Cycling in the olympic VIP lanes

[Tigerrr]

I dont twit - whats the plan?

[Redlight]

Emabankment westbouind at about 7.30 this morning had two signs, one saying Games lane open for official vehicles only and the other saying Games Lanes open to all traffic.  A bit of confusion noticed

Traffic was lighter than usual - down about 13% say TfL - but what's the betting that everyone reads that in tonight's London Comic and decides that it'll be OK to drive in after all  tomorrow?

[Redlight]

I dont twit - whats the plan?

gather at Hyde Park Corner at 6pm, I think.

(I won't be there but I hope it's well-attended)

[Notsototalnewbie]

I dont twit - whats the plan?

gather at Hyde Park Corner at 6pm, I think.

(I won't be there but I hope it's well-attended)

As far as I know, what Redlight said - that link is all the info I have. I'm dithering about whether to go, I am a bit knackered and have plenty of other chores I should be doing.

I don't work far from HPC though so am wondering about popping along for a bit.

[Redlight]

Pretty horrible coming home tonight. Aggressive police stopping people turning from Northumberland Avenue on to Embankment eastbound, to clear the road for a couple of coaches with police escorts. No reason I could see - the cavalcade was in the Zil lane so it would have been fine for us to turn into the Peasants Lane.

Road was pretty much at a crawl/standstill all the way to Tower Bridge. Perhaps not surprisingly, vehicles were well over to the left so the only way to get past was on the right. There were quite a few of us using the Zil lane. I saw one of the BMWs beeping at a woman to get out of the way and, all credit to the cyclist, being ignored.  Then I got to Tower Bridge to discover that another of my routes home had been blocked off so had to take a chance and cross the junction as the lights were changing for traffic coming from The Highway.

Bermondsey, Deptford was fine, lighter traffic and even more bikes than usual - some obvious newbies.

Greenwich is horrible, with security checkpoints all over the place, so I couldn't ride through the park - although I'm not sure I'd want to, having seen how much damage has been done - so I stretched the legs a bit up Royal Hill and then had a gentle pootle over to Blackheath.

Sadly, despite instructions by text message, I forgot to stop off at Oddbins in the village.... 

After that it was fine

[Barnsdale]

Off topic a bit as my experience did not happen in a "Games Family" lane:

Riding round Parliament Sq turning into Birdcage Walk, I very nearly got cut up on the left hand bend by an undecorated 7 series BMW, but I took the bend wide, forcing the car wider, to give me room to manouvre.  I then found a lot of slow cyclists riding on the left, so I maintained primary behind a Games BMW (and kept up with it) to pass the slower cyclists.  As soon as I was passed them and before I had any time to move over, the 7 series behind flashed blue lights and sounded a siren.  OK, unmarked copper, move over then.  Err no, as the car pulled alongside me, the passenger in the front seat said something that I could not make out in what I think was Spanish - he was definitely not a British police officer, so I "welcomed" him to London in the local vernacular. 

I guess it must have been some diplomatic protection officer from the visiting country.  I shall be showing less respect than usual for blue lights on unmarked BMWs in future  (although maybe only when in the car).  ...unless of course the Family leave a horse's head in my bed tomorrow morning!

[Notsototalnewbie]

Barnsdale, I take it you mean Great George Street which becomes Birdcage walk. That entire section is supposed to be for Games traffic - there are the rings painted on the road as you turn off PS into it and they have banned the turn onto it for all but cycles & Games traffic. I checked the website because I also use it and cyclists are allowed on that bit so that car had no reason to hassle you (apart from the usual reason of you daring to be on the road).

Taxis are not supposed supposed to be able to turn onto on that bit of road but they were ignoring that today.

[Ham]

I wouldn't assume anything Barnsdale, there are a large number of strange plain clothes police cars doing the rounds at the moment, I've seen Transit vans and Jags amongst others. Strange times call for strange methods, I'd shrug and move on. As I've pointed out there are huge numbers of non-London drivers on the streets and they bring their own ways with them. Prudence is probably the watchword, shrug and move on.

[Redlight]

There's a line running on Twitter that Friday's critical mass will be prevented from crossing the river.  Not sure on what legal basis that could happen, given that it comprises individuals making personal decisions about where to cycle, but shows the paranoia at the heart of the Met.

I haven't been on a CM for many years but, were I to be in the UK on Friday, I'd be tempted to join it if there was a prospect of the plods trying to prevent a perfectly legal activity.

[Regulator]

I nearly came unstuck, in a flattened kind of way, yesterday.
Going west to east under the Woolwich flyover roundabout which is traffic light controlled, I had a green light.
What I wasn't expecting was the traffic across my path to have had their red light black bagged, and their stop line painted out and converted to a 'give way' line which they were happily ignoring.
No warning of this on approach to the roundabout (which already has one ghost bike attached to the railings).

I'd report it to TfL, copying the email into London Cycling Campaign and the London Evening Standard...

[Regulator]

There's a line running on Twitter that Friday's critical mass will be prevented from crossing the river.  Not sure on what legal basis that could happen, given that it comprises individuals making personal decisions about where to cycle, but shows the paranoia at the heart of the Met.

I haven't been on a CM for many years but, were I to be in the UK on Friday, I'd be tempted to join it if there was a prospect of the plods trying to prevent a perfectly legal activity.

Unfortunately, I'm in Nottingham on Friday, otherwise I'd be very tempted to jump on the train and come down for CM...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Jurek's incident sounds scary. There are roundabouts with a combination of traffic lights and give way lines - there's one up here where the Ring Road joins the A38, going up the Gloucester Rd you have normal roundabout, from all other directions and on the roundabout itself you have lights - but not putting lights in is not the same as taking them away.

