LTN 1/20 and Victoria Avenue

Victoria Avenue in Harrogate is waiting for its segregated cycle tracks. They were funded by the Active Travel Fund 2 in November 2020, but North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) missed the deadline for construction (31st March 2022), and still hasn’t started.

Nonetheless, there are already some small but helpful bits of cycle infrastructure on Victoria Avenue, which have been there for many years. They chime with one of the Core Design Principles in Cycle Infrastructure Design LTN 1/20 – that routes for cyclists should preferably be more direct than those available for motor vehicles.

Cycle Routes Should Be More Direct Than Those for Motor Vehicles

One reason for the rule that cycle routes should be more direct than those for motor vehicles is that cycling involves physical effort, and if local authorities provide indirect and/or stop-start cycle routes, many people will ignore them.

Another reason for the rule is that we want more people to get around by bike, and fewer people to do so by car – not least because it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve modal shift, highways authorities needs to make active travel more convenient than driving.

Bits of Direct Cycle Infrastructure on Victoria Avenue

In three instances, people on bikes can make movements that drivers are not allowed to make. Those instances are:

• crossing Station Parade, heading west on Victoria Avenue
• turning right out of Princes Square onto Victoria Avenue
• crossing West Park, riding from Beech Grove to Victoria Avenue

Impatient Motorists at Junctions

As well as giving cyclists a more direct route than drivers, these little cycle facilities have an added advantage: when you use them, you don’t have impatient motorists sitting behind you thinking ‘Must Get In Front’.

There’s a stark contrast between crossing Station Parade when you’re heading west (happy and calm with no drivers behind you), and crossing it heading east.

When going east you have to wait at traffic lights, often with an impatient Must Get In Front driver behind you. Sometimes the impatience translates to the revving of an engine.

As soon as the lights change and you cross Station Parade, Victoria Avenue is narrowed by parked cars; because of that, I hold primary position. That has resulted in MGIF drivers blasting their horns at me. Now my tactic is to set off as fast as I can to escape them.

In fact, the way I’m headed (down East Parade) is just as quick by bike as it is by car. If drivers do overtake on Victoria Avenue, I end up stuck behind them all the way down East Parade.

Beech Grove to Victoria Avenue

Beech Grove to Victoria Avenue is another movement that only cyclists are permitted to make – in theory. In practice many drivers ignore the rule and go straight on here, creating danger for anyone on a bike, who risks being side-swiped.

Summary

There are some little bits of cycle infrastructure on Victoria Avenue which are helpful to those of us who cycle already. Safety is uneven and imperfect, though.

To enable more people to get around by bike, proper comprehensive infrastructure is needed, so everyone has confidence that it is clearly safe, and that they will be looked after all the way along their journey, and protected from drivers.

There is a good plan for Otley Road > Beech Grove > Victoria Avenue > Station Parade, but it isn’t being delivered on the ground.

Funding for Victoria Avenue has been in place since November 2020, and the deadline for building the scheme (31st March 2022) has already been and gone.

NYCC is guilty of failing local residents once again. Often this happens because of its negative attitude to active travel and its misguided prioritisation of motor vehicles. In this instance the problem is that NYCC isn’t doing the work it has agreed to do.

The little bits of cycle infrastructure on Victoria Avenue are helpful but not enough. We need NYCC to live up to its promises and get on with the work it has agreed to do.