CS5 Vauxhall to Victoria planned Route

From latest Mayor's Question Time:

Cycle route Victoria to Vauxhall

Question No: 2013/4071 Darren Johnson
Why are you proposing to divert CS5 onto Belgrave Road because the direct route would involve cycle
lanes which "remove some general traffic space on Vauxhall Bridge Road"?
Your cycling adviser says Belgrave Road has advantages because it is "fairly quiet, we wouldn't need to make any changes to the road, apart from intermittent markings." Rather than implement another second rate cycling safety scheme that will have to be fixed at a later date, why don't you do it right first time?

Written response from the Mayor 

The Vauxhall Bridge Road proposal was for cycle lanes which would not meet the standards laid down in my Vision for Cycling in this location. Given the volume of traffic on this road, and the number of buses using it, it would be impossible to do anything better. Therefore we have moved the Cycle Superhighway to Belgrave Road, which sees a much smaller proportion of motor traffic and, crucially, a fifth of the volume of HGVs. The new route avoids the need for northbound cyclists to filter into the middle of heavy, fast-moving traffic at Bessborough Gardens and avoids conflict with left turning traffic into Richmond Gate. It also allows cyclists to cross the Victoria area without having to negotiate the deeply unpleasant gyratory at Victoria station, a place made even more hazardous by building works. It provides a contraflow segregated track through to the north of the area and will connect with other Quietway routes. I am very surprised that you should describe it as a second-rate scheme

Making soft flesh and heavy metal mix on a race-track

This was the scene an hour or so after a bus and a cyclist collided on Kennington Park Road, Cycling Superhighway 7 towards Clapham/Brixton, at the bottom of Kennington Road this morning

 and this was how the bike shed looked at the nearby Lilian Baylis Technology (secondary) School on a sunny school day last week

 and here is the Lambeth Cycle Conference held on Saturday with lots of cyclists, three Lambeth Cabinet Members and a fourth Councillor, and staff from Lambeth and one from TfL but no head teachers, public health officials, police officers, town centre managers, or commercial driver representatives, discussing 'How to make Lambeth a place where 8-80 year olds choose to cycle.'

and here is the poster that was put on a bus stop by Made in Lambeth, who spent the weekend asking how we go about 'Creating the street of the future', for people to write on

and here is what a bus driver wrote

and this is what a person tweeted this morning
Just had to try to lift the 333 off a cyclist they'd hit on Kennington Road. Blood running cold.

and this is what a person asked on a forum
What colour bike Ed? I cannot get the Mrs to answer her phone.

and this is what they do in the Netherlands at a T-junction, like the one where the cyclist was in a collision today, so cyclists aged 8-80 aren't in the same place as buses or lorries or cars

and yes, there is enough space here to do as the Dutch do

and I hope both the cyclist and the driver, and the people who helped, recover from the collision soon, but above all, I hope that our politicians and engineers will look at what the Dutch have achieved and ask ourselves why we are not doing here what works so well there - and that TfL make changes bloody soon because EVERYONE WHO CYCLES HERE KNOWS JUST HOW SHIT THIS URBAN RACE-WAY SECTION OF ROAD IS AND HAVE BEEN SAYING SO FOR YEARS.

(and in the meantime, I'd like to know whether all 333 bus drivers have undertaken Transport for London's Safe Urban Driving Course that includes on-road cycle training, and if not, why not.)

Why I hate the Cycling Superhighway to Clapham

This video, by regular commuter Gaz, is of Cycling Superhighway 7 going from Elephant & Castle past Kennington Park towards Clapham. The blue paint guides cyclists to move out of the bus lane into the left hand side of a lane used by motor traffic turning left towards Brixton or Cambewell.  Cyclists aren't turning left here with the motor traffic but are following the cycle superhighway straight on to Clapham.

Recipe for conflict? It's an appalling piece of design as the video shows.

The comments I made in April stand.

