Elephant and Castle
DonDaddyD
Posts: 12,689
OK Elephant and Castle was once two giant round abouts that if approached from on a bike and timed right you could skirt the entrance roar into the first roundabout hit the apex, accelerate roar into the second roundabout hit that apex achieve escape velocity and head on into Clapham.
Dangerous but fun, like Pepsi Max.
What the hell have they done!?
Anyone with thoughts on Elephant and Castle now?
Dangerous but fun, like Pepsi Max.
What the hell have they done!?
Anyone with thoughts on Elephant and Castle now?
Food Chain number = 4
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
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those two words still but the fear of god in me!!
on Sept 7th i was in Euston when the bus bomb went off, i had to get from Euston to Camberwell on foot, bearing in mind i had never been to 2Laaandon" before it was an adventure to say the least!!Keeping it classy since '830 -
DonDaddyD wrote:
What the hell have they done!?
Put an unnecessary set of lights in.0 -
Sigh...
Dhope,
On the approach from Clapham they've added a new set of taffic lights. On the approach to London Bridge they've adjusted the light phase so that you always stop at the lights when you're facing the E&C.
What this does is breakup the 'flow' around the roundabout and effectively destroy the other roundabout with the exits to Camberwell and Clapham.
Essentially they've created one almight complex junction with some entrance/exits controlled by lights and some not. The broken flow means that you are often stranded in no mans land or have buses pulling out right across you as cars try to zoom along on your right.
Well, that's how I find it anyway.Food Chain number = 4
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game0 -
'Ow many times?
Em
Bank
Ment
No need to bother yourself with the whole sorry mess.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
They seem to be putting a lot of effort and money into narrowing the roads approaching E&C to make giant pavements that could cater for the crowds going to an FA cup final.
I notice that it a lot of road engineering now. The idea seems to be to make driving harder and less efficient0 -
Anyone with thoughts on Elephant and Castle now? : It's a boghole, don't go there.0
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Theoretically there are various cycle bypasses round the outskirts of the whole thing, but I've never worked out how they all line up so unless I'm already towards Southwark Bridge Road I just up my gear and pray!
It's a complete farce, and it's impossible to time those lights at a sensible speed even after midnight when it's quiet.0 -
I'd rather take my chances having fireworks thrown at me going via Deptford than having someone throwing knives or shooting at me by going that way.0
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The new lights stop the fun heading northbound as I always seem to catch them on red coming up the Walworth Road. Always had traffic lights on the entry when headed south from Waterloo anyway so no change there.
It's still a bit dicey because of the 4 lane width and the lane swapping by cars who get in the wrong lane at the lights, though northbound you've got the bus lane to take cover in for part of it. But it can be fun (in an adrenaline junkie sort of way) if you do it well
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
It's a feckin mess. Not liking the bit outside the shopping centre heading South, which has always been a bit hectic. Seems more so now with the throng of buses to the left, cars go into the right hand lanes, then cut across last minute to go down the Walworth Rd, while I try and stay out right to head straight towards Brixton. The furthest right hand lane seems to narrow as it gets to the lights, so even if you have placed yourself in primary in the centre lane, you tend to get cars moving in on you from the right, or forcing you out wide as they squeeze past the buses down the left... Quite the classic pincer movement.
Hopefully, when it's all done, it will make sense, but for now, what a mess
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The best bit, is all the sand/gravel spread all over the southbound carriageway (A3) on the lower, was roundabout, now 3 or 4 way junction.
I have seen a few cyclist skid and loose traction there.0 -
It's just a total mess now. The annoying thing is that it used to be fine. Needed some new tarmac, but that's about it!
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TheStone wrote:It's just a total mess now. The annoying thing is that it used to be fine. Needed some new tarmac, but that's about it!
This. I'm not keen on the Embankment or Blackfriars Bridge. So I'm going to have to figure a different route that gets me to Liverpool Street/Aldgate that avoids Embankment, Elephant and Castle and Borough Highstreet that seems to be an entire pothole.Food Chain number = 4
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game0 -
DonDaddyD wrote:TheStone wrote:It's just a total mess now. The annoying thing is that it used to be fine. Needed some new tarmac, but that's about it!
This. I'm not keen on the Embankment or Blackfriars Bridge. So I'm going to have to figure a different route that gets me to Liverpool Street/Aldgate that avoids Embankment, Elephant and Castle and Borough Highstreet that seems to be an entire pothole.
My thoughts when the re-layout was first proposed were "if it aint broke, don't fix it". I have only been approaching E&C from Walworth the last 8 months so not really sure how big an impact it has had from that direction - travelling south, I usually have to stop at the lights but there's never a massive delay. Travelling north there doesn't seem to be any reason to stop at the lights so the new layout doesn't seem too bad (at the moment - might change when its all done).
Re Borough High St, that road is a serious disgrace. I smacked my rear wheel into a pothole the other night just after London Bridge, managed to burst the inner tube and break a spoke in the process. That wheel was on its last legs anyway, but still makes me wonder if there's anything you can actually do about that? I thought about taking a photo of the pothole to submit a complaint, but not really realistic on such a busy road...0 -
DonDaddyD wrote:TheStone wrote:It's just a total mess now. The annoying thing is that it used to be fine. Needed some new tarmac, but that's about it!
This. I'm not keen on the Embankment or Blackfriars Bridge. So I'm going to have to figure a different route that gets me to Liverpool Street/Aldgate that avoids Embankment, Eleph
ant and Castle and Borough Highstreet that seems to be an entire pothole.
Kennington Park Road, E+C bypass, Southwark Bridge Rd, Thames St, Gracechurch/Bishopgate?0 -
IIRC the whole idea is to make it better for Peds. So they don't have to go underground to get around the area - all the underpasses are being filled in. All part of the regeneration of the area. And having an idea of E&C, that's a good thing for the peds.
Shame they didn't make some sort of Cycle Superhighway out of the subways, that would have been good 0 -
So cyclists could get mugged instead of peds? I wouldn't fancy having to ride through those subways on a night :shock:Soul Boy wrote:Shame they didn't make some sort of Cycle Superhighway out of the subways, that would have been good"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Unless they put lights at each junction, which itself would cause gridlocks, I can't see it getting any better.Kennington Park Road, E+C bypass, Southwark Bridge Rd, Thames St, Gracechurch/Bishopgate?
You may be onto something there! ThanksFood Chain number = 4
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game0 -
Stevo 666 wrote:
So cyclists could get mugged instead of peds? I wouldn't fancy having to ride through those subways on a night :shock:Soul Boy wrote:Shame they didn't make some sort of Cycle Superhighway out of the subways, that would have been good
Bugger, hadn't thought that one through, dammit :oops: Dicing with traffic it is then 8) .0 -
Soul Boy wrote:IIRC the whole idea is to make it better for Peds. So they don't have to go underground to get around the area - all the underpasses are being filled in. All part of the regeneration of the area. And having an idea of E&C, that's a good thing for the peds.
Shame they didn't make some sort of Cycle Superhighway out of the subways, that would have been good
Ahh, that kind of makes sense then. The underpasses there are truely horrid and I guess it's impossible to keep all the peds on top without messing up the traffic.
Now if it had been just a traffic project ... they would be doing a very bad job!0
