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Speed monitors in Hackney park to discourage speeding cyclists

Riders who rush will be faced with an angry red face

Hackney Council has introduced speed monitors for cyclists to try to slow them down as they ride through London Fields.

The lights are designed to help riders stick to a 12mph target - with a green smiley face when they are under and a red angry face when they exceed it.

The monitors at either end of the cycle route through the East London park use radars to tell how fast bikes are going. They will pick up any movement exceeding 6mph.

The system cost £13,328 to install. London Fields is used by about 4,000 cyclists a day.

Local residents said cyclists were speeding through the area and it is hoped the displays will encourage better behaviour - but there are no plans to introduce penalties for speeding.

Cyclist Tess, 35, told the Hackney Gazette: “I have a child so I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “I don’t know if it will make a big difference – maybe it’ll make people more aware that they need to be slow.”

Another cyclist, who asked not to be named, said: “So many kids are around here and they’re not always on the right side, so it’s dangerous if cyclists are going fast. There are also lots of dogs, and if a cyclist hit them it would kill it.”

Dexter, 28, who works at a bakery, said he cycled for two hours every morning.

“I don’t think the speed limit for cycling is necessary,” he said. “Why is the focus on cyclists when people drive cars?”

Asked if he’d had any near misses riding through the park, he said: “Not so much. I have to dodge dogs and kids a lot, though.”

Yasmin, 29, who does not cycle but regularly visits London Fields, said: “I think it’s good because they come round really fast.

“I have got kids and sometimes I have to pull them out of the way.”

Cllr Feryal Demirci said: “We welcome safe cycling in our parks as they provide pleasant green routes away from motor vehicles.

“London Fields in particular is an established route for commuters, with around 4,000 people cycling through the park each day.

“However, London Fields is not a road – local residents walk, use wheelchairs, push buggies and exercise their dogs in the park every day.

“Green spaces are places to relax, breathe and take it easy, so we want people on bikes to drop their speed a little bit, look out for others and make sure everyone can enjoy the park.”

Back in 2015 we reported how a cyclist was fined £200 after being clocked by a speed gun at 38mph while riding in Richmond Park. This was despite the fact that a Royal Parks spokesman previously said that speed limits in the places it manages don't apply to cyclists.

Paul Harness was riding down Sawyers Hill when he was stopped by a police officer who had been parked behind a tree with a speed gun.

Harness says he was charged with speeding and driving without due care on a bicycle. When he subsequently appeared at Lavender Hill Magistrates, he was fined £200 for each offence, plus £200 court cost and a £20 victim surcharge.

Harness told road.cc that he pleaded not guilty in the belief that the speed gun was not designed to work on cyclists and that he did not by law need a speed measuring device on his bike.

“I thought the whole affair was a waste of time and money and the policeman was way over the top and the judge would think the whole thing ridiculous. There were crimes going on all around Richmond that day and this fella was hiding behind a tree with a speed gun and I was having a Sunday cycle going down Sawyers Hill.”

 

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16 comments

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brooksby | 6 years ago
3 likes

Why is "speeding " or "too fast" for cyclists always defined as "anything faster than the commenter would like"?   Alliston was "speeding" at 18mph in a 30 zone; cyclists are invariably called out for speeding in shared space areas just for travelling faster than walking pace (even if runners or joggers are also travelling faster...).

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FatBoyW | 6 years ago
3 likes

Bizarre, I wonder what is spent to slow the cars on the road just outside the park?

i wonder if there is anything better a council could spend approx 13,000? How many meals for the homeless? Or nights in a shelter.

I think the world needs to get some perspective.

i wonder what the amount dedicated to safe driving would be if the money spent on slowing cycling in London parks was divided by the KSIs it relates to (add 1 to make sure it's not infinite as I suspect it's zero) then multiply that by the KSIs in the nation by motor vehicles - might find its disproportionate!

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flat4 | 6 years ago
0 likes

In a more miguided effort at encouraging safe cycling (and driving I guess) there was a speed display set up in Centennial Park in Sydney. The faster you went, the higher the number. Woohoo!

The critical flaw is that they set it up just AFTER the children's crossing area. Thus encouraging morons to speed as much as possible in the place of highest risk.

