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Pedestrian Heart: Duke Street bollard broken (Update: No, it's not)

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Cllr Mike Barker has blogged a couple of times about the broken bollard on Duke Street meaning that cars are ignoring the signs indicating that the street is closed to motorised traffic (Oi! Where's our bollard?, Protests Grow and Still no bollard).

I posted a comment on one of his posts that I thought I'd reproduce here:

Policing of traffic offences in the Pedestrian Heart is terrible (and it's pretty bad in the rest of the town).

For years, cars have been turning left into Duke Street from the car park behind Barclays Bank, in order to get into Skinnergate.

Since the PH work went ahead, vehicles repeatedly park on the double yellow lines in the contraflow bike lane in Northgate, which is supposedly only open to buses and bikes. Some delivery vehicles try to get around the double yellow lines by parking on the footpath side of the markings. The Boots delivery wagon parks right across the opening, so cyclists have to cross over onto the pavement to get past - an ambulance trying to access the PH in an emergency wouldn't be able to get in.

Delivery vehicles also regularly park on the double yellows on the bus loop below the steps up to High Row and cars are often parked in the little bypasses that cyclists are supposed to use to avoid riding between the No Entry signs on Bondgate.

But, mention riding a bike through there and the cries of anguish and potential deaths begin...


So, take care on Duke Street as there may well be cars about.

Update: It's back. I'd like to take credit, but I suspect it was fixed before I blogged that it was broken. As mike says in his post, you'll still need to be careful in Skinnergate, because of the cars illegally turning left out of the car park.

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