Category Archives: McMullen Road

Red Rag at Red Barns?

Posted on by Posted in infrastructure, McMullen Road, routes 15 Comments
Posted by Picasa

Last year, the otherwise excellent cycle path along McMullen Road was cruelly interrupted by the installation of the above barrier. Just when the Campaign thought that such needless interruptions had become a thing of the past, this appeared. The logic is sadly obvious.

Cyclists approaching this point from the south are riding down a relatively steep incline. Here, they cross a side street into the Red Barns estate. Because of the incline, it has been deemed insufficient for cyclists to have a “give way” sign painted on the cycle path. So a barrier has been installed. Apparently, this followed an accident, though details have so far not been forthcoming.
So why is this junction dangerous? The only reason that there is any danger is the totally obscuring fence that the residents have been allowed to build, and which can easily be modified so that emerging drivers can see the path, but passing pedestrians and cyclists cannot look into the adjacent property.

When we took the above picture we witnessed the result – a young cyclist simply jumped the pavement 20 yards uphill and continued his journey on road, rather than stopping and negotiating the barrier.
This stretch of cycle path was the subject of Campaign consultation when it was first mooted a few years ago. At that time, we urged the council to begin the process of driver education by giving cyclists right of way at this junction. The reason was simple. The side road is in fact a private cul-de-sac servicing a handful of houses. Traffic is so light that even the most dedicated petrolhead could not argue that giving way to cyclists constituted a great inconvenience. And without the obscuring fence, there would be a perfectly clear view between cyclists and any emerging vehicle.
To many, this might indeed seem like little more than an inconvenience to cyclists. But the philosophy behind its construction is deep rooted in the average British traffic planner’s psyche. As the little inconveniences aggregate together into a giant pain in the bum, it is little wonder that the UK continues to be a world loser in the cycle rates league, and a world leader in the crap infrastructure league.
Next week (Thursday 20th January, 6.15pm in the Town Hall), the Campaign will be bringing our views on this little gem to the council’s next Cycle Forum. This is open to anyone with an interest in cycling, so please join us if you can.

Residents call for safety move on The Broadway

Posted on by Posted in 20MPH, McMullen Road, schools, traffic calming

A petition is being prepared by residents of a Darlington street who believe an accident is imminent because of poor road markings.

Residents of The Broadway, off Yarm Road, in Eastbourne, have complained to ward councillor Ian Haszeldine that the absence of road markings at the busy junction with Yarm Road is a danger to road users.

The matter is compounded by extra traffic using The Broadway for access to Heathfield Primary School and as a shortcut for the industrial estates in Lingfield.

Residents are calling for the road to be made a 20mph zone, and for extra markings to keep the junction free from parked cars.

Heathfield School is one which has had good results in encouraging its pupils to cycle to school and it would be a shame if safety fears led to a decline in the numbers cycling to school, or if the school felt it had to discourage cycling as has happened at at least one Darlington school.

Ironically, the very thing which encourages cars to make use of this street as a rat run is also what makes it key to cycling in the area; it enables access to the Lingfield industrial estates without the need to ride on the large McMullen Road/Yarm Road roundabout.

Paving by the McMullen Road cycle path

Posted on by Posted in Haughton Road, infrastructure, McMullen Road, Ring Road 3 Comments

In an earlier post’s comments, a reader asked about some paving which had been installed on the new cycle path on the inner ring road, commenting that it looked dangerous. Having not seen the paving, I at first assumed that the commenter meant the tactile paving which is used at the start and end of cycle paths to indicate the nature of the path to visually impaired pedestrians. My wife then mentioned some new paving on the edge of the McMullen Road cycle path which sounded similar and which wasn’t tactile paving, so I went to have a look.

McMullen/Haughton Roads - Paving

The paving is block paving, with some blocks protruding almost an inch in a staggered pattern.

McMullen/Haughton Roads - Paving

The paving fills the gap between the cycle path and the road, where it moves away from the edge of the road to avoid a telegraph pole.

