Going nowhere: The cycle lane lights that never turn green

Cyclists have been forced to run a red light in Newcastle, England, as local cyclists have discovered (at length) that the bike lane traffic lights on a junction of Heaton Road never turn green.

As a video from local resident Sebastian Popa shows, the lights on the main road work normally; it's only the bike lane that's stuck on red. Short of waiting at the red light until the council dispatches a repair team, there's little that local cyclists can do besides run the gauntlet.

Popa, who told the BBC he passes through the junction between one and three times a day, has never seen it on green. He wasn't surprised that the cycle lane was flawed – this is the latest hiccup in a long and fault-ridden build process. Popa said, "They worked on it for almost a year and a half – I never thought it would get done".

Local vicar, Father Jonathan Lawson, told the BBC the lights made the new lane "more dangerous than what was there before".

Fr Lawson said "I have a hunch that it's been wired incorrectly," adding that the situation was sending "a message to young people and adults that it's alright to cycle through red lights".