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"Cyclists not using bike lanes": Twitter responds

Transport for London says the Daily Mail's story, showing cyclists bypassing a set of cycle traffic lights, was inaccurate and "one-sided", while cyclists on Twitter react brilliantly...

An article posted by the Daily Mail showing cyclists passing a short stretch of bike lane at a set of lights was inaccurate and "one-sided", according to Transport for London as the route is not actually a cycle superhighway, and is not yet finished.

The article, which showed people bypassing the 5m filter lane onto Parliament Square, suggested the images were evidence Boris Johnson's £50m cycle superhighway programme was a waste of money. 

Meanwhile, annoyed this snippet ignores the fact at peak times some 1,200 people per hour are using the actual Cycle Superhighway routes, including families with young children, cyclists on Twitter reacted with brilliant irony, by posting pictures of other infrastructure that is sometimes not used, including roads, and tube trains after hours.

Families flock to London's Cycle Superhighways

The article's gist is here:

In an email to the Daily Mail seen by road.cc, a Transport for London spokesperson said: "Firstly, the photos in that piece aren’t technically part of the continuous East-West Cycle Superhighway that you refer to – they’re just connecting cycle lanes to it for those coming into Parliament Square from the Millbank direction (as I do in the morning).

"Also, the EWCS [East-West Cycle Superhighway] isn’t finished yet. Parliament Square is the end of the currently open section – so it’s inevitable that usage will go up once it extends further, as we’ve seen at other newly-opened parts.

"Even the part in Parliament Square is yet to be completed. We’re waiting for surfacing works.

"Once we complete sections we see usage go up massively. For instance, the Blackfriars Bridge section of our new North-South Cycle Superhighway – at rush hour 70 per cent of vehicles are now bikes. And the vast majority of bikes use the new lane."

The cycle lane in question gives those on bikes a head start from motor traffic, by offering an early  green signal to those in the cycle box. When general traffic has the green light, cycles are kept waiting by a red light in a protected cycle lane area, a system now used across London to protect cyclists from left hooks. People on cycles were photographed bypassing this light, however.

1,200 cyclists PER HOUR using new cycle superhighway

Here's the online response. To start with here's a carist not using the road

Tubeists not using the tube...

Trainists not using their new expensive train station

Walkists, allegedly running red lights

And, of course, carists causing congestion for bikes.

If the whole argument seems familiar, it's a similar thing that a small number of taxi drivers did when joggers were seen using unfinished cycle infrastructure in Central London earlier this year.

It may be silly but there’s a serious message – arguing that if a tiny piece of infrastructure is empty or not used some of the time the whole project is a waste of money would by extension make much of Britain's roads a waste of money.  

To finish, here's a quick reminder of why we build cycle lanes.

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11 comments

Avatar
mike the bike | 7 years ago
6 likes

The Daily Mail .... like twenty minutes in a lunatic asylum.

 

(Can't claim copyright on that, it may have been The Mash, but it's sooo right.)

Avatar
handlebarcam | 7 years ago
3 likes

Pro-tip: Assume that the Daily Mail is publishing misleading stories about cyclists every day, that way you don't have to worry about it. Ditto for some twitterer from the "War on Motorists" brigade making an arse of himself.

Avatar
bikebot | 7 years ago
5 likes

One detail road.cc have missed, the video used on the online version of the story ("Police officer enraged by cyclist who fails to use cycle highway") is used when permission has been explicitly refused by the copyright holder.

Avatar
Housecathst | 7 years ago
9 likes

Reality isn't what your avarage mail read is interested in they just want story's which reinforce their bigot prejudice.

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
8 likes

Like that graph.

Unfortunately the Daily Heil is the biggest source of online news in the world as of 2012. Staggerring how massively popular it is. Think Guardian is no.2 as of 2015? 

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Data-Mine/Most-Read-Online-Newspapers-i...

 

Rabble rouse if you want hits. Interestingly 42% of videos on these sites were ads (from ComCast). Tell you everything really. Stir up shit, get hits, profit. State of 'news' today.

