Met criticises cycle superhighways

[glenn forger]

Next it says a woman was killed there a few weeks later. How? Did she also go through a red light? Or is the point being made that the junction is badly laid out?

Brian Dorling was the first cyclist to die on one of the Cycle Superhighway routes.

Less than three weeks later 34-year-old Svitlana Tereschenko was killed by a tipper truck at approximately 4.45pm on the evening of Friday, November 11.

The inquest into Ms Tereschenko’s death returned a narrative verdict. Deputy coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe ruled that Ms Tereschenko died "as a result of traumatic road death".

Although the driver, Gurpreet Shergill failed to indicate and was talking on a mobile phone at the time, Dr Radcliffe went on to conclude "that nobody is to blame".

 

[Beebo]

When I read about UK infrastructure I get a little ****ed off. The solution is simple, but planners/govt/councils just don't wanna listen.

You will struggle to build one of them at Bow.
Here is the roundabout for anyone who doesnt know it. It has a flyover A11 and a flyunder A12 (both are effectively urban motorways), with very little space for further development. This is compounded by the fact that there are very few other safer options to travel west / east in that area as the River Lea causes a natural barrier, and the few crossing points that exist are all major traffic arteries.

 

[Rasmus]

Photo showing a sign reminding motorists that cyclists are 100% entitled to use the entire lane & you come up with this

The reminder is present in this specific location because in general, cyclists are not, in fact, entitled to use the whole lane.

As for the Bow rbt, I saw a suggestion on the road.cc discussion, which seemed to make sense to me (as a non-local, who have never cycled in London). Since almost all cycle traffic is west-east, and most motor traffic is turning on or off the north-south direction, why not send bicycle traffic over the flyover? There should be plenty of space for a nice wide segregated lane. Access at either end can be done with a light-controlled crossing.

 

[glenn forger]

Overpass for cyclists only? Look at those long, sweeping left turns, shudder. It's a grinder. I know a few people who ride the col du Bow but it scares the living jeebus out of me.

 

[glenn forger]

snap with rasmus.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Photo showing a sign reminding motorists that cyclists are 100% entitled to use the entire lane & you come up with this

But... Apart from a few enlightened towns (Georgetown springs to mind) the USA is a cycling desert. No cycle parking, no racks, malls accessible only by multi-lane highways and a road system (outside the suburbs) simply not designed for cycling.

But even in Georgetown it comes across as a very middle-class and 'look at me' hobby, rather than just something people do. Try to find an LSB in the USA. They exist, but many are ridiculously focussed on high-end stuff. There is a lot of leisure cycling, but one puts one's bicyle on a truck and drives off to do that. Very few people cycle just to cycle or get about. A few cities have a fixie-fakenger-crazeeee-me population, but that is sometimes slightly more about a tribe of disaffected, fashion-focussed, middle-class, icon-worshipping iconoclasts that a culture of riding.

For all the exceptions that may exist, the US is not a cycling mecca. With notable exceptions, most cities are not planned with bicycles in mind and drivers do not drive with bicycles in mind. If we are to base a bike-friendly road system on the USA, we might as well adopt their policies on collateral damage and healthcare provision. And while we're at it we could adopt the diversity policies of the Third Reich. (Is there still a Godwin's Law and have I won a prize?)

As @BentMikey says, go Dutch if you go anywhere, although I'd stay as we are. It works. And the Dutch drive on the wrong side. It would be carnage!

 

[sheddy]

Perhaps TFL (or LCC) should pay for the Dutch Planners to come up with a scheme for the Bow junction?

 

[albion]

The term "cycle superhighways " is very much misused.
There is nothing whatsoever super about them. They are simply cycle routes complete with all the usual dangers.

Whoever thought up calling them 'super' needs to have a rethink. They certainly ain't.

 

[Leodis]

Just glad I live in Leeds and the cycling network has been neglected for so long, we must be 15 years away from blue paint.

 

[Dmcd33]

They are better than nothing at all, but I agree they do give a false sense of security. I use the one going from Tooting Broadway to Clapham common and if it was not there I feel the cars would take up a lot more of the road and not give you space to get past when stationary.

