'Potentially lethal abomination': Rider slams Telford cycleway barriers

The barriers, located on National Cycle Route 81 at Leegate Avenue, in Hadley, were spotted by cycling enthusiast Phil Jones, who posted a picture of them on Twitter.

The image, which shows three unusually shaped upright barriers set out to block the path, was retweeted by well known cyclist and presenter Jeremy Vine, who described the metal posts as "horrible" and "invisible at night".

A number of other Twitter users also criticised the barriers, questioning why they had been allowed in the first place.

Mr Jones, 61, spotted them while cycling from his home in Kinver to Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

His original post said: "The worst anti-cycling barrier I’ve ever seen."

He added: "Those sharp corners are about at eye height on a road bike and approached around a bend on a down slope."

Cycle routes are also something of a speciality for Mr Jones, whose company PJA has been producing guidance for the government on how to design them, which is set to be published next month.

Mr Jones said the design of the Telford posts, which feature protruding sections on either side at the top, was the most aggressive style he had ever seen.

'Aggressive'

He said: "I was just cycling and thought 'whoa' that is just so wrong, and nasty if you didn't see it. If you went into them at 10 or 15 miles an hour you could do yourself a serious injury.

"Just the principle of it is not very good but I have never seen ones as aggressive as that."

Mr Jones said that due to the under-reporting of accidents by cyclists, people may have hit the barriers before and not notified the authorities of the incident.

He said: "Those kind of accidents seem to be very under-reported. People just pick themselves up and carry on. Even if something has not been reported it may not be evidence there have been no accidents."

Mr Jones said that the barriers could also prevent some people using disability cycles or tandems from riding along the cycle path completely.

He said: "To spend all that money on a cycle route and then stop people using it, it is ridiculous. I have never seen anything like it."

Mr Jones said that there are different methods to reduce the speed of cyclists that would not be as dangerous.

He said: "There are other ways of slowing people down. You could put in speed bumps, which is a much safer way of doing it than something you can run into."

Commenting on Mr Jones' picture, one Twitter user wrote: "That is weaponry. I'd love to see the risk assessment that passed that potentially lethal abomination."