Cyclists using Olympic lanes risk £200 fine

Confusedboy

Now, I am a curmudgeonly old bast*ard and get as much pleasure from destroying other people's enjoyment while wallowing in my own self-indulgent hate-filled misery as anyone, and my default position is that all sport is juvenile and promotes the very sorts of values that are destroying society, but even I am starting to think along the lines of 'aw, c'mon guys, it's the Olymics, ffs'.

I live in Cardiff, a city well used to major disruption and inconvenience for the benefit of people who mostly live elsewhere, and on a regular basis, due to having a 70k seat stadium located (in)conveniently slap in the middle of town. This week it was for the Fake Hats concert, twice, so I consider myself entitled to a viewpoint here. I would give someone else's right arm to have disruption ending after a few weeks next year like you moaning Londoners, as opposed to the madness that shuts Cardiff down on an ongoing permanent weekly basis and makes travel around our own city next to impossible for us irrespective of what method we use. This chaos makes megabucks for businesses in the city, but I see no benefit from that as most of it ultimately goes to investors, many of whom live in London.

But I tolerate it mostly. What would seriously p*ss me off, though, would be to hear my transport authority telling me that the proposal covered 'only one per cent of London's Roads' while conveniently ignoring that the likes of the A40, Embankment, or Marylebone Road carry a lot more than one per cent of the traffic, My bullsh*t detectors would be triggered. No-one likes being obviously lied to by authorities over whom they have little influence, so you moaning Londoners are due some sympathy from me. Not the taxi drivers though. I will never sympathise with taxi drivers.....

mybreakfastconsisted

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

richVSrich

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

+1111

+ plus more offices and houses and upgraded transport and a damn good party either way

MTFU and just enjoy it!

t4tomo

Non story, they have no way of policing it. Camera's can't identify bikes and the police will be busy sorting out other choas associated with the Olympics. Plus the streets will be so crowded they'll never catch you anyway.

spen666

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

How many trees destroyed

how many Sites of scientific interest destroyed?

how many for example newt colonies destroyed?

How many leisure facilities destroyed eg Eastway Cycle Circuit and lots of Hackney Marshes football pitches

And what in its place?

More offices & houses- yep- more concrete and less greenspace than before

Oh yes, and even more pressure on already over crowded roads. You note there are no new roads to be built to move all this extra population and business around

Butterd2

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

But what have the Roman's ever done for us.....

Kieran_Burns

Butterd2 wrote:

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

But what have the Roman's ever done for us.....

Olympianes Eunt Domus?

People called Olympianes, they go, the house?

richVSrich

spen666 wrote:

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

How many trees destroyed

how many Sites of scientific interest destroyed?

how many for example newt colonies destroyed?

How many leisure facilities destroyed eg Eastway Cycle Circuit and lots of Hackney Marshes football pitches

And what in its place?

More offices & houses- yep- more concrete and less greenspace than before

Oh yes, and even more pressure on already over crowded roads. You note there are no new roads to be built to move all this extra population and business around

if you want to view it all through your doom tinted glasses, then nothing will change your view.

the olympics is happening whether you like it or not

personally i think this can only be a massive positive for london and the east end

as mybreakfastconsisted as stated - there are LOTS of good things they are putting in the park

transport links are being upgraded: jubiliee line capacity is being increased. fast trains in to kings cross will be available, stratford international will be open

and by the time the new houses will be ready, crossrail should be about open, and london overground orbital will be complete

newt colonies will be relocated and they will have a new lovely marshland to play in

SSSIs have been carefully exacavated - they discovered roman boat ruins, some old war gun emplacements..

EKE_38BPM

richVSrich wrote:

spen666 wrote:

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

The creation of the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, the cleaning and dredging and oxygenating of 8 kms of canals, 4000 trees planted, 300,000 wetland plants, world class sporting facilities in the poorest area of London, the largest shopping mall in Europe , a shift in the centre of gravity in London.

Nothing much.

How many trees destroyed

how many Sites of scientific interest destroyed?

how many for example newt colonies destroyed?

How many leisure facilities destroyed eg Eastway Cycle Circuit and lots of Hackney Marshes football pitches

And what in its place?

