post on one side and a steep drop on the other, I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they can enjoy touring or taking kids on that route. There are also ten chicane type barriers in a hundred yards that are hard to cycle round, no chance of getting a trailer round those.

 

[essexman]

10 barriers in a 100 yds Ouch!