Today's obstacles on Cycling Superhighway 7

Aside from all the cars parked in the cycling superhighway, because it's a weekend, we had the following this morning:

Firstly, the sensor (above lamp post in the photo below) to register the existence of cyclists waiting to cross St George's Road at the end of Elliot's Row wasn't working so the red light can't change to green. Dismount and walk across at the pedestrian crossing.

 A hundred or so yards on at the junction of Princess Street and London Road, drying (or dry) blue paint blocks the cycling superhighway - dismount and walk around.

Coming back from the city, scaffolding works and a broken down street cleaner obstructs the way and....

you can't reach the button you need to press in order to get a green light to cross Upper Thames Street to Southwark Bridge (though the bloke in Hi-Vis was happy to press it for us when we asked him to).

Not an obstacle, but not safe either, was the Addison Lee driver who cut around us as we stopped at the end of Southwark Bridge and turned left through the red light we had stopped for.

The person I was giving a cycle lesson to was surprised to hear that the Chairman of Addison Lee is very keen on cyclists being trained, and wondered if he wouldn't be better advised to concentrate on training his drivers.

Do we want Formula One outside Kennington Park?

TfL are undertaking a safety review of junctions on their roads. I'm still not clear whether their definition of safety is 'if you dare to use it you might get away with it', as shown at the Oval above (video regrettably now taken down by the film maker, but it showed the conflict that results from fast moving vehicles, with drivers encouraged to zoom by the motorway style layout, and poor cycle facilities), or 'we want it to be so safe that parents will let their teenage daughters cycle there, and their teenage daughters will want to'.

The latter is achievable, as the Dutch have shown, but it will take quite a lot of work given the poor subjective safety of most of TfL's junctions and I seriously doubt that our current Mayor and TfL are up to the job.

The Oval area is one of those under review. A revised layout should include getting rid of the go-faster railings in the middle of Kennington Park Road; making it easy to cross from the parade of shops to the park, and

 slower traffic speeds, with, crucially, less of a race-track/motorway sliproad layout - achieved either by reducing the number of lanes or by giving wide, desirable and dedicated lanes to buses and cyclists.

I fear TfL's commitment will be on encouraging general motor traffic flow at the expense of creating a better place well suited to people travelling about in a healthy and sustainable manner.

Please take a moment to sign LCC's 'Love London, Go Dutch' petition if you haven't already and turn up to the Big Ride on April 28th. And finally, vote for the Mayoral candidate who will deliver most for cyclists in the coming term.

The devil's in the detail with planning applications

An application (12/00054/FUL) has been made by Dolphin Square Foundation for 130 - 138 Newington Butts (just before Cycling Superhighway 7 northbound branches onto Courtyard Row to avoid the E&C roundabout).

The proposal, which I broadly support, is for

“the demolition and redevelopment of the site comprising a part five storey, part six storey building and basement for the purpose of 76 residential units comprising 41 x 1-bed, 29 x 2-bed, 4 x 3-bed and 2 x 4-bed units, together with 500 sq m GEA of retail (Class A1) use."

Given the excellent public transport they intend to provide no car parking spaces, beyond disabled parking, and one cycle parking space per residential unit in line with the minimum standards required by Lambeth. One may quibble about whether this is enough. Encouragingly the cycle parking is on the ground floor, rather than down a flight of stairs in the basement as I've seen in other planning applications.

However the photo above shows one of the planned rooms. There may be enough room for the bikes but it's going to be a battle to get them in or out. There's a narrow central aisle with a single door exit (note the bin store has a double door) which opens onto a tree.

Below shows a bit of the wider plan. It appears that you leave your flat, go out of the front door onto the street then enter the building by another door to go through the narrow door to the narrow aisle to wrestle your bike out of its stand while hoping no-one else is trying to do likewise. It's not really making cycling the quick and easy transport option.

 The plans also show no intent to provide Sheffield Stands outside the flats for short-stay use by visitors dropping in to pick something up. A similar situation has resulted at the nearby Dugard Way development I commented on recently.

The second bicycle store, while still let down by the single door to enter/exit that discourages child trailer use, for example, thankfully has more ample proportions.