More offices & houses- yep- more concrete and less greenspace than before

Oh yes, and even more pressure on already over crowded roads. You note there are no new roads to be built to move all this extra population and business around

if you want to view it all through your doom tinted glasses, then nothing will change your view.

the olympics is happening whether you like it or not

personally i think this can only be a massive positive for london and the east end

as mybreakfastconsisted as stated - there are LOTS of good things they are putting in the park

transport links are being upgraded: jubiliee line capacity is being increased. fast trains in to kings cross will be available, stratford international will be open

and by the time the new houses will be ready, crossrail should be about open, and london overground orbital will be complete

newt colonies will be relocated and they will have a new lovely marshland to play in

SSSIs have been carefully exacavated - they discovered roman boat ruins, some old war gun emplacements..

Yeah, but apart from that...

spen666

richVSrich wrote:

....
if you want to view it all through your doom tinted glasses, then nothing will change your view.

the olympics is happening whether you like it or not

Erm who has suggested the Olympics are not happening? Certainly not me


Who has suggested the Olympics should not happen - again not me. I have never opposed the olympics


So lets not start inventing things

personally i think this can only be a massive positive for london and the east end

as mybreakfastconsisted as stated - there are LOTS of good things they are putting in the park

as MBC cut and pasted from the propaganda put out by LOCOG I think you will find.

It only tells a tiny fraction of the story. What about the loss of facilities, the loss of green space open to the public rather than the new concreted areas for mega PLC's profit?

transport links are being upgraded: jubiliee line capacity is being increased. fast trains in to kings cross will be available, stratford international will be open

fast trains to Kings Cross that are priced too expensive for members of the public to use, and which are not available to use on your travelcard. Thus pricing them out of use for ordinary Londoners.

See the spin unravels when you look at it

and by the time the new houses will be ready, crossrail should be about open, and london overground orbital will be complete

Crossrail etc are nothing to do with the Olympics and there is still all the extra motor traffic that will result from new houing and business on the site- and as said before no new roads built

newt colonies will be relocated and they will have a new lovely marshland to play in

Newt colonies were NOT relocated. The Olympic site was by legislation excluded from having to do newt counts and or relocate them etc. The habitats were simply destroyed.

The truth doesn't match your rosy view

SSSIs have been carefully exacavated - they discovered roman boat ruins, some old war gun emplacements..

SSSI's were not excavated. Historic sites might have been. They are different

Then we could talk about the loss of the allotments in the area, the building of huge concreted shopping centres on previously open land etc.



don't fool yourself. The Olympics are about making money for various PLCs- not about the people at all.

cee

and if nothing else.....

at least it'll give you something to moan about.

dilemna

....... and Team GB won't even be top of the medals table :roll: .

There was talk of closing Boxhill for fear of hoards of cycling fans destroying habitats on the hill along side the route.

Best place to see the Oylmpics is from the sofa watching tv, which reminds me I need to buy a new one ready for the Games.

mybreakfastconsisted

Newt colony's £70,000 relocation

Numbers of the newts have been declining in the UK
A colony of endangered newts is being relocated for the 2012 Olympics at a cost of £70,000, it has emerged.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7034188.stm

My views are my own, I copied nothing.

I cycled past the Olympic Park every day for 8 years from E11 to SE1. The area was a complete toilet. Breakers' yards, the streets running with oil and filth, fridge mountains, rubbish tips, a Sunday market in the old dog track that appeared to sell only contraband cigarretes and porn. The whole site was disgusting, decrepid and derelict, the canals choked with weeds, shopping trolleys, dumped cars and dead gangsters.

My house is less than a mile from the park. It's a very run-down area. If you want a rancid chicken burger or a motorbike tyre it's a shoppers' paradise, not much use to anyone else. But things are changing. It's a creeping gentrification. I lived in Bow till 99 then E11 for 10 years. The Hoxton trendies are creeping East and North, derelict old pubs are suddenly converted into nice gastro pubs - The Cat and Mutton on Broadway Market and The Sun on Bethnal Green Road for instance, both used to be toilets. I saw an Arsenal supporter wipe a Jack Russell's arse with a Man United scarf in the Cat and Mutton. People can't afford Islington property prices so young professionals buy further down Balls Pond Road toward Hackney. Yuppie flats are popping up all over East London. It's a demographic shift.

