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Surrey Quays Superhighway - Pants

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ScumOfTheRoad:
I live in SE London and have been subject to buses being stuck for 20 minutes due to the roadworks for  this 'Cycling Superhighway'
I tried it out  today for the first time, south to north past the Surrey Quays  Overground station. And it is pants.
Short story - sets of bike traffic lights within 100 yards and crossing three busy junctions.

I attended the public meeting on this a couple of years ago and stated that gyratories were being removed all over London as they are a menace to cycles.
And not much good for cars either IMHO.
"On no" quoth traffic engineer "there is a bridge where the road crosses the overground and we cannot make this a 2 way road"
So  the gyratory system stays as is.

South to North the obstacles are

That funny junction to Lidl. Its OK for cyclists but cars turning right have that mental zebra crossing with the stealth stop line. Cars turning right are meant to give way to those going north/turning left towards Lidl. I can neverfigure that out - it really is unclear.

Next up - the odd junction at Plough Way. Cyclist sits at lights for ages with a long bit of tarmac empty in front. It is empty as few cars/buses turn left into Plough Way and there is a phase  where the bus emerges from Plough Way to go straight ahead through the bus only lane. Except there are precious few buses that do this.

Next the junction for the turn off to Redriff Way / Tescos.  Cyclist held at  traffic lights then has to follow the route across the road from right to left.
In my run a lorry had not cleared the juction when green cycle light, so I scooted round the back of him. Lorry driver not at fault in the slightest. This is a busy junction and I dont see cars leaving the cross marked route empty if they are queuing to go south. So cyclists will have to weave.

Next the junction at Surrey Quays station where the norhtbound gyratory traffic merges back in.  Yet again cyclists are held at the lights to let the motor  traffic cross in front of them.

The whole thing is a dogs breakfast. IMHO two things should have been done:

Make Lower Road two way and somehow cope with that rail bridge. Why not lights allowing only one set of motor traffic across at a time?
Then cycle superhighway goes round the back, taking the route of the northbound gyratory along Rotherhithe New Road

Get a safe way to link the off road cycle routes round the  docks  onto the rather nice off road route which starts at Rotherhothe New Road and goes past the Millwall ground.  Making that crossing now means taking your life in your hands.

toontra:
You're certainly right about gyratories.  The nightmare spawn of 60's urban planners who fixated on cars being the future.  As you say, thankfully they're being ripped out across London.

Haven't been to Surrey Quays in the last few weeks but will nip down to Decathlon to have a look.  That particular gyratory was/is down right dangerous to everyone - cars/cyclists/pedestrians. 

Sounds like this "cycle provision" makes the usual mistake of penalising cyclists with multiple traffic lights that relegate them to the bottom of the priority list.  I now routinely move out onto the main carriageway when approaching them so I can progress with other traffic and not wait an age.

grams:
Removing gyratories for general traffic is incredibly expensive and often results in a reduction in available space for bus lanes, cycle lanes and pavements because of the need to provide at least two lanes of general traffic everywhere (one for each direction) plus many more turning lanes etc.

I'm very glad TfL don't have the money to do more of it. Most of the schemes that were in development have been permanently scrapped.

Off road cycle routes are great if you want to (a) not get anywhere any time soon and (b) get mugged for your bike. That rather nice Millwall cycle route is notoriously patrolled by gangs on unrestricted ebikes.

ScumOfTheRoad:
Surrey Quays is somewhat different. Lower Road is the natural route down to Deptford and would be two way for cars normally. It was made into a gyratory by shuntiny northbound cars onto a backstreet,

citoyen:
Trouble is, as grams hints at, the bridge section is too narrow to handle the typical volume of traffic in both directions.

The real answer would be measures to reduce the volume of motor traffic.

Drivers blocking box junctions is ALWAYS entirely their fault. I bet they’d find it easier to comply if there were enforcement cameras in place. Likewise, “stealth” stop lines are only an issue for drivers who don’t know what give way signs mean.

The standard of driving generally in southeast London is appalling. I always used to get drivers aggressively overtaking on the stretch from London Bridge down to Rotherhithe then I would casually filter past them when they hit the gridlock at Surrey Quays. Idiots.

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