Don't worry, they soon took it down and later on replaced it with a policeman with a speed gun and a book of fines...

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FoolsErrand | 6 years ago
4 likes

I ride through London fields most days coming from Mare street and this is laughable because only last week I was nearly hit by two cars within 20 meters of the park. There’s no signs calling for cars to look out for cycling in the area. If cars in the area were more aware and considerate then cyclists wouldn’t feel they have to go through the park. 

Nice one Hackney. 

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alotronic | 6 years ago
1 like

I ride that park and have the faces scowling at me. I have yet to get anything but a scowly face, even when I keep things under 20kph, which seems a reasonable speed when the path is clear. 

The issue at the park is not so much the path itself as the decision to make everyone exit or enter the park at the same point at either end of the park. This is where the danger is and a bit of thought given to those points might make a difference... I'll take a photo next week to show you what I mean. Typical slightly short-sighted development that is meant to keep people happy rather than be effective.

More signs = action = must be good!

The faces do make me consider my speed for a split second entering the path, but as they are not enforcable with fines or spped limits I suspect the people who really need the reminders will just ignore them anyway... 

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FluffyKittenofT... | 6 years ago
3 likes

I wonder whether the frowny-face thing will be any more effective at influencing cyclist behaviour than it is when used for motorists on the roads?

Possibly cyclists are more affected by such social pressure, due to not feeling so insulated inside a metal box. But these things seem to have no effect whatsoever when used for drivers.

Avatar
FrankH replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 6 years ago
1 like

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

I wonder whether the frowny-face thing will be any more effective at influencing cyclist behaviour than it is when used for motorists on the roads? Possibly cyclists are more affected by such social pressure, due to not feeling so insulated inside a metal box. But these things seem to have no effect whatsoever when used for drivers.

There's one on the way into the village where I live. I stood and watched it one day while I was waiting for a bus. About 70% triggered the red,  angry face, most of them slowed down, about half of them enough to change it to the green smiley face.

On a sample size of one, I'd say they're effective.

By the way, I haven't yet managed to trigger the angry face on my bike, and I have been trying.

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to FrankH | 6 years ago
1 like
FrankH wrote:

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

I wonder whether the frowny-face thing will be any more effective at influencing cyclist behaviour than it is when used for motorists on the roads? Possibly cyclists are more affected by such social pressure, due to not feeling so insulated inside a metal box. But these things seem to have no effect whatsoever when used for drivers.

There's one on the way into the village where I live. I stood and watched it one day while I was waiting for a bus. About 70% triggered the red,  angry face, most of them slowed down, about half of them enough to change it to the green smiley face.

On a sample size of one, I'd say they're effective.

By the way, I haven't yet managed to trigger the angry face on my bike, and I have been trying.

Well, of the two near me, neither of them seem to have any effect at all. One in particular frowns at anyone going over 20mph, yet the average speed seems to be about 30, and at certain times (late at night, early mornings, weekends) 60mph is fairly frequent.

I never managed to get it to frown at me on the bike either, though I gave up cycling that road because of the thought of those 60mph speeders coming up behind me (it's a road with pedestrian island choke points and parked cars, not a wide dual carriageway)

But maybe people are better behaved in rural areas?

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cyclisto | 6 years ago
2 likes

Apart from the fact that it seems really overpriced (it seems just a speed radar, a monitor and a basic computer) it seems great. Parks can be really nice shortcuts free of air pollution and road hazards. There will always be stupid people that will want to show off on their bikes and speed, so such measures are welcome. I would even agree to penalties for speeders (if it could be done since bicycles are not fitted with speedometers). So keep bicycles in parks, even try to attract more cyclists with extra infrastructure or integrating them into bicycle routes but their behaviour should be regulated.

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Hirsute replied to cyclisto | 6 years ago
0 likes

cyclisto wrote:

Apart from the fact that it seems really overpriced (it seems just a speed radar, a monitor and a basic computer) it seems great. Parks can be really nice shortcuts free of air pollution and road hazards. There will always be stupid people that will want to show off on their bikes and speed, so such measures are welcome. I would even agree to penalties for speeders (if it could be done since bicycles are not fitted with speedometers). So keep bicycles in parks, even try to attract more cyclists with extra infrastructure or integrating them into bicycle routes but their behaviour should be regulated.

