Tadcaster Road Cycle Improvements Barely Started As Completion Date Goes By

The cycle improvements to Tadcaster Road York were due to be completed by 30th September 2023. I went to have a look that day, and was surprised and disappointed to find that they had barely started.

The bus stop bypass (opposite the Slingsby Grove shops) pictured above was the only new cycle infrastructure I could see.

City of York’s Tadcaster Road Improvements pages still say that the scheme will start in January 2023 and finish in September 2023. Obviously that needs to be updated.

What Is the Design?

The design of cycle infrastructure on Tadcaster Road is largely 1.8m-wide mandatory cycle lanes with some plastic cycle lane bollards ‘at strategic locations along the route’.

What Provision is there at the end of September 2023?

As noted above, almost none of the cycle infrastructure had been delivered by the completion deadline of September 2023.

This means that the provision on Tadcaster Road is the same as it ever was.

Heading south from Knavesmire Road, there’s a path by the Knavesmire.

White line segregation is not recommended, but this is nevertheless the nicest section because you’re away from the motor vehicles.

A little further along, there’s a narrow painted advisory cycle lane.

I believe the intention at locations like this is to remove central refuges and replace them with pedestrian crossings. The extra road width effectively created means the cycle lanes can be widened and made mandatory (solid white line).

The Moor Lane roundabout isn’t too bad heading south, because there is only one roundabout arm (Principal Rise) to cross.

It would be better if there was a priority crossing.

I turned around at Askham Bar Park & Ride, and headed back north towards the city.

The Moor Lane roundabout is very slow and inconvenient in this direction, if you use the cycle facilities. That’s because there are two roundabout arms to cross, and each arm has a two-stage crossing with separate beg buttons to push for each stage of the crossing.

After the roundabout there is a narrow painted advisory cycle lane.

It’s at Slingsby Grove that the current arrangements are at their worst – conflict with motor vehicles is designed in.

Vehicle storage is prioritised over safe cycle facilities.

Outside the Fox & Roman, there’s a dodgy painted cycle lane that runs between car parking and a pedestrian refuge.

There just isn’t enough space for motor vehicles to pass the pinch point between the central refuge and the cycle lane, and painting it that way is criminal.

Most of the time the excuse councils give for not putting in proper cycle tracks is, ‘the road’s too narrow, there’s not enough space’. But we see that where the road is wider, the space is taken by parked cars, and we’re also not allowed proper cycle tracks.

Current Arrangements Not Good Enough, When Are the Improvements Going to Happen?

As shown above, the current arrangements are not good enough. The deadline for completion of the improvements has passed by with virtually nothing done.

When are the Tadcaster Road cycle improvements going to happen?