‘Baloney’: Opposition Leader Slams Sefton's Cycle Lanes Consultation

Opposition leader on Sefton Council, Liberal Democrat, John Pugh has described the consultation Sefton conducted on cycle lanes and their publicity surrounding it as as ‘baloney’. The results of the consultation will be debated this Thursday at the Sefton Council meeting in Bootle.

‘Baloney’ , means 'deceptive talk or nonsense' and that is what Sefton, he claims, have produced.
 https://www.sefton.gov.uk/mysefton-news/latest-news/southport-cycle-lanes-used-over-25-million-times-set-to-be-made-permanent/ 

"The figures provided in it are as misleading as anything we get out of Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. The 2.5m users for the cycle lanes claimed in the Council press release are overwhelmingly pedestrians including farcically shoppers on Chapel St !  As there were many monitoring sensors from Queens Rd - through Hoghton and Chapel St-to Talbot St - the same individuals could be counted multiple times

What we all wanted to see was evidence of 'modal shift' - more bikes being used and fewer cars. Unbelievably none are given in the report and no attempt appears to have been made to track whether motorists are making fewer journey or just longer journeys to the same destination on other routes.  Changing behaviour is why presumably Boris Johnson’s gave Sefton the money to do it. Belmont St and Albert Rd for example have more traffic now.

There is evidence of a fall in minor accidents and this is certainly not to be dismissed, but practically all the accidents involving bikes on the route (15 in six years) occurred at junctions and no serious attempt has been made to assess whether such a fall is statistically significant or could be random fluctuation- perhaps attributable to improved junction design rather than anything else. "

The Council report is based on 71 responses from residents and businesses consulted and 36 users being intercepted en route.  

“It’s a disappointingly small sample’, says Cllr Pugh ,” but even then, it records that 67% don’t feel any safer and 75% said it made no difference to their behaviour. 

What is unforgivable and insensitive though is the Council not mentioning in their press statement they discovered 85% of businesses were unhappy with the cycle routes and that presumably excludes those that have closed following their introduction

There is scope for a mature balanced discussion of cycle lanes and their merits but sadly Sefton Council is not leading it, but encouraging cycle cynicism by insulting the intelligence of the public.”