McMullen/Haughton Roads - Paving

To me, it looks like it is intended to prevent cyclists from attempting to merge with traffic pulling out of McMullen Road and instead to direct them towards using the pavement to either join Haughton Road heading into town, to cross Haughton Road and then proceed along either the road or the Riverside Path, or to cross McMullen Road and use the riverside path towards Mill Lane. However, there are no markings to indicate that this is the case.

My advice for anone heading down McMullen Road on the bike path who wishes to join the road traffic on Haughton Road would be to make use of the box junction just visible in the first photo, or the one slightly further up McMullen Road, to access McMullen Road while the traffic is stationary and then to proceed as normal. If you wish to access either of the off-road paths, use the pedesitrian crossings to do so, taking care to avoid other users.

It is possible to ride over the paving (I tried) but only at very slow speeds. Not recommended!

The City That Never Walks

Posted on by Posted in Bikes, cars, environment, Haughton Road, infrastructure, McMullen Road, North Road, noteworthy, Pedestrian Heart, pedestrians, politics, routes, trains 6 Comments

In The City That Never Walks, Robert Sullivan discusses the changes that some American cities are making to encourage their residents to walk or cycle, rather than taking the car:

places like downtown Albuquerque, where one-way streets have become more pedestrian-friendly two-way streets, and car lanes are replaced by bike lanes, with bike racks everywhere

Some of the schemes listed are already taking place in Darlington, but lots are not.

* a walkable town centre
* purposely limited parking
* a new bus plaza that is part of a mass transit renaissance
* an urban walking and biking trail [linking] neighbourhoods
* charges drivers a fee to enter the core business area
* police sting operations arrest speeding drivers
* replaced parking spaces near a subway station with rows of bike racks
* some traffic lights are programmed to change for approaching buses

We have the Pedestrian Heart, but what of some of the other schemes?

Someone needing to travel between Bishop Auckland or Newton Aycliffe and Darlington for work or education has very little choice but to drive. Should Darlington not be pushing for changes to the train timetable?

Any new scheme in the centre of town seems to need more car parking. When the TK Maxx building was built on the Crown Street car park, why did it need the car park addition? When the Commercial Street development takes place, will the multi-storey car park built near Gladstone Street increase traffic in that area? What will this do to the residents’ health and lifestyles?

Some work is being done to increase the number of off-road walking and cycling tracks around the town, but could more be done? I can almost get from my house to the town centre without touching a main road. Almost. Whatever way I go, I end up having to make the last part of the journey on North Road or Haughton Road. We need these last missing links putting into place.

We could go even further than that, it is possible to link Hurworth village into the Riverside Path/McMullen Road cycle path that gives an off-road link to the town centre and both Further Education colleges, but part of the route is along a muddy bridleway. Imagine being able to ride from Hurworth to the town centre without having to use a main road. It’s possible.

I’ve seen speed cameras on North Road recently, but not as often as I’ve seen speeding cars. I’ve seen traffic wardens, but I see a lot more illegally parked cars, vans and trucks. I see buses sat in queues of traffic, and cyclists on the pavement because they’ve been hounded off the roads by bad driving and too many cars. I hear of people driving to Northallerton, Teesside or Tesco to shop, because it’s so hard and unpleasant to get into the town centre.

Anything put forward as an idea to kerb car use is “branded as anti-car, and thus anti-personal freedom”. Increasing parking charges or a bringing in a congestion charge or road toll is seen as yet another tax on the motorist.

But as matters now stand, the pedestrian [and cyclist] is taxed every day: by delays and emissions […]. Though we think of it as a luxury, the car taxes us, and with it we tax others.

So, let’s see some of the car parking spaces in Abbots Yard or Skinnergate replaced with bike racks. Let’s see some pressure on the train operators to make their timetable useable and useful. Let’s see a crackdown on irresponsible driving before a crackdown on irresponsible cycling. Let’s see buses given more priority at more junctions. Let’s see some effort put in to try and create the missing last sections of the cycle network. Let’s see a blanket 20MPH speed limit across the town.

Let’s stop ‘taxing’ our pedestrians and cyclists and let’s make Darlington a real Sustainable Transport Town.