The final concerns I raised, using the measly 500 characters that Lambeth Planning allocate for on-line comments on planning applications, relate to the food store planned on Newington Butts. I asked for more pavement cycle stands than planned, given it's on a cycling superhighway, and sought reassurance that the store would not be restocked by lorries parking in the bus lane-come-cyclesuperhighway.

Let's see how this plans develops (and I hope the food store isn't another Tesco,)

Carnage on Cycling Supercrapway 7 tonight

I came as close to a collision as I have in a very long time tonight. A pedestrian ran into the centre of the road from behind some parked cars. She wasn't looking as she was running across the road. If she had looked before leaving the pavement she wouldn't have seen me as I couldn't see her because of the legally parked cars in the cycling superhighway blocking our view of each other. Thanks to my training I was well in the middle of the general traffic lane and had time to bellow nonsensically while doing an emergency stop.

If this was a proper cycling superhighway the problem wouldn't have occurred because the bloody cars wouldn't have been there.

On the cycle Bypass at E&C a motorist and a pedestrian crossing had collided. The car, which was on the pavement when I first saw it had been taken away but the damage remained. The crossing had been taped off to pedestrians and the lights were stuck on green for the motor traffic, meaning that pedestrians and cyclists on the superhighway had to gamble their way across the multiple traffic lanes. Why didn't the authorities put the motor traffic lane on red and force the motorists to decide when the way was clear? (By the way the light at the bottom of the traffic light in the picture above isn't a green light, it's TfL's sign, for cheapskate reasons, prohibiting cyclists from a desirable right turn into the bus and cycle lane).

Further up the road just before Southwark Bridge, under the railway bridge, roadworks are going on. Where are the signs telling the bloody motorists to get out of your car and push it, like the cyclists are asked to do for some lack of reason.

Finally, in the City of London, the cyclist push-and-wait traffic lights at the junction of Queen Street and Queen Victoria Street weren't working as has been the case for a good three weeks now. Clearly no-one in the City's highways department cycles over Southwark Bridge in a month of Sundays.

This kind of shit provision and consideration for cyclists and pedestrians is another reason why I'll be at the Vigil outside Kings Cross at 6pm this Tuesday.

If anyone from TfL or the City of London reads this, as well as everyone else, please go and see the wonderful film 'Urbanized' at the Barbican to the 23rd December, to see what changes are needed and why London's cycling and walking provision needs major improvement, not tinkering while smoothing the car carnage.

Needlessly mixing in cars and HGVs on a Cycling Superhighway

There's a nicely segregated bus lane come Cycling Superhighway 7, just after the junction of Kennington Park Road and Kennington Lane, as you approach the turnoff from the thundering A roads into calm Churchyard Row to avoid the upcoming E&C gyratory.

Suddenly other vehicles, especially those driven by impatient drivers, start to cut into the lane:

 Check the signage and you'll see they're allowed in - the bus lane and cycle superhighway is suddenly only in place between 7 and 10am Monday to Friday. Given the tiny distance between the segregated area and the Churchyard Road turn-off the question has to be asked - why is the Bus Lane come Cycling Superhighway not 24/7 for these few metres? Is smoothing the motor traffic flow more important to TfL than avoiding cyclist/motorist interaction here?

Get off and push

Presumably the sign's put in place on the laughable assumption that cyclists using Cycling Superhighway 7 aren't accomplished at riding in the general traffic. The reality is that, roadworks or not, the superficialhighway requires you to do this for much of the time as part of its compromised design.
This photo was taken a couple of days ago by E&C. Here's another example

Doin' the Vauxhall Gyratory

While I'd love to amend the title to "Doin' away with the Vauxhall Gyratory", the plans for Cycling Superficial Highway 5 show TfL have no intention to reduce motor traffic use here.

The Cyclists in the City blog is giving the plans for Cycling Superficialhighway 5 a thorough going over - well worth a read.
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/04/tfl-designs-new-cycle-superhighway-at.html
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/04/cycle-superhighway-is-scandalous-carbon.html
and more to come this weekend.

