please empty your brain below
Dad left that job probably about 15 years ago now, and his current job is a thre minute walk from his house. We've spoken several times about traffic conditions now, and he says that he now wouldn't even think about cycling that same old journey again. As a relatively cautious and, I hope, careful driver, I feel that driving standards have declined over the last few years. Other drivers wil think nothing of tail-gating and aggressively overtaking me, and then cutting me up. People are driving far too fast, and agression is becoming much more common place.
I occasionally have cause to encounter horses whilst driving, and the reaction of other drivers as I slow right down, wait for the road to widen out and/or be clear and then overtake the horse, very slowly and as far away from them as possible is astounding. There are some drivers who just seem to think that they have a right to drive as fast as possible, without slowing down or stopping for anything or anyone, and hang the consequences.
I'm also fat, and well meaning friends who live a distance away (and generally in quiet areas) keep on saying I should cycle to work. I point out I'd probably be dead before I'd done the five miles that would take me to the segregated cycle path running alongside the dual carriageway which runs most of the way to my work. They just don't seem to understand how dangerous cycling is in busy, congested cities is becoming, as people in big protective metal boxes get more and more angry about being delayed for even half a second.
I don't know what can be done about the cycle superhighway, and not living in London now, I've never seen one, but I hope that somebody sits down and actually *does* something, rather than making glib comments about "lessons being learned". If "they" can't get it right in the capital, there is little hope for the rest of the country.
Boris's cure is to educate cyclists and HGV drivers about the dangers, whilst the civilised nations of Europe realised that to prevent needless deaths your infrastructure design must take account of the fact that lorries and cyclists should not mix.
Most London cyclist deaths occur when an HGV is turning left and the cyclist gets trapped between the front and back wheels. All that is required to design out this danger is a little island, as highlighted by David Hembrow. This would not take any space away from the road but remove a section of pavement that is too dangerous to stand on at the moment. But all we hear is that there simply isn't the space for such infrastructure.
And its not just cyclists who are at increased risk as a result of smoothing traffic flow. It may also have killed a pedestrian. The insidious appearance of pedestrian count down clocks masks a reduction in the amount of time given to cross. As Private Eye highlighted, the reason this same driver was still on the road can be directly attributable to smoothing traffic flow.
Boris you are meant to be gluing air pollution to the roads, not people.
One thing which I absolutely won't be doing, however, is going anywhere near CS2. I don't have a death wish. I'll be taking my BB back down Wellington Way, along Hamlets Way, then through the quiet streets behind Mile End station before nipping across Mile End Park and picking up the towpath along Regent's Canal. Then onto the other CS at Limehouse and a nice safe, segregated cycle into Tower Hill. I can't wait.
Cycle Superhighways are such a fab idea, but need to be done properly and fully. Well done Diamond Geezer for keeping this topic live.
Those poor cyclists :-(
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