Has anyone else seen the videos of the Bow roundabout "facilities"? Terrible: experienced cyclists seem to avoid using them completely and go with the flow of "hard" traffic (which is what I'd do), but I can understand how someone with less experience would feel they were in the cycle lane and therefore safe. Boris and the TfL seem to be in denial about the role their ill - thought - out cycle superhighway might have played in the latest round of tragedies, but I'd have said a positive first step would be to completely redesign them, or better still do away with them altogether and encourage cyclists to use the road. Although I recognise that an awful lot of less confident cyclists wouldn't be happy with this, it can't be much more offputting than constantly reading about the outcome of cyclist vs. eight wheel tipper.
I cycle through Bow roundabout every day, it is still a whole load of crap going west to east, mainly the lead up to it, with the McD's and the whole load of Bus Stops before it where traffic can get snarled up. It usually means I end up going over the Bow Flyover rather than using the cycling farcility there, but then you have the downhill bit of the Flyover, where cars don't look properly for bikes when joining the main road, even though they are supposed to give way for me coming down the Flyover... the segregation can also be a bit confusing to join if you are coming down the Flyover for both bikes and cars, but there is a way to get into it a little further up the road.
East to west is a bit better with the semi-segregated cycle lane and the ASZ style traffic lights, so I don't really find the need to go over the Flyover anymore.
I do have to be careful that some vehicles don't think I am going to stay in the cycle lane to meander around the last bus stop when there is no bus there, as the cycle lane shoots you out onto the main road it can be better to keep going in a straight line rather than going around the bus stop... There is also the fact that I am not going to join the cycle lane if the main lights are in my favour rather than the "cycle lane" lights... so again I have to be rather careful...
There are some good parts to the cycle superhighways (bits of the CS8 and CS3 are ok) and then there are some terrible bits where TFL have compromised far too much...
The one I dislike the most is the CS2, too much of it is a guideway, and not a proper cycle lane/path.
So both cars and cycles are trying to occupy the same space in the same lane at the same time... The worst thing I find along the Mile End road part of it is car drivers who want to undertake other cars... You have to take a strong position along the CS2 to make sure you are visible on this wide and fast road.
There are places where I would prefer to see that blue paint removed all together... and there are places where they could easily paint in white solid lines along the cycle guideway to make it a proper cycle lane...
There are also cycle lanes near where I live which I would like to see removed as they are unsafe or just used as car parking...
Sometimes I do wonder if the only reason the Councils put in cycle lanes is so that they can get money to create additional car parking space but instead suggest they built have a cycle lane and so are able to tick a box... Far too many times do I have to pull out of cycle lanes because of parked cars or even double parked cars... especially in Leytonstone... and when they do put in the cycle lane, of course, they run it along the inside of car door zones... idiots!
Why do I have to take the abuse for their poor design decisions or their ignorance when creating this sort of "infrastructure"..!
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