Attention anyone who cycles near or through Crystal Palace

I have used that RA a couple of times but found it to be a dangerous b@stard! Close scrapes every time I used it. :shock:

Now I take a right about halfway up College Road (following College Road) where it becomes Fountain Drive. The spot has a small island and the road drops slightly down and then resumes a climb, entering a larger road where Dulwich Wood Park becomes College Road. Left here and up to the lights.

The cars are pretty accommodating provided you position yourself positively but not like a twunt hogging the lanes :roll: .

Right at the lights and off home...

Hope this helps a bit.

Like ketsbaia I know it best approaching from Sydenham Hill. Both little roundabouts are laid out for fast driving for the bigger roads and scary manoeuvres for the smaller exits*. If you're coming from College Road past Sydenham Hill Rail Station, Harveytile's suggestion looks a good one - you rejoin the top road at lights.

* an alternative explanation is that the two little roundabouts are actually nipple roundabouts and people drive round them like tits...

dresbo wrote:

I have written to the council (actually Croydon) and await their response. If anyone else wants to add their tuppence, please go ahead. Every little helps.

Croydon council? I wouldn't have said they are the council for that area..
It's just outside upper norwood and thats on the boundary limit for croydon council.
I would have pressumed it was Lambeth.

I use that road quite often and tend to vary heading up College Road/Fountain Drive or peel off and use College Road as Harveytile recommended (he beat me to it!)

It's certainly a hairy one as the road kicks up just before the top meaning your coming at it from a steepish hill and have to time a gap in the traffic coming from your right and then have to contend with the idiots on the left! I try to start watching that side as soon as I've seen a gap and eyeball the drivers.

As for the College Road approach that at least has traffic lights at the top which can offer some respite but if you are heading right at the top you'll need to get in lane before the split as they have filter lights for each direction and left goes first! Oddly coming that way I've always been amused by the "stop" marking on the contra-flow cycle lane before you re-join the mainroad, you can just about see it here Quite why they'd expect a cyclist to stop before starting off on a hill is ridiculous! I tend to find I can just nip out and join the traffic without bothering anyone........

I wonder whether the roundabout is too subtle? In Street View it does a good job of blending into the background.

It might improve matters if the roundabout was more obvious and maybe has a hedge on it to obstruct the straight on view somewhat (so drivers approaching can't assume there is nothing coming from opposite - which no doubt is what may check as they approach, rather than glancing towards Fountain Drive.

A 3 lane approach doesn't help, as lanes 1 and 2 will only give the right a glance at most, and many cars will be more concerned by the driver next to them to give the roundabout more than a quick glance.

Lights would be best for safety, without a doubt, but you would have to battle the twin prongs of optimising traffic flow and expense.

Just my ponderings. Probably lots of holes in my thinking.

Part of the problem is that the eastbound road lane is wide, and the exit from Fountain Drive set back a bit.. drivers are looking in the wrong place & expecting them to see you & give you right of way doesn't work. The other problem being with the high volume of eastbound traffic, you don't really get a chance for both lanes to be clear. My approach is to not assume anyone will stop, attempt to force eye contact, and stay close to the center of the roundabout exiting on to the outside lane of the 212 - not swinging in to the left lane 'til I'm sure I've been seen.

Even a bit of bike lane paint around the outside of the roundabout - bordered by suitably high-visibility white bands - might help reinforce in drivers' minds a) it's a roundabout, b) watch out for bikes; that pair of junctions is also pretty hazardous as a pedestrian, maybe there's a case for phased pedestrian lights on one of those bits of A212 to help break up the constant flow of traffic a bit & help make life easier for any traffic joing from Fountain Drive and Sydenham Hill.

rml380z wrote:

Increase the size of the roundabout so vehicles have to actually go round it, rather than being able to go straight on without deviating in direction.

the only way you do that is making it single lane all the way round, then you'll just get people cutting up each other as they enter the r/b as people heading straight over and those wanting to turn to their 3 O'Clock (to get it right for both directions!) will want to use the same space. The real problem is the drivers being arseh0les and the only way to mitigate against that is to make roads so narrow a car cant' use it......

rhann wrote:

The parks under Bromley, and you alsk have bordering, Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon, Lewisham

I believe that trans-council routes come under TfL.

I was at the top of Fountain Drive, half-resting, half-stretching a torn calf muscle on the roundabout kerb a couple of days ago. It was raining so the light wasn't good. I noticed another cyclist reaching the top of the hill and turning right. Though he had no problem on the roundabout, it did strike me that under such conditions, he was emerging from a shaded area - there's a lot of tree cover. So the fact that you're coming out of the dark and out of the driver's line of vision probably compounds the danger.