TFL Cycle Superhighways

The blue paint that you see has no status whatsoever--most of what I've seen is something called 'ghost lanes' that don't require a traffic order and have no legal status whatsoever (much as the effect is the same for advisory cycle lanes (dashed lines). Motorists are perfectly entitled to drive in either of them.

these are pilