When is a cycle lane not a cycle lane?

Question: When is a cycle lane not a cycle lane? Answer: When it’s a bus gate with an advanced stop box.

A new paint job on St Augustine’s Parade has appeared in the last few days to further reinforce the fact that private cars are no longer able to drive down Baldwin Street and over Bristol Bridge.

But the red surface with two large bike symbols has led many people to believe that this is a new cycle lane.

Welcome to the weird world of cycling in Bristol.

The dream cycling infrastructure is to create places that are as safe for eight-year-olds as they are for 80-year-olds.

As the father of daughters aged seven and 11, this scenario rings particularly true for me.

We regularly cycle through the centre, using the virtually invisible cycling infrastructure, dodging and weaving our way around pedestrians who have no clue that they are walking in cycle lanes.

This subtlety has partly come about because it has been deemed that coloured cycle lanes would be an eyesore. But this argument has been rendered completely useless with the arrival of the newly painted red bus gate.

Markings to show the cycle lanes through the centre used to be even more subtle than they are now – photo: Martin Booth

“As you may guess, brightly coloured surface markings on our roads work to help drivers understand how to navigate roads safely,” says the website of NatraTex, Gloucestershire-based specialists in decorative paving and coloured surfacing.

“When demarcations are applied to brightly coloured surfaces, they stand out more and are more likely to be noticed and heeded in a timely manner.”

The problem is that coloured road surfaces have no legal status, with no official government guidance around what a coloured surface should indicate.

Here on St Augustine’s Parade, we have a red lane whose colour has presumably been chosen to make it as visible as possible, with red sections of road also currently being painted along Baldwin Street.

NatraTex say that red “is often used to dissuade vehicles from using a certain area of the road” – this seems most appropriate here when private cars are no longer able to turn right through the centre towards Baldwin Street.

The rules for advanced stop lines from Know Your Traffic Signs – image: Department for Transport

According to NatraTex, “it is difficult to achieve a consistent agreement between highways authorities on colour systems. Nevertheless, coloured surfacing is being widely used in tandem with signs and road markings to improve the operation of roads, leading to greater safety.”

Greater safety is indeed vital. As Green Party councillor Emma Edwards told me last week, Bristol should have a target of zero deaths on the road.

But now we have a ludicrous situation where a section of road that cyclists can choose to share with buses and taxis is more clearly marked as a cycle lane than the cycle lane that runs parallel.

“It has been deemed that coloured cycle lanes would be an eyesore. But this argument has been rendered completely useless with the arrival of the newly painted red bus gate.” – photo: Martin Booth

Walk through the centre near KaFei or through Queen Square from Pero’s Bridge towards Redcliffe Way and you will experience regular conflict between pedestrians and cyclists.

This is either because the cycle lanes are virtually invisible or because the shared space is not working.

If we can paint bus gates red, let’s paint cycle lanes a different colour as well so they can easily be distinguished as cycle lanes.

Even better: let’s provide more segregated cycle lanes like we already have in the city centre on Prince Street and Baldwin Street, and the best of the lot on Whitehouse Street in Bedminster.

Cycle lanes that are safe enough for eight-year-olds cannot just be created by a lick of paint.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more:

• ‘Improving public transport will be crucial both economically and environmentally’
• ‘The main barrier to seeing more everyday cyclists in Bristol is safety’
• ‘We need to make walking and cycling the fastest, safest and most convenient option’

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