As COVID-19 restrictions have been easing, local authorities in many parts of the world have been considering the future of their temporary ‘pop-up’ measures to enable walking and cycling. Examples of these measures include widened footways, protected cycle lanes and modal filters which restrict access to motor vehicles but allow walkers, wheelers and cyclists through.
Forrest Road protected cycle lane in Edinburgh, August 2021 (photo credit: Ewen Maclean)
The process for changing road layouts in the UK is cumbersome and time consuming — and the legal complexities of TRO processes is now creating a perverse situation which I describe as ‘infrastructure hokey-cokey’. A bike lane goes in, is taken out and then goes back in again. It would be unthinkable for any other mode of transport — imagine doing that for a railway?!