Elephant & Castle northern cycle bypass

I see from the article about work starting on the Elephant & Castle roundabout that they're going to be improving the northern cycle bypass route. About time too, because almost every bit of this needs a lot of work to make it more cycle friendly.

From the east:

Newington Causeway Junction:
Because there's no yellow box on Newington Causeway, this junction is frequently blocked by traffic.

People take no notice of the pedestrian lights on the crossing over Rockingham Street (partly because they're red almost all the time because cycles might turn right from Newington Causeway)

There's still a big puddle right by the cycle stop line on Rochingham Street when it rains, though not as big as it used to be.

At least this junction has a push button for cyclists to press to work the lights

Ontario Street
Here you have to dodge the students in the middle of the road (even though it's a 'cycle superhighway') and the delivery lorries for LSBU/Skipton House/Newspapers.

Cyclists are then squeezed onto a very thin strip of cycle lane, which isn't really big enough for two-way traffic (otherwise it's the cobbles.... no thanks!)

Also the cycle superhighway passes immediately next to the Boris bike stands, so people taking out/putting in bikes there can cause chaos with the flow of cycles if the London Road junction is green

London Road Junction
This seems to be a radar-operated cycle junction. It works OK during the day, but at night you can be waiting minutes for the lights to change. The temptation for cyclists to jump the red lights after waiting 2mins plus is significant and dangerous

St George's Road Junction
Another radar-operated junction. Again, not so bad during the day, but very very very slow at night - tempting cyclists to jump into the traffic accelerating away from the Elephant


In general, it'd be good to see the whole section marked on the roadway to show it's a main cycle route - perhaps the superhighway blue would be good for this.

I've not done the section to and from the New Kent Road via Meadow Row, so I'll leave others to comment.

TfL/Southwark - this is your great opportunity to sort this out. Please make sure it gets done, and gets done effectively and appropriately!

Not to mention this new addition to CS7 / the bypass route in St George's Road

https://twitter.com/jonny_b69/status/587308934639316993

When they're quoted as saying "encourage people to use" I don't think that amounts to anything concrete, stone, steel or even a communications initiative for the forseeable future. It's PR guff to convey positive vibes about a ropey missed opportunity for investment. From what I've been told in several one to one TfL meetings with the 'project sponsors' the investment at E&C is limited to (1) The Roundabout (2) The tweaks to the existing superhighway to link it to the new north south superhighway (3) The Northern line tube station. That's it. The failure to resolve the eastern side of the bypass, linking Elephant Road with the cycle lanes behind Metro Central Heights is a major omission and one that others have campaigned for longer than I. It could have been resolved with having the new pelican crossing there, a location that transport engineers said was only possible if they retained and renovated the direct subway under New Kent, the one that's the busiest by far and also conveniently fits the desire line of pedestrian flow. But without that the new pelican crossing needs to strike a Balance between the needs of the tube / shopping centre and the soon to be even busier Elephant Road crossing for pedestrians and wise cyclists, satisfying neither well in the process by fitting neither of the two north-south desire lines across New Kent Road... etc.

Jpm - that is spot on and that puddle on Rockingham Street is so big I can't reach across it to press the button! There is also the issue of the massive hole just in the way of the turn off on Newington Causeway.

I share your concerns Perronetonian - which is why I thought I could set out some practical improvements that we need to see.

And Zoe, you just need to brave the waders, I find. And yes, I forgot to mention the hole, but it is a devil!