Author Topic: Southend Cycle Town - part 2  (Read 237245 times)

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #75 on: 02 April, 2010, 10:44:52 am »
Please can anybody let me know of a vehicle which has 0.5m wide doors :facepalm:
Errm....there's one in my garage!   :-[
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #76 on: 02 April, 2010, 10:48:12 am »
Please can anybody let me know of a vehicle which has 0.5m wide doors :facepalm:
Errm....there's one in my garage!   :-[
I used Noddy's car as a joke I didn't know you had one.  ::-)
You are Big Ears AICMFP!

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #77 on: 02 April, 2010, 10:56:46 am »
Please can anybody let me know of a vehicle which has 0.5m wide doors :facepalm:
Errm....there's one in my garage!   :-[
I used Noddy's car as a joke I didn't know you had one.  ::-)
You are Big Ears AICMFP!


It's nothing like Noddy's car!
  >:(

It's a different colour.
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #78 on: 02 April, 2010, 11:03:55 am »
It's nothing like Noddy's car![/url]   >:(

It's a different colour.
Do the doors fall off when you stop? When you drive it do you have to wear a red nose, big shoes and a curly wig?  ;D


Sorry FB! :-*

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #79 on: 02 April, 2010, 11:06:56 am »
GIT!
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #80 on: 02 April, 2010, 11:57:18 am »
This farcility certainly seems to be a shower of sh1t.  Not much different than Boris's rubbish cycling microhighway, either.
Your Royal Charles are belong to us.

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #81 on: 02 April, 2010, 12:54:45 pm »
If the sun comes out this weekend I shall be expecting our first accident.
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #82 on: 02 April, 2010, 03:51:38 pm »
If the sun comes out this weekend I shall be expecting our first accident.

No chance, it will be full of motorbikes this w/end  :(

http://londonbikers.com/news/12787/ace-cafe-london-southend-shakedown

Clandy

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #83 on: 02 April, 2010, 07:04:37 pm »
Weather is supposed to be miserable tomorrow… but this being Southend we may get lucky.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #84 on: 03 April, 2010, 12:26:17 am »
If the sun comes out this weekend I shall be expecting our first accident.

No chance, it will be full of motorbikes this w/end  :(

http://londonbikers.com/news/12787/ace-cafe-london-southend-shakedown

Ah, that must be "the event" the workman said it had to be ready for.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #85 on: 03 April, 2010, 12:27:40 am »
Please can anybody let me know of a vehicle which has 0.5m wide doors :facepalm:
Errm....there's one in my garage!   :-[

If the doors are that narrow do you have to take the roof off to climb in?

 :P :P :P :P :P :P



yeah yeah, I know, sorry and I'll buy you a beer next time we meet to make up for the jest.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #86 on: 03 April, 2010, 12:29:20 am »
...
I don't have any contacts, I prefer riding solo. You may have seen me about, I'm the guy on the grey Moulton...

I also prefer riding solo so understand that. 

Have I seen you some evenings near the Woodman's and heading for Hadleigh?

Clandy

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #87 on: 03 April, 2010, 12:34:24 am »
...
I don't have any contacts, I prefer riding solo. You may have seen me about, I'm the guy on the grey Moulton...

I also prefer riding solo so understand that.  

Have I seen you some evenings near the Woodman's and heading for Hadleigh?

Possibly, I have seen someone else on a red Moulton APB. My bike looks like this:




2_Flat_Erics

  • 2 Flat Eric's
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #88 on: 03 April, 2010, 06:42:27 pm »
Went for a pootle with the Mrs (Domestique) this morning. Nice gentle 36 miles around Great Wakering, Canewdon and Rochford.

On the way back we came along the Western Esplanade and guess what?????? Half of the cars parked in the parallel bays were all parked right up to the kerb to get as far away from the moving traffic as possible.

At the moment there is nothing to show that the new path is a cycle path, no markings on the path, no signs, so at the moment I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that the drivers thought that the new path was just an extension of the pavement. This did cause a little bit of a domestic with Domestique. We will have to wait and see what happens once the path is clearly marked and signed.

On a more positive note it's good to see that the council has finally removed almost all of the stupid speed humps along Shoebury East Beach, there are one or two left near the entrance but the rest have gone.
Never argue with an idot....
They just bring you down to their level
then win on experience.

2 Flat Erics You Tube Channel

Clandy

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #89 on: 03 April, 2010, 07:04:22 pm »

On a more positive note it's good to see that the council has finally removed almost all of the stupid speed humps along Shoebury East Beach, there are one or two left near the entrance but the rest have gone.



They were even less fun on a Moulton.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #90 on: 03 April, 2010, 07:44:31 pm »
Went for a pootle with the Mrs (Domestique) this morning. Nice gentle 36 miles around Great Wakering, Canewdon and Rochford.
Blimey! Did you get lost? (several times) ;)

2_Flat_Erics

  • 2 Flat Eric's
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #91 on: 03 April, 2010, 11:16:31 pm »
Went for a pootle with the Mrs (Domestique) this morning. Nice gentle 36 miles around Great Wakering, Canewdon and Rochford.
Blimey! Did you get lost? (several times) ;)


LOL.... Not lost, but it was a bit of a round the houses out and back route.


Never argue with an idot....
They just bring you down to their level
then win on experience.

2 Flat Erics You Tube Channel

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #92 on: 04 April, 2010, 02:53:30 am »
Coming home from Southend at 01:00 this morning I asked Mrs Nutty to drive me along here so I could see the latest.

She didn't have a problem using the correct lane past the newly painted parallel bays (there was a parked car in them).

Just before the central bays an oncoming taxi U-turned immediately in front of us, correctly where the turning area is, then waited to pull behind us... she winced and even though he was stopping swerved towards the new cycle lane!

There were two cars waiting on the, as yet unmarked, cycle lane outside the casino; completely blocking it.

Mrs Nutty completely agreed with me re the points I made re the narrow lane and potential oncoming cyclists.  She also agreed with me regarding the newly narrowed carriageway and how cyclists and cars can no longer mix.



We then got to The Arches, just before Shorefield Road, where they have constructed the new cycle path but NOT BURNT OFF the old central hatching.  Mrs Nutty's responce was "Sh:t!  Where do I go?" whilst swerving towards the path.  I just said "ignore the hatchings and drive over them" - which is the current correct thing to do  :facepalm:

Why on earth didn't they deal with the road markings before constructing the path?

Thanks to Monday's Ace Cafe Shakedown, and motorcyclists expected, all cones and roadworks have gone.


Mrs Nutty isn't really a cyclist, so it was interesting watching how she drove along that road without prior warning of the new layout.  I'm petrified that other drivers will be worse than her and that we'll have driver/cyclist conflict.


I might go for a ride down there Monday.  Anybody else going to?  I'll take a camera.  It's times like this I wish I'd bought a video camera for bike use.       What's the betting the unpainted lane will be obstructed by motorbikes?

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #93 on: 04 April, 2010, 08:25:01 am »
Quote
I might go for a ride down there Monday.  Anybody else going to?  I'll take a camera.  It's times like this I wish I'd bought a video camera for bike use.       What's the betting the unpainted lane will be obstructed by motorbikes?

I might be later on today. I want to get a picture of the ped crossing near the Arch's  :(

Hummers

  • It is all about the taste.
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #94 on: 04 April, 2010, 09:38:46 am »


We have this style of cycle path as an ongoing project on Portsmouth sea front (stage 1 at least) and it has had mixed reviews - from cyclists, motorists and pedestrains.

Driving down there the other day to walk the dog on the beach, it became glaringly apparent how much road users - bikes and cars - have been compromised.

The future of Stage 2 - the extension and conclusion of the route - hangs in the balance as it reduces the parking capacity and road width considerably. I don't ride down there that much but if I did (and didn't want to use the cycle lane), I would be concerned about how close cars would have to pass to overtake.

As for the lane itself, it holds all the same risks as identified in Southend with too narrow a kerb (which is not continuous but lozenge shaped) as to prevent the very cyclists it is trying to attract from being doored by motorists now forced to park in parallel (rather than in a chevron looking out to sea) to the promenade.

H

Clandy

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #95 on: 04 April, 2010, 10:11:50 am »
 I'll take a camera.  It's times like this I wish I'd bought a video camera for bike use.


