Manchester City Council's planning, 'consultation', and re-designing Great Ancoats Street contains systematic and serious flaws - their plan is mediocre for people walking, dangerous for people cycling, and inefficient for people driving.
It amounts to business as usual with some trees.
It amounts to business as usual with some trees.
- The flawed consultation was not well publicised, and misleading and inaccurate information was given to the public.
- The Council were given options including segregated cycle lanes during design phase in 2016 and chose a design without them
- Reconfiguration of the inefficient and dated road design to boost efficiency does not appear to have been explored at all.
- A professional Road Safety Audit has highlighted 21 problems increasing risk of harm to pedestrians and cyclists. Specific design problems could increase risk of serious or fatal injuries.
- In defending the scheme the Council has repeatedly made un-evidenced claims that there is "not enough space" for segregated cycling infrastructure, and that it "causes congestion" and "rat running".
What are Manchester City Council's plans?
Manchester City Council summarise their plans as follows:
The plans make no improvement to the current situation where Great Ancoats Street is one of the 152 most polluted streets in Greater Manchester with illegal and dangerous levels of toxic air pollution. The plans maintain an inefficient road layout that contributes to congestion and pollution with excessive starting, stopping and idling traffic. The plans do nothing to enable 'modal shift' away from cars to walking or cycling for shorter journeys. The plans lock-in car dependency and toxic air quality around Great Ancoats Street for a generation. They are incompatible with the Council's Declaration of Climate Emergency and target for Carbon Neutrality by 2038. |
The Council's plans have been ridiculed on social media. Great Ancoats Street is one of the 152 most polluted streets in Greater Manchester, with illegal and dangerous levels of toxic air pollution. Commentators point out that the Council's plans will do nothing to change this. These plans lock-in car dependency and toxic air quality for a generation. |
Why was the consultation misleading and inaccurate?
A 'consultation' took place on 17th July 2018 - it was not well publicised or attended.
At the consultation no information provided said that cycling infrastructure would be removed and not replaced. The consultation documentation stated there would be "No overall change along Great Ancoats Street".
No high resolution technical drawings were provided, so it would have been impossible to properly scrutinise the plans even if they had been effectively publicised.
Hardly anybody knew about the plans for Great Ancoats Street until the Council's May 2019 announcement that preparatory work was about to begin. As soon as people became aware of the plans a huge public backlash backlash ensued and opposition exploded.
At the consultation no information provided said that cycling infrastructure would be removed and not replaced. The consultation documentation stated there would be "No overall change along Great Ancoats Street".
No high resolution technical drawings were provided, so it would have been impossible to properly scrutinise the plans even if they had been effectively publicised.
Hardly anybody knew about the plans for Great Ancoats Street until the Council's May 2019 announcement that preparatory work was about to begin. As soon as people became aware of the plans a huge public backlash backlash ensued and opposition exploded.
What are the safety and inefficiency issues with the Council's plans?
A Road Safety Audit by Traffic Engineer Bryn Buck MIHE highlights 21 problems with the Council's plans that increase risks to people walking and cycling along and across Great Ancoats Street.
Key concerns relate to the lack of segregated cycling infrastructure, ensuring that vulnerable road users have to share lanes with heavy traffic. Conflict is virtually guaranteed with high risk to cyclists of collision and crushing injuries. While additional pedestrian crossings are welcome, key junctions lack pedestrian crossing facilities. Some of the proposed new crossings ignore pedestrian 'desire lines' meaning pedestrians will attempt to cross using more direct routes, increasing risks of collisions, serious injuries, and fatalities. The excessive number of traffic lights and turns in a short distance causes stop-start congestion, unbalanced traffic flows, and increased pollution from idling traffic. The Council's plan maintains an outdated road layout that is very inefficient for motorised vehicles and a poor overall use of road space. The design contributes to increased congestion and air pollution. View the full detailed Road Safety Audit here |
Why weren't segregated cycle lanes included in the plans?
