Surviving the Bristol bike lane

By Brian Clegg

At the moment I’m commuting to Bristol once a week to do some work at the university on behalf of the Royal Literary Fund. I’m very fond of Bristol as a city, but there times when I wonder if their green policies have been entirely thought through.

When they first introduced rental e-scooters I pointed out that they were sometimes left in hazardous locations – this seems less the case now, though I did come across one recently nearly blocking a pedestrian crossing. But the most dangerous aspect is some of the central bike lanes.

I’m all in favour of getting people out of cars and buses, but I wish there was more focus on walking. This is significantly better for you over a particular time duration than using a bike or e-scooter – but that’s not my point. Inevitably fitting bike lanes into an old city centre can be tricky. And some of them here are downright dangerous. The only time I’ve been nearly killed by a bicycle was someone coming down the steep slope of Park Street in Bristol and transitioning from the bike lane to the pavement at about 30 miles per hour.

Of all the facilities for bike riders, though, the one portrayed above strikes me as particularly dangerous. The bike lane runs through a large stretch of pavement – but it is only distinguished by colour and a change of paving stone. There are no effective tactile warnings that you are entering a bike lane on foot for those with limited sight – and the riders show no care for stray pedestrians who may not even know that the darker bit is a bike line (there are a few faded markings on the ground, but that’s all – no big clear signs). At one point you have to cross the bike lane to continue on the pavement. This is marked (again, only on the ground) to show bikes should give way to pedestrians – but I’ve never seen that happen.

People do get seriously injured and even killed when bikes collide with pedestrians. This needs a re-think.

Image by the author

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.