• Church Lane is an established popular walking and cycling route.
• It is a key part of the East-West Corridor of the Active Travel Network.
• It satisfies the desireable width requiremnts of Cycling by Design.
• Anything introduced into the space would increase the risk to users.
Width Consideration
Church Lane functions as a 2-way cycle path (shared for walking and cycling).
Cycling by Design [Revised Jul 2020]
Table 6.2: Off-carriageway facility widths
Desireable minimum width = 3 m (for combined flows of up to 300 per hour)
Absolute minimum width = 2 m (for flows of up to 200 per hour, but not ideal)
Table 6.3: Additional clearance distances to fixed objects
Continuous feature of height > 1.2 m, allow 0.5 clearance
This applies along both sides because there are walls.
Conclusion
The actual width of 4 m wall-to-wall is sufficient to accomodate (exactly)
a 3 m path with 0.5 clearance along each edge (the desireable minimum).
Reducing the width to the absolute minimum releases 0.5 m along each edge.
(By shifting the active path to the side, this can become 1 m gap along one edge.)
Note Any width reduction will degrade the path and compromise user safety.
In summary, as an absolute minimum of 3 m width must be reserved
for the cycle path and its edge clearance(s).
Note If it is decided to repurpose this 0.5 m or 1 m excess width
any object installed, including any safety barrier, must fit within the 0.5 or 1 m.
Planning Application for Outdoor Cafe
Church Lane is annotated as Footpath. - What is the source?
The diagram indicates a clear gap maintained of 1.8 m.
This is consistent with the minimum width requirements for a footpath.
This gap should be increased to the desireable width of 4 m for a cycle path.
Near the cafe, only the absolute minimum width of 3 m can be achieved
and this would assume the 2 m active lane to be shifted 0.5 m to the side.
As stated earlier, any safety barriers must be strictly within the hatched area.
To Do Check the wall-to-wall width at the south east corner of the cafe.
The absolute minimum for cycle track requires 3.0 m.
Assuming 4.5 m wall-to-wall, this would release 1.5 m for the outdoor cafe.
The annotated 1.5 m width for the hatched area may, in fact, be only 1.0 m.
This 1.0 m would roughly correspond with the existing edge picked out in setts.