Photo Gallery - Broadstone Road
In recent years, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council have come up with ever more imaginative ways to confuse road users in the borough by installing weird, non-standard road layouts. They claim, of course, that the objective is to increase safety, but in practice the result is usually the opposite. All too often, the workmen have to go back with a few months to revise the scheme or restore it to how it was before.
In February 2003 they excelled themselves by installing the downright dangerous lining scheme on Broadstone Road, Heaton Chapel, shown below. This was described as "lunatic", "bonkers" and "lethal" by local residents. Fortunately the outcry led the council to change their mind, as shown by the final picture. Were any council officers subject to disciplinary action for this complete waste of council tax payers' money?
The entrance to the scheme, with the main carriageway slewing abruptly to the right to avoid marked parking bays and a cycle lane.
The general outline, with build-outs to define parking bays, an advisory cycle lane and two narrow general traffic lanes in the right-hand 60% of the carriageway.
There are no parking restrictions on the right-hand side, so traffic coming towards the camera has to cross the centre line to avoid parked vehicles.
The normal pattern seems to be for traffic in one direction to straddle the centre line, and in the other to straddle the cycle lane.
In this instance, where the driver of the Metro has kept outside the cycle lane, a head-on collision has only narrowly been avoided.
In June 2003, after much local outcry, the ridiculous lining scheme was eventually removed and conventional centre lining reinstated. The burnt-off cycle lane and offset centre line can still just be seen. The weather has improved, as well!
(Last updated June 2003)