Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 2 September, 2015
Cheers all round in the Lib Dem team. We’ve been working for months to persuade Highways England to put down Keep Clear boxes where the South Park Road Estate exits onto the M60 J3 slip road and finally it’s been done.
They needed a dry night to do the painting, so I guess we should be thankful it didn’t take even longer.
15 Comments
Thanks for this. Used it for the first time yesterday evening (rush hour) and it was a doddle getting off the estate to go south on the A34.
Smashing! Been able to squeeze out every morning this week! Well done! (When I commented the other week about blocking, I was referring to the slip from the motorway onto the South Park)
Well done ,another improvement allowing Gatley residents to access the A34 but what is happening to improve the nightmare faced by Cheadle residents trying to turn right at kingsway traffic lights. Please use some of your Gatley majic on Cheadle.
Could you also provide a update on the Manchester Road cycle path which is nearly 12 months past its completion date.
Hi Roy,
We always work to improve the Kingsway junction for everyone. When we see a way to improve it, we do it – we would never say “we won’t do that because it will only help Gatley/Cheadle residents.”
The Manchester Road cycle path is very frustrating – we still wait for Highways England to do their bit and the council has no legal power to force them to move any faster. We keep on trying!
Hurrah!!!!! Now to see if it will work. On Monday I was trying to get into the middle lane and despite the fact that the traffic lights were on red, 3, yes 3 cars wouldn’t let me out from the South Park Rd Estate, and blocked me in. I was furious.
Sounds like the new Keep Clear box will be a success which is good news.
Roy, with regards to an update on the cycle path on Manchester Road…..MY update is that it’s been unsuccessful as nobody seems to be using it, & every morning on my way to work I am still stuck behind a cyclist going towards Parrswood. Now the road is narrower, it’s also now far more dangerous to overtake them.
Jane – I hope people will allow the route to be finished before judging its success. The aim is to create proper end-to-end routes that will get more people out of cars and onto bikes. The Manchester Road facility is one part of that, and the others are nearly done. When the route is complete, we need to promote it to let people know it exists and then – if it’s similar to elsewhere – we should see a gradual increase in usage.
Good news but I notice that there are numerous selfish drivers who totally ignore such Keep Clear boxes.
What can be done about them ?
Patricia – Not a great deal – the Keep Clear boxes will help, but they aren’t a perfect solution anywhere.
Perhaps the police should issue tickets to the selfish cyclists who clog the roads, are uninsured and pay no tax to contribute to the the cycle routes.
Robert – if you can find any cyclists who pay no tax (other than children) please let me know who they are!
Road tax!
Robert – most cyclists own cars and pay Vehicle Emissions Duty (the ‘road tax’ you refer to) on their cars.
Bikes themselves give out no emissions so they are exempt vehicles. Many cyclists are insured, but regardless, cause much less damage in an incident than a 1-2 ton vehicle does, one of a number of reasons why there is no need for insurance to be mandated for cyclists.
By cycling, that person is not sitting in traffic, clogging up the road with yet another car, so you should be thanking them, not wanting to issue them a ticket for no apparent reason. I actually see the roads is a lot more clogged up with cars…
If there was more joined up investment in cycling infrastructure (and not 12 month delays in making short lanes of less than a mile) more people would be able to cycle around, and maybe we could solve some of the problems with this junction.
They are causing traffic issues regularly adding to pollution. Why will no one face facts: our roads are not designed for high volumes of bikes – I wish they were, since I would really like to cycle more. but I do believe commerce is more important than frittering away tax payers money on schemes that the lycra brigade don’t even use. my logic is this: if there is a cycle path there must be penalties for not using it. why this constant victimisation of the motorist?
Iain,
I have used the exit onto the A34 southbound several times since the ‘Keep Clear’ boxes were painted and only once have motorists left the boxes clear for me to enter. It may have been useful to erect a warning sign 100 meters before the boxes and have painted the boxes yellow not white which would stand out much clearer.
Regards
Steve