A recently completed cycling scheme in the Northern Quarter has been branded 'absurd' as concrete blocks and cars blight the new path on one of the areas busiest streets. This is the latest criticism of city centre road schemes which have failed to impress straight away, with the major revamp of Great Ancoats Street still causing controversy more than a year after its completion.
Road resurfacing work finished this month completely blocking Thomas Street, between High Street and Oak Street, to cars and taking away parking spaces and widening the pavement between Tib Street and Oak Street. There have been growing calls for more city centre streets to be blocked off to traffic since the Covid pandemic begun in 2020, with more space for pedestrians and cyclists to move around the city.
Thomas Street, and adjacent Edge Street, were some that benefited from closure to car traffic during the pandemic, as businesses were able to flourish by seating people outside. Some closures become permanent, with consultations and plans put in place by the council to do this, resulting in what has just finished at Thomas Street.
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Half of Thomas Street has been closed for use by the bars and restaurants to serve customers outside, while the other half has been designated to cyclists. However, due to limited pavement space opposite the bars and large concrete blocks segregating the cycle lanes, the street is often filled with pedestrians, leaving little space for cyclists.
One problem also encountered when the street was first complete was cars being able to access Thomas Street via John Street, but then becoming trapped as the street and exit are now completely blocked. Since the Manchester Evening News approached the council for a comment on this, John Street has now been blocked off to stop this happening.
Harry Gray, a city centre cyclist and part of Walk Ride GM - a campaign to introduce more walking, cycling and other active travel modes across the city-region - has described the implementation of this scheme as 'flawed'. He posted a video of himself cycling through Thomas Street days after the infrastructure was put in place, showing him having to turn sharply to avoid concrete blocks and pedestrians, before having to stop completely for cars that had become stuck on the road.
He told the MEN: "The entire strategy is completely flawed. Why they have decided to put us down a tiny road I don't know. They never seem to think of the broader network when putting these individual schemes in place.
"This pits cyclists against pedestrians by putting both on a tight road which doesn't help anybody. There is no continuity between the different plans for cycling and pedestrianisation.
"It's just absurd, these things are supposed to be professionally planned but they can't even stop cars driving down it, the flaw was so obvious to see. And the huge concrete blocks are ridiculous, they're blocking nearly half of the road when the whole point of this is to open up space.
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"It just seems like another botched job. Great Ancoats Street was botched by not having proper cycle lanes so they've just been plastered here, there's no clear long term strategy. This wasn't even the design that was in the original consultation all that time ago, no cyclist I know understands this.
"It seems the planners don't have any idea what they actually want which is why we keep getting these botched jobs. They just need to step back and really think 'what do we want for the whole Northern Quarter and beyond?'. Trying to do two things at once, pedestrianising and revamping roads isn't working. Hopefully this can be a moment to change things for the better."
In response, a Manchester City Council (MCC) spokesman, said: "Above all, the cycle lanes in this street are new and as is the case with all new projects there will be a period of time where it beds in, and users and residents adapt to its presence." Addressing concerns of cars entering Thomas Street from John Street the spokesman said: "It is clearly signposted that this road is no entry and drivers who enter it are committing a traffic offence. It would be unfair to lay the blame of poor driving towards the Council. However, temporary signage has been installed this week to help this bedding in process."
They added: "It's not accurate to say that concrete blocks are in the middle of the cycle lanes, they are on the edges. The width of the cycle lanes are standard and have been installed to be respectful to the multi-use nature of the street, which is shared between pedestrian traffic, businesses and cyclists. There is a pavement in Thomas Street, however as it is a busy public space we would expect all road users, including cyclists to be respectful of people's space and travel through the area slowly and carefully."
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, MCC's Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said : "We're pleased with how new cycle schemes across the city are being implemented. This is part of a wider drive by the Council to put walking and cycling at the heart of future transport policy. As part of our city centre transport strategy we want 90 per cent of journeys carried out via walking, cycling or public transport by 2040, so schemes like this are playing a vital part of achieving that goal.
"But, for it to work we need people to adapt to changes when they occur, follow the rules of the road and above all use their common sense to prevent the system being blocked up. We'll be working with all concerned parties going forward to make sure that pedestrians, cyclists and cars can integrate seamlessly into our travel network."
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