please empty your brain below

One of the major problems with the advanced stop is that a great deal of vehicle drivers ignore it completly and just stop within it anyway, also a simple bike lane painted on the very wide sections of footway along Bow Road would have been much more effective, I go to Berlin a lot and it works very well, but the only difference is that in Berlin people actually have a great deal more respect for other road users, ie an ordinary driver would never park on a Bus stop, and virtually all pedestrians wait very patiently for the green man to appear before crossing at the lights.

My wife is petrified that we will get a £1,000 fine if we end up stuck in one of these boxes (does anyone know if this is the correct level?), however, it is not illegal under the following circumstances:

"The Highway Code

To clarify the current legal position, the current Highway Code says the following (Clause 178): 2

Advanced stop lines. Some signal controlled junctions have advanced stop lines to allow cycles to be positioned ahead of other traffic. Motorists, including motorcyclists, MUST stop at the first white line reached if the lights are amber or red and should avoid blocking the way or encroaching on the marked area at other times, e.g. if the junction ahead is blocked. If your vehicle has proceeded over the first white line at the time that the signal goes red, you MUST stop at the second white line, even if your vehicle is in the marked area. Allow cyclists time and space to move off when the green signal shows.

[Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10, 36(1) & 43(2)]


Clearly any motorists who have crossed the first stop line at green, and then face an amber or red traffic light before they have crossed the second stop line are required to stop in the Advanced Stop Area, and therefore they may end up stopped within that area and hence might be seen as “infringing” on the space reserved for cyclists. But that is not illegal."

http://www.freedomfordrivers.org/ASL_Consultation.pdf [extract from]

For your next foreign trip, try the Netherlands & its real cycling superhighways ... who knows, they may even convert you to two wheels!

Have you let your assembly member, the mayor, your local councillors and TFL know?

They need to understand that because of the road-design most people think that it is just too dangerous to cycle, so they choose not to. Superhighway or not.

@Disgruntled Here's an example of a Dutch Cycle Superhighway at a roundabout that's a very common sight in the Netherlands: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fietsberaad/3863760917/

I agree with your conclusion about hte effectiveness of CS2 (and a load of others) but disagree wholeheartedly with the idea that just because you share a lane with frightening cars and lorries you are going to DIE.

Truth is that cycling is a reasonably safe activity, and the ability to keep yourself safe does not rest with some external authority painting lines on a road, but in how you ride your bike. For those cautious about taking to the road, TfL in conjunction with local authority provides free adult roadcraft cycle training (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11689.aspx) which will do far more for confidence and safety than any line on the road.

However, if the prominence of blue paint encourages people onto cycles (not to mention traffic, fuel and public transport prices) then the roads will be safer for all.

I ride my bike from East to West London most days, I've been cycle commuting for 30 odd years and I am still here to tell the tale.

I didn't look at all of Dutchman's 2000-odd pictures but, from what I saw, it's clear that Boris needs to take on an office-load of recycled Dutch engineers. Then, as we can see in these pictures, London would have (i) very little traffic; (ii) no lorries; (iii) millions of bike-riders; (iv) lots of empty red (or blue) tarmac; (v) loads of snaking cycle-paths across rivers and motorways, forests and marshland. It won't work, though, as British road planners and British road users cannot, will not, obey any sensible rules. That's the major difference. So we'll just muddle on indifferently and squash each other a bit, with the few thinkers, like Ham, surviving through it all.

One other gripe (though generally happy about the CS2, definitely an improvement of what was there before) are the drains/sewers on the westbound lane under the bridge between Bow Church and Bow Road stations. There's three of them, evenly spaced, and all three about an inch and a half below the road surface, so unless you want to come off your bike head first when travelling at speed, no choice but to swerve into tha main lane.

Nice post - and all the more objective as you say you're not a cyclist.
I've had some near-misses at a junction on CS3 in Limehouse, so I emailed my constructive comments on the bad design of this route to John Biggs MLA - I'm not party-affiliated, but I know he's local. I have to say he's passed on my comments to TfL and kept me updated as they've responded. TfL haven't swooped in and redesigned the junction, but I did feel that my comments aren't just ending up in a black hole under City Hall.
cheers
Mark

As a londoner living in holland who is a keen cyclist but also drives to work every day, I can see that cycle lanes are great and perfect for cyclists but mean it takes an absolute age to drive anywhere.

