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news
Vehicles blocking cycle lane outside Etihad Stadium on Manchester City matchdays (Martin Degnan)Manchester City fans slammed for “constantly blocking” cycle lane outside Etihad Stadium, as council says it “shares cyclists’ frustration” with illegal parking
Manchester City Council has reminded motorists and coach drivers attending Manchester City football matches that illegal parking “is not acceptable in any set of circumstances”, after a local cyclist shared videos and images of vehicles “constantly blocking” a protected cycle lane outside the Treble winners’ Etihad Stadium on matchdays.
The local authority pointed out that a wealth of transport options now exists for football fans travelling to the old City of Manchester Stadium, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and situated next to the National Cycling Centre and Manchester Velodrome, the home of British Cycling.
The council also told road.cc that it “shares the frustration of cyclists” who have their route blocked by inconsiderate parking, which one cyclist claimed was putting lives in danger during City home matches.
According to Manchester-based cyclist Martin, who also commutes in the area by van, on matchdays the cycle lane on Alan Turing Way – the A6010 main road that cuts through the area’s Sportcity facilities – is “constantly blocked by minibuses and coaches” used by travelling supporters.
“They actually straddle the bike/car divide, and this then makes the cycle lane impossible to use and forces cyclists into the duel carriageway – right into the door zone of the waiting vehicles,” Martin tells road.cc.
“This whole stretch is blocked by at least 20 commercial vehicles at a time. I’ve told Manchester City Council about this multiple times, but they have taken no action.”
During City’s rather lacklustre 0-0 draw with fellow league title challengers Arsenal on Sunday, Martin also claimed that “plenty of police cars, horses, and bikes were just ignoring” the bike lane-blocking buses along the road.
While Martin notes that the situation is currently at its worst when City, the dominant Premier League team of the past decade (ongoing Financial Fair Play investigation notwithstanding), are playing at home, he believes that the completion of Co-op Live, which is set to be the UK’s largest indoor area when it opens its doors in the Etihad Campus this month, could make things even more dangerous for local cyclists.
“It needs addressing before Co-op Live is open and hopefully before someone is hurt,” he says. “I find it shocking that on a route some of the Team GB riders use to ride home, they can put lives in danger like this.
“I don’t actually cycle commute through here, I’m in a large transit van. But even in my cage there have been moments where I thought I was in danger – I can only imagine how any cyclist must feel along this route.
“You’d think they would get it better near a couple of national cycling venues.”
Responding to Martin’s concerns, a spokesperson for Manchester City Council told road.cc: “Illegal parking is not acceptable in any set of circumstances and the Council shares the frustration of cyclists who are trying to travel, only to have their route blocked through inconsiderate parking.
“Officers work daily – not just on matchdays – to enforce against illegal parking, and the council would remind people that there is now a wealth of public transport options open to people travelling to and from the area, meaning there is no excuse to park illegally.”
> Spurs and Chelsea fans urged to cycle to ‘world’s first net zero carbon football match’
According to Manchester City’s website, there are no clear instructions for parking on matchdays, though the club do note that the stadium – which is “within easy walking distance” from the city centre – is “extremely accessible from all major highways”.
When it comes to cycling provision, City say there are “over 500” cycle parking spaces at the Etihad Campus, and that a Bee Network bike hire station is located outside the ground.
> Footballers who cycle XI — the Premier League stars who love life on two wheels
Perhaps the reigning English and European champions could ask former manager Roberto Mancini, famous for riding his road bike to training and for counting Marco Pantani among his sporting heroes, for advice on how to make the road outside their ground more accommodating for cyclists?
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
Latest Comments
- jaymack 28 sec ago
Iain Duncan Smith would blame the cyclist on the left outrageously obeying the Highway Code and even cycling with lights.
- Hirsute 3 min 22 sec ago
The last bit of the road is dual. The only safe bit is if you come from the North to go due south as that bit is traffic light controlled....
- hawkinspeter 4 min 20 sec ago
Well, I haven't heard anything from Nelson Mandela in the last 10 years......
- hawkinspeter 8 min ago
If they were interested in doing anything morally good, they wouldn't be Tories, would they?
- mark1a 8 min 33 sec ago
I wonder if F-At attempted to register the domain gravel.cc but then realised it cost 30% more for no obvious reason.
- andystow 38 min 4 sec ago
Aerostich is primarily in the motorcycling market, but their messenger bags are handmade in the USA and look really nice. They come in four sizes....
- dubwise 57 min 27 sec ago
But if it was a furriner, they deserved all they got.
- Hirsute 1 hour 4 min ago
And here are the culprits
- bikegirl-2 2 hours 1 min ago
What about walking, catching a bus, train, tram or ferry or for gods sake taking a cycle on one of these modes of transport?
Add new comment
54 comments
Its taking responsibility for safety in an area where the authorities are letting us down and its brave to stand up to bullies who think just because they are protected by a metal box they can make things dangerous for others. I would say its the opposite of cowardly and irresponsible.
