Total travel chaos around Elephant

After weeks of worsening traffic, today the whole thing came to a standstill. Every road into and out of the Elephant was gridlocked. Nobody could get to work or school. I'm sure TfL would say it's because of the roadworks, but I can't see how it's ever going to improve now we have massively over-congested roads with beautiful, empty cycle superhighways alongside. What a shambles.
See pics here.

I suspect this cycle-superhighway design will go down in history as the perfect example of 'this is how you don't do it'. We've had months of misery with no apparent end in sight and no one seems exactly sure how the whole thing will work in practice when it's finally completed. Certainly removing two traffic lanes from Blackfriars Road isn't going to help with congestion in the area. The cyclists I've spoken to aren't happy, pedestrians aren't happy and car drivers aren't happy either. Seems like a lose - lose situation. Heaven knows what the whole thing is costing.

This morning the roundabout was a complete mess. I was going to take the 100 bus to go to the office, but I gave up and I walked instead. It has been quicker for sure. Yesterday they even closed the subway on New Kent Road side, so there is no way to cross the road anywhere in proximity of the junction. That's ridicolous.

I will leave Elephant and Castle in a couple of weeks and I honestly will miss it, I have been there more than 2 years and I loved it. But for sure, I won't miss these "exciting" changes and all the mess created because of them

Apparently this morning's gridlock was caused by the traffic lights at the St George's Road / Lambeth Road junction being stuck on red.

it is pretty bad any morning without the added chaos of stuck lights-what is the traffic aitting there doing to the health of the poor kids at the 3 schools on St George's road-so far i have seen in 3 weeks 4 people sailing past in the cycle lane whilst thousands sit in buses and cars. The whole layout needs to be reviewed urgently as it just doesn't appear to work or be going to work

Indeed the lights were red. There was a single policeman handling the traffic flow this morning at the junction between St George's Road and Lambeth Road. Drivers were properly pissed off, tooting their horns.

It continues to be premature to condemn the whole cycle lanes project because no one uses it when it isn't finished and it doesn't go anywhere yet. That will change and then we can discuss this properly (he said, optimistically).

Today was quite the PR cock up by TFL though.

As I was getting ready this morning, I heard an announcement by TFL on the radio that cars should avoid Elephant & Castle due to the on-going "improvement" works.
There were at least 10 cyclists along me using the cycle lane this morning. So not so unsuccessful.
Let's see when they actually manage to get the traffic lights to work... I never imagined it was so difficult to connect them.

I am pretty happy with the cycle lanes and can only hope for more.

I rather liked getting the 1 bus into town before TfL's improvement work mucked up Elephant. I found it (on the whole) quick and reliable. Now I get the already busy tube or help contribute to NOx by getting a cab / minicab. I would walk but the air's filthy and crossing roads dangerous. Gotta love TfL.