Riding the City
Roadworks Are Where a Cycle Route Quietly Disappears
A closed lane sends drivers around it and riders into traffic. Temporary arrangements are where most cycle networks fail, and nobody counts it.
The options around roadworks and diversions are set out side by side below, with the conditions that genuinely favour one over the other.
The difference in one place
- Temporary layouts often omit any provision for bicycles.
- Signed diversions frequently assume a motor vehicle.
- Dismount signs functionally close a route for many riders.
The gap between the plan and the site
A city can have a well-designed cycle network on paper and lose sections of it for months at a time to construction. Temporary traffic management is designed primarily around keeping motor traffic moving and pedestrians out of the works. Provision for bicycles is frequently an afterthought, and in many places there is no requirement to provide anything at all.
The result is that a protected route ends abruptly at a barrier and resumes several hundred metres later. For the rider, that section is the whole experience of the route on that day, regardless of how good the permanent design is.
What goes wrong at a works site
Barriers placed to protect a work area frequently narrow the remaining carriageway to a width that cannot be shared. Loose surfacing, steel plates over trenches and raised ironwork all appear at works and all reduce grip or deflect a wheel. Signs and cones are placed for drivers to read at distance and often sit exactly where a rider would be positioned.
Site vehicles entering and leaving create movements that were not part of anyone's expectation of that street. Lighting is often reduced, and temporary surfaces drain badly, which combines poorly on a dark wet evening.
Diversions written for drivers
A signed diversion typically follows the road network, which for a rider can mean a considerable detour onto arterial roads. The diversion may include a one-way street or a dual carriageway that a rider would never otherwise choose. It may also be longer than the entire remaining journey, which is why riders improvise instead.
Improvising means finding your own way through unfamiliar streets, which is exactly what a diversion should have prevented. Where diversions are designed with riders in mind they are usually shorter and use different streets from the motor one.
The dismount sign
A sign instructing riders to dismount converts a cycle route into a walking route, which for many journeys ends its usefulness. For anyone with a loaded bike, a cargo machine, a trailer or a mobility limitation, walking a bicycle is not a trivial substitution.
Come the wet months, it is frequently used as a default because it is cheap and removes the need to design anything. Guidance in a number of countries discourages it as a routine measure, though what is actually enforced varies widely.
In practice, most riders do not dismount, which means the sign has changed nothing except who is deemed responsible.
Riding through it anyway
Slowing down before the works, rather than at them, gives you time to see what the arrangement actually is. Taking a clear road position through a narrowed section is safer than being squeezed alongside traffic in a space that is not wide enough.
Watching for steel plates, loose chippings and raised covers matters more here than almost anywhere else on a route. If the arrangement is genuinely unrideable, walking a short section is a reasonable choice rather than a defeat. Where the works are long-running, finding a parallel route once is worth more than negotiating the site every day.
Getting it changed
Temporary arrangements are permitted under conditions set by the highway authority, which means there is usually someone accountable. Permit conditions, contact details and reference numbers are often displayed on a board at the site. Reports about a specific site with a photograph tend to produce a response more often than general complaints about roadworks.
Come the wet months, some cities have improved substantially by requiring cycle provision as a standard condition of a street works permit. The requirements, the enforcement and the appetite for it differ enormously between countries and even between neighbouring councils.
Side by side
| Consideration | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The gap between the plan and the site | Temporary layouts often omit any provision for bicycles. |
| What goes wrong at a works site | Signed diversions frequently assume a motor vehicle. |
| Diversions written for drivers | Dismount signs functionally close a route for many riders. |
The takeaway
A network is judged on the day the barriers go up, and that is the day most of them turn out to be optional.
Most of riding well is being boring and predictable to everyone else on the road.
Questions readers ask
Do I have to dismount when a sign says so?
The legal status of dismount signs varies by country, and in many places they are advisory rather than mandatory. Guidance in several countries discourages using them as a default. Check what applies where you ride.
Why do diversions send cyclists so far around?
Because they are usually designed around the motor traffic network, which may involve one-way systems and arterial roads. Diversions designed with riders in mind are typically shorter and use different streets entirely.
