A lot of normal people will be skint and not buying expensive stuff they don't really need, which is understandable, but I cycled a different way into work the other day and I've seen what 'they' have been doing for a good few months on that road. An improved cycle lane for quite a bit of it. As a cyclist I say some of it is ok, but not all of it. As a driver, some of it will be really bad! They've removed the old painted white line and green tarmac and replaced it with a wider area split off from the road by low and thin bollards with quite long and narrow bases which might light up a bit at night?
That's reasonable, but at the bus stops, they've put in humps that the cyclist have to ride up and over, and the pedestrians have to walk across to get on the bus whereas previously the bus pulled across the cycle lane into quite a large bus stop allowing the cyclist to continue past the bus and not have to cross paths with the pedestrians. Not only have 'they' deliberately forced me into the same space as them, they've simultaneously managed to make it pretty well impossible to pass the bus when driving a car if the roads busy, as it now stops in an otherwise live but narrower lane!
At either end of the improved bit are still two ill thought out bits which they've been unable to fix! One end is a train station with a shared footpath and cycle way. The opposite end has do not cross white lines which are bisected by the green cycle lane which effectively cuts off the turn left lane (which can be pretty busy) forcing drivers to stay out of the cycle area until they're almost on top of the left filter lane. As a cyclist it's dangerous, as drivers ignore the don't cross lines, and as a driver who does the right thing, you've a good chance of getting sideswiped by someone ignoring the lines trying to get to the left turn.
I've never had an issue on that particular road before cycle lanes became a thing, and 'they' have just made that road worse in my opinion.
I learned to ride a bicycle on the road, with traffic, not on a footpath with people!