please empty your brain below
The pernicious rise in the number of pavement blocking adverts (2nd pic), coupled with big road signs will end up distracting the HGV drivers even more.
The irony is that that advert is precisely where a protected cycle path could be - an irony probably not lost on the road lobby, in whose pocket TfL clearly are.
I've worked in and with the rail industry and they can be meticulous to a point of budgetary insoucience, when it comes to the deal on signal sighting - whilst equally blind to crass failings that have caused crashes (SN109 and Ladbroke Grove).
The poster panel - which earns the site owner around £1000/year does 2 dangerous things which traffic signs (Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directives) and vehicle design standards act to eliminate. the bulk of the sign is lower than the minimum height for placing signs above road level - and thus obscures pedestrians and cyclists in its shadow, especially for raised driving positions such as those in HGV's. It would not be permitted in this location and size if it was a road sign because of the masking effect on the road ahead.
Illuminated signs also have a major impact, in the fact that they 'overpower' the presence of other road signs and features, means that the use of overpowering illumination on vehicles and railway property is generally restrained or even blocked yet this sign at night will provide an even stronger focus away from the likely position of a cyclist on the carriageway. A night time view and a view from a high driving position would probably emphasise the flaws in the road layout pretty effectively.
Oh Lord!
How about a series of local radio ads to educate drivers? We've been having terrible problems with people being killed by commuter rail trains (almost one a month for the last 6 months or so!) and recently I've heard several ads reminding people (drivers and pedestrians) how to act at railroad crossings. You'd think it was obvious, but it patently isn't to some people! Perhaps a general "look out for cyclists" message could go out across London several times an hour?
We don't have the roadside hoardings issue that plagues the US as the Highways Agency won't have 'advertising' blatantly placed on trunk roads and as a result you'll see vehicles which are unlikely to be capable of moving under their own power carrying slogans in adjoining fields (as a vehicle they are technically not a fixed hoarding). It happens with cycle parking stands as well (with a notable protest about this in Bath).
BUT for this sort of poster site the local authority a) agrees a general approval for a number of installations without detailed plans b) is often also the roads authority and c) gains revenue from every additional poster site. Hus the safeguards for avoiding pposter placement that masks sightlines and distracts drivers are effectively dropped.
If that sign can be shown as a causal factor in a cyclist not being seen by a truck driver then a case for its removal could be made very strongly, and the failings of the roads authority and planning authority in permitting its erection are exposed.
The cyclist used the pedestrian crossing to cross the road, at red light, and he didn't even look around!!
He was lucky to be in a 20 mph zone and that the taxi was not a double decker.
I know how vulnerable cyclists are to lorries and buses, but seriously, some even fatal accidents could be avoided just by using common sense and not making 3 stupid mistakes at the same time.
Diagram 950 with information plate (distance to where cycle route joins carriageway) Diagram 572 is relevant, and a correct sign for this situation
At the pinch point both cyclists and drivers would be warned by a general alert - which would probably be Diagram 562 with descriptive plate 563 and appropriate wording "Hazard from left turning HGV's" or similar.
Check out TSRGD Chapter 4 for details. It also advises on Mounting heights - 2.3 m above a footway.
http://blastedheath.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/bow-flyover.html
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