Sadly, despite instructions by text message, I forgot to stop off at Oddbins in the village.... 

After that it was fine

OT - but I thought the whole Oddbins chain had closed?

[jane]

I nearly came unstuck, in a flattened kind of way, yesterday.
Going west to east under the Woolwich flyover roundabout which is traffic light controlled, I had a green light.
What I wasn't expecting was the traffic across my path to have had their red light black bagged, and their stop line painted out and converted to a 'give way' line which they were happily ignoring.
No warning of this on approach to the roundabout (which already has one ghost bike attached to the railings).

We (Lewisham Cyclists)recently made this video, which is wending its way to TfL to highlight the dangers of this particular junction.  It's where Greenwich High Rd and Deal's Gateway meet the A2.  The two roads
used to have separate dedicated green lights. TfL, in pursuit of its illogical aim of improving traffic flow at all costs, changed this to a shared green.  This is the result. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuZSJCMMX8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuZSJCMMX8</a>

[Wowbagger]

Linky no worky...

Although I extracted the link and watched the video. Scary stuff.

[Ham]

Linky:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-EuZSJCMMX8&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-EuZSJCMMX8&rel=1</a>

[jane]

Linky no worky...

Well, it works on my iPad. I don't have sufficient IT skills to suss out why it's not working elsewhere.  Here is the link itself for you to cut and paste. That might work.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-EuZSJCMMX8&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-EuZSJCMMX8&rel=1</a>

[Wowbagger]

It's working now on you second post, but still not on the first. Weird...

[Ham]

(first post embedded in "flash" tags - all that's needed is the URL)

[jane]

(first post embedded in "flash" tags - all that's needed is the URL)

Yes, I thought I had to do that.  You learn something new every day.  Thanks.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's working in the second - and third!

The traffic turning right should give way to that going straight on. I think we can safely assume the reasons it doesn't are a) there's much more right-turning than on-coming traffic b) it's only a bike c) they're used to having no oncoming traffic. An outstretched hand, palm out to the drivers, police stop stylee, might do the trick. Does the traffic from the other direction have just a light - or does it have an arrow as well?

[Pickled Onion]

I nearly came unstuck, in a flattened kind of way, yesterday.
Going west to east under the Woolwich flyover roundabout which is traffic light controlled, I had a green light.
What I wasn't expecting was the traffic across my path to have had their red light black bagged, and their stop line painted out and converted to a 'give way' line which they were happily ignoring.
No warning of this on approach to the roundabout (which already has one ghost bike attached to the railings).

There's hundreds like that up in town, but the major road has also had its lights bagged and the stop lines taken out. I guess the drivers in the side road are seeing the bagged lights but not the give way markings so assuming normal London action when lights are out of action: ie, go if your vehicle is bigger than the other.one

[Redlight]

I nearly came unstuck, in a flattened kind of way, yesterday.
Going west to east under the Woolwich flyover roundabout which is traffic light controlled, I had a green light.
What I wasn't expecting was the traffic across my path to have had their red light black bagged, and their stop line painted out and converted to a 'give way' line which they were happily ignoring.
No warning of this on approach to the roundabout (which already has one ghost bike attached to the railings).

We (Lewisham Cyclists)recently made this video, which is wending its way to TfL to highlight the dangers of this particular junction.  It's where Greenwich High Rd and Deal's Gateway meet the A2.  The two roads
used to have separate dedicated green lights. TfL, in pursuit of its illogical aim of improving traffic flow at all costs, changed this to a shared green.  This is the result. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuZSJCMMX8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuZSJCMMX8</a>

I tweeted the video this morning and, courtesy of the local council, learned that this junction was the responsibility of Transport for London (run by Bungle) rather the local authority, so is set up to maximise speeds on the through route - in this case, the A2. I'd like to think that it will be one of the junctions considered under TfL's forthcoming review, but I suspect that review is just a PR exercise and will change nothing

[Martin]

the route home on my new folder (after an absence of several weeks when the other one was knicked) crosses a Zil lane on the A4; they've put bin bags over all the lights with the result that it's a bloody nightmare; the resultant single line non Zils are constant and you just have to take a deep breath and go;

I've ridden in a few ZLs; I don't think the polis give a damn; far too busy with some gold flaming cornetto today. Quite a few normal cars in them too

[jane]

I tweeted the video this morning and, courtesy of the local council, learned that this junction was the responsibility of Transport for London (run by Bungle) rather the local authority, so is set up to maximise speeds on the through route - in this case, the A2. I'd like to think that it will be one of the junctions considered under TfL's forthcoming review, but I suspect that review is just a PR exercise and will change nothing

Well, as you may have seen in my original post with the video, Lewisham Cyclists has already sent a copy of the video to TfL.  We are well aware of the junctions in Lewisham that are TFL controlled and which are the responsibility of the council.  We have already had a long dialogue with TfL regarding this junction, after they redesigned it about two years ago and combined the green light for the two roads crossing the A2.  After much hassle they moved the ASL and stop line much further forward, which improved it a bit.  But people are still complaining, not just cyclists, as it happens.  It causes problems for motorists trying to drive straight ahead to Greenwich.
I am aware this issue is nothing to do with cycling in the Olympic lanes, so if people have any further comments or questions,  PM me or start a new thread about similar junctions? 

[smif197]

i might be speaking a little soon but for me the zil lanes cut at least five mins off my usual 45 min ride to work-loving it. unfortunately not for those less confident stuck in the traffic....have noticed also drivers often cuing in the middle lane ... not using the bus lanes which are not bus lanes and when the zil lanes are 'off' not using them either. stoopid.