Live blog: TFL failed to make checks on Quietway routes, says Active Travel Now Campaign, seriously muddy bike testing, new summer kit launches and much more

10 thoughts on “Live blog: TFL failed to make checks on Quietway routes, says Active Travel Now Campaign, seriously muddy bike testing, new summer kit launches and much more”

1. I’m feeling Dave and that mud

   I’m feeling Dave and that mud.. Saturday was my trial by mudbath, which went a bit like this…. slide, cor this is tough, slide, slide, brambles, rocks, slide, off, over the handlebars, slide, walk, lost, off, slide.. the relif I felt when nearing the coffee shop was epic.. jeeze can’t think I’ve done a harder sixteeen miles.

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2. Need a bit more info on the

   Need a bit more info on the traffic order. Where exactly is this?

   Do they mean here ? https://goo.gl/maps/MDM2UThATgP2

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   • hirsute wrote:

     Need a bit more info on the traffic order. Where exactly is this?

     Do they mean here ? https://goo.gl/maps/MDM2UThATgP2

     — hirsute

      

     It’s absurd if that’s what TfL really is going to do. Why build a cycle lane if you can’t get into one end of it?

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     • OldRidgeback wrote:

       Need a bit more info on the traffic order. Where exactly is this?

       Do they mean here ? https://goo.gl/maps/MDM2UThATgP2

       — OldRidgeback

        

       It’s absurd if that’s what TfL really is going to do. Why build a cycle lane if you can’t get into one end of it?

       — hirsute

        

       google maps research shows the cyle lane on the river side of the road on embankment, so from the north you have eastbound road, westbound road, eastbound cycleway, westbound cycleway.

       on bridge street you have  (starting on the east side)  southbound road, northbound road, southbound cycleway, northbound cycleway.  Both north and south cycleways show turns heading for the embankment.

       It is not clear, are they banning cyclist in the cycle lanes from turning left (crossing both directions of traffic going on and off the bridge) or are they banning cyclists from starting on the road (southbound bridge street) then moving onto the cycleway just before going onto the bridge. I can’t see any reason for doing this unless it relates to phasing of pedestrian lights crossing cycle superhighway.

        

       more detail definately required.

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   • hirsute wrote:

     Need a bit more info on the traffic order. Where exactly is this?

     Do they mean here ? https://goo.gl/maps/MDM2UThATgP2

     — hirsute

     Just a tiny bit further on from that, into the cycle path which runs parallel just to the south of the road.

     https://goo.gl/maps/RcZPmxcsf5w

     I assume they are stopping left turns from the road into the cycle path, but allowing them from cycle path to cycle path, so anyone who wants to use the Embankment cycle path also has to use the one in front of parliament.

     I haven’t cycled in the area myself, but I assume that currently many people choose not to use the cycle path in front of parliament – from the quoted tweet I guess that people do so because of some issues around Parliament square, though I’m not sure what those are.

      

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3. The problem with the Victoria

   The problem with the Victoria Embankment junction is that it’s so much quicker to cycle on the road approaching from Parliament Square than it is to follow the cycle lanes. If you’re coming from the west up Great George Street, you’ll have three sets of cycle lane lights to wait for before you’ll get to the Victoria Embankment cycle super highway rather than the two on the road which also have a much longer sequence. However, when making that left turn on to Victoria Embankment, the pedestratian crossing is green for pedestratians. I haven’t seen any collisions myself, but I have seen near misses.

   Source: I commute to work via this route.

   The cycle lanes around Parliament Square suffer from short light sequences and lengthy queues during rush hour. You also have traffic from Westminster Bridge that can block the ability to cross, and it’s often a tourist free-for-all, especially during the summer. The road up to Westminster Bridge is two lanes, but in the morning, the leftmost lane is often blocked by deliver vehicles (especially Tesco vehicles) which leads to horrible convergence if you are trying to go fromt he road to cycle super highway. It’s deffinitely better than not having the infrastructure, but it’s not without its problems.

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   • Luke Z wrote:

     The problem with the Victoria Embankment junction is that it’s so much quicker to cycle on the road approaching from Parliament Square than it is to follow the cycle lanes. If you’re coming from the west up Great George Street, you’ll have three sets of cycle lane lights to wait for before you’ll get to the Victoria Embankment cycle super highway rather than the two on the road which also have a much longer sequence. However, when making that left turn on to Victoria Embankment, the pedestratian crossing is green for pedestratians. I haven’t seen any collisions myself, but I have seen near misses.

     Source: I commute to work via this route.

     The cycle lanes around Parliament Square suffer from short light sequences and lengthy queues during rush hour. You also have traffic from Westminster Bridge that can block the ability to cross, and it’s often a tourist free-for-all, especially during the summer. The road up to Westminster Bridge is two lanes, but in the morning, the leftmost lane is often blocked by deliver vehicles (especially Tesco vehicles) which leads to horrible convergence if you are trying to go fromt he road to cycle super highway. It’s deffinitely better than not having the infrastructure, but it’s not without its problems.

     — Luke Z

     As any true petrolhead would say.

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4. I’ve just started commuting
   I’ve just started commuting via the parliment square route, and after two days of using the cycle lane, I gave up and tried the road. This morning, the road route took seconds, previous to that, it seemed to take 10 minutes to cross the square using the cycle route. The lights clearly favour the road traffic. I’m a confident enough cyclist that I feel comfortable doing this. As long as you look for pedestrians when you turn onto embankment, it’s fine.

   The problem is, the road-route gets a green light at the same time as the pedestrians, which is why they are talking about a ban. Salt common sense doesn’t seem to come into it.

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5. Shane Perkins staying classy,

   Shane Perkins staying classy, sold your soul out yah grub!

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6. Mesh, Endura? Didn’t work out

   Mesh, Endura? Didn’t work out for Froome.

   Australian muppet sells out to Putin. Becomes nonentity.

    

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