Work begins on London's first two Cycle Superhighways

[clarion]

Still work in progress.  Let's not start the lynch mob yet.  Though I do have the pitchfork and noose on stand by.

[clarion]

I noticed that the surface was a very bright blue when put down, but it has discoloured and stained already where it has had cars stopped on it with their exhaust gases pouring on to it.

[Gaz]

A video of the junction at union road a few days after it was laid - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/tGpgE-a_sfE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/tGpgE-a_sfE&rel=1</a>

[Wendy]

We know someone in that video!

[alexb]

I makes you realise what a stupid width it is.
Most of the cyclists seemed to be happy riding either right on the extreme right edge of the marked section, or to the right of it entirely.
What's the traction like on the surface?

[woollypigs]

This makes me so sad to see this.

Yes there are blue lanes in Denmark and the like, but firstly everyone knows what they are for and how to used them. Secondly they are much more thought planned out. Someone have actually looked at the junction and gone, hmm what can we do to make this better.

Here it is shite, crap and plane simple wrong. We have to have x% of miles of cycle lanes to compared to what we have and then we have to reach on the target. And no one knows how to use them or care about them. We need to train everyone and make the roads safer for everyone.

[Gaz]

I makes you realise what a stupid width it is.
Most of the cyclists seemed to be happy riding either right on the extreme right edge of the marked section, or to the right of it entirely.
What's the traction like on the surface?

Some have said they find it a bit slippery, but personally it's fine, you can stop on it well and there isn't much difference between normal tarmac.

I'm a bit disappointed with what i have seen so far, i was expecting a much wider lane. I personally find normal cycle lanes to narrow, and i ride on the edge of it (if i ride in it at all) to avoid dirt, stones, general debris and drain covers etc.. So when riding in the 'super' highway i find i still take most of it up, and to pass another cyclist i have to leave the blue area. The problem is if they make it much wider, it's just going to become a glorified bus lane.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Would I be safe in assuming that this magical blue paint is fully covered as to its meaning in the current edition of the Highway Code ?

That's a good question - in fact there are road markings which have no mention in the Highway Code and no mention in law. Let me elaborate - on the big road near where I live, there was room for four lanes of traffic. No road markings at all. Cue traffic management scheme - road markings, raised tables, pinch points. I went to the exhibition - all along the middel of the road there is a metre wide white striped area, with dashed edges. Traffic engineer admits there is no force on law, just makes drivers think they cannot drive on it.

Sad to say that's what cycle lanes are for in traffi management schemes - they're not for the benefit of cyclists, they just cut down the perceived width of the road, in attempt to either reduce to one lane or to slow motors down. This explains the frankly useless nature of the underwidth farcilities we see, and if you put your traffic engineer head on and look at cycle lanes in this ligh you see why they're done.

Don't get me started on pinch points - as someone here said once, mobile speed humps using the soft, squishy bodies of cyclists.

[clarion]

A video of the junction at union road a few days after it was laid - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/tGpgE-a_sfE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/tGpgE-a_sfE&rel=1</a>

We know someone in that video!

Um , yes, 'we' do!

Glad I wasn't shown doing anything daft.  But the observant will note that I wasn't on the blue paint at all!

Say hello next time you see me, Gaz

[clarion]

Actually, I appear in at least one more of Gaz' videos.  No, not 'crazy cyclists'

[alexb]

Interesting to see how muuch room four cyclists take up in real life. A bit more than 2 cars.
I went to a meeting at Kensington and Chelsea recently (their first cycling forum) and one of the stats touted which struck me was that cyclists make up over 30% of the traffic in morning peak.
That's a pretty big chunk to accommodate.
The guy from the council seemed to think that this would force some changes to planning methodology, through simple weight of numbers, on junction designs.
I can imagine car drivers getting pretty fed up with seeing 10+ cyclists getting through every set of lights (even legally) whilst only 2 cars get through which I see on several points on my route to work.
The cars are simply unable to fit onto the queue at the other side of the lights, the cyclists simply ride straight down the edges of the road past the cars.

[Wendy]

Interesting to see how muuch room four cyclists take up in real life. A bit more than 2 cars.
I went to a meeting at Kensington and Chelsea recently (their first cycling forum) and one of the stats touted which struck me was that cyclists make up over 30% of the traffic in morning peak.
That's a pretty big chunk to accommodate.
The guy from the council seemed to think that this would force some changes to planning methodology, through simple weight of numbers, on junction designs.
I can imagine car drivers getting pretty fed up with seeing 10+ cyclists getting through every set of lights (even legally) whilst only 2 cars get through which I see on several points on my route to work.
The cars are simply unable to fit onto the queue at the other side of the lights, the cyclists simply ride straight down the edges of the road past the cars.

