North Yorkshire Council (NYC) has rejected requests that they include cycle crossing facilities at the Sainsburys junction of the A661 Wetherby Road in Harrogate.
The council intends to spend £237,000 revamping the junction, with new traffic lights to get more motor vehicles through it faster, and a light-controlled pedestrian crossing.
The junction severs an existing cycle route as shown on the map above, but people on bikes are not going to get any crossing facilities.
The Excuses and the Promises of Jam Tomorrow
There are always excuses, and it is always cycling that loses out.
In this case, NYC Corporate Director Karl Battersby says that the cost of the scheme would triple if a cycle crossing was included and the council can’t afford that.
Battersby adds:
‘Making the improvements at this junction will not preclude adding improved cycle facilities in the future, in fact it will make it significantly cheaper to do so since all the required upgrades of outdated equipment will have already been added.
As such we would be more likely to be able to secure funding for this additional work as it would be better value for money’.
We have heard any number of North Yorkshire promises of ‘jam tomorrow’ over the last decade or more. The council dangles suggestions of future action at an unspecified date which never gets any nearer.
We have learnt that you can’t believe a word of the promises; the council will never do anything.
Get Off and Push
The Corporate Director suggests that people on bikes should just get off and push over the pedestrian crossing:
‘Whilst there are no cycle specific improvements proposed at this time, cyclists could use the pedestrian facilities if they were to dismount which is an improvement on the current situation’.
This is a council that talks about high-quality cycle networks.
In practice the best they can offer is ‘get off and push’.
That is unsatisfactory for those who can get off and push and impossible for those who can’t – for example, people who use cycles as mobility aids.
Cycle Infrastructure Design LTN 1/20 stresses that the built environment should be accessible to all.
The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to NYC, and means that it should not discriminate against people with disabilities. Is the council complying with it in this case?