Scheme of the Month - New Layout On Felixtowe Road, Martlesham, Suffolk
The Felixstowe Road ‘Cyclists Priority Route’ is an innovative scheme for Suffolk, but is a well tried method elsewhere, especially in the Netherlands where they have recently been installing more of this layout on quieter roads not endowed with a separate cycle track. Similar layouts have also been used at other sites in the UK such as Lowestoft (also in Suffolk), Barking, Scunthorpe, Faversham, Peebles, and Peterborough.
This scheme, installed in July 2005, has a 6.5m carriageway width, split between two 1.5m cycle lanes and a single 3.5m central traffic lane. The road is subject to a 30 mph speed limit and carries some 4500 vpd, including over 180 cyclists.
Images: before and after the changes
The Council has monitored the road and found no problems or incidents to date. About 30% of previous through traffic has diverted to other routes, (mainly the A12 bypass in this case).
Traffic speed is a crucial deciding factor when considering this type of scheme: At 20mph or below the ‘quiet lanes’ or ’shared space’ concepts can work well with limited, if any marked facilities as all road users are going slowly enough to anticipate each others movements and give way informally as necessary. At 40mph and beyond dedicated space is normally required. However, between these speeds, at 30mph there is flexibility and room for innovation. There is some need for demarcation of space and on narrower roads the ’shared-space-cycle-lanes’ approach works well.
It is important to recognize that each site is different and needs to be assessed individually. A limiting factor to suitability is traffic flow: if it’s continuous in both directions then this layout may not deliver any benefits. Felixstowe Road has around 4,500 vpd (concentrated in the peaks) and this is about the maximum desirable flow.