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
3 likes
unconstituted wrote:

Like that graph.

Unfortunately the Daily Heil is the biggest source of online news in the world as of 2012. Staggerring how massively popular it is. Think Guardian is no.2 as of 2015? 

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Data-Mine/Most-Read-Online-Newspapers-i...

 

Rabble rouse if you want hits. Interestingly 42% of videos on these sites were ads (from ComCast). Tell you everything really. Stir up shit, get hits, profit. State of 'news' today.

I think both the Mail and the Guardian are now essentially US newspapers, chasing a US readership. Both frequently use US English. The Mail's speciality is making a certain type of American happy by telling them how awful the UK is (that, and using the word 'pert' as frequently as possible).

Avatar
tritecommentbot replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 7 years ago
0 likes
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
unconstituted wrote:

Like that graph.

Unfortunately the Daily Heil is the biggest source of online news in the world as of 2012. Staggerring how massively popular it is. Think Guardian is no.2 as of 2015? 

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Data-Mine/Most-Read-Online-Newspapers-i...

 

Rabble rouse if you want hits. Interestingly 42% of videos on these sites were ads (from ComCast). Tell you everything really. Stir up shit, get hits, profit. State of 'news' today.

I think both the Mail and the Guardian are now essentially US newspapers, chasing a US readership. Both frequently use US English. The Mail's speciality is making a certain type of American happy by telling them how awful the UK is (that, and using the word 'pert' as frequently as possible).

Yes both are for sure. The Guardian's last big push into the US was during a Bush election campaign, with The Guardian trying to persuade Americans to vote Democrat.

It went down horribly. Probably their most humiliating climbdown. Americans had no stomach for Brits telling them how to vote (don't worry, the irony isn't lost on me).

 

They've been covering stories in the US more regularly though and it's definitely taking up plenty of news pieces. Politics and celebrity. In terms of cementing themselves as a key player they've been really careful though, and taking a factual approach to a cultural issue like gun control. They've very light on gun control pieces, but really heavy on covering actual deaths caused by police shootings, for example. That's their way in - trying to attract the US readership with their 'resource' on gun crime, because its clearly useless to Brits. 

 

Avatar
robertoegg replied to tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
0 likes
unconstituted wrote:

Like that graph.

Unfortunately the Daily Heil is the biggest source of online news in the world as of 2012. Staggerring how massively popular it is. Think Guardian is no.2 as of 2015? 

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Data-Mine/Most-Read-Online-Newspapers-i...

 

Rabble rouse if you want hits. Interestingly 42% of videos on these sites were ads (from ComCast). Tell you everything really. Stir up shit, get hits, profit. State of 'news' today.

 

and your other comments prove it is poisoning people. Stop reading it lad.

Avatar
tritecommentbot replied to robertoegg | 7 years ago
0 likes
robertoegg wrote:
unconstituted wrote:

Like that graph.

Unfortunately the Daily Heil is the biggest source of online news in the world as of 2012. Staggerring how massively popular it is. Think Guardian is no.2 as of 2015? 

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Data-Mine/Most-Read-Online-Newspapers-i...

 

Rabble rouse if you want hits. Interestingly 42% of videos on these sites were ads (from ComCast). Tell you everything really. Stir up shit, get hits, profit. State of 'news' today.

 

and your other comments prove it is poisoning people. Stop reading it lad.

 

Boozing on a Tuesday?

Avatar
bikebot | 7 years ago
10 likes

Daily Mail, who cares

//www.statista.com/graphic/1/288261/circulation-trend-of-the-daily-mail-newspaper-uk.jpg)

Avatar
JPKD replied to bikebot | 7 years ago
2 likes
bikebot wrote:

Daily Mail, who cares

//www.statista.com/graphic/1/288261/circulation-trend-of-the-daily-mail-newspaper-uk.jpg)

 

You might want to take a look at their online 'page views' graph. Almost certain you'd see an opposite trend.

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