Cyclists will be given green light to ignore one-way signs

megilleland

Article in todays Times:
"Cyclists will be permitted to ride the wrong way along one-way streets under a change intended to encourage more people to give up their cars or use them less.

The Government will announce today that cyclists will be permitted to ignore no-entry signs: a practice already followed by many, including David Cameron, the Conservative leader.

The Department for Transport is authorising a trial in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Mr Cameron’s home authority in West London, in which a small plate saying “Except cyclists” will be attached to poles carrying no-entry signs."

Together with the swathe of traffic lights which Boris Johnson, the capital's mayor, wants switched off across London to smooth traffic flow, are cyclists and cycling getting better recognition at last. Let's hope motorists can see it and us - although judging by the comments to the article, quite a few are very unhappy.

"The experiment regarding traffic lights will start with a set of lights about 100 yards from Westminster Abbey, at the junction of Victoria Street and Strutton Ground. It will entail monitoring the junction over a six week period with 12 closed circuit television cameras and eight number plate recognition cameras. For the first two weeks the lights will work normally, for the following fortnight they will be switched off, before being put back on for another two weeks. The behaviour of motorists and pedestrians will be monitored at both this junction and one about 100 yards to the west".

spen666

megilleland wrote:

...

"The experiment regarding traffic lights will start with a set of lights about 100 yards from Westminster Abbey, at the junction of Victoria Street and Strutton Ground. It will entail monitoring the junction over a six week period with 12 closed circuit television cameras and eight number plate recognition cameras. For the first two weeks the lights will work normally, for the following fortnight they will be switched off, before being put back on for another two weeks. The behaviour of motorists and pedestrians will be monitored at both this junction and one about 100 yards to the west".

It will be interesting to see how this works.

The junction will surely have to be changed to a 4 way stop llike in the USA. If not, then I fail to see how cars will get out of The Broadway as there is a constant flow of traffic along Victoria Street.

Even if it is a 4 way stop, this will need some monitoring etc as British drivers will find this an alien concept

freehub

Regarding one way signs, drivers will still shout abuse and some one way roads are too narrow anyway.

megilleland

Referring to the traffic lights experiment above, cyclists in the London borough of Ealing will become part of a traffic-flow experiment this autumn as several junctions ‘go naked’.

http://road.cc/content/news/4999-naked- ... mes-ealing

lae

Cyclists should definitely not be allowed to cycle the wrong way down one way streets! In my experience of both a driver and a cyclist, this sounds terrifying and dangerous to both parties, especially considering how narrow some one-way streets are. Furthermore, car drivers will not be expecting cyclists to come past the wrong way and won't drive accordingly. And also, on a one-way street some cyclists going the 'right' way might ride on either side of the road (if its easier due to road layout etc), so what happens when another cyclist comes the other way on that side?

spen666

frinkmakesyouthink wrote:

Cyclists should definitely not be allowed to cycle the wrong way down one way streets! In my experience of both a driver and a cyclist, this sounds terrifying and dangerous to both parties, especially considering how narrow some one-way streets are. Furthermore, car drivers will not be expecting cyclists to come past the wrong way and won't drive accordingly. And also, on a one-way street some cyclists going the 'right' way might ride on either side of the road (if its easier due to road layout etc), so what happens when another cyclist comes the other way on that side?

You like most people on this topic seem to miss the fact that if these changes are not made, they will no longer be one way strrets!

The streets will be two way for cyclists with one way being a contra flow to the traffic - ie their will be a cycle lane on the near side for the cyclists ( off side from main traffic flow).

Whether the idea is a good one is not something I am commenting on- merely explaining the mechanics