Belfast trashes the Bin Lane

Belfast’s world-famous Bin Lane has been consigned to the trash bin of history as cycling route development continues in the city.

The kerb-separated contra-flow cycle track on Upper Arthur Street, just yards from Belfast City Hall, rose to prominence as one of the better cycling facilities in Northern Ireland cruelly blighted by local bins owners and operators.

Broken kerbs signal the end of the Bin Lane as we know it

A ham-fisted campaign of satire and sub-par photography eventually seemed to shame the bins off the cycle track. Alas, nature abhors a vacuum and with the bins gone the space was claimed by every delivery driver in the country.

Ripping up the kerb separation – a calculated gamble to improve cycling

So the campaign moved on to tackling the Delivering the Goods menace, keeping the campaigning at street-level. Delivery drivers were unaware that this was just a ruse to distract from the real lobbying going on within the corridors of power.

https://vine.co/v/igAiaFhigE9/embed/simple

This scheme was the very first announced under the new Bicycle Strategy for Northern Ireland, and its location was a sign of intent. Where things haven’t worked, we’ll do it better. Where upgrading facilities can drive cycling uptake, we’ll invest there. Where delivery drivers are routinely and dangerously blocking the way, we’ll design you out.

For all you fans of Belfast's MTB trails, check out the new jump on the #BinLane – officially described as "sick" 🙂 pic.twitter.com/hQ2mTj0tPf

— NI Greenways (@nigreenways) February 29, 2016

So the kerb separation will be replaced by bollards (this time to the side of the cycle track not ON the cycle track) with prioritised junctions either side and probably the most controversial aspect of the whole scheme yet.

Parking bays closed during works (cleverly not mentioning the ‘closed forever’ bit)

The reworked street will see all of the current on-street parking removed to make way for loading bays and blue badge spaces. All complaints about this aspect of the war on the motorist should be directed to the 472-space multi-storey car park from where the high angle photograph above was taken.

Upgrade your 1.5m cycle track with a bollard: Belfast's design manual can educate the world.. https://t.co/ULa1ULv0I0 pic.twitter.com/SoOsuNPoTa

— NI Greenways (@nigreenways) February 23, 2015

They even ripped out this daft thing..

I can just take this idiotic #BinLane bollard as a souvenir, right? #CyclingRevolution pic.twitter.com/biM8VL5YFI

— NI Greenways (@nigreenways) February 29, 2016

So things are moving quickly, and the new separation bollards could be installed along the whole stretch from Ormeau Avenue through to May Street and here along the Bin Lane as early as next week.