Today I cycled along the A56 from Sale to Manchester. A section has been coned-off to create a pop-up cycle lane on each side - a full lane being given over to cyclists. Let's see how it's working...

The bottom red sausage shows where the pop-up cycle lane is currently in operation. The top red sausage marked "DEATH"...we'll come to that later. The pop-up cycle lanes run from Stretford Mall to Old Trafford football ground

Further south, there's no special infrastructure from Sale through the junction with the M60 (though in fairness that's not bad, offering on-road and off-road cycle options to cross)

From Stretford Mall to Old Trafford the lane is more or less continuous. It breaks for bus stops and side roads - fair enough: not a lot you can do about that with cones.

The speed limit on the A56 through this section is 30mph, but it's dual carriageway with multiple lanes and guard rails for long sections so everything about it screams to drivers "you can go fast, don't worry about other road users". The long running lanes speak to this.

Once you get to Old Trafford, the sane thing (if you know it's an option) is to cycle alongside the Bridgewater Canal towpath: a traffic-free route that takes you right into the city centre. Signing this from the A56 would be good.

But I wanted to try cycling along the A56 right into the city centre: that's one of the Greater Manchester cycle routes @Chris_Boardman and his team are proposing. There may be a little work still to do! 40mph limit here, but lanes to play with.

This is the section I've labelled "DEATH" on the map.

So, you get past that and there's a bit of shaky infrastucture getting you near the inner ring road. I say "infrastructure", you might say "bit of paint slapped on the pavement". And you'd be right.

Good news is that it gets quite good soon after this. You cross over onto a wide, grade-separated two-way cycle path approaching the inner ring road past St George's Church

And look at this! Fairly recent (just last year, I think) but spot on. This gets you over the inner ring road into the city centre.

Carry on the A56 and you get to the pedestrianised bit of Deansgate (the only place in Manchester City, as far as I know, where cyclists have been allocated more space post-Covid-19)

So that's it. A good start. The cones work pretty well as a stop-gap, traffic was flowing freely on a Friday lunchtime, but clearly more to do if we're to provide an end-to-end route from Sale into the city.

...and finally, if you liked this cycling tour of the A56, check out my thread a few days ago on cycling down Princess Road (A5103) - another of the main roads proposed for cycle routes in the new plans https://twitter.com/slowbikeiain/status/1265272040421875712

Two other points that have come from replies: 1) the A56 is 30mph through Stretford but feels more dangerous (to me, driving or cycling) than the A34, 40mph dual carriageway through Burnage. A34 has few barriers, lots of small roads joining the carriageway

2) I mentioned Bridgewater Canal as an alternative route for the "DEATH" section. Talbot Road/Chester Road is also (as things stand today) a far better on-road alternative with decent cycle infrastructure.