Not sure an assumption of only one set is valid, it does say radars in the article.

Hopefully those who have no speed indicator will slow down a bit and share the space.

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StuInNorway | 6 years ago
9 likes

Surely with 4000 cyclists a day, the money would be better spend on actually providing a safe means to allow commuters to cycle with a segregated path on the main routes ? Add offsett gates at access points and periodically allow route to help ensure teh worst speed freaks 8and there are some real idiots, now and again) have their speed runs controlled a bit. 
Also a max length on dog leads of 3m as these 10m long thin leads are a danger to all.

Avatar
Cugel replied to StuInNorway | 6 years ago
0 likes

StuInNorway wrote:

Surely with 4000 cyclists a day, the money would be better spend on actually providing a safe means to allow commuters to cycle with a segregated path on the main routes ? Add offsett gates at access points and periodically allow route to help ensure teh worst speed freaks 8and there are some real idiots, now and again) have their speed runs controlled a bit. 

Also a max length on dog leads of 3m as these 10m long thin leads are a danger to all.

Why allow bikes, cars or other fast machines into a park at all? Such spaces are designed for quietude, not whizz-about anxious commuters or boy racers - especially those of the ilk "self-centred little skinbag".

If London has one virtue it's the several large green spaces away from the press and noise of all the aggresive angst-ridden thrusters pushing about the streets. Why let these thrusters infest such islands of tranquility? Yes, I know - already too late in some of them.

Cugel, from a remote and empty country lane in the cold dark north. 

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emishi55 replied to Cugel | 6 years ago
2 likes

Cugel wrote:

Why allow bikes, cars or other fast machines into a park at all? .......

 

....errr...perhaps because many of those who would prefer to cycle wouldn't be cycling fast?

Y'know...like disabled, mobility impaired, mums with kids, children who could cycle to school, elderly folk getting to the shops etc...?

 

Hampstead Heath in north London is surrounded by abominable speedophile infested roads as drivers race from the cycling wasteland that is Barnett into Camden (which really should know better).

Although Camden cannot do much about the archaic non-democratic mindset and 'rules' of Corporation Of London, that allows braying and mouth frothing groups such as Heath For Hate...or rather 'Feet'....to deny any options for avoiding the surrounding roads ensuring that cycling is effectively banned, it could certainly do something about the atrocious Hampstead Lane, East Heath Road, Swains Lane, Dartmouth Park Hill and Highgate Road; running into the festering daily lung blight of Kentish Town's foulled-up High Street).

 

The fact that speeding as a crime is one of THE major deterrents to cycling take-up has not registered in the consciousness of London authorities, let alone those outside the capital.

 

There are plenty of options for preventing cyclists going too fast through parks (without putting in the stupid speed humps that those 'friends of cycling' at Hyde Park have built).

Holland Park has a fleet of police 4 x 4s (as does the Heath) to catch any cyclist committing the heinous crime of erring from a designated path (where they exist).

 

But really, some kind of reality check - just a little bit of perspective - from anyone in authority, would be a welcome breath of fresh air. 

 

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HurdyGurdy replied to StuInNorway | 6 years ago
0 likes

StuInNorway wrote:

Surely with 4000 cyclists a day, the money would be better spend on actually providing a safe means to allow commuters to cycle with a segregated path on the main routes ? 

Obviously not commenting from in the uk- you expect "sensible" actions from a London Council ?

This the type of councils that paint a line along a main road and call it a cycle lane  3

Avatar
Bob's Bikes | 6 years ago
5 likes

One wonders how much this has cost the local tax payers and how effective it will be. Also could the money not have been used more sagely in detering bad driving/parking habits in the area?

 

Avatar
Deeferdonk replied to Bob's Bikes | 6 years ago
4 likes
Bob'sbikes wrote:

One wonders how much this has cost the local tax payers and how effective it will be. Also could the money not have been used more sagely in detering bad driving/parking habits in the area?

 

One wonders if you read the article above that states how much it cost before commenting.  1

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