I have three video cameras I use:
An Oregon Scientific ATC3K (around £70.00) which is completely weatherproof,

A Veho Muvi 'peanut' cam (around £65.00 beware of cheap chinese imitations),

and a pair of cheap Chinese made video sunglasses bought from Ebay for around £20.00.
 
The first two easily mount to the bike, the peanut cam can also mount to a helmet, weighs almost nothing, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/pPJLgWGlF8s&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/pPJLgWGlF8s&rel=1</a> but only has a battery life around a couple of hours.
Recently I mostly use the sunglasses cam because it has a battery life up to five hours and can take up to a 16Gb memory card which is plenty for local rides out. (It also doesn't look out of place when combined with a cycle helmet. Quality is easily good enough for Youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/TDNH7wTFbHg&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/TDNH7wTFbHg&rel=1</a>), but the downside is it has a datestamp which I can't figure out how to correct.

Perhaps, if more cyclists wore cameras, we could 'train' motorists to be more careful around us. ;)

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #96 on: 04 April, 2010, 02:23:36 pm »
Quote
I might go for a ride down there Monday.  Anybody else going to?  I'll take a camera.  It's times like this I wish I'd bought a video camera for bike use.       What's the betting the unpainted lane will be obstructed by motorbikes?

I might be later on today. I want to get a picture of the ped crossing near the Arch's  :(

Some comments I have received from another (non local) engineer who saw the plans regarding the crossings were interesting.

He commented on the speed humps on the cycle path, but not the road, by the crossings - who is the danger?  It seems that the council expect cyclists to be the danger and not motorised traffic!

At the crossings they make the cycle path stop, which means that pedestrians waiting to cross the road will be blocking the cycle path.  If they'd extended the crossing across the cycle path then cyclists will still need to stop for the crossing... but waiting pedestrians will be on the footway and so there is less conflict.

Tactile paving on the cycle path (shown on the plans) - there's no need for it because the lane itself is at a lower level than the pavement.  You don't use tactile paving on the road.  Blind people know that "up is safe" so would be on the pavement and not the cycle lane.

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #97 on: 04 April, 2010, 04:06:31 pm »
Nutty I agree about the crossing, it’s like saying bikes are the danger.
I went along the seafront this morning, whilst I stopped to observe how the traffic was behaving just after the parking bays next to the road, I managed to speak to a family who had two small children on bikes. I did point out the danger, i.e. off the road and straight into traffic. They didn’t realise the lane was two way, well there are no signs yet, also what could happen where they to ride off the cycle way and onto the road. I think they where genuinely shocked when they realised the danger.
The sad thing for me, in general I like the choice of cycle path or road, if I want to continue to cycle along that section of the seafront I feel I will have to use the path. There is simply not enough room on the road.

2_Flat_Erics

  • 2 Flat Eric's
Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #98 on: 04 April, 2010, 06:06:01 pm »
With regard to the pedestrian crossings I think that the council has painted themselves into a corner with these and left themselves with no option but to use the design they have.

If the path had been made one way then the zebra crossing could easily be extended across the cycle path. Cyclists would simply give way to pedestrians using the crossing the same as anyone on the main road.

By making the path two ways the council designers have created a problem. If the zebra crossing is extended across the cycle path then peds will have to look for bikes coming from both directions and then look for cars beyond the cycle path which is a recipie for someone getting knocked down.

The only alternative would have been to add an island between the cycle path and road so that they could be treated as seperate crossings, one over the cycle path, then a refuge island for peds to stop and look for cars then the second crossing over the road. In the cirumstances what we have ended up with is probably the best of a bad job.

Actually there is a second alternative and thats to back down and make the path one way only, as it should have been in the first place.
Never argue with an idot....
They just bring you down to their level
then win on experience.

2 Flat Erics You Tube Channel

Re: Southend Cycle Town - part 2
« Reply #99 on: 04 April, 2010, 06:19:40 pm »
Actually there is a second alternative and thats to back down and make the path one way only, as it should have been in the first place.

I've got a better idea. Ban motor vehicles, except for permit holders for deliveries etc and have it as a free for all for cyclists and pedestrians and making the road a cycle path so that hurrypants cyclists can ride at usual speed without bothering pedestrians and plodding peddalars on the promenade.

Sorted. :thumbsup: