please empty your brain below

Just a little more background, there is more to Cable Street than meets the eye. The previous cycle lane was only laid about two years ago, with much digging and shifting over months and months at who knows what cost. Unfortunately, the finished surface was bum-numbingly bad, I wrote to Tower Hamlets suggesting that they shouldn't pay the contractors. Apparently, they ran a roller over it because it improved slightly - not much. It was clearly not good enough because instead of just painting, it has been dug up again and relaid, rather well this time and it is now smooth.

As far as cycle lanes go, these are probably no better and no worse than most of the others - superhighway, it is not as you and many others point out. The benefit of cycle lanes in my view is to provide a quieter, safer alternative to riding on the road (my preference for most of the time) which should encourage new riders to use them.

However, while we live in a motor car society with personal vehicular transport dominating thinking, we are unlikely to get much better. The simple fact that it really doesn't work just doesn't get through people's consciousness. Public transport needs continual long term investment, we are only now beginning to see the benefits of decisions made by Ken, and Boris has pulled the plug on a lot of long term stuff. Ho hum.

I think it's interesting that even as a non-cyclist you can see how patchy this provision is, yet I be there'll be a ton of self-congratulatory coverage on this comparing these to the bike lanes of Amsterdam and Copenhagen with few non-specialist journalists questioning the claims in the press releases. It's a shame it won't tempt you onto a bike though. Think how much more of the city you could cover on two wheels...

"one could easily argue they're an intrusive form of visual pollution which permanently scars this conservation area."

Isn't it amazing that a blue patch on the road is visual pollution, whereas, for instance, the blue Ford Focus in the photo goes unremarked? If anything mucks up conservation areas its the cars of the residents - but they seem somehow blind to them.

A Boris project, with Boris grandstanding, undertaken with the customary Boris attention to detail.

I remember when we had a proper mayor with some affection


Interesting critique, with some good photos illustrating your points. I'm disappointed that you only finished half the route, and did it all on foot. I look forward to your complete review of the CS on a bike and for the full distance.

It's not really a Boris project, like almost all the projects he's opening now, this was being talked about a long way back into Ken's administration. Ludicrous waste of money, if you ask me. All they've done is paint existing cycle lanes with blue paint (paint that happens to be more slippery and harder to stop on). I'm a keen cyclist and the Mayor's office should be focusing on short, local cycle routes which involve small changes to encourage people into cycling, rather those which require than a total lifestyle transformation.

I do cycle and use cycle lanes whenever possible, I like the ones where the cycle track is separated from the road.
What niggles me is that I often see cyclists riding on the busy, dangerous and polluted roads, and ignoring the safe track provided for them.

According to a write up in the BBC magazine http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10648330 the CS7 was chock-block with motor traffic, barring cyclists from even being able to get onto it!

John, the roads are no more dangerous than navigating things like the "Superhighway" and a splash of blue paint does not make you safe.

Most accidents happen in locations where the lanes are either conspicuous by their absence or where following them blindly would increase your vulnerability.

The safest place on a bike varies from place to place and time to time. Sometimes it will be in a bike lane, sometimes it will be riding with traffic. It is NEVER sliding inside lorries or buses. (not suggesting you said anything different)

A "particularly penetrating shade of light blue" which just so happens to be the same colour as the scheme's banking sponsor...

John,

I rarely ride in the cycle lanes for several reasons, including they are often poorly surfaced and uneven; often are located in the gutter so collect glass, gravel, puddles etc and are where manhole covers are frequently positioned; often terminate to give priority to cars at junctions, parking spots etc; where separate from traffic are often used by pedestrians. Riding in the road keeps me more visible to drivers and discourages poor (too close) overtaking, keeps up a good rate of progress and avoids many of the hazards I listed.



Spot on. Everything that existed before that was good is still good, everything that was bad, or that is new, is still bad.

What a way to piss away 22 million pounds...

And to add, the contraflow in Horseferry Road is dreadful if you're heading away from the city as you have to remember *not* to use the cycle lane on the left: I've almost come a cropper there a few times.

The road surface on the western end of Poplar High Street is better than it was though.

cycles are always danger, inside the bus there one hundred people, should the bus go slowly behind this one person? one hundred worth of good are in loories and truck they think should i go slowly behind this one person, its frustrating and irritating , if its crash bus drivers and lorry drivers not gonig to get even a crach but very danger for cyclest











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