Feedback on the plans can be sent to:
Richard Shirley
Senior Communications & Consultation Manager
Cycle Superhighways
Transport for London
richard.shirley@tfl.gov.uk

Police highlight Vauxhall Gyratory cycle lane

The draft Cycling Superhighway 5 plans show the existing cycle lane, highlighted in this photo by a parked police motorcycle, is intended to remain and will doubtless be as effective as today but painted blue.

Legible Vauxhall?

Draft plans for Cycling Superhighway 5 (Lewisham to Victoria) have been prepared by TfL. It will go through the Vauxhall Gyratory and, whatever faults it may have, must be clearer to follow than the current signage (above, in the bus and cycle lane in the middle of the gyratory).

Loom(is)ing on a Cycling Superhighway near you

A Loomis 'security' van on the Cable Street segregated bit of CS3 today by Shadwell Rail Station that it was presumably delivering to. A few feet forward of the van the double yellow line on the left becomes a single yellow allowing loading/unloading.

Alternatively the van could have turned left into Dellow Street directly opposite the station.

 Let's look at Loomis' values shall we?

Our values are prominent in all our Loomis locations and drive a culture committed to deliver an honest and reliable service.


People
We are committed to developing quality people and treating everyone with respect.

Service
We strive for exceptional quality, innovation, value and exceeding customer satisfaction.

Integrity
We perform with honesty, vigilance and high ethics.

These words reflect Loomis' focus on creating a company culture that can deliver services to our customers in a responsible and confidence-inspiring way.

It is how we live our values in everyday life that make us different from our competitors.

Ice is biggest hazard

An interesting link emphasising the high number of hospital admissions due to accidents on ice popped into my mailbox just after posting my pics of today's icy conditions on the Cycling Superhighways. The NHS Public Health Network website states:
 Slipping on ice causes 35% of all non-collision incidents on the commute to work.

Cycle Superhighways after the snow

The central London part of Cycling Superhighway 7 I used around 8.45 this morning was generally good with a slightly tricky bit on the off-main-road section around the Elephant and Castle bypass.

I'm guessing that the heavy motor vehicles using the CS7 mash the snow out of existence...or is it that these roads are better gritted?

Cycling Superhighway 3 was a different situation. Clearly some grit had been dumped on the CS at Cable Street:

But generally it seemed pretty treacherous compared with the road (except I was travelling in the opposite direction to the one-way traffic!)

Further on, past East India Dock and it looked like this (CS3 is on the pavement at this point!!):

I moved to the snow and ice free dual-carriageway A13 and mixed it with the fast lorries and cars instead.

Should we expect the Cycle Superhighways to be functional after a little snow? Should clearly signed diversionary routes be put in place on main road, maybe with temporary speed restrictions imposed, if they're not meant to be useable? Or should we not find a different way to commute when it's snowed - maybe taking the car?

Vauxhall and its gyratory

There was an impressive turnout at last night's meeting for a prospective Vauxhall BID (Business Improvement District).

The evening was introduced by Val Shawcross, member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark (and Labour London Assembly Spokesperson for Transport and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee)  

The first speakers gave what I found to be a waffly and unfocused presentation on the new campus style American Embassy. I was pleased to see a couple of the new sketches of the Embassy and local streets featured people on bikes, while the first images published of the Embassy and its location showed none.

Key points were that the budget doesn't currently extend to the pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the Thames by the Embassy, and that they expect to break ground in 2013 and move in during 2017.

A better presentation was given by John McNulty, Head of Interchange at TfL. His role is to sort out all those places where tube station meets bus station etc. Nearly everything meets at Vauxhall Gyratory so this is certainly his domain!

He emphasised the need for an emphasis on walking and cycling, noting the poor quality of the environment for both pedestrians and cyclists, the fragmented nature of the area for these groups and the very low pedestrian counts.

Unfortunately for these groups the gyratory is felt to function very well in vehicular traffic terms, so he said that it's unlikely to go.