Lovely isn't it?  Moar cyclists please.

[Speshact]

Finally got to look at the blue paint across a couple of junctions on CSH 7.

I think I know what they are trialling. The lane the blue paint is put in were wide enough to fit a lorry in with a few inches either side to spare before being painted. They are determining whether by painting half the lane blue there is now room to fit a lorry and a bicycle in the lane without the lorry intruding into the blue.

There isn't. Duh. Because there isn't room for a lorry and a bicycle in the lane in the first place.

Oh, and they're left-hook hell and not where I'd choose to ride.

If they do proceed with them as trialled I suggest the the paint specification is changed from blue to shit brown to fully reflect the calibre of the facility.

[Regulator]

Actually, I appear in at least one more of Gaz' videos.  No, not 'crazy cyclists'

Is it one that has to be sold in a plain wrapper?   

[clarion]

Oh, and they're left-hook hell and not where I'd choose to ride.

If they do proceed with them as trialled I suggest the the paint specification is changed from blue to shit brown to fully reflect the calibre of the facility.

I suggest that they paint them red so the blood doesn't show so much...

[alexb]

Whats so maddening is that this is likely to be the only true legacy Boris leaves...

My predictions:
The buses will be delivered late and over budget.
He won't get the congestion charge extension revoked.
The rape crisis centres he promised will not get the funding he promised.

Everything else he's suggested is basically cuts to things.

[windrush]

I've never understood why there are so many pelicans and hardly any footbridges.
Presumably it will be something to do with access for everyone.

But on a bike, has anyone looked at a ramp over busy junctions ?
Now that would actually be a continuous cycle lane.

[TimO]

I've never understood why there are so many pelicans and hardly any footbridges.
Presumably it will be something to do with access for everyone.

Footbridges are very non user friendly if you're in a wheelchair or pushing a pram.

But on a bike, has anyone looked at a ramp over busy junctions ?
Now that would actually be a continuous cycle lane.

A good idea in principle, but in practice very few locations would have the room for it, and the cost would be astronomical.

You only tend to find bridges over busy dual-carriageway A-roads and the like, and even then they're falling out of favour, since as I said above, they don't really work with wheeled users.  To make them work with a wheelchair (or for that matter a bike), you would need much longer ramps than the staircases you generally have, and the space won't be there for them in most cases.

[clarion]

I wouldn't fancy having to heave up a hill at every junction on my route.  I might be fitter.  And what of the turns?  Would you have a cycle junction in the sky and a motor junction below, and then try ot merge the streams back together (eek!), in which case you've not saved yourself any danger at all?

[Domestique]

I like the idea of easy to follow routes across London. But I am not idiot enough to believe I would ever have priority over a London taxi.

[Regulator]

I like the idea of easy to follow routes across London. But I am not idiot enough to believe I would ever have priority over a London taxi.

In the mind of a London taxi driver, nothing and no-one has priority over a London taxi...


...except perhaps the Queen "Gawd Bless Yer Mam" Mother when she was alive.

[Domestique]

I like the idea of easy to follow routes across London. But I am not idiot enough to believe I would ever have priority over a London taxi.

In the mind of a London taxi driver, nothing and no-one has priority over a London taxi...


...except perhaps the Queen "Gawd Bless Yer Mam" Mother when she was alive.

 

[alexb]

At best I'd regard these as the cyclists equivalent of the coloured lines they used to have in Hospitals to lead you from, for example, reception to X-rays or Cardiology.

[teethgrinder]

Oh, and they're left-hook hell and not where I'd choose to ride.

I think that the CTC would do well to start a campaign to raise awareness of this. Or maybe lobby them in charge with the big bag of money to do so. I'm not sure which. Them in charge might mess it up.

It would help educate people about the dangers of going up the inside of vehicles, especially big ones like lorries.
It would also educate people that cycle lanes are often not much good to cycle on.

[teethgrinder]

At best I'd regard these as the cyclists equivalent of the coloured lines they used to have in Hospitals to lead you from, for example, reception to X-rays or Cardiology.

That's true.
There are no marking to suggest that it's a cycle lane. So it would be OK for motorists to drive or ride on it. Just a mark in the road for navigation purposes.