Circumventing Olympic traffic disruption

t4tomo

no changes on my route, bar a pedestrian crossing has been taken out of service and a the words "bus lane" have been blacked out in a bus lane - no idea why.

Sharkyssurfers

last night Blackfriars underpass was solid so had to detour through the city, no way was I going to get stuck in traffic in the middle of that tunnel. As DDD said last night city to stratford was busy, which didn't help especially as some of the busses were blocking the blue cycle lanes because of it so had to go down the middle, had some good chats to a couple of cabbies along the way, then it was nearly traffic free till Ilford where the police decided to do spot checks on cars etc.., this morning stratford was the only hold up and the embankment this morning was a dream not many vehicles at all along, i'll have some of that

Sewinman

Lambeth Palace Road is much busier than usual last night in both directions. Presumably people are going south of the river to avoid the Embankment. After that there seemed to be very little traffic around, it was rather eerie actually!

Paul E

Embankment was nice this morning, one had to stop at one red, the rest were green, had my fastest run in for a while thanks to feeling fresh and only having to dismount twice because of banned right turns, helped my avg upto 18 mph.

TheStone

Today was seriously quiet.
Like the period between Christmas and New Year, but warmer.

Paul E

Westbound embankment was solid this morning everywhere else was clear on my way in from shooters hill

Sharkyssurfers

it was moveable when I went past, what time was this Paul E, I went through around 7:45 ish, it didn't start to get busy till just after the embankment lights, but I could still put the pedal down and power on even though I have Friday legs, just not sure when I leave at lunchtime weather to risk stratford as that is going to be chaos from 15:00 onwards or go via cs3 to barking and work my way back that way.

stuj15

Sharkyssurfers wrote:

just not sure when I leave at lunchtime weather to risk stratford as that is going to be chaos from 15:00 onwards or go via cs3 to barking and work my way back that way.

I'm not leaving until gone 5pm so I'm going CS3 also. I was tempted to go the normal way (just for the shits and giggles) and stop off to get some pictures closer to the stadium, it's going to be absolute chaos so my judgement got the better of me.

Paul E

Sharkyssurfers wrote:

it was moveable when I went past, what time was this Paul E, I went through around 7:45 ish, it didn't start to get busy till just after the embankment lights, but I could still put the pedal down and power on even though I have Friday legs, just not sure when I leave at lunchtime weather to risk stratford as that is going to be chaos from 15:00 onwards or go via cs3 to barking and work my way back that way.

it was a lot later must have been nearer 9 thanks for a visit from the P fairy, it was busy from just after the underpass where it dips down and then back up next to the slip lane off the bridge. I'm here till 6 so god knows what things will be like as I am heading east.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Tried it in a car this morning.

Traffic volumes are evidently down, I would say below usual summer holiday level. However, my conclusion was simple: Bus lanes are crap.

For the first 75-80% of my journey, the Oly lane runs where the traffic normally runs, and so the bus lane is suspended. However, the Oly lanes were not in operation, so the traffic had unrestricted use of both lanes.

In short, it were brilliant.

Things all went utterly tits up from Westminster Br (south side) to Waterloo Bridge. The bus lane was in full swing, and largely empty. The traffic lane was chokka and crawling. Waterloo Br was also chokka, so I ended up heading to Blackfriars (managed not to run anyone over, but the junction on the north side of the bridge is not well designed for mixed use) and doubling back.

Lesson: abolish* bus lanes.



*Yeah. Like that's going to happen.

il_principe

stuj15 wrote:

What I really want to know is why I counted 12 Olympic BMWs using a non ORN route. The whole point of these lanes is for them to use them and they are sat there a heap off traffic on Mansell St, and the A11. I presume they were heading for the village as they had youngish & fit looking ( ) people in the back of the cars. If they were coming from the city to the village they should have been using the Highway/A12 route. Crazy, absolutely crazy.

Because the cars are driven by volunteers, many of whom don't really know London that well and are relying on poorly programmed sat navs (friend of a colleague is a driver). Dunno why LOCOG didn't just contract a load of cabbies to do the ferrying about, would've made far more sense. F*ck me £9billion spent and we're relying on volunteers. :roll:

TheStone

Greg66 wrote:

Lesson: abolish* bus lanes.

I'd say the vast majority of traffic is caused by buses. Most of them are empty and are so slow anyway it'd be quicker to walk.

I'd like to see them scrapped and replaced with some kind of on-demand mobility scheme for those that can't walk.

TheStone

Il Principe wrote:

F*ck me £9billion spent and we're relying on volunteers. :roll:

All over the place we're relying on volunteers. Where did all the money go?
I've heard people working long, hard days at heathrow get little more than a sandwich for their efforts.

Paul E

TheStone wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

F*ck me £9billion spent and we're relying on volunteers. :roll:

All over the place we're relying on volunteers. Where did all the money go?
I've heard people working long, hard days at heathrow get little more than a sandwich for their efforts.

As they somehow wangled into the olympic act that locog was to be a private company I doubt we will ever get a breakdown of where the money was spent...

jds_1981

TheStone wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

Lesson: abolish* bus lanes.

I'd say the vast majority of traffic is caused by buses. Most of them are empty and are so slow anyway it'd be quicker to walk.

I'd like to see them scrapped and replaced with some kind of on-demand mobility scheme for those that can't walk.

& stop traffic when they wait at stops & generally cause issues.

Sharkyssurfers

I just hope they all clear off around tower hill soon, I need to go that way to get home!!

cookeeemonster

Quite funny hearing people demand the abolishon of bus lanes on a cycle forum - they are in effect the nearest things we have to a proper network of cycle lanes in this country (asssuming the rest of the country is like london).

