Is anybody using the new Bike Super Highway?

What worries me about some of the new road layouts and pedestrian/cycle crossings is the increased traffic congestion. Most of this traffic is not commuting cars, these are cars used on business, vans, buses, taxis, lorries, emergency vehicles etc. There is a price to pay for this slowing up of motor traffic, increased pollution on main roads and junctions and increased costs for businesses in travel time etc. Where I live the road I live on feeds into the so called ring road. The traffic here has slowed noticeably and one of the side effects is frustrated motorists stranded between badly timed traffic light changes either going through a red or blocking traffic stuck in the middle of a junction. There are many close calls and a lot of aggression every hour. I believe there is a need for more considered thought to be given to the human element. Badly planned roads or cycle lanes encourage pavement cycling, badly planned junctions encourage vehicles red light jumping, removing subways and bridges increase pedestrian accidents. Bring knowledge of human pschology back to the centre of traffic planning, whether they be drivers, cyclists or pedestrians. No one likes to be held up by traffic so by planning any form of control that uses increased congestion is doomed to failure, that applies to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. We all need to feel we are equally dealt with by TFL or the council planners.

If there was a LIKE button I'd click that after Jerry's post. Decisions are being made with out enough understanding of the facts, psychology and detailed consequences. Simplified stories, anecdotes, crude headlines seem to be pushing the agenda along more than serious consideration about once in a generation changes to transport infrastructure.

Zoe, I did not mean to detract from a very serious subject, and believe me I wholeheartedly support these previous postings. As I said it was a whinge and moan and I wholeheartedly believe you would not be a pavement cyclist.

Perronetonian wrote:

If there was a LIKE button I'd click that after Jerry's post. Decisions are being made with out enough understanding of the facts, psychology and detailed consequences. Simplified stories, anecdotes, crude headlines seem to be pushing the agenda along more than serious consideration about once in a generation changes to transport infrastructure.

That is most patronising thing I've read on here, "simplified stories, anecdotes, crude headlines". There are very large number of cyclist who are rude, arrogant and dangerous and who feel that they, as cyclist, have a right to do what they want. You may not want to hear it but it is happening.

I'm sorry if us lowly pedestrians can't rise the the moral high ground (and according to your statement the ability to understand what we see) of cyclist, but I live in hope. (and in case you didn't get it, that was 100% sarcasm)

PeterEccles wrote:

Rant

Peter, I'm not picking a fight with pedestrians as your reply implies, I'm just emphasising the need to look at broader issues, ideally more cumulative evidence than anecdotes. As you may know I spend a disproportionate time championing safe pedestrian space (www.saveoursubways.org), and am frustrated by the way in which facts (e.g. usage, very low crime stats) are overlooked by anecdotes and the way in which London-wide TfL policy and prevailing trends in urban space design are sometimes ignored as if every project of theirs was truly bespoke for the location, responding to consultation, as if their work could ever be as individual a solution as one person's unpleasant and dangerous encounter with a gobby cyclist in the wrong place.

PeterEccles wrote:

There are very large number of cyclist who are rude, arrogant and dangerous and who feel that they, as cyclist, have a right to do what they want.

Peter, that is tosh. In any arbitrary subset of the population there's a minority who are rude, arrogant etc. That goes for cyclists as it does for car drivers, pedestrians, public transport users, dog walkers, joggers - choose your group.

There's no basis to believe that the incidence of such twerps among cyclists is significantly different (better or worse) from that in the population at large. After all, if you're a twerp then you probably behave like a twerp whether you're driving your car, riding your bike or walking your dog. (Of course the danger you present to other people is much, much greater when you're driving your car, but that's a separate point.)

Another journey home on the No.1 last night, another narrowly avoided collision as the bus tried to turn left into The Bend from the bottom of London Road and cars forced their way into its path from the central, turn right lane.
This morning, as the No.1 waited to turn right from The Bend into London Road, I lost count of the number of vehicles - cars, vans, small lorries - turning left from the central, turn right lane. One even crossed from the outside, turn right lane to turn left.
The road layout at this junction is A DISASTER.

The good news (of sorts) is that yesterday and the day before TfL posted a trio of Safety Officers to log as many incidents they could find of bad and dangerous driving. Their focus was red light jumping / green man driving through and blocking crossings, but in my several very constructive conversations I gathered that they were observing other issues and were concerned about some very fundamental design flaws. "15 counts of driving through a green man in 30 minutes" is what I was told on Tuesday morning by one officer. They reassured me the damning data would be going back to the design team to figure out how to solve it. One of them had even come across my video proposal for an Alternative Design (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYVIKcxtDfY) and with earnest interest asked whether I was going to come up with a new one! It was as if he'd spent gathering data and also speculating on what he would do if he was a designer.

I wonder at what point the figure heads of this project will acknowledge that too and launch a grown up consultation to find a new solution. How long before we get a proper statement from Leon Daniels, Ben Plowden and their political champions Peter John, Boris and even local cllr MP Neil Coyle (who now appears to acknowledge on Twitter his concerns are limited to construction issues not design flaws).

McQueen wrote:

Another journey home on the No.1 last night, another narrowly avoided collision as the bus tried to turn left into The Bend from the bottom of London Road and cars forced their way into its path from the central, turn right lane.
This morning, as the No.1 waited to turn right from The Bend into London Road, I lost count of the number of vehicles - cars, vans, small lorries - turning left from the central, turn right lane. One even crossed from the outside, turn right lane to turn left.
The road layout at this junction is A DISASTER.

Last Saturday, I stood at the bottom of London road by the tube entrance and for 10 minutes looked at the motorists' behaviour. Most cars in the central lane (for turning right) actually turned left and collided with buses rightly queuing in the left lane that is the only lane to be used for turning left. I suppose drivers can't be bothered to wait at the back of the bus queue and take the shortcut of going to the middle lane and in effect jump the queue!
Maybe they should also forbid cars to turn left from London Raod into Newington Causeway. They could turn left earlier at St Georges circus through Borough Road and completely avoid the E&C.
I was also surprised by the number of people tooting their horns, every few seconds.
I suspect it may be too late to change this silly road layout.

Please can we move the discussion about the Elephant & Castle junction to one of the threads on that topic (such as this one - but there are a couple of other recent ones too) - and use this thread for the cycle superhighway between St George's Road and Blackfriars Bridge (and beyond)?

Obviously there's an overlap between the projects but the E&C junction layout is a different kettle of fish to the cycle superhighway project.