In addition to some railway station changes, he anticipated changes including

in the short term:
- the offside bus lane to be removed from Vauxhall Bridge and replaced with a nearside bus lane;
- a contra-cycle flow on Harleyford Road (though he forgot to mention that Cycling Superhighway 5 will go via the Oval, through/round the gyratory and over Vauxhall Bridge next year, also no mention of quality cycle parking or Boris Bike extension).

He noted the first stage of work on improving the bus interchange had been done in 2004 and that due to the current financial situation the next stage should not be expected to happen for quite a while.

in the medium term:
- 2 way for buses and cyclists only in Parry Street.

The impact of doing some of the changes is modelled to be a 17 - 35% motor traffic reduction in AM and PM peaks. Given that the gyratory is currently felt to be a success in moving loads of motor traffic around, I doubt that they'll be much enthusiasm by the present Mayor and Government to view that kind of impact as a positive thing to go for.

TfL will start creating a public realm strategy in relation to the Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea Opportunity Area Planning Framework. Aspects include:
a) Improved River Walk
b) Road Enhancements
c) Creating a Linear Park from Lambeth Palace Gardens to Battersea Park  (ongoing to 2026!!)
d) Improved links to the river
e) Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge.

He's looking for a better balance between motor transport and pedestrians, however it's up to the Mayor as to how whether and how much he'll accept the impact of reducing motorised transport.

It seems to me that we appear to be stuck with trying to make Vauxhall really pleasant while it remains a mega traffic gyratory. At least I got a chance to push for the area to become the new Amsterdam and also that there is a local desire to see significant urban realm improvements made.

It's worth noting that the company managing the BID process surveyed 90 local businesses and Congestion/Traffic was felt to be a serious or significant issue for 35%, while the largest single issue was Overall Image - 43%.

Asking what the BID could do for the area, 32% felt measures to support cyclists were important, while the largest single issue was having Street Wardens - 43%.

Local thoughts from the ensuing discussions subsequently included:
- Artistic lighting of arches under railway
- Recognise the river is an asset and make the river road a new Soho (Voho!), moving the A road back from the river;
- connect the station with the rest of the area through building modern elevated walkways (citing the architect Jean Nouvel).

Waterloo cars - happenstance or result?

Well done to all those people who complained to TfL's Taxi and Private Hire office about Waterloo Cars's mini-cabs parked on the yellow line and in the mandatory cycle lane on Cycling Superhighway 7. I haven't been that way for a few days but at 09.45 today it looked like this. Fingers crossed for the future.

TfL meet their Waterloo

We all make cock-ups at some point and some may argue for TfL to be cut a bit of slack for assuming, as we cyclists have, that if it looks like a yellow line and a mandatory cycle lane then that's what it is. A quick slap of blue paint over the top and you've got a whizz-bang Cycling Superhighway.

TfL have just apologetically been on the phone to explain that it turns out to have been a faux green cycle lane outside Waterloo Cars on Southwark Bridge Road, so it's now a faux Superhighway.

You see, wardens can't enforce no parking there because in some way or other the old cycle lane wasn't correctly lined and signed, hence neither is the shiny blue one.

Apparently they've been on the case for a while now and promise it'll be resolved soon....

In the meantime, I can't resist the opportunity to invite you to sing the following, maybe replacing Napoleon with Boris in the lyrics

{Waterloo, Waterloo)
(Where will you meet your Waterloo?)
(Every puppy has its day)
(Everybody has to pay)
(Everybody has to meet his Waterloo}


Little General Napoleon of France
Tried to conquer the world but lost his pants**
Met defeat, known as Bonaparte's retreat
And that's where Napoleon met his Waterloo

WATERLOO
(Marijohn Wilkin / John D. Loudermilk)

Waterloo Cars late morning today

Campaign against Waterloo Cars

As always, flouting the parking and traffic orders - just like yesterday.

I suggest readers write to TfL at the link below stating something along the lines of "Please take away Waterloo Cars' Operators Licence on Southwark Bridge Road for blatant transgression of the yellow line and mandatory cycle lane on a daily basis over several years."

If enough of us write in it may just happen. Here's the complaints site.