TfL to overhaul Old Street Roundabout +publishes timetable for creating Cycle Superhighway routes CS1, CS4, CS5 and CS11

arfa, yes I use the Wandle Trail and the old LCN3 route as well.

It all depends which cycling personality I've adopted that day. One day I wake up a MAMIL, the next I'm suddenly overcome with an urge to wear sandals, drink real ale, and swap stories about mudguards.

Anyway, I bring exciting news. It was absolutely chucking it down this morning, and I saw someone out in it taking their little ones to school on a cargo bike. I was so excited to see a cargo bike on a local road that I completely failed to notice that he was utterly drenched and clearly hating every moment of it

belgravedave wrote:

I've been cycling in South and West London for 20 years and the last couple have been the safest I've ever felt. We're slowly starting to reach critical mass.

+1 - it's been 25 years cycling in London in my case, mostly in South West, South East and North West London. I remember 2004, just before the congestion charge was introduced, as being particularly bad as work at many junctions obscured sightlines and traffic lights were frequently out of commission. A colleague of mine with many years riding experience was knocked off his motorcycle by a careless car driver at the A23/A3 junction around that time and that junction was even more dangerous than it is now.

I don't think Old Street has been prioritised for safety reasons. Variations of this plan have been knocking around for years, and I think someone wants to redevelop the area because it's a bit of a dump and the underpasses smell of wee.

People are already forgetting that startups moved to the area because the rents were cheap(er), and having dealt with a few of them, I can confirm there were good reasons why that was the case. The rents have gone up, but lots of the offices are still quite tatty and the Northern Line is as unpleasant as it's always been when it's packed.

The cycling features are something that every junction will see from now on. But a four lane roundabout is pretty intimidating to most cyclists.

londoncommute wrote:

I'm a bit confused by this as I've been using the Old Street roundabout for six months now and it's not unsafe in any way (I'm not being macho about this as the road from there to Aldgate still terrifies me!). Of course a high percentage of injuries will be to cyclists and pedestrians as it's quite slow moving so you'd have a hard job trying to injure yourself as a motorist. Quite surprised this isn't 99% really.

If this change is needed as part of a wider move to free up development space or to ease congestion then that's fine, I'm just not sure schemes like this should be trumpeted as being done for cyclists.

I'm assuming you ride a road bike, with helmet, yes? Try it in normal clothes, on a utility bike and see how it feels. Would you let your kids/parents ride through it as it is?

The plans above look messy and overly complicated, and there's still far too much conflict designed in. The roundabout could be removed and a simple crossroads with cycle tracks put in instead, with bus-stop bypasses, signal-free left turns and simultaneous green phasing of the lights.

teaboy wrote:

I'm assuming you ride a road bike, with helmet, yes? Try it in normal clothes, on a utility bike and see how it feels. Would you let your kids/parents ride through it as it is?

Yes I do wear a helmet etc my point really was that the whole roundabout is traffic light controlled, is painfully slow to get round and is probably the safest 100m of my 7 mile journey home. I don't care either way whether it's changed or not but it's not reasonable to imply spending like this is in any way for cyclists when it's not really (see today's story about the New Forest having to repay their central government grant.....).

jacknorell wrote:

Only a 3rd? Seems like more every time I go through that roundabout.

Cycling in London is heavily biased towards commuting, so assuming that describes you as well you're probably going through it at the same times as every other cyclist.