Of course we share them with buses and black cabs and sometime motorbikes, but they seem a lot safer for cyclists than general traffic in my experience.

so keep 'em I say

ps if you abolished them for all to use they'd fill up with private cars within a day and congestion would literally be twice as bad as it currently is.

thelawnet

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Quite funny hearing people demand the abolishon of bus lanes on a cycle forum - they are in effect the nearest things we have to a proper network of cycle lanes in this country (asssuming the rest of the country is like london).

Of course we share them with buses and black cabs and sometime motorbikes, but they seem a lot safer for cyclists than general traffic in my experience.

so keep 'em I say

ps if you abolished them for all to use they'd fill up with private cars within a day and congestion would literally be twice as bad as it currently is.

Indeed. The real enemy is cab drivers. Taxis are not public transport, they are expensive private transport for rich folks.

greg66_tri_v2.0

thelawnet wrote:

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Quite funny hearing people demand the abolishon of bus lanes on a cycle forum - they are in effect the nearest things we have to a proper network of cycle lanes in this country (asssuming the rest of the country is like london).

Of course we share them with buses and black cabs and sometime motorbikes, but they seem a lot safer for cyclists than general traffic in my experience.

so keep 'em I say

ps if you abolished them for all to use they'd fill up with private cars within a day and congestion would literally be twice as bad as it currently is.

Indeed. The real enemy is cab drivers. Taxis are not public transport, they are expensive private transport for rich folks.

Doesn't that make the real enemy rich folks?

Bet you were miffed at the wrong Korean flag going up, as well...

thelawnet

Greg66 wrote:

Doesn't that make the real enemy rich folks?

Bet you were miffed at the wrong Korean flag going up, as well...

As a multibillionaire I prefer to ride my bike. I feel my fellow oligarchs should follow suit. But if they don't, well they can wait in the queue with the bloke in the rusty old Vauxhall, rather than dodging them in a taxi.

Buses take lots of people, taxis are mostly empty.

jds_1981

Took my first cycle along embankment and back since the ORN tonight. west about 18:30, east about 22:30.

I don't know whether it was the difference in times, or traffic but I found going west fine, but east absolutely lethal.
Heading east, going along at a reasonable pace when suddenly a car went past in what I thought was a punishment pass. I was about to give chase when I realised what it was actually trying to do was keep out of the ORN. I considered the overtakes I got for a bit longer and the layout of the road and then *may* have travelled a significant part of the embankment in the ORN lane after considering the risk of the fine better than the risk of being taken out by a driver trying to avoid the fine.

Paul E

I am taking more of the road to stop that kind of thing, I am not having some idiot in a car who's level of control is not known overtake me closely and put me in danger, if I get beeped I am going to ignore it.

sketchley

jds_1981 wrote:

Took my first cycle along embankment and back since the ORN tonight. west about 18:30, east about 22:30.

I don't know whether it was the difference in times, or traffic but I found going west fine, but east absolutely lethal.
Heading east, going along at a reasonable pace when suddenly a car went past in what I thought was a punishment pass. I was about to give chase when I realised what it was actually trying to do was keep out of the ORN. I considered the overtakes I got for a bit longer and the layout of the road and then *may* have travelled a significant part of the embankment in the ORN lane after considering the risk of the fine better than the risk of being taken out by a driver trying to avoid the fine.

Yep, the highway is just like that, non olympic lane is too narrow for car plus bike. Solution ride a strong primary as it frces car to enter lane to overtake. Doesn't stop the close passes though, or shaked fists etc etc, but at least you'll have a bail out option to left

In some circumstance the Olympic lane looks the better option....

cookeeemonster

Sketchley wrote:

jds_1981 wrote:

Took my first cycle along embankment and back since the ORN tonight. west about 18:30, east about 22:30.

I don't know whether it was the difference in times, or traffic but I found going west fine, but east absolutely lethal.
Heading east, going along at a reasonable pace when suddenly a car went past in what I thought was a punishment pass. I was about to give chase when I realised what it was actually trying to do was keep out of the ORN. I considered the overtakes I got for a bit longer and the layout of the road and then *may* have travelled a significant part of the embankment in the ORN lane after considering the risk of the fine better than the risk of being taken out by a driver trying to avoid the fine.

Yep, the highway is just like that, non olympic lane is too narrow for car plus bike. Solution ride a strong primary as it frces car to enter lane to overtake. Doesn't stop the close passes though, or shaked fists etc etc, but at least you'll have a bail out option to left

In some circumstance the Olympic lane looks the better option....

sorry to butt in but maybe at this time the CS3 cycle superhighway on cable st might be a temporary option instead of the highway? Yep I know it's full of nodder pain sometimes but it might be safer for the time being if people are not happy on the highway

sketchley

The cs3 has been dangerous everytime I've gone down it, I'd rather play with the traffic....

jds_1981

Just checked CS3 - isn't that west of the tower of London? Not sure it's a suitable alternative to the Embankment

sketchley

East of London. Alternative to the highway for getting to dockland

roger_merriman

No Olympic lanes out here, But i'm rolling off to westmid hospital after watching both the mens and womans races in Bushy Park.

Been hoofing it down the A316 since it's fairly light traffic wise, and my normal route would be on some of the race route. Was almost empty yesturday, wasn't busy today (sunday) but wasn't almost empty either.

Be intresting to see what happens wednesday on the TT when two Bridges and a lot of roads will be closed for a number of hours.

Gizmo_

Looking forward to avoiding the Tube tomorrow and keeping an eye on how bad it gets; at some point I'll need to do one day on PT to swap the clothes stock over...

TheStone

I suggested it might even be quieter than normal, but even I'm surprised by that.
Quietest commute ever! Where is everyone????