My Dangerous Commute to Work

Post date: 22-Nov-2017 12:41:40

Through a combination of good luck and effort on my part, I've been fortunate enough to cycle to work for over twenty years now. That time period covers 2 cities, 5 jobs and 10 residential addresses.

In all that time, I've loved my ride to work and even more so my ride home. It's a great way of getting exercise, beating the traffic, being environmentally friendly and having a stress-free buffer between home and work.

The last few months however have been the most stressful, scary and dangerous that I have experienced in all of that time and that is entirely down to the major roadworks that have been taking place around Derriford, in Plymouth.

While there may be longer term improvements in cycle infrastructure waiting on the other side of these roadworks, we are currently ten months into a fifteen month project and throughout that period cyclists seem to have been treated as second class citizens at most opportunities.

I've taken the liberty of outlining all the areas that I have felt more exposed to danger due to the ever-changing closures, re-alignments and general road management that has taken place during the project so far.

While I understand that we need to take a step backwards sometimes in order to see progress I think more effort has been needed in liaising with cyclists throughout the renovations and in making sure that clear access routes are maintained for cyclists just as they have been for motor traffic.