Upper Street in islington was pretty rough twenty years ago, someone brave has to be the first to open a deli or wine bar and the latent demand surfaced. In Leytonstone the Red Lion has been taken over by a new pub chain and will be a family pub rather than the drinking dens and rancid burger bars that infest Leytonstone High Road. I think the whole area will improve post-games, it's nothing less than a tilt to the centre of gravity in London.

3 bed house in Chiswick is £750k, the same properties in E10 and E11 can be bought for under £250k. It's just so exciting, Ken frankly admitted he couldn't give a stuff about sport but saw the games as a way of grabbing tons of cash from central government to boost the long-term regeneration of East London, and the residents deserve it.

mybreakfastconsisted

mybreakfastconsisted

richVSrich

spen666 - was this thread not started by yourself as a moan towards the olympics?? or maybe i missed your happy sarcasm???

did this not happen then? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7034188.stm

if you look on google earth and view the historical aerial imagery of the site, its not like it was a nice forested area..there was fields yes...there will still be open parkland now...

what SSSIs were there?

yes, crossrail is not related to the olympics, but the houses are not going to spring up over night, and by the time legacy phase is complete so will crossrail

mybreakfastconsisted

It's also exciting that German rail companies are hoping to use Stratford International.

Stratford to Amsterdam in 5 hours. Big changes coming for East London. All positive.

richVSrich

mybreakfastconsisted - can i get a high five please mate?

mybreakfastconsisted

I couldn't give a stuff about newts, but given the regenerative aspect of London's bid I thought spen's claims were suspicious. So did you. We're right, spen's wrong.

I get fed up with people moaning about the games, here's a chance for us to shine on the world stage. It's also the queen's jubilee next year, I reckon she'll be involved somehow, God bless her. I'd like to meet her and lick the back of her head to see if she tastes of stamps.


The games are biggest thing to hit East London since the luftwaffe, BRING IT ON!!!

bails87

richVSrich wrote:

mybreakfastconsisted - can i get a high five please mate?

Would that be the high five hours back from Amsterdam?

mybreakfastconsisted

Vaguely on topic:




So far this year, according to Cycling Intelligence, eight cyclists have been killed on the streets of London in collisions with motor vehicles, compared to 10 deaths for the whole of 2010. In 2009, the last year for which TfL and the Department for Transport have published figures, 13 cyclists were killed. Each year, around 3,000 are injured, roughly 400 of them "seriously", in the capital.

Meanwhile, DfT figures show that, in the past 10 years, not a single pedestrian has been killed by a cyclist on a pavement in London.

Nada, zip, zilch.

A grand total of six were injured on footways last year. And a few more were hurt on roads - probably throwing themselves heedlessly into traffic while diddling on their iPhones.

This is not a manifesto to justify my pavement cycling. I was bang to rights. But it does convince me more than ever that we have our priorities wrong. And that the greatest trick the motoring lobby ever pulled was to convince pedestrians that cyclists are the problem.

This week we learned that bikes will be banned from Olympic fast lanes in the capital in 2012. The cycle superhighways, like the one on Chelsea Embankment, all follow major, busy routes.

Last year, 26,649 motorists were prosecuted for driving while using a mobile phone, a major factor in cyclist deaths - but I'd suggest that number still falls far short of "zero tolerance".

Last week, a debate in the London Assembly about retaining the 20mph speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge, in place since two cyclists died within 15 months in 2007, was abandoned after Tory allies of our two-wheeled Mayor walked out.

So you'll forgive me if I'm nervous venturing back onto the road, fearful of another footway fine. I've already been "seriously" injured. We need to do a lot more to turn London into a cycling city if I'm not to become a more mortal statistic.



http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/ ... riendly.do

t4tomo

mybreakfastconsisted wrote:

, derelict old pubs are suddenly converted into nice gastro pubs - The Cat and Mutton on Broadway Market and The Sun on Bethnal Green Road for instance, both used to be toilets. I saw an Arsenal supporter wipe a Jack Russell's ars* with a Man United scarf in the Cat and Mutton.

Upper Street in islington was pretty rough twenty years ago,

two points - was the Dog scarf asre wiping incident before or after gastropubisation? presumably after.

Do you mind i used to live in Islington 20 years ago, it was pretty nice then, albeit quite early in its gentrification phase. I drove through there the other day and noted the french Rstaurant "le Mercury" is still going strong.