Stupid Cycle Lanes

By John Freeman on August 8, 2006

Stupid Cycle Lanes – York

Just been sent this great site (www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.uk/facility-of-the-month) with a plethora of examples of silly cycle lanes. The one above is in York (pic credited to one Ian Bromsgrove). You can click on the left arrow at the top of the page on the site to go back through the months…

One for gas guzzlers to enjoy at the thought of all those wretched cyclists having a hard time, while the cyclists can simply either laugh or despair at the stupidity of councils everywhere.

No local examples (although there is a classic from Blackpool): I’m sure they would be appreciated. Obviously, since Lancaster is one of Britain’s “Cycling Towns” (and getting shedloads of money to be so) local cyclists don’t want similar stupidity to happen here. Given that the council’s usual concept of road planning for non car users seems to consist largely of building pelican crossings at locations only where (and after) people have been killed crossing the road, you can see they have every right to be worried…

I’m sure there must be an equivalent site for stupid road layouts, but I haven’t found it yet. Of course, the funny side of this evaporates when you realise just how much all these civic works cost…

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.