- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
N-S cycle superhighway (still from @Lakerlikes Instagram)Daily Mail declares war on cycle lanes
“Cycle lane lunacy!” runs the headline. “The new blight paralysing Britain.” You’ve got to hand it to the Daily Mail – they know what vocabulary to employ when they take against something.
Although the article is framed as being about Britain, it’s fairly apparent that this is primarily about London and the construction of cycle superhighways.
The first example given is the East-West Cycle Superhighway along Victoria Embankment.
“Where once it could hold four lanes of traffic, a quarter of the road has now been given over to a dedicated two-way cycle lane. Traffic has been brought to a virtual standstill.”
So one lane has been replaced by two. Traffic has been brought to a standstill by the addition of an extra lane.
The piece continues by pointing out that “vehicle speeds in Central London have fallen to 7.4mph — slower than a horse-drawn carriage in the 18th century.”
Slower than a bicycle, they might add.
While there is an acknowledgement that the construction work causing traffic disruption is not solely due to cycle superhighways (the City currently has the largest volume of building work taking place since 2008), it adds that, “while construction projects will eventually end, cycle superhighways will permanently impact upon ‘road supply’. Simply, there is less road space available for normal traffic.”
It would be easy to conclude that the newspaper doesn’t see any connection between ‘abnormal’ traffic volume and the number of cars on the road. However, it has long been keen to support its position by also portraying cycle lanes as being rarely used.
An article from back in August showing cyclists passing a short stretch of bike lane at a set of lights was branded inaccurate and "one-sided" by Transport for London (TfL). The organisation pointed out the route is not actually a cycle superhighway, and is also not yet finished.
The images had been presented as evidence that the cycle superhighway programme was a waste of money and cyclists responded by posting pictures of other infrastructure that is sometimes not used on Twitter, including roads, and tube trains after hours.
In their latest story, the Mail spoke to motorists stuck in a jam beside a cycle lane to the south of London’s Blackfriars Bridge. Most said that while the lanes were busy with bikes during rush-hour, they could be ‘almost empty’ at other times.
1,200 cyclists PER HOUR using new cycle superhighway
The article quotes TfL as saying that segregated cycle lanes affect just three per cent of roads in central London with surveys showing that there has been an average 60 per cent increase in cyclists using the new routes compared to before the improvements were made.
After then citing figures released earlier this year by the Department for Transport which indicate that traffic on Britain’s roads reached its highest ever level in 2015, it concludes that, “motorists are struggling to understand how spending money to further reduce the capacity of the roads can possibly be the way to solve an immediate problem.”
If they’re struggling to understand, maybe it’s because of the way it’s been explained to them.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- grOg 1 hour 43 min ago
In Australia, two Melbourne suburbs with car-hating notoriously Green Left councils have 18 mph (30 kph) speed limits, essentially forcing cars to...
- mdavidford 5 hours 11 min ago
More likely they're just responding to a very skewed version of the incident presented to them by Royal Parks at face value.
- quadtodd 5 hours 17 min ago
We had to seriously brake to avoid a car running a red light this weekend; we were also in a car, following a green light....
- IanGlasgow 5 hours 42 min ago
I guess the FLock Light works best if you have paler legs for it to light up. Mine are actually blue (like any true Scotsman's legs they only turn...
- chrisonabike 6 hours 51 min ago
You say that, but Sunak got in. So maybe you just need to be waiting nearby when one of the more far-out spontaneously combusts or implodes?...
- marmotte27 6 hours 51 min ago
Helmet zealots' lack of logic and knowledge, as evidenced by your post I responded to, exasperate me I'm afraid.
- Rendel Harris 7 hours 14 min ago
Absolutely agree: "You'll be sure to make a statement with these brightly-coloured road shoes from Fizik" - the statement being "I have no taste...
- perce 7 hours 48 min ago
Well done to Nick for opening up and sharing his story. Much respect.
- pjclinch 7 hours 49 min ago
Anything shy of a watersports dry suit (and you don't want to ride a bike in one of those) will let in heavy, set-in rain, as identified typically...
- stonojnr 8 hours 2 min ago
They have their own forum for members, go check them out....
Add new comment
44 comments
Not just the underground system - have you seen how many empty seats there are on suburban trains heading out of city centres in the morning rush hour? It's a disgrace!!
If we could get rid of all space-wasting rail tracks (whether underground or overground) in London that that would free up space for their 1 million morning commuters* to drive to work - like "normal traffic".
*of course some of these commuters would be foreigners and they'll be out of the country soon, so there'll be space for us all to drive and park wherever we want. British roads for British drivers!
The ultimate solution is to remove all car parks and parking spaces and replace them with roads, that should work, shouldn't it?
Isn't that the polar opposite of what they did with the M25?
Right everyone, we are not "normal".
Nothing we do has any value, our journeys are not necessary or important. Unlike all car journeys.
And it must be true, because the Daily Mail says it is.
Shame, for a little while back they were having a go about phone use whilst driving, and actually decried the death of cyclists.
"Simply, there is less road space available for normal traffic.”
What is "normal traffic"? Given that tens of thousands commute into central London by bike each day, and their numbers are expected to exceed private car commuting within a few years, aren't we "normal traffic"?
Not unexpected from the hateful Mail though. Surprised they have time for this with all the xenophobia coming from the Tory conference, mind you.
There hasn't been space for any kind of traffic in London for about 250 years.
Problem with do-gooders, greens and lefities in general is we suffer from a self-righteous streak which forces us to behave ethically and approach battle from a weaker position. That's why change is slow.
When do you ever see a left leaning organisation wage war against aggressive van drivers for example. You don't see it. We don't try to shame them or take the fight to them. That's why people of the Daily Mail's ilk are brazen, because they get away with it time over, on every level. Culturally and institutionally. Okay so maybe Greenpeace and PETA occassionally use shock tactics for their causes but nothing for cycling.
We need a cycling organisation that's off the wall ballsy. Shame drivers who use their cars to excess (I'm a driver too), let them know how shit their behaviour is, constant in their face shaming about pollution, laziness, shit driving etc. National ads, Youtube virals, Google ads, FB ads, Twitter sponsoreds etc.
Characterise them, demonise them. That's what they do to cyclists, who are in truth, the only road user who has an ethically justifiable right to be there. We know the planet is going to shit because of transport pollution.
Guess you've never heard of Momentum then?
Good old daily mail, finger on the pulse, brexit, ukip collapse, pound at 30 year low, bit look! LOOK!! Cycle lanes!
Also, Funny how they are all now a bad idea now it's sadiq building them and not Boris
Bad reporting - I must admit I am surprised they didn't get little quotes from Janet Street-Porter and Joanna Lumley to round it orf proper like...
Shock, Horror, the Daily Mail doesn't like cyclists
In other news?
This is a bit more significant than that because it marks an escalation in the rhetoric. It's on the front page, above their Theresa May Brexit Love-in. Moreover, it speaks to policy decisions on transport planning - decisions that are always potentially at the whim of the electorate's mood. And in the age of the post-factual popularist politics that delivered us Brexit, we should not underestimate the possible consequences of the Daily Mail choosing cyclists and cycle infrastructure as their Next Big Other to blame everything on. Local/Town/City council support for cycling infra is already perilous at best, as we've recently seen with the abandoning of projects for political - rather than financial - reasons.
Just imagine if a future Mayoral candidate in the mould of Nigel Farage promised to rip out all the cycle lanes in London as a 'common sense' response to the concerns of 'decent' motorists. The Daily Mail would back such a person and they would probably get in. Because its always going to be easy to reassure people that the reason they are stuck in traffic is because of something that isn't them.
First it was Jacques Delors forcing us to eat bananas of an un-British curvature, then faceless eurocrats outlawing the UK's blessed tradition of high railway platforms, now it is cycle lanes. Will the oppression never end?
Still, if the Daily Mail's "War on Cycle Lanes" is anything like the much-touted "War on Motorists", it'll just mean cycle lanes having to pay their fair share of tax and not kill people for the sake of their own convenience. Which, as inanimate objects, they should be well capable.
Wouldnt expect anything less of the daily mail
Pages