The Queen Victoria Road Cycle Track officially opened earlier this month with the next phase of the work due to start soon to extend the route through the junction with Claremont Road.
We’ve been very excited to finally see this flagship scheme finished and with both the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Newcastle University located on this road, we anticipate it being a very well used piece of infrastructure.
There are however a few areas that we feel need a little explanation as they don’t feel immediately obvious or intuitive. This mainly concerns how people cycling get across to the hospital now that the two way track is located on the east side of the road. With each of the crossings being slightly different, we’ve been down to have a look and hopefully make things a bit clearer.
Just passing through and don’t need to access the hospital? Skip to the end!
Approaching from the north the two-way track is blocked to prevent anyone cycling northbound emerging into oncoming motor traffic travelling in the opposite direction. The kerbs here have been dropped and the pavement tarmacked to indicate a shared space. This allows people cycling to mount the kerb to access the cycle track. However, this space does get very busy at peak times which can make the manoeuvre a bit tricky.
At the first crossing as we cycle south it’s not necessarily obvious how anyone cycling can turn into the hospital and we’ve had a few queries about how this works. The pavement here is shared space. Again this is indicated by the tarmacked pavement, dropped kerbs and here, shared space signs. To cross on a bike you cycle onto the pavement and use the crossing. This shared crossing also means the track will remain open to those travelling straight ahead until all traffic is stopped.
The second crossing is a little more obvious. Again the pavement area here is shared space indicated by tarmac, dropped kerbs and signage. BUT people cycling get their own crossing area this time that leads directly into the hospital grounds.
The third crossing into the hospital grounds is different again – just to keep you on your toes. This time there is no dropped kerb or shared space but there is a beg button just ahead of the advance stop line (visible in the picture to the left).
In practice we found that we didn’t need to shuffle forward to press this as after a few seconds we were detected and the light illuminated.
At this junction all traffic is stopped and only one stage goes at a time with people cycling, crossing, and those driving from Richardson Road, QV Road and Leazes Terrace all going separately.
This means two things. Firstly there is no need to mount the kerb to cross into the hospital. When those cycling have a green light it’s safe to turn into the hospital from either direction, either on the road or using the shared space, as all other traffic has stopped.
BUT – and it’s a big but – the lights cycle is looooooong. We timed it at around 2mins 30 and saw a lot of people cycling straight through the red light. The cycle phase is on red to allow any vehicles that need to turn down St Thomas’ Street to do so without waiting for the cycle lane to be clear (and we suspect to maintain the flow of traffic). For a lot of the time the space looks confusingly clear of traffic and we can see why people looked puzzled.
Last but not least the cycle track ends with a lights signalised crossing over Leazes Terrace and into Leazes Cresecent.
Again all other traffic is stopped when this light sequence is on green so it’s safe to turn left and right as well as go straight ahead.
The bollard positioning looks a bit tight on approach but isn’t too bad as you get closer. Again though this can be a long light sequence if you don’t get through on the same stage.
Overall we’re delighted that this scheme is finally approaching completion. It’s a key connection in the city linking other infrastructure together to get people safely from one side to another, as well as supporting many students, staff and visitors to both the hospital and the university.
We’ll be feeding back to the council regarding the bits we think might cause issues, but the short reponse is more please!