Back in May Trafford introduced a pop-up cycle lane along the A56. Three months on and Stockport is doing a route too, going in next Monday, 31 August for 8 months. As far as I know there's been no consultation on the route, so today I cycled it. Here's what I found [THREAD] 
I'm a Stockport councillor but, despite asking for information weeks ago, the first I knew of the detail of the route was when it appeared on the council website yesterday. The council submitted 3 routes for Tranche 1 funding - only this one got it. 2/ stockport.gov.uk/current-propos…
The route starts at B&Q/Decathlon near Stockport town centre and goes north up past Heaton Chapel station. You would come out on the A6 by the Tesla showroom (near the Manchester Border) or you could access Heaton Moor. 3/
Anyone looking for a pop-up cycle lane like Trafford have done will be disappointed. Apart from a 20m section of this junction, it's all about quiet roads plus some additional yellow lines and changed priorities. 4/
Let's start from Stockport Town Centre. This is actually a bit outside the town centre, but you can get here via segregated cycle paths or shared cycle/pedestrian paths from the A6 & Transpennine Trail. Signage could do with improving, but it's OK. 5/
First you cycle over the cobbles of Lower Bury Street. Currently a car park for the industrial estate, but some yellow lines are going down to improve that. A little bouncy though. 6/
Then you go along Upper Bury Street, past the abattoir and the back of B&Q. This is the section I'm least comfortable with: it's full of cars and heavy lorries, often reversing. Yes, they travel slowly but this is a busy industrial estate, not a cycle lane 7/
Along the footpath behind B&Q, which will be wide enough as long as the vegetation is cleared back from both sides (though there's nothing in the plans to say this will be done) 8/
Into Ashburn Road, one of those residential streets with a huge mouth that allows vehicles to whip around the corner. This junction is 22m wide - 6m would be more than adequate /9
From there it's pretty much plain cycling up past Heaton Mersey station with a few more yellow lines, some bike symbols painted on the roads, changed priorities and the like. I'm fine with this - it's quiet residential roads for the most part. /10
And you come out onto the A6 by the Tesla showroom, with a peak-hours bus lane for the few hundred metres of the A6 until you leave The Heatons and enter Levenshulme, where you're thrown to the tender mercies of Manchester City Council. /11
Overall, the industrial estate section is terrible, the rest is fine - even good. It will need promotion as, unlike a main road pop-up lane, it won't be obvious that it's there. /12
But my frustration is that section of the A6 could be make cycle-friendly without too much effort. Long sections already have a painted mandatory cycle lane which could be segregated with some wands. Bus lanes could be made 24x7, junctions could be easily made safer /13
So we've got a back-streets route which isn't that easy to access if your coming south and adds time to your journey if your going north, when we could have put some high quality, visible and useful cycle provision slap bang on the A6 without spending a fortune. /14 & END