When the Great Ancoats plans were made public in May 2019 an angry backlash ensued.
Manchester City Council appeared unprepared for the strength of feeling against their plans. The scheme webpage was taken offline, then when it finally reappeared, the justification for removal and no replacement of cycling infrastructure kept being changed, including - "not enough space", "would increase congestion" and "would cause rat running", and to "balance the needs of all road users". In 2016 during design phase, the Council were given a number of designs including segregated cycle lanes, and chose to proceed with a design completely removing them. Compare options presented to the Council in 2016 (bottom image) with design chosen by the Council (top image) Download design comparison section A-B Download design comparison section C Download design comparison section D Download design comparison section E View the full traffic modelling reports for the Council scheme here: M1 - Impact on wider highway network of new crossings with cycle lanes retained M2 - Impact of traffic flow on GAS with east-west cycle lanes removed M3 - Validation of base (existing layout) model data - model journey times vs observed using bluetooth |
..The omission of cycle infrastructure in the Council's plans directly contradicts the Made to Move strategy which Manchester City Council committed to in 2017. Planning also takes no account of potential for modal shift and reflects institutional inertia heavily biased towards maintenance of the status quo i.e. accommodating and encouraging ever increasing volumes of single occupancy car journeys into and around Manchester City Centre. Planning appears completely disconnected from Manchester City Council's stated transport priorities, and completely incompatible with commitments on Carbon Emissions, Clean Air, and Active Travel. |
The Council's repeated claims that Great Ancoats street cannot have safe cycle infrastructure because there is "not enough space", or "would increase congestion" or "cause rat running" is not supported by evidence.
Designs including new safe cycle infrastructure were not chosen - and reconfiguration of the road space to boost efficiency does not appear to have been explored.
The lack of cycling infrastructure in the plans also directly contradict the principles in Made to Move that Manchester City Council pledged to implement in 2017.
Designs including new safe cycle infrastructure were not chosen - and reconfiguration of the road space to boost efficiency does not appear to have been explored.
The lack of cycling infrastructure in the plans also directly contradict the principles in Made to Move that Manchester City Council pledged to implement in 2017.
What about the parallel routes the Council have proposed?
In the midst of the protests the Council rushed out a drawing of two proposed parallel cycle routes winding thorough the back streets of Ancoats and the Northern Quarter. This is now being used to justify the lack of provision on Great Ancoats.
No dates for delivery of either of these routes exist at present. Additional routes are always welcome - but circuitous routes winding around back streets are no substitute for a safe direct route along a key transport artery. The plans have been heavily criticised by people that currently cycle in Manchester. They point out that nobody is going to be persuaded to swap their car for a bicycle to make shorter journeys if they have to take big winding detours. Unlit back streets can feel unsafe in low light and exclude everybody but the determined or the fearless. The Netherlands is the world leader at shifting car journeys to the bicycle. Dutch city centres have solved congestion and cleaned up air pollution by making cycling convenient and direct. Traffic circulation planning intentionally makes cycling routes more direct and convenient than driving, so people make the convenient choice. In Made to Move, Chris Boardman highlights this basic principle of convenience: "We need protected space; uninterrupted, all the way from where I am to where I want to be. Only with safe and attractive space will people that don’t walk or cycle now, venture out onto the road in significant numbers." On Great Ancoats Street Manchester City Council is doing the opposite - their plans reinforce driving as the most convenient, most direct choice. Cycling is relegated to winding back streets. |
Dutch traffic circulation planning makes cycle routes direct and convenient. Cars have to take the long way round - cycling becomes the convenient choice and many car journeys shift to bicycle ('modal shift').
Manchester City Council's plan is the opposite. Cars continue to enjoy the direct route along Great Ancoats, bicycles will have to take the long way through winding back streets. The Council's plans will not enable any switching from cars to bicycles. The plans will deter all but the determined or the fearless from using a bike to get around this part of Manchester. |