Cycling superhighways

moonio

Has anyone heard of the new cycling superhighways due to open this summer?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11901.aspx

Cafewanda

Yep. Discussed in a thread or two yesterday

How's Harry. Got him a companion yet?

asprilla

You mean the cycle lanes that are blue instead of green?

I've had the opportunity to be underwhelmed by them.

kelsen

I heard that if you enter them just right, you get a power boost like you do in Mario Kart.

Is this true?

moonio

hehe..only if you have go faster stripes on your bike!!

Yes Harry is very well..we have bonded!! Just trying to get my speed up on him so we can really fly together and do a sportive

gaz545

I use them everyday, my videos have been featured on guardian blogs, road.cc and bikeradar articles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQDNIalvoqQ

moonio

Jesus, that looks totally pointless, it would be better to cycle in the middle of the road!

blu3cat

anyone else noticed they appear to have gone from Blue coloured chippings to Blue "line paint" Could be treacherous in the wet?

TheStone

Most pointless thing .... ever.
The 'older' ones (couple of months) are already black. No-one ever took any notice.

Gaz545, which camera are you using there? Looks good.

gaz545

blu3cat wrote:

anyone else noticed they appear to have gone from Blue coloured chippings to Blue "line paint" Could be treacherous in the wet?

It's not that bad, i've done a test on them and you can stop on them pretty quickily in the wet without losing it.

Jay dubbleU

Waste of time and blue paint as far as I can see - so how does that help?

Cafewanda

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Waste of time and blue paint as far as I can see - so how does that help?

They add a dash of colour to grey areas ie Stockwell

DonDaddyD

I f*cking love them now that vehicles realise what they are.

Today's commute, a long single line of traffic to my right and me to the on the outerpart of the blue painting tarmac, which is almost the width of a car lane, riding at an enjoyable 20.

bigmat

Completely pointless - they are stop / start, regularly disappearing at junctions. Nothing to tell drivers what they actually are. Full of parked cars. The most likely result is that they'll make drivers feel that we have no right to be anywhere other than on the blue stripe - great.

[Perfect example, I was approaching a set of red lights this morning, bus in the left hand lane so I moved over to the right hand lane. Some c**k in a taxi started beeping me - i turned round and pointed to the red light. Next set of lights we were both stopped and he started comlaining about me being in the right hand lane. I pointed out that it was a red light so where the hell did he think he was going? at which point he started swearing at me - I pointed out that he was giving cabbies a bad name and gave him a bit of abuse in return :twisted: ]

AidanR

I have to admit when I first heard about these a couple of years back I envisaged bicycle only lanes along disused railway lines etc. taking you from the outskirts of London into the centre. Finding out they were over-hyped blue cycle lanes was a bit of a disappointment.

iPete

For us 'elite' commuters who can handle the roads blue paint or not, they might be a bit pointless but as DDD has pointed out, as awareness is raised cars will start to avoid entering them. They'll also create a false sense of security that could lure tens of thousands more cyclists onto the roads.

Lets face it, the only perfect solutions would be to burn down London and start again.

DonDaddyD

Don't get me wrong, they aren't a superhighway, Boris has ushered forth an M25 for cyclist. They are just a wider cycle lane painted blue. It's not the best that could have been done its not the best that has been done and there are far older and better systems in other countries, I'm told.

But for the time being cars don't know what to make of it so they seem to be staying out of the way.

SteppenHerring

(I;ve commuted once this week so feel I can post once here)

Was just listening to a feature on the radio on these. Some senior guy from the project used the phrase "so cyclists can easily see where they should be". That's right - you should be on the left where you can be left-hooked by construction lorries. If you want to turn right, then tough - unless the lights are red and you can manouvre across the ASL full of cars and motorbikes. Know your place - it's with the parked cars and broken glass.

itsbruce

SteppenHerring wrote:

(I;ve commuted once this week so feel I can post once here)

That's right - you should be on the left where you can be left-hooked by construction lorries. If you want to turn right, then tough - unless the lights are red and you can manouvre across the ASL full of cars and motorbikes. Know your place - it's with the parked cars and broken glass.

