Photomap

[UPDATE: 11.3.23] On 10.3.23 I attended a meeting here with the CYC walking and cycling officer and two members of Sustrans.
As we stood here a driver turned into and stopped in the centre of this space - as many primary school pupils were passing over it between Crichton Ave and Foss Islands Path access/exit. The driver seemed to be picking up some pupils. There is no protection for any user for such behaviour. There is nothing to warn non motorised users to expect motor vehicles to be turning into here. The driver then had to leave... with no formal signals to advise her when it was safe(r) to exit and, of course, with no warning to the people crossing.
The CYC and Sustrans attendees alerted me to this (bad) news: www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/news/2023/march/sustrans-responds-to-active-travel-funding-cuts-in-england/~:text=Yesterday%2C%209%20March%202023%2C%20the,pledges%20for%20active%20travel%20investment.
Sustrans said it has funding to make improvements along Foss Islands Path. It also has plans to improve (though not to LTN 1/20 standards) the access to/from the route at Denning's Yard access: #189796, #173657, the steps: #189802, the access from Wigginton Road (western side): #189801, and the access to/from the Wigginton Road (eastern side) link: #187315. The improvements were discussed with the CYC officer in situ. They will include widening the Foss Islands Path and improving sight lines. (Though controlling the foliage on the spiral would help. Something specifically mentioned by the Walking and Cycling Officer during this meeting. But which did not happen: #194877.) The CYC officer and Sustrans reps discussed the junction at Wigginton Road here: #183555. The CYC officer has plans to make the junction narrower to slow the speeds of motor vehicles turning left into Denning's Yard access, to bring the NMU crossing closer to Wigginton Road. (I believe the aim is to increase sightlines and recognition for all that this is a road and all users must take the usual precautions/care when crossing.) Sustrans said they could look at extending the existing entry/exit at the spiral towards the proposed relocated crossing.
Ref Wigginton Road (western side) goo.gl/maps/7R8EXdm2EwbLuEva9 the CYC officer explained his idea to make it easier for people on cycles to get into it.

[UPDATE 17.2.23. Planning permission was granted for the development of Denning's Yard. The application precipitated my looking at the routes that cross it. The area fails all users as well as many others who cannot use it, people who used to use it and can no longer do so and those who use it less often because of the dangers, difficulties and unpleasantness of all elements. I have tried to create a map to show the scope of what I think is needed to overcome the problems see: #191338.]

[Image taken 22.11.22] Crichton Avenue/Wigginton Road, York. This is the size and weight of vehicle that will turn into and out of Denning's Yard access if planning is granted for any development (see: #187304 and links). CYC must develop a whole area plan. This is needed so people who don't currently use it, perhaps because it is steep, congested, narrow, cambered, etc can and do. So people who want to walk, cycle, scoot, wheelchair but daren't, do. So there is space now and in the future for all active travel users.
I had a meeting at Denning's Yard access this morning. If there had been a camera team in attendance it would have looked set up. People who passed between Crichton Avenue and Foss Islands Path, in this order...
A older man who cycles with a trailer - a set-up he does all his shopping with. (I see him quite regularly.)
A young man pushing two children in a buggy.
A woman in a wheelchair.
A man with a white stick who, when I explained why I was there said: "They [motor vehicles moving in and out of the site] are not important. People are important [ie the people moving between Foss Islands Path/Wigginton Road pavement and Crichton Avenue."
A crocodile of children from a local primary school.
Even as we were seeing the most appalling driver behaviour I have ever seen in 40 years of watching traffic playing out behind us on Crichton Ave/Wigginton Road (perhaps as a result of this crash yorkmix.com/woman-dies-in-a-collision-between-a-bus-and-a-car-in-york/), my interlocutor - representing a local school - was trotting out:
- cyclists jump red lights
- you'll never get people out of cars;
- the problem is there's not enough space;
- you need to do one bit at a time;
- you can't do a big shop on a cycle.
My belief is there is systemic failure at CYC to be able to change from a 'cars first' ideology to a 'people are more important' ethos. There is no infra in the city that shows people who have busy lives, who are not aware of 'active travel' as a thing let alone the principles, who haven't been to any of our European neighbours or Portland, Oregon, for example, and therefore do not know that good design transforms lives, what is possible and how this positively changes lives - for all ages.
Even if you describe what could be possible the reply is: It can't be done here. (For the 'reasons' the person I met this morning gave.)
How can a city change for the better if it does not provide exemplar schemes to enable residents to experience and understand and want infra that supports people not their motor vehicles?
How can a city change if it does not engage:
[LTN 1/20 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/951074/cycle-infrastructure-design-ltn-1-20.pdf
"3.3.6 [Scheme promoters should] actively seek out groups that may not be aware of the planned scheme and ensure they have the opportunity to comment. This may require a separate process, for example arranging meetings with local disability groups.
Such groups must be local primaries who:
- use the route for getting its pupils to and from places during the school day; and
- whose pupils, use it on their own or accompanied by family members to get to/from school and events there;
- visitors to the schools.
Denning's Yard access needs a whole-area vision.
York residents deserve a people first approach that makes their lives safer and easier to live, traffic-free, even if they never hear or see the phrase 'active travel'.
A final point:
I regularly ask, when responding to consultations, 'In future consultations. please ask people to look ahead 10, 20, 40 years to when they are vulnerable, can't or shouldn't drive, and need pavements and dropped kerbs, and take that into consideration when responding, not simply to reply based on how things are for them now.'
Looking at the consultations coming out of London over the past year or so I am struck by the inclusion - in the first paragraph - what percentage of people in Camden, Lambeth, Southwark, etc,... do not have access to a car.
The percentage in York is also significant. Including it makes people less ashamed of not having a car - the usual sentiment I pick up when asking people I talk to. I believe it also empowers people who do not have access to a car. And no less importantly, it raises awareness among residents:
- not everyone in York has access to a car so infra must include that 25 per cent, and
- life without a car is definitely possible. Which means, yes, you can do a family shop on a cycle: spend: #179013, #186763.
Other images here today: #187857, #187858. Other images today: #187859, #187860, #187861.

What3Words ref:
Update.term.impose