Steve Gaunt Pontificates

Kirklees Roads - Part 2

I am sure I remember a rule that said all local authorities were supposed to provide good quality dual carriageway routes to there nearest motorway junctions.

So why have Kirklees done this to Leeds Road and New Hey Road?
One of these was a fair quality dual carriageway, the other, Leeds Road, certainly needed to made into one
But what do Kirklees do? They made our motorway feeders into bus lanes and cycle tracks then put stupidly slow speed limits on them, enforced by mostly (after the recent changes) illegal speed cameras.

There are even cycle tracks on the little used part of Leeds Road leading up to the Northumberland Street junction.
I wonder if anyone has bothered to count how many cyclists actually use these tracks. Not that many I would guess, after all we live in one of the hilliest and wettest towns in England. No one in their right mind uses a cycle except as an extreme fitness measure.

Further along Leeds Road is one of the worst examples of cycle track madness.
With great pomp and ceremony they announce the opening of the Bradley cycle track.
Now this one is fine it's built along the route of an old railway line, which is where cycle tracks should be, so what's the problem? Simply that it runs parallel with the tracks on Leeds Road for a considerable distance. This only enforces my view that the cycle tracks are nothing to do with providing safe routes (along main roads?) for cyclist but simply as some sort of vindictive swipe at motorists.

A letter to the Examiner raised a further point about the Bradley track. It seems that there are difficult in negotiating gates along it, forcing cyclist to dismount. Apparently these are to prevent motor cyclists using the track. Well I can see why they might want to given the state of Leeds Road, but this is insanity.

To expand on the previous comment about the cycle tracks being alongside roads, have you noticed how these tracks always stop short of bends? This is because they don't want the expense and embarrassment of the court case when someone is knocked off whilst riding on their unsafe cycle track.

Get real Kirklees! Rip up these cycle tracks (the ones along the sides of roads anyway) and either provide proper public transport or rip up the bus lanes as well.
Then turn Leeds road into the elevated dual carriageway that it should have become 30 years ago.
It would be nice to see my taxes going into something useful for a change maybe then we can attract the new business to this town that they are always raving about but doesn't actually exist.

Stop Press
Kirklees have announced that they are drawing up plans to "improve" Bradford Road by adding (you guessed it) bus lanes and cycle tracks. If this is an improvement I'm moving.

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Introduction	Local Transport
Old Mill Buildings	Old Mill Buildings 2
Jobs For Over 40's	The University Page
Kirklees Roads - Part 2	The Euro Debate
The UK Drugs Debate	Music Snobs
Aunty Beeb	Desert Island Disks
Fashion	The Internet
Response From Steve