The Clacton Bike Steps
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Now this is probably going to sound a bit nerdy. But here goes anyway. At a family wedding recently The Ranger had the pleasure of visiting the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Needless to say, he took a professional and critical interest in the facilities – after all, he’s supposed to look after various seaside areas on the Isle of Wight. When his aged mother was offered a stroll along the esplanade she readily agreed – but wasn’t to know that she’d soon have to endure her son tutting at the state of the flowerbeds and poring over the bye-laws signs. Yes, friends, park-nerdery. When I should have been concentrating on wedding festivities, I was obsessing over the details of path surfacing and mowing regimes. Busman’s holiday, really.
It was actually quite pleasant – if you ignored the booming strains of Chuck Berry amplified from the pier, which – going on all weekend, even at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning – seemed a little inappropriate. Still, families were already settling in for a day of beach fun, so obviously they didn’t mind it.
One very noticeable feature was the chain of formal gardens on top of the esplanade. The series of little gardens were interesting and, mostly, well-maintained. However keeping these going is clearly a heavy price to pay – there’s hardly a scrap of formal planting anywhere else, other than a few mangy rose-beds it’s just acres of mown grass. I guess Clacton has put all its floral eggs into the beach-side basket. Probably makes sense – it would be a real shame to let these delightful little gardens fade. One thing I did notice was that Clacton suffers from a problem that the Isle of Wight shares – and Clacton has come up with a novel solution to it. Cycling along esplanades is a perennial issue. Many esplanades are great places to cycle, fun and safe, especially good for kids to go out with parents and cycle along. However, esplanades are also used for quite a lot of other things which cycling is not really compatible with. Doddering about, for example, or standing and gawping; both popular past-times with elderly pedestrians. Cyclists get irate if they cannot speed through the pedestrians without dismounting. Pedestrians are disgruntled if valuable ambling-space is given over to cyclists. And so on. Actually, the real solution is for everyone to be polite and considerate – but sadly, they are not; and by and large they expect the council to sort it all out for them. Now, whilst in most ways Clacton can hardly hold a candle to the Island’s miles of beaches, there’s one way that Essex scores over the Island, and that’s in how to resolve this very issue.
There’s a nice long esplanade where cycling is allowed, to the north. Then, when you get to the pier, if you want to continue on the esplanade, you have to get off. Plenty of signs make this clear, and these rather dominant railings underline the fact. In fact, whilst I was taking this picture a young couple plus child cycled towards me and went past. Within moments a uniformed beach attendant popped out and gently but firmly turned them back – indicating the route up above where they could continue. Now here’s the clever bit. This very location has been scoffed at by the BBC, no less, for being a cycle lane that comes to a dead end. But it isn’t. Do you see the little yellow track? It forms what looks like a stair-lift but is in fact a cycle-rail, to make it easy for cyclists to get up and down the steps, safely separated from the pedestrians.
An unusual solution – in fact, a unique one as far as I know. I suppose there’s a bit of a risk of falling over it, or your bike slipping down it, so I’m sure it must have been difficult to avoid safety signage and restrictions overwhelming the whole idea. Or, the opposite, a
Dont knock this cycle track! Ive used it and it makes real sense. Its there so that the dismounted cyclist can push his very valuable bike up this infernal set of steps (arent they all?) without damaging his or her bike. Its a bit more tricky coming down of course as the bike has to be restrained (from leaping across the lower esplanade into the sea.)
The Aged P responds. The gardens at Clacton were exactly as described – I saw them twice! Whilst the Ranger was still at his slumbers I ventured out, without stick or wheelchair, and enjoyed a music free walk along the promenade, through the gardens, said Good Morning to an early morning gardener before returning to the Hotel for breakfast. I recounted my discoveries to the now awake Ranger who got quite excited and wanted to see for himself all the marvels that Clacton had to offer. So off we went after breakfast, camera to the ready, to capture the sights and sounds (loud music by now) of Clacton.
The prom between Walmer and Deal has been carefully divided by a white line along the middle, with cyclists on one side and pedestrians on the other.
Just to add interest, there is a chicane halfway along, where they cross over.
Minor problem….children and dogs-on-leads tend to provide unexpected hazards to cyclists using their own lane.
I’d be surprised if many of them tried it twice!
How many extreme cyclists have tried to ride down this little yellow track? Will it become a popular pastime?