Appeal for witnesses after cyclist hurt in Bradley Stoke Way accident

1. The road is far too fast taking into consideration the crossing to the leisure centre and secndary school and across to Savages Wood. The number of vehicles I see doing a u turn in the road just past where it goes from 2 to 1 lane is ridiculous and there has been several accidents where motorists have done this and not seen a motorbike. Cars do not keep to 40mph on the road. It is stupid to have such a fast road in the middle of a community, just glad the young boy was not killed…but i fear this will happen one day!

2. We obviously don’t know the full facts of the accident but to suggest that all of Bradley Stoke Way should be less than a 40 is ridiculous. From Pizza Hut up to where it splits is a wide open road – clear visibility either side, no reason for pedestrians to be on it and given the cycle path no reason for any cyclists to be on the road either.

   I do wish the the young lad all the best and hope he fully recovers but let’s not use this as an excuse to reduce an already low speed limit.

3. Every reason for cyclists to be on the road, the shared cycle path does not work unless you want to cycle at such a pace that you might as well walk. Its a crazy idea to mix pedestrians and cyclsts without any division on the pavement. I would love to use the cylce path, but on the occasions that I have in the morning, I have constantly had to dodge children and I do not cycle particularly fast. I would rather risk the road than risk hitting a child on the shared path. Its a shame that the council did not make a better job of this to encourage more cyclists.

4. I agree with Dave that Bradley Stoke Way is generally well-suited to a 40mph speed limit becuase it has wide verges, no parking and no side-roads.

   However, with increasing foot-traffic between the Willow Brook and the Leisure Centre and Community School, there doesn’t seem to be enough warning to slow southbound drivers down to 30mph at the approach to the crossing.

   I know councillors read this website, so maybe they can propose a pretty low-cost but effective solution at the next town council meeting:

   1) Move the start of the 30mph zone back to at least 300 yards before the crossing on the southbound side (possibly with a “Crossing Ahead” panel). At the moment, the speed doesn’t drop until one is abeam the swimming pool, which is too late.

   2) Apply transverse rumble strips on the southbound approach to the crossing from where the 30mph zone starts.

5. The problem with the cycle path along this road is that it is shared use. This is fine if you ride like Miss Marple.

   However, for anyone going over walking speed on a bike during peak hours, sharing the path with toddlers, pushchairs, dogs on leads, children on little bikes, joggers with earphones on and other cyclists coming the other way is just not safe for anyone !

   All of these users have the “right” to be on the path too. And I think a better right than cyclists who can legally use the road and cycle at a meaningful speed (i.e. faster than walking pace).

6. @Bike it – the problem with using the road is that if you are using the new Bristol cycle route that goes up Patchway common and under the A38 underpass, there is no drop-kerb between the end of the dual-carriageway section and Primrose bridge – therefore you have to use the shared cycle path if you don’t want to stop in the gutter to lift your bike up the kerb.
   Plus, I’ve found that that stretch of road isn’t really suited to “gutter bike lanes” as it’s not quite wide enough to accomodate bikes and cars side-by-side, especially as there are islands in the centre.

   Unfortunately, we still haven’t really understood the concept of cycle provision in this country. Most German towns and cities adhere to three-way grade separation of traffic – roads, kerb up to cycle paths, another kerb up to pedestrian path, with proper interchanges between each. This means that cyclists can go as fast or as slow as they want without bothering either pedestrians or drivers.

7. Agreed, the council seem to be spending money highlighting a cycle path that does not work! I always use the cycle lane leading up to the aztec centre roundabout as there is clear division between cyclist and pedestrian. I have only used the new shared path twice and on both occasions felt ill at ease, effectively cyclling down a pavement. Its a pity that so much money was spent on a white elephent

8. The problem with a spead limit of 40mph is that people tend to go “a bit over” the speed limit, whatever it is. So people touch 50+mph frequently down that road, which is too fast 5 metres away from prams and pedestrians. The stretch of road can no more than 1 mile. To cover that distance at 40 mph takes 90 seconds, at 30 mph it takes 120 seconds. 30 extra seconds to people’s journey time; I was about 3mins behind the accident on saturday, I had never seen such a damaged leg and the blood was everywhere. Trying telling him it would be “ridiculous” to add 30 seconds to peoples journey. Shame on you @dave P.

9. Bradley Stoke do seem to like wasting money. Has anyone seen that stupid model of a bike up on a pole up at the bridge? What is the point in that exactly? To be honest, we don’t know what happened on the road at all and the 40mph limit is perfectly fine. From what I have read/heard I imagine the guy was speeding but the cyclist can’t be completely free of any fault if they decided to cross the road without paying enough attention.

10. Problem is that people rarely keep to the 40mph limit and I frequently see children/youths crossing not on the correct crossing points…my point was that in the area of Town Centre and the crossing to leisure centre and secondary school the speed limit should be reduced there. In this area 2 lanes go to one and people are often racing past Tesco’s/Giant store to beat people in the other lane…also when the traffic is queing down Bradley Stoke Lane from Pizza Hut roundabout all the way down to Tesco Extra Store they tend to do a u turn in the orad (not always in the busy period) and this has cause numerous accidents when they dont see motorbikes

11. Jonw – you seemed to have missed the point (not surprising given your overall argument). The accident was outside Tescos – it wasn’t half way down Bradley Stoke Way. How many accidents have been on the long stretch between Pizza Hut and the bend – I’m guessing none and if there have been any I’m guessing none were caused by excess speed. There’s a 30mph limit outside Tesco- maybe it needs to be lengthened by a short distance but the rest of road could quite sensibly be 50.

    Perhaps you’d like us to go back to the days where someone had to walk in front of the car with a flag!

12. Thanks Dave P, but I dont think I did miss the point. The fact you think it should be 50mph tells me all I need to know. By the way, Your village phoned, its missing its idiot.

13. JonW – rather than calling people names, perhaps consider that Dave’s argument is a thought-out one, rather than a knee-jerk reaction.
    I’ll try to elucidate:

    You said:
    “So people touch 50+mph frequently down that road, which is too fast 5 metres away from prams and pedestrians.”

    What is important is not the distance from prams and pedestrians but whether they interact in the same roadspace. For the vast majority of Bradley Stoke Way, there is no such interaction – it is purely a space for vehicles (and cyclists who opt not to use the shared cyclepath). Along these stretches, there have been no accidents, because they are so unlikely to happen.
    Now, WheatfieldResidence correctly points out that there is an issue with people doing u-turns from the north-bound carriageway during morning rush-hour. We also know that there has been an accident at the Tesco crossing, where the speedlimit is already 30mph.
    So, these are the issue to address – changing the speedlimits along the rest of BSW is a pointless proposal in that it doesn’t really change the risks.

14. Jonw – cool, let me know where you are and I’ll pass the info on 🙂

15. There was a fatal accident a few years ago on the bit of road where it bends, just past the end of the dual carriage way, head on collision I think.

16. touche Dave P 🙂

Comments are closed.