HGV Posters In London

[slowmotion]

Western avenue is fine, traffic keeps moving until just before the big roundabout, so not good for a filtering contest

The A4 from Chiswick is good in rush hour, but careful on the hammersmith flyover, there's a big gap you have to bunnyhop over, but then the run past North End Road to the Earl's Court bit is great fun

Respect. You are braver than me!

 

[zimzum42]

Thanks!

It's all about going as fast as possible, holding your line, and not flinching when WVM is right on your wheel!

 

[Black Sheep]

You NEED to filter in London - if you didn't you would take forever to get to work. There's no way I'm sitting in the traffic like a numpty

Answer is simple though, just filter on the outside...

Fair enough,

I can filter, I just don't normally.

if traffic is at a standstill in a long queue I may filter but not right to the front.

 

[jimboalee]

Back to the truck poster.

"The corridor of doom". Woooooo.

 

[Dan B]

Having sat in the cab of the one at the bike show: yes, absolutely. If you're anywhere in a green-coloured (or on a superhypeway, blue-coloured) part of the road, the driver probably can't see you. Not only is the cab quite a long way off the ground, but the driver's not exactly sitting at the front and leaning forwards either.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

You NEED to filter in London - if you didn't you would take forever to get to work. There's no way I'm sitting in the traffic like a numpty

Answer is simple though, just filter on the outside...

...and if it looks like the traffic is going to start crawling forward, stand up on the pedals with arms straight for the tallest effect

 

[dondare]

I was in London visiting family this weekend, and saw this poster an awful lot:

I have to say, if HGVs really can't see that much around them, what the f*** are we doing letting them drive around our inner cities?

Why the hell are TFL deciding how dangerous these vehicles are, and instead of either demaning they do something about the amount of blind spots around their vehicles, or just keeping these things out of built up urban areas, they put a load of posters up telling cyclists to be careful around them, thus passing on the responsibility to the potential victims?

It's like putting posters up aimed at young women saying "don't wear that little skirt, there are loads of rapists about" or something.

FFS.

I agree. HGVs make up abot 3% of traffic and are involved in 30% of serious accidents of every kind, not just those involving cyclists. They're as bad on motorways as they are in towns. As well as killing cyclists and motorists they smash down pedestrian barriers, demolish small traffic islands and dislodge kerb stones. The driver can neither see where his wheels are nor predict where they are going to go. He doesn't know when he's hit anything smaller than another lorry.
Lorries are destructive and lethal and blaming cyclists for being in the wrong place does not change this.

 

[slowmotion]

I think that HGVs are on urban roads so that all us rabid consumers can buy our "stuff". Tesco, Primark, even Evans Cycles. Get the picture? No sensible fleet manager would dream of sending HGVs into cities as some kind of "rat-run".

 

[jimboalee]

There was hideous traffic last night. There must have been an incident on the M40??

I was sorely temped to enter the 'Corridor of doom' down the inside of a box truck,,, NOOO!

 

[4F]

I agree. HGVs make up abot 3% of traffic and are involved in 30% of serious accidents of every kind, not just those involving cyclists. They're as bad on motorways as they are in towns. As well as killing cyclists and motorists they smash down pedestrian barriers, demolish small traffic islands and dislodge kerb stones. The driver can neither see where his wheels are nor predict where they are going to go. He doesn't know when he's hit anything smaller than another lorry.
Lorries are destructive and lethal and blaming cyclists for being in the wrong place does not change this.

I am sorry but that is the biggest load of twaddle I have read on a here for a long time and not suprising it comes from the resident Cyclechat HGV hater.

Would you rather each HGV was replaced by 20 transit vans instead ? What would that do for the pollution and congestion levels ?

The majority of HGV's are well driven by highly trained drivers but as with all modes of transport there will always be a few idiots who don't deserve to be on the road. Of course idiot lemming cyclists who undertake HGV's / Buses on the approach to a junctions can be included here as well.

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

Interesting analysis on this subject here.

I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but this

My hypothesis would be that, by initially reducing the journey times through central London, the congestion charge had the counter-intuitive effect of making it cheaper and more attractive for businesses and organisations to drive ever more goods through town. Transport infrastructure projects have shown again and again that in highly and densely populated places like England, there is always far more latent demand for transport infrastructure than can ever be provided. Create vacant capacity and within a decade or so, people will have found a way to use that capacity.

seems intuitively plausible in explaining the rise in heavy goods traffic in central London.

 

[Jezston]

For the record I'm not decidedly pro or anti HGVs in city centers, I interact with HGVs a great deal on the section of my commute that takes me on the A52 (although that's not a city center!) but that poster annoyed me as what seemed like another example of making cyclists take responsibility for other peoples bad driving like when cyclists get criticised for not wearing helmets and hi-vis after being killed on the road by a driver that wasn't looking.

But I think this is a subject worthy of debate.

Dondare's argument were clearly passionate and while I'm not sure I agree with it I wouldn't dismiss it as a big load of twaddle. It's food for thought.

Do we really NEED to have HGVs in our inner cities? Did I not hear earlier that there are cities that DON'T have HGVs driving about them, or at least the times they are allowed to drive around them are restricted, like Paris?

If HGVs are responsible (rather than just 'involved') in 30% of deaths on the road despite being only 3% of the vehicles, is not something worthy of debate?

 

[Smiler100]

At the London Bike Show at Earl's Court they had the police doing the demo - they actually got you in to the cabin of the truck and until that point I really didn't know how little trucks drivers can actually see. They can barely see anyting, far less than I ever thought. I now stay well clear of HGVs!!

 

[jimboalee]

I think the poster could have been a bit stronger.

There could have been a hearse parked on the main road with the undertaker ( pun intended ) rubbing his hands together.

 

[As Easy As Riding A Bike]

HGV mirrors like this

don't help much. That's quite a "blind spot" he's got there.

From here.