Cycle Super-Highways

[gaz]

I know you've all been waiting for it...Clapham Road and Union Road junction:

That junction is really bad! it's a shame they haven't turned it into one car lane, people are still going to try and filter up the left.

I'll get some footage of this tomorrow on my way home

 

[Origamist]

That junction is really bad! it's a shame they haven't turned it into one car lane, people are still going to try and filter up the left.

I'll get some footage of this tomorrow on my way home

Formerly, it had an ASL reservoir, but no feeder lane and it was difficult to reach the front. The real problem junctions/gyratories are at Stockwell, Oval and the Elephant and Castle.

Although it's early stages, road space is not being allocated to cyclists at the expense of motorists - the lanes are being squeezed in, in an attempt not to inconvenience drivers using the A roads (I'm not sure what the capacity projections are, but I'd be interested to know). This is made clear here:

...wide traffic lanes, which enable traffic to overtake cyclists without moving into other lanes in the same or opposing direction

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Cycling/Cycle-superhighways-questions-and-answers.pdf

Unsurprisingly, they are hoping to encourage a modal shift primarily from the tube (and not the car) to cycling on this route.

The positioning of the lanes is often not compatible with cycle training best practice. In addition, what we've got so far cannot accommodate cyclists riding two abreast.

 

[Bollo]

Something about this struck me last night - I've never seen anything so gaudy in the two countries regarded as having the most established cycling cultures - the Netherlands and Denmark. This is surprising, as the facilities in these two countries often take priority over motor vehicles. For example, cars are required to give way to cycles when turning across a cycle path. These potential areas of conflict aren't marked with big dollops of paint. Instead, the onus is on the motorist to observe and act accordingly.

I get the impression from those pictures, and my experience of some of the bright red stuff on the NCN23 that I ignore every day, that our facilities are the exact opposite of those in NL and DK - they scream out 'facility' but offer nothing to the cyclist and demand no compromise from motorised road users. They're road apartheid. FSP - facility-shaped paint.

 

[Origamist]

I get the impression from those pictures, and my experience of some of the bright red stuff on the NCN23 that I ignore every day, that our facilities are the exact opposite of those in NL and DK - they scream out 'facility' but offer nothing to the cyclist and demand no compromise from motorised road users. They're road apartheid. FSP - facility-shaped paint.

Indeed. CS = "Cycle SimulacraHighways" or "Cycle SmurfHighways"

 

[marinyork]

Cycle SmurfHighways - love it .

 

[Origamist]

Cycle SmurfHighways - love it .

OrigamiSmurf, ready for CS 7 action:

 

[Bollo]

OrigamiSmurf, ready for CS 7 action:

This is one gentleman that's got a lot of explaining to do at doping control!

 

[chap]

That junction is really bad! it's a shame they haven't turned it into one car lane, people are still going to try and filter up the left.

I'll get some footage of this tomorrow on my way home

My goodness, THAT is what they spent millions of pounds on. Did they just have a massive pi*s up and then give somebody £200 and a pot of paint.

 

[chap]

Bloggers united:

http://www.velorution.biz/2010/03/banana-republics/

http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/2010/03/cycling-supercrap.html

http://realcycling.blogspot.com/2010/03/cycle-superhighways-safe-as-bank-of-er.html

http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2010/03/oh-london-you-really-need-to-try-harder.html

Well written and considered views, excluding the usual hyperbolic nonsense from Velorution.

Hembrow links to an interesting article describing implementation considerations when combining cycle and bus paths: Presto article [PDF]

It always confuses me as to how your average layperson could find highly relevant details concerning good cycling implementation, whereas the city councilors and Government officials always draft in consultants at great expense who then proceed to deliver the complete antitheses to the desired solution. How do they do this, and more importantly how do they continue to do this, time after time again?

 

[Bollo]

It always confuses me as to how your average layperson could find highly relevant details concerning good cycling implementation, whereas the city councilors and Government officials always draft in consultants at great expense who then proceed to deliver the complete antitheses to the desired solution. How do they do this, and more importantly how do they continue to do this, time after time again?

Being an expensive consultant myself I resemble that remark! (not transport BTW). I get the impression the vision for these schemes are strangled at birth by reactionary highway departments, backed up by a gregarious road transport lobby and an at best unsympathetic press. Lets not forget the great driving, non-cycling masses who would not brook any of their roadspace being handed over to a few smelly, non-tax paying, RLJing, blah.... Taking the country as a whole, we get the facilities we deserve.

Your last post reminded me of the day a year or two ago when the Gov announced £50M for cycling from the lottery. It must have been a quiet news day because it made it quite high up the items on the Beeb. I walked into work and my wonderful but non-cycling (not sarcastic - they're nice) colleagues seemed pleased for me until I educated them on the possible journey that money would take. I might even have told them to grab some shares in ICI or International Paints. And here we are. What's most upsetting is the inevitability of it all.

 

[gaz]

Video of union road and clapham road -
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGpgE-a_sfE

 

[chap]

Being an expensive consultant myself I resemble that remark! (not transport BTW). I get the impression the vision for these schemes are strangled at birth by reactionary highway departments, backed up by a gregarious road transport lobby and an at best unsympathetic press. Lets not forget the great driving, non-cycling masses who would not brook any of their roadspace being handed over to a few smelly, non-tax paying, RLJing, blah.... Taking the country as a whole, we get the facilities we deserve.

Your last post reminded me of the day a year or two ago when the Gov announced £50M for cycling from the lottery. It must have been a quiet news day because it made it quite high up the items on the Beeb. I walked into work and my wonderful but non-cycling (not sarcastic - they're nice) colleagues seemed pleased for me until I educated them on the possible journey that money would take. I might even have told them to grab some shares in ICI or International Paints. And here we are. What's most upsetting is the inevitability of it all.

Good old accountability

Talking of Government, I wonder how our wonderful leader gets from Number 10 to the Houses of Parliament? Is it like this?

 

[Origamist]

I wonder how the blue will fade. Red often fades pretty poorly despite often being more vibrant (initially) than the green cycle lanes.

The blue is already getting marked/abraded by tyres and in a few months it will have lost its lustre completely.

Still no advisory or mandatory lane markings on the three sections of CS7 - I guess they will follow.

 

[chap]

The blue is already getting marked/abraded by tyres and in a few months it will have lost its lustre completely.

Still no advisory or mandatory lane markings on the three sections of CS7 - I guess they will follow.

What better point than the poignancy of a single photo showing blue tarmac with a single car tyres tread marking the surface.

 

[Origamist]

What better point than the poignancy of a single photo showing blue tarmac with a single car tyres tread marking the surface.

Indeed - that was my thought too. If I had not been jet lagged, I'd have stopped and snapped...maybe tomorrow.