Luke Redpath
Well-Known Member
As I'm sure anybody here who commutes over Bow roundabout is aware, its a dangerous junction, despite TFL trying to improve it. A problem I've noticed, both in my own experience and through others (sw19cam has posted several examples of this on his YouTube channel), is red light jumping.
I recently contacted TFL about this and got a response back today - I wasn't particularly impressed with it, I was wondering what everyone else thought.
What prompted me to write to TFL was an incident I experienced a few weeks ago travelling westbound over the roundabout. I was waiting at the advanced stop line for my light to green - when it did, rather than making a quick getaway, as I normally try to, I had the presence of mind to watch the traffic on the roundabout as I was well aware of how bad it can be for RLJing and I'm glad I did. Half a second after my light went green, a white van approaching from my right (already on the roundabout, heading for the A12) shot through his red light. A few seconds later, another van shot through too. If I'd gone on my green light, I might not be here writing this.
Now it goes without saying that you should always proceed with caution on green - as I did - but I'm sure many less experienced cyclists would proceed without looking. I guess you expect amber gambling, but shooting through several seconds late seems particularly terrible to me.
This shocked even me and I'm pretty used to terrible driving on London streets. Analysing it somewhat, my suspicion is that as traffic on the roundabout approaches the light, they are already starting to accelerate towards the A12 slip road. They look to their left and see the stationary line of motor traffic held back at the first stop line - some 20 feet back from the roundabout - and think they can just go for it. They don't think to look at the advanced stop line where there can be cyclists waiting to go or even be aware there is an advanced green.
I won't paste my entire email to TFL but in short I asked if they could a) consider using red light cameras to dissuade RLJing at this particularly notorious junction, b) put up better signs to make drivers more aware of cyclists at the ASL and c) consider improving the phasing of the lights.
This was their reply:
I guess I shouldn't have expected much to come from contacting them and I know you can't expect red light cameras to be installed everywhere but I would think they could make an exception to their "policy" for particularly bad junctions like this one.
I recently contacted TFL about this and got a response back today - I wasn't particularly impressed with it, I was wondering what everyone else thought.
What prompted me to write to TFL was an incident I experienced a few weeks ago travelling westbound over the roundabout. I was waiting at the advanced stop line for my light to green - when it did, rather than making a quick getaway, as I normally try to, I had the presence of mind to watch the traffic on the roundabout as I was well aware of how bad it can be for RLJing and I'm glad I did. Half a second after my light went green, a white van approaching from my right (already on the roundabout, heading for the A12) shot through his red light. A few seconds later, another van shot through too. If I'd gone on my green light, I might not be here writing this.
Now it goes without saying that you should always proceed with caution on green - as I did - but I'm sure many less experienced cyclists would proceed without looking. I guess you expect amber gambling, but shooting through several seconds late seems particularly terrible to me.
This shocked even me and I'm pretty used to terrible driving on London streets. Analysing it somewhat, my suspicion is that as traffic on the roundabout approaches the light, they are already starting to accelerate towards the A12 slip road. They look to their left and see the stationary line of motor traffic held back at the first stop line - some 20 feet back from the roundabout - and think they can just go for it. They don't think to look at the advanced stop line where there can be cyclists waiting to go or even be aware there is an advanced green.
I won't paste my entire email to TFL but in short I asked if they could a) consider using red light cameras to dissuade RLJing at this particularly notorious junction, b) put up better signs to make drivers more aware of cyclists at the ASL and c) consider improving the phasing of the lights.
This was their reply:
Dear Mr Redpath
Thank you for contacting us on 10 September 2014 suggesting improvements for Bow roundabout.
I am sorry you have experienced motorist jumping the red lights at Bow roundabout.
There is a London wide policy to only install red light cameras as mitigation for a history of people being Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) as a result of red light trespass. Criteria are used to assess whether the installation of a camera would be justified so that the camera would help improve safety by reducing the number of red light trespass related KSIs. The criteria for the implementation of a red light camera is that there must have been a minimum of two injury collisions on the same arm of a junction (in a three year period) that resulted in one KSI and both of these must have been as a result of a red light trespass.
According to Transport for London (TfL) records, none of the collisions at Bow Roundabout have been as a result of red light trespass. Therefore, as there has been no red light trespass related KSIs at this location it is doubtful that the introduction of a red light camera would be effective in addressing the collision problem and so would not be considered in this instance.
However, if you feel there is habitual running of red lights at Bow roundabout you might be interested to know that there is a website where concerns pertaining to a particular location can be reported to the Metropolitan Police via the Road Safe London website (www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/) which has been set up to allow the public to pass on information in confidence about illegal or nuisance road use. The police concentrate their resources on those issues of most concern based on such information.
I hope I can assure you that whilst there have been improvements made at Bow roundabout the process to improve the area has not finished. We are currently working with the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, and other key stakeholders, to deliver the Vision for Bow: a place which all road users passing through find accessible, safe and connected. We are therefore looking at opportunities to deliver more substantial changes at Bow for pedestrian and cyclists in the longer term, in order to support the regeneration of the area.
Thank you again for taking the time to write to us with your suggestions to improve safety at Bow roundabout.
Please contact me again if you need any further assistance, or if you would prefer to talk to us about this matter, please call us on 0343 222 1234.
Yours sincerely
Jonathon Cartwright
I guess I shouldn't have expected much to come from contacting them and I know you can't expect red light cameras to be installed everywhere but I would think they could make an exception to their "policy" for particularly bad junctions like this one.