Tooting high street has to be the least safe part on that route with cars using the side roads a rat runs and pushing their noses into the "blue paint"

 

[gaz]

No, the UK should not follow the US idea. The US is far worse than the UK for both real and perceived danger to cyclists, and has far lower cycling on average than the UK. We should follow the Netherlands. That place is 'king awesome to cycle in, even for fast road cyclists, those much faster than either of us.

We've already done it with the cycle superhighways and it's going to happen on part of your commuting route.

Those boxes you see with a bicycle logo and the CS number in it are the american cycle sharrows that we see in the picture.
We just don't educate people what they mean or why they are there.

 

[GrasB]

The reminder is present in this specific location because in general, cyclists are not, in fact, entitled to use the whole lane.

Certainly putting signs like that up around Cambridge would be damn useful.

But... Apart from a few enlightened towns (Georgetown springs to mind) the USA is a cycling desert. No cycle parking, no racks, malls accessible only by multi-lane highways and a road system (outside the suburbs) simply not designed for cycling.

There is a lot about cycling that's bad in the US. So that mean all signs etc. used aren't useful? I'll remember that this sign isn't useful when I get a moron on my back wheel blaring their horn for having the audacity to actually not ride in the door zone, avoid a pot-hole or simply being in the middle of the lane because I'm keeping up with the main stream of traffic.... I think that signs like that near major on-road cycle ways would be a damn good idea for the UK.

PS. don't get me started on the Dutch cycling network. Yes in places it's good, but it's no where near the cycling utopia people would like to make out.

 

[Buddfox]

I dont get it. What actually happened? The cyclist went through a red light. A truck went through the same red light behind the cyclist. The assumption (though I dont see it written down or in the video) is the truck driver hit the cyclist.
Next it says a woman was killed there a few weeks later. How? Did she also go through a red light? Or is the point being made that the junction is badly laid out?

I'm not saying it's not a badly designed roundabout, i went there only a handful of times and i can see it's crap. But the news article did not state what actually happened.

Some things that stick out:
The cyclist went through a red light.
A truck behind the cyclist also went through the red light.
The coroner said it was a death trap waiting to happen. The coroner is not a traffic management expert. If an airline pilot or professional skateboarder said the same thing, would it have the same credence?
The only real news I can get from this is the Traffic Management Police advised TFL that Cycle Superhighways is a bad idea.

Someone above said:
"Can we make the UK planners cycle back from Harwich to London?"
That, is a GOOD idea.

This Standard article from yesterday contains the most detail I have found on what happened:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...illed-in-crash-with-tipper-truck-8879430.html

Mr Dorling was proceeding along the Superhighway and found himself stuck to the left of the truck because the route was blocked by a bus. Martin Porter "suggested" that the reason Mr Dorling jumped the red light was to get ahead of the truck. That may or may not be reasonable justification of course.

 

[moon_monkey]

Certainly putting signs like that up around Cambridge would be damn useful.

Wouldn't that be counter-productive in the UK though? Unless they were put absolutely everywhere, it would reinforce the (incorrect) idea that cyclists aren't entitled to use the whole lane and that the signs just indicate a special case.

 

[Davidsw8]

I guess there are a couple of alternatives with regards to the cyclist and lorry running the red light on this roundabout:

a) cyclist stops, lorry stops and they both proceed on their journeys alive, or
b) cyclist stops, lorry carries on and kills the cyclist in front of him anyway

Hard to predict what would happen but I would tend to say, there is *usually* less risk of something bad happening if you stop at a red light.

I was a bit concerned when they reported on the news last night that these superhighways were just lanes of blue paint, they give no priority whatsoever. I made the assumption that these were official cycle lanes that just happened to have been sponsored in line with the Boris Bikes.

There doesn't seem to be any communication widely with regards to road safety and new initiatives. I've never seen anything publicised about ASZ's and I'm certain that most motorcyclists genuinely believe they are entitled to be there.