Which is why they're worse than a waste of time. Those blue lanes plus the increasing plague of RLJers is only going to make London drivers even more hostile. I claim my share of the road whenever necessary, but it's going to become harder to do that.

Petethebogmonster

itsbruce wrote:

SteppenHerring wrote:

I claim my share of the road whenever necessary, but it's going to become harder to do that.

Keep claiming it!

Jay dubbleU

Cafewanda wrote:

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Waste of time and blue paint as far as I can see - so how does that help?

They add a dash of colour to grey areas ie Stockwell

Trust you to look on the bright side

wyadvd

why does the research that john franklin compiled on his website regarding cycle 'facilities' always get ignored. Something to do with the leader article in this weeks new scientist i think

wyadvd

seriously though, i would recommend anyone buying the new scientist this week just for the clutch of articles on why such a large number of people choose to ignore good quality scientific evidence when formulating opinions/ policies cycle lanes. of particular interest is the article outlining the social reasons for mass denial of truths.( i wont beleive such and such because it will make me unpopular with my dinner party chums)

itsbruce

wyadvd wrote:

seriously though, i would recommend anyone buying the new scientist this week just for the clutch of articles on why such a large number of people choose to ignore good quality scientific evidence when formulating opinions/ policies cycle lanes. of particular interest is the article outlining the social reasons for mass denial of truths.( i wont beleive such and such because it will make me unpopular with my dinner party chums)

It's not at all clear, from your two posts, who it is you disagree with or in which particulars.

prj45

I'm with Mr Franklin here, integration, not seperation is the key.

Cafewanda

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Cafewanda wrote:

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Waste of time and blue paint as far as I can see - so how does that help?

They add a dash of colour to grey areas ie Stockwell

Trust you to look on the bright side

I try

wyadvd

My apogies If I am unclear,

what I am trying to say is that if you read this compendium of research findings:

http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/research.html

and you formulating policy in london for cycle lanes, then you would get rid of all of them.

However in line with the leader article in this weeks new scientist, which outlines the reasons why policy makers and the public at large refuse to accept perfectly good scientific evidence when formulating policies and opinions, we get cycle superhighways.

I cycle to work every day along a 50mph dual carriege way which runs paralell to a pavement where cycles are allowed. I have witnessed 3 accidents injuring cyclists in a year (1 very seriously ) using the cycle path, and none where cyclists use the road . I use the road and its two fingers up like a reflex to anyone who hoots me

wyadvd

http://www.newscientist.com/issue/current

wyadvd

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... phemy.html

gaz545

I may be digging up an old thread, but with the launch of the first two just being a tad over a week away, i thought this general looking thread would be a good place to post this.

As some of you may know, i record and post videos of what i see and what happens to me on my cycling journeys, in some cases this has involved some criticisum of the cycle superhighways. Some of my footage was posted by some rather big bloggers in london and the cycling community, of course with several thousand views, some people in TFL watched them.

A few weeks ago i was contacted by someone in TFL who shall remain nameless. They asked if they could have a little chat with me, to gain some basic background into who i am, what i do and why i cycle. Small talk out of the way, i was invited to ride a short section of the cycle superhighway with Nigel Hardy, the project manager for the cycle superhighway.

Of course this was a great experience and one i jumped at. I rode the route with nigel a few days ago, and he talked about a lot of stuff to do with it. The background behind it, testing, development, the future and additional scheme.

Some of what was spoken about i have put into my recent blog post, and i'm working on another post with even more subjects in.

http://croydoncyclist.wordpress.com/201 ... -and-ride/

SamWise1972

If this does lull people into a false sense of security and bring 1000s more bikes onto the road, then it's worth it. Ultimately, the more cyclists there are, the better things will be for us. I commute into London from Southampton, and whilst I see more deliberate aggression from the occasional driver, I also see from drivers in general, many times more awareness of cyclists, and tendency to stay out of their way. This is only because in Southampton, you could drive around all day and barely see any cyclists on the road. In London, you might not like 'em, but they're there, and most people would prefer not to run one over.