Cycle lane infrastructure guidance

[Rob_125]

Hi all,

The local council for some reason has decided to paint a section of cycle lane red. This is usually done in a porous/semi porous asphalt. In this instance it seems they have done it in non porous line paint. This leads to moisture siting on it and it is a death trap. This is on a slightly downhill section of road where you can be doing 30mph. I am avoiding this and just riding in the road, as its a average speed camera 30 I'm usually travelling at the traffic speed so no biggy. However this will catch some less confident cyclists out.

Basically I'm being bombed off by the council. Is there any guidance for cycle lane painting/infrastructure?

[bobbo89]

Short answer is no, so long as it meets the required PSV that's all is really needed.

Sounds to me like they've skimmed over the top with a HFS (high friction surface) material which there's nothing wrong with. Given you say it's on a gradient it all sounds perfectly reasonable to me, assuming it is actually a HFS overlay...

[Rob_125]

Having just looked online it definitely isn't HFS overlay. There are sections on this road with a similar surface, and there are zero issues with this, as expected.

I did see them laying the red paint, it was being sloshed down and spread with a brushless broom/pool squeegy type thing. You can even see where it's been sloshed up the curb. I'd imagine HFS is layed/rolled?

The particular section in question is just pure paint/resin, hence my concerns. It has a glossy finish when wet/dewy, will be interesting to see if it turns into a sheet of ice next week.

Edited by Rob_125 on Friday 9th December 16:52

[bobbo89]

That does sound a bit dodgy then as unless the paint contains some sort of small aggregate or has been treated with a quartz dust or similar then skid resistance in the wet is going to little to non-existent.

Could always drop your council or even one of your local ward councillors a quick e-mail asking what material has been used and whether it has been skid tested....

[fat80b]

In North Cambridge, the best way appear to be to tag a local councillor on Facebook in one of the community groups,

Here, cycle lanes, bollards, a whole number of stupid things have been rectified in a matter of days - I dare say that if you tried to go through the official channels, it would never get resolved.

[Vlad the Imp]

There are a couple of ways to make the cycle lane red. Either do it in red pigmented asphalt, it’s not usually porous but will have some surface roughness or texture to give skid resistance. Alternatively you can cover a standard black asphalt with a high friction surfacing pigmented red. High Friction surfacing is the stuff you see on the approaches to pedestrian crossings that looks like coarse sandpaper and provides a very high level of skid resistance. It’s also possible to paint the black asphalt red in the same way that tennis courts are sometimes painted green. This should provide a good level of skid resistance as although the surface looks pretty smooth, the paint contains fine sand to give it grip.

If you’re concerned about grip, you can always ask the local authority if they have any pendulum skid resistance (SRV) data for the paint.

[Rob_125]

Yeah, thanks all. I used the council self service, which got closed out within 2 hours! I have since emailed a local ward councillor, will be interesting to see if I get a reply!

[Gruffy]

London's first Cycle Superhighways were finished with a non-porous, slippery blue paint that is awful in wet or frosty conditions. They're about a decade old now and still haven't been improved, despite coroners determining that it has contributed to multiple deaths.

Some of the batshit infrastructure decisions lack such basic common sense, at some point you have to wonder if cyclists are being trolled. My guess is the overriding objective was to find a colour that matched the corporate sponsor of the time and performance - or lack of - was completely ignored.

Edited by Gruffy on Tuesday 20th December 13:00