Brian Dorling inquest: Coroner to record narrative verdict on Bow roundabout fatality

A vert important point in this case has been down played, deliberately?. He went through a RED light, that is a traffic light as most cyclists seem to think they only apply to motor vehicles and pedestrians. Before anyone starts complaining yes so did the lorry driver. I live in twickenham and the number of times I have nearly been run over by cyclists going through red lights when the pedestrian lights are green is going into 3 figures now. The police don't seem to take any action or those without lights, another common occurance in the borough. The RTA applies to all road users and perhaps if a few more cyclists got run over then perhaps they and the police will pay more attention. The most common time seems to be rush hour and now the nights are getting darker then so will the inverse increase in pedestrian injuries continue.

An interesting feature of some of the superhighways is that they're only technically operational between certain hours, according to the signs on CS8 I only noticed today after being narrowly overtaken then watching the car plough down the blue lane at the highly busy time of 10pm. But then it does have a picture of the bike lane, then 7am-7pm, so he was probably legal, if unnecessarily dangerous.

Quote:

the road markings at the point where Mr Dorling was killed had no legal effect

Is this really true? I assumed that the blue SuperHighway lanes in London had "mandatory cycle lane" status (except where they are shared with busses). Motor vehicles must not drive or park in Mandatory Cycle Lanes (MCLs), or they are committing an offence. Not that we can persuade the police in Cambridge to enforce them.

The tragic thing about this is that London put in Olympic Lanes very quickly and they were actually very good.
What's needed in London now is the same thing for bikes. Not a 1m wide strip of blue paint. A whole dedicated lane policed by cameras and with the same penalties for infringement as bus lanes.

The volume of bike traffic in London now demands more space and a dedicated cycle-planning department. No junction should be re-worked, no roadworks permitted, no re-design authorised unless it can be proved that pedestrians and cyclists are given absolute total priority over the motor vehicle. It's do-able. It won't be overnight but it will be a gradual creep - one junction here, one bit of road there put in to the highest qualities - not just a box-ticking exercise to say "oh yes, here's our concession to bikes".

I agree with the comments about cycle lanes giving drivers the excuse to say "get in the ***ing bike lane!" and that's why bad infrastructure is worse than no infrastructure at all. But Boris and TfL need to act NOW.

Trust no one and nothing except your own judgement! It pays to assume every motorist has not seen you, or doesn't care, and will pull out or cut you up.

That way it comes as no surpise when they do.

It takes guts and experience to ride in rush hour traffic, but you have to guard against complacency because you just never know when something unexpected is going to happen.

I think a rumble strip would be a good idea, I think they have introduced something similar in Spain. Also priority lights and making it illegal for traffic to enter the "cycle lane" would help; so long as it's enforced.

Ultimately you have to look after yourself because nobody else will.

Sad state of affairs itsn't it?

The junction of the A3 and A23 at Kennington is another dangerous section of Cycle Super Highway. It is particularly bad heading into town where the blue painted line jumps without warning from one lane to another. Any driver unfamiliar with the junction may well find cyclists moving over from one lane to another to follow the blue paint. but there are no warnings that this will happen. Any cyclist moving over to follow the blue paint has to be very watchful indeed that an unsuspecting motorists may suddenly find a bicycle in his or her path. But not all cyclists are aware that motorists have no warning and follow the paint. It is only a matter of time before there is a fatality there if you ask me. Whoever conceived the Cycle Superhighways at TfL simply drew lines on a map of the most direct routes. Anyone who has been cycling in London traffic for some years will tell you that while using quiet backstreets may involve slightly longer distances, they're generally quicker as there is far less traffic and they're also a lot safer. The Cycle Superhighways were not designed by a cyclist, and that's the real flaw with them.

Just a reminder about the short film Laura Dorner made, in which she speaks with Debbie Dorling about Brians death:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWaod-i69Js

Example here...

Cycle lane on the left goes straight on, road on the right turns left:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZCS3FLgYWM

Tragic that time and time again it seems to come down to the following question:

Is it better to have rubbish facilities for cycling or no facilities?

Given the numbers of cyclists, and more importantly the people who would potentially cycle if it didn't feel so suicidal, this is the wrong question - the only solution is continuous high-quality safe convenient facilities for cycling.

The lessons are there if only we will learn them.

The problem with cycle lanes is that in general, cars do tend to avoid them, moving out towards the centre of the road as a result. This means that if you don't trust the cycle lane (and many have parked cars and other obstructions in them), or want to overtake traffic rather than ride along the inside, then there is less space at the road centre.

Personally, I'd like to see either properly segregated infrastructure, which then makes every junction point where side roads cross the cycle path a nightmare (see, for example, the approach to Richmond Park) or no kerbside markings at all and an expectation that cyclists will overtake in slow moving traffic, as do motorcyclists and scooters.

The problem is that common sense isn't at all common, especially on the road. Cyclists, drivers and pedestrians simply aren't focused on their own safety or that of others.

Crossing a roundabout safely on a bike isn't rocket science.

I'm not from London, but I rode along CS2 on the way back to the car after RideLondon and it's awful - there are cars parked all the way along it and buses stopping then going again - you're constantly having to steer in and out of the blue markings.

In my opinion it would be safer to just stay in the main carriageway.

The blue paint is only about making it more obvious that there might be more cyclists in the vicinity, the trouble is that many cyclists seem to think that the paint gives them not only extra legal protection as well as some super power of physical protection.

“In my view, it would be safer not to have the marking at all on the roundabout,” he added.

Which is the problem with many blue routes and other cycle lanes. It's all very well having a nice wide cycle lane when the road is wide and straight, but as soon as the situation gets tricky - traffic lights, roundabouts, roads narrowing - the lane markings have a nasty habit of just disappearing.

On these major junctions, like Aldgate, Bow, Vauxhall, there needs to be both physical separation of the lanes and temporal separation using different traffic light phasing.

Mixing bikes and HGVs is just asking for - and repeatedly receiving - trouble.

What is needed is high quality integrated segregation, not blue paint. It's all well and good spouting "go Dutch", but to do so there has to be the massive infrastructure investment and additional cyclist-only green light phases at junctions to allow it.

The worrying part of the report is:
“The advantage is that it highlights the potential presence of cyclists to drivers. The disadvantage is quite clear.

“One: it places cyclists in a position in the roundabout where they may come into conflict with traffic when it is leaving the roundabout.

“Two: it may give cyclists a false sense of security.

“In my view, it would be safer not to have the marking at all on the roundabout,”

The last sentence seems to suggest a return to the old style of cycle lane that vanishes just when it's most needed, rather than improvements to actually make it safer and easier for cyclists.

Let's face it, the superhighways are nothing more than route markings

The truck driver killed this cyclist not the road design.

Cycle lanes at the side of roads are totally useless, cars can travel in them, they can park in them, what's the point, I guess in theory it gives cyclists a dedicated space, but the reality is it doesn't and I agree it can give a false sense of security.

The only way forward is to change the law to forbid vehicles from entering cycle lanes and to put a rumble strip or some form of separation between the cycle lane and the main road.

There is a similar situation at Vauxhall Bridge, where cyclists on the Superhighway are more or less directed to go up the inside of the coaches and lorries which are told they can use the same lane to turn left.