Hull Cycle Infrastructure 2011: A Retrospective

Thanks to a Twitter follower, we have a series of photos showing examples of infrastructure in the city on 2011. In this article, we’ll take a look at them and see what they added (or detracted) from the city’s cycle network.

With some of the city’s cycle infrastructure starting to appear in the early 1980s, or even before, with the tarmacking of old railway lines (was it even called cycle infrastructure back then?) the city started early in having a good backbone of a network. In the interim, various bike paths popped up, along with the craze of painting bike lanes on roads. It’s easy to look back now and criticise the standard this infrastructure was installed to. However, quite often design standards didn’t exist and, as we will see, the tools for coherence and connectivity just didn’t exist either. Nevertheless, the paths laid down between the 1980s and 2000s show the thinking on necessary routes, and provide a foundation on which to build today.

The Stoneferry Cycle Crossing

An example of getting it almost right, right from the start! Ok, the approach from Foster Street is showing its age now, as a bi-directional path it could be wider, the wait time of the ‘beg button’ is too long, and an allowance for pedestrians to cross needs adding, but all other signalised cycle crossings in the city should be based on this one. There are drop kerbs on the approach to the crossing from each direction, and there’s a turn radius from these drop kerbs to allow those approaching to properly align themselves at the crossing. Most importantly, it’s fully segregated and not a shared Toucan crossing. Ahead of its time!

Residential Modal Filters

With all the furore over ‘Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods’ (LTNs) and ‘modal traffic filters’, you would be forgiven for thinking they’re a newly invented way of preventing motorists doing what they want, where they want, when they want. However, in many residential areas of Hull, they’ve existed for years, keeping them quiet and safe. With quality examples like this, the piecing together of backstreet ‘quiet routes’ offers so much potential in the city to be realised.

Cycle Contraflows

This, like a lot of the examples here, will show that one of the defining features of older cycle infrastructure elements is a severely restrictive width. Why wasn’t the gap to the contraflow lane the same width as the (already narrow) contraflow lane? That aside, the benefit of 20mph zones with one-way systems in place is maximised for those on bikes when cycle contraflows are used (as emphasised by our first infrastructure win!). Signage provision has also changed since the installation of this example and will eventually need updating to include ‘Except Cycles’ underneath the ‘No Entry Sign’, and the ‘Cycle Lane’ sign replacing with a ‘Marked Cycle Contraflow’ sign.

Cycle Route Zebras

Before 2017, what happened when you wanted to put a controlled crossing across a road for a cycle route, but didn’t want to use a signalised crossing?

You put in a zebra crossing, and either accepted people would use it ‘informally’ / illegally, or you’d put in a zebra crossing with ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs (to be widely ignored).

This is the case in numerous places across Hull, but the above is possibly the most obvious example as it is on a key off-road segregated route. But why 2017, I hear you ask? Well, that was the year that ‘parallel’ zebra crossings were introduced / made legal for use on UK highways. Awareness of them, and to a certain extent uptake, has been slow to catch on. However, they’re now starting to spring up where they’re required and as projects progress around the city, will be used as vital connections in the bike network (including at the location above).

Grade Separated Crossings

What, sorry? That’s infrastructure speak for crossings that aren’t at the same level as the road they cross - so go under (underpasses) or over (bridges) the highway. The focus here is on underpasses because, while the city doesn’t have that many, they’re preferable to bridges and provide the safest, most convenient crossings of busy roads. Most in the city could, with proper maintenance, be quality examples of infrastructure. Take the example above; both the footpath and bike path are wide enough, the gradients aren’t to steep, segregation is clear and sight lines are fairly clear. The obvious improvement would be sufficient lighting. The slightly worrying thing is that, at a Council Ward level, some underpasses are seen as a liability and the question of ‘what to do with them’ is being asked…with some proposing solutions including filling them in. This would be a disaster for current and future connectivity across the network! An issue that highlights disconnect between Ward and overall Council plans and ambitions, and one that must be addressed.

More Modal Filters

They didn’t have to be fancy to be affective, and they still don’t! the only lesson to be learned here is better (more accessible) spacing of the bollards, and how they line up with the dropped kerbs. Again, inconsistency in signage seems to be a legacy of features previously installed but if the filters are working, there’s no rush to update it.

What does good look like? Do we already have it and not realise? The image above is a perfect example! Yes, the foliage could do with a trim to maintain width for pedestrians, the width of the bike path could do to increase to where the pole is, a centreline marking might help as it’s bi-directional, the signage has seen better days, and if we’re being really picky - the face of the segregating kerb should be sloping, not vertical. But looking at this layout, you could be anywhere in the Netherlands! And this was installed in the 1990s. It’s not that we didn’t know how to do bits, it’s that we didn’t have the money, will or tools to do it properly, everywhere.

Railways Repurposed

As mentioned in the introduction, parts of the historically vast Hull railway network were used to form the core of off-road segregated cycle routes in the city - including such gems as Wilmington Bridge. Unfortunately, a lot of this route suffers from relative seclusion, which makes for a higher incidence of Anti-Social Behaviour on the routes. It is also very apparent from the segregation techniques and surface treatment just how infrequent maintenance or upgrade intervals have been. And in the bottom photo, the person who has expressed their frustration in graffiti obviously feels maintenance on the pedestrian side and the segregation method is not sufficient! However, the council have now recognised the issues and have teams to deal with reported issues on the paths. As user numbers increase, the paths will also become inherently more safe owing to ‘passive surveillance’ - the best way to deter illegitimate activity is the presence of legitimate users.

City Centre Access

Yet another example of a modal filter quietly going about its business - not causing traffic chaos, not killing off the city centre, but definitely providing a safe way to and from the city centre for cyclists from the north - the kind of thing that doesn’t even now register with drivers, and residents would hate to have removed. The path that leads in to it though is probably one of the best examples of what people think of when ‘substandard 1990s cycle infrastructure’ is mentioned. Thankfully, improvements are under way as this is the start of the new Cottingham Route that has been invested in.

So, where has the cycle infrastructure that was installed prior to the step-change of 2020 left us? Despite all the issues, in a very good place we think! In a recent meeting with the council, they described ‘starting from nothing’ in 2020 and on this point we’d disagree. The quality might not be there, but the basic routes are; connection and upgrade may take time, but it is obvious and can be prioritised. In the same meeting, the council stated that the cycle network will develop iteratively. This is an approach we do agree with, and in time that approach will gain benefit from updating what didn’t quite work the first time round, but has at least been in place for decades! By connecting what we have, making use of what’s already there, and implementing the upgrades and new routes in the LCWIP, we stand by our statement that Hull could be the best city for cycling in the UK by 2030. At the half way point between the examples shown above and that goal, we are in the thick of the transformational work being planned and implemented.