What is cowardly and irresponsible is putting other's lives at risk by leaving your car somewhere dangerous because you are too afraid to pay for parking like a responsible person.
How is deflating some stranger's tyres taking responsibility for safety? If anything it's the opposite. A car isn't a toy. Tyes are a safety-critical component. Messing about with them isn't clever at all.
The fact that you think the driver has done something wrong isn't justification for your doing something equally wrong.
Indeed.
However these considerations always seems to be invoked in one direction. Sometimes blocking the pavement / cycle path isn't "nothing" or "just walk round it". It might even be a serious hazard or completely stop someone getting about. That access can be required by those with disabilities, discourage children from going into the road, could even enable emergency vehicles to get through a traffic blockage.
Active travel infra is not "optional"*, nor "just for kids / recreation", any more than the roads are in practice "for" serious and consequential stuff ("essential travel" - carrying lifesaving equipment, fetching life-sustaining provisions, making a living, serving livelihood-supporting businesses, enabling young lives to blossom or maintaining a social life).
At the very least - how will people safely reach their cars without?
* Where it's not just "but you've got the park" or "you can walk on the verge" or "I can get my bike down that alley".
FTFY
No one here is recommending you park in a cycle lane.
But you don't seem to be critical of them judging by your posts.
That's a bit like saying objecting to people chucking soup at old masters implies you're not critical of climate change.
Currently at six posts on this thread in the last four hours and still not typed a word against the illegal parking, are you afraid of wearing out your keyboard?
Gone on then. What would you like me to type about illegal parking?
Perhaps you could type that you don't approve of it, but only if you really don't approve of it, I wouldn't want you to lie.
I could type it, but why should I? I fact, I am going to type that I wholeheartedly approve of it, especially when it particularly inconveniences peds and cyclists.
I'll leave it to you to decide whether I am telling the truth or not. Happy now?
I'm always happy, I knew from the first post that you lived under a bridge but if you're busy responding to me you're not annoying someone else
There's no excuse for parking in bike lanes or on pavements. It's cowardly and irresponsible.
As I wrote above, no one here is recommending you park in cycle lanes. The same goes for pavements. What is your point?
Manchester City Council have spent stack loads of money building the B Line cycle path network. It's actually not bad but could have been great if cyclists had been involved in the planning and building contol.
However in certain areas it's just used as a car park. I see cars, van, lorries parked in it every single day. I take a photo of each vehicle just for the record.
Does anyone know how to report parking in the cycle lanes to MCC? I can't find anything on the website specifically for cars parked in cycle lanes and no facility to upload a picture. I've asked the council, but obviously no reply.
no facility to upload a picture
That mean they really don't want to know, and really couldn't care less. Just like Lancashire Constabulary and DVLA. DVLA make sure that you can't send in photos of cars on the road without VED, because there are so many of them and they can't be bothered doing anything about any they're told about. Same with the idlest police force in the world- this vehicle VX70 GXV, never MOTd and SORN-ed, was reported to LC on 2.10.23
The bike "lane" in the photographs is a joke anyway. We've got one like that near us. I tend to ride to the right of it, as it is effectively a glorified gutter, being invariably full of potholes and/or rubbish. The one advantage of the one in the pic is that it appears to made of a slightly less coarse aggregate than the world-beating stuff used for the rest of the road.
Looks slightly above average for the UK: separated from cars, behind a vertical kerb on the carriageway side, passable width, clearly demarcated from the additional separate footway, plus there are even markings (no parking) for otherwise perfect drivers who haven't been near a Highway Code (or TV or radio) for a couple of years or more.
Con: UK standard at junctions e.g. it disappears, UK standard driver behaviour (completely ignoring it except as a place to park), UK standard enforcement (none), separation is a little narrow from the
narrow streetMASSIVE dual carriageway next to it, not sure what thought has been given to drainage (see NL for "regular drains, often in-kerb"), the kerbs need to be "forgiving" e.g. 45 degree slope or maybe less, the entire think should be given a continous coat of hard-wearing coloured asphalt to scream "cycle path here" (colour should be standard: I'm all for rainbows but we need to pick one colour across the UK so everyone understands the infra. Well, OK, perhaps each home nation wants to pick its own?)If it's full of potholes that can only be because of the intense use by tens of thousands of cyclists per day, all carrying their family and a week's shopping on a 25 kilo Omafiets, am I right?
Anything to do with '115 charges' is untouchable........Nothing will happen.
bureaucrats 'sharing their frustrations' is like politicians 'sending thoughts and prayers'. I.e. hand wringing, but no action.
The crocodile tears of the City Council are not surprising- if they really meant it, they would actually take enforcement action!
If you can convince people hungry to smell gasoline, to ditch their car for their bike, anything is possible. https://dutchcycling.nl/knowledge/cycling-news/car-free-grand-prix-how-t...
But you must of course really want it.
It's not so much convincing them as just telling them cars are banned on the local roads, either you use public transport, cycle, walk or you just don't go to the race.
Try the same thing at Silverstone I don't think you'd get very far.
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