dumbass LCC bike lane on Stratford High Street

[dellzeqq]

last month's FNRttC safety talk featured 'avoid the stupid bike lane' in Woolwich. Our next ride to Southend, Burnham or Southwold will have a heftier warning along the lines of 'avoid the totally dumbass LCC bike lane on Stratford High Street'.

Yup - they're building this sucker, if only to prove that the LCC really does hold pedestrians in contempt. Never mind the inevitable stopping and starting as the bike lane crosses a dozen side streets, just imagine the delight that Ashok and his mates will experience whizzing around the bus stops scaring the daylights out of people queueing for a bus.

I confess I wasn't the first to spot this horror. We rode along Stratford High Street yesterday and Agent Hilda (as in woman, 53 years old*, not some big macho cyclist) said 'oh-no what the **** is that!' And then we worked out that any cyclist doing the sensible thing and sticking to the carriageway is going to have a cab driver on her or his back wheel giving them sputum-flecked abuse - just like the old days on Chelsea Bridge. Have we really gone back fifteen years in time?

The nub of the matter is this. The LCC doesn't do cities. The slicing and dicing of public space, where people move precisely in accordance with some master plan is actually a kind of Le Notre rus in urbe fantasy. Not nice.

* whoops - now I'm going to have to kill you all

 

[TheDoctor]

Words fail me. That's the daftest bike lane I've seen...well, ever.

 

[theclaud]

Nooooooooooo! Is that for real?

 

[StuAff]

I think the bike lane on Southsea seafront is pretty stupid (narrow, risk of dooring and sucidal peds along the whole length, and I never use it going eastbound as you end up having to cross the road to rejoin the traffic anyway), but that one makes it look almost like a good idea.

 

[dellzeqq]

Nooooooooooo! Is that for real?

it is for real. It is there.

On the plus side there's not very many stretches of road that can accommodate this kind of nonsense. On the minus side it cost two and a half million quid.

 

[StuAff]

On the minus side it cost two and a half million quid.

 

[dellzeqq]

you smile, Stu, but the DfT is putting money in to this as well. It's not just GLA precept payers that are being shafted.

 

[StuAff]

you smile, Stu, but the DfT is putting money in to this as well. It's not just GLA precept payers that are being shafted.

No, that was an eye-roll. And it would probably take the same amount again to put it right...........

 

[dellzeqq]

ah - I didn't see the eyes roll!

and, of course, you are absolutely right. But you might recall that this stretch of road (it's just after the flyover) has already had two complete makeovers in the last three years.

 

[StuAff]

ah - I didn't see the eyes roll!

and, of course, you are absolutely right. But you might recall that this stretch of road (it's just after the flyover) has already had two complete makeovers in the last three years.

Even worse. It's another £2.5m.....

 

[dellzeqq]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEoer6Erh1o

 

[martint235]

There was a thread about this a while ago. Despite the stupidity I was quite cynical at the time and believed that people were daft enough to actually build it. How long till the first li'l ol' lady with her shopping steps off bus straight into the path of a cyclist moving at fair speed.

 

[dellzeqq]

There was a thread about this a while ago. Despite the stupidity I was quite cynical at the time and believed that people were daft enough to actually build it. How long till the first li'l ol' lady with her shopping steps off bus straight into the path of a cyclist moving at fair speed.

and the craziest of many crazy things is that (unless I've misunderstood the TfL video) the cyclist will have the right of way. Who is going to stand there with a stop go board for pedestrians?

 

[david k]

i think the key is the slow sign for cyclists, isnt this safer for the average family cyclist over trying to go round the bus?

 

[dellzeqq]

i think the key is the slow sign for cyclists, isnt this safer for the average family cyclist over trying to go round the bus?

or waiting behind the bus?

Cities are founded on people walking. The LCC simply doesn't get that.