Cyclists have their own sets of lights at all crossings which take priority over cars.

At roundabouts, rare in holland but common in London, the cyclists has priority over a car already on the roundabout which is great for the cyclist as they never have to stop but leaves cars stuck in the middle of the roundabout. I once counted 24 bicycles go past before I could even check to see if a car was coming. It was and by the time it went past more cyclists were approaching.

On a main road the bike has a separate lane which is great but probably not always practical in London.

Holland does have shared lanes with cars, there is always plenty of space and drivers have been educated for years about the do's and do not's of using them. will take Londoners a while to get the hang of these lanes and a few fines as well.

My view is the London ones are forced and ill considered in places which means cars will ignore them but if you do cycle it will be a far more relaxing journey as there will be less stoppages.

I use a bicycle for local journeys.
I always obey the rules, and do not cycle on the pavement, obey traffic signals etc.
I see many cyclists riding on pavements.
In some cased where there is a wide pavement which is hardly used by pedestrians I think the councils should put up one of those blue cycling and pedestrian sharing signs.
Then I often see cyclists riding in the road even when a separate cycling track is provided.
The A316 and the A4 in West London have separated cycle tracks yet most cyclist risk the road.
Go to Richmond park, there is a cycle track seperate from the road for most of the park.
Yet you will see cyclist using the parks narrow roads. Why they do so I do not know, they get the car fumes in their lungs, they risk get knocked down and they hold up the traffic.
Maybe we should start fining cyclists who use the road when separate cycling track has been provided.

Electric powered bikes....hmmm ah, ooo err.

"a simple bike lane painted on the very wide sections of footway along Bow Road would have been much more effective". Yes, it would have been. Or, as also noted above, why don't they sign the (very, very, very) wide footpath as shared between pedestrians and bikes.

When I cycle home from Bow Road station, I have to turn left down Wellington Way. This turning is about 100 feet from the cycle racks. My legal options are to a) walk my bike along the pavement to WW, or b) cycle along Bow Road for fifteen seconds. Both of which make me cranky.

I completely fail to see why the footpath can't be signposted as shared, as it's completely impractical and dangerous to start cycling along the road from that point, and it seems a ridiculous waste of time to have to walk my bike. Especially as I get home late in the evening when a) the footpath is practically deserted and b) I would therefore like to be moving faster so that I can avoid the type of people who tend to be around at that time of night (i.e. the people who tried to mug me last week).

TL;DR Nice try, Boris. But put a bit of thought into it next time.


I could not believe it, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fietsberaad/3863760917/ the photo was taken in not a kilometer from my house.
Of course to put things in perspective, here in the Netherlands we have 16,000,000 people and 18,000,000 bicycles. Everybody here rides a bicycle, that's why we have more than 25,000 kms of bicycle paths.

That sure is a funny-looking van in the second photo...

@swirlythingy: if you mean the third picture (at the flyover) the caption says it's a bus blocking the ASL, but it looks like a van to me (Belgian plates). It looks a bit odd because of the bus reflected in its back window.

dg writes: captions for bus and van are now unmuddled, thanks. And yes, Belgian plates.

I am pipped off with this not so super highway already. As locals we have had to endure weeks and weeks of roadworks, 1 lane contraflows, resurfacing, overnight road closures, the list is endless!

I live just off Kitcat Terrace where they propose to place 37, I stand corrected today by the letter recieved from THC, I mean 27 docking stations to saturate the local area in time for the Olympics. Oh joy! bring on and add too the loitering, littering & ASB!

There will be more people who haven't ridden in 20 years and with no idea that the highway code exists wobbling about on Bow Road, zig zagging in and out of bus lanes and generally being a pain.

This 'super highway' needs a drastic change and THC needs a kick up the rear!











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