THIS IS Hackney council’s idea of how a cycleway should look in the 21st century.

As if to snub pleas for paths that segregate bikes from cars, it has just opened a cycleway that runs in short lengths along 100m of Parkholme Road, Dalston E8 3AG, before forcing cyclists to ride against the traffic.

In that, it may be more dangerous than the path in Greenwood Road, a few hundred metres east,  which even councillors in the ruling Labour group have admitted is a mistake.

Hackney’s animus towards dedicated cycleways has so frustrated cyclists that a group was formed in 2014 to oppose it. One of the aims of the group, Hackney People on Bikes, is Dutch-style protected cycling spaces in the borough.

Old people and parents with children, however, are reluctant to test whether motorists also accept that right.

Not all residents of the street are happy, either, with the road change. Penny Wallis told Loving Dalston: “This scheme is ridiculous.

“Already, you can see cyclists zooming on to the pavement from the path marked on the road when it ends [after a few metres].

“Some continue on the road” but they had to be brave to continue in the face of oncoming traffic on a one-way road one car wide when a vehicle was coming towards them.

At the NW entrance to the street, council staff were reinstalling a bike shed in a parking space. Near by were reams of pavement space where the shed could be placed without eliminating one parking space. Coming to a street near you: a displaced motorist in search of a space.

David Altheer 150216

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* Backstory: Cops will enforce 20mph limit says council; Cycopathic? No bike path; Why women get off the bike; Track to the future; Hackney tops cycling table; Hackney cyclists demand segways

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