please empty your brain below

The cycle track behind the bus stop is the way almost all bus stops are set up in the Netherlands

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2011/10/bus-stops-which-dont-cause-problems-for.html

and there is rarely any conflict between pedestrians and cyclists, although you'd expect that as the dutch are used to it every bus stop!

Pedestrian facilities at Bow remain shocking though, especially when you consider the millions being spent on accessible travel throughout London there remains no way for people to cross here safely.
I have just started cycling from Stratford to Docklands via this roundabout and so your post is very relevant. Thank you! I've submitted some comments to the tfl consultation. Although not relevant here, I think that a some of the pavements along the A12 don't seem to be used much by pedestrians and could easily be converted to combined cycle / pedestrian use. For cyclists. TFL offer cycling courses which are free for up to 5 hours tuition and offer one to one tuition; and we did go through the Bow Roundabout as part of this. My tutor said that the Old St roundabout is particularly bad - any chance of doing anything about this?
Totally agree with Lewis's comment - why are there no pedestrian signals at this roundabout?
I recently went to Amsterdam, and there it's a rare cyclist that would ever stop to let a pedestrian cross. Was often as hard to cross a cycle lane as it was to cross the main road.

Pedestrians there have to have a lot more patience than I have!
There is a "bus stop island" at least one place in london already, going up Royal College Street opposite the veterinary building.
It'd be a lot better to knock the flyover down and then on the western side you could move the road across to the centre and provide more space for cycles and pedestrians and then create a proper gyratory linking the land either side of east side of the Bow roundabout - i.e. as per a hamburger design, with separate cycle lanes.
Knocking the flyover down would be a disaster for traffic - it's already bad enough as it is.

One suggestion that benefits both road and cycle users would be for Stratford-bound buses from Bow (and vice versa) to use the flyovers and skip the bus stops on the slip roads. The 8/108/488 buses would still serve them, and the previous stops on the 25/etc are very close anyway. That way you remove a lot of traffic from the queues and importantly remove a lot of buses pulling in and out of the laybys across the cycle lane.
A local bus passenger says...

The suggestion to divert buses across the flyover is a bad one for non-road users.

The flyover bypasses one bus stop on the westbound, but two bus stops on the eastbound. Take those out and suddenly there's a ten minute walk between bus stops, which is especially poor for those living just to the east of the roundabout.

Being left with only the 8/108/488 is a rubbish choice for those on Stratford High Street trying to travel east/west, who'd get their services almost entirely removed (or vastly reduced in frequency).

And redirecting the 25/276/425/D8 doesn't remove that high a proportion of the traffic.

Wouldn't it be easier just to fix the layout of the lanes at the cycle-unfriendly bus stops?
The flyover is, in reality, actually little used and the eastbound lane reduction scheme installed at the start of the Olympic Park construction (even with the closure of the roads through the Olympic Park at that time) showed that it had little impact. Removing the flyover would allow for a three lane entry from the Bow direction, mitigating the loss of the capacity and at least another 3m width for a cycle/pedestrian scheme improvement. It would also allow for pedestrian crossings to be provided on the straight through desire lines along the A118/A13.
Would everyone please stop cacking their pants about supposed cyclist and pedestrian conflict if you put a cycle lane BEHIND bus stop. This is rubbish. As someone's already said, this kind of design is STANDARD in Holland and they don't have any problems.

Also, the more confident, agressive cyclists will clearly stay on the road anyway, preferring to mix with the traffic, while the slower more vulnerable cyclists will use the by-pass, meaning that pedestrians won't come into conflict with 'lycra louts' anyway; and all the vulnerable cyclists will be a whole lot safer....
No matter what rushed changes have been made at this roundabout pre the olympics kick off, the cyclists DO NOT stop at the lights and continute to dice with death by cycling along side HGV's, not stopping at the red light etc etc etc, the list is endless. I am considering going and standing on the corner and handing out donor cards as it wont be long before another cyclist will have the oppotunity to donate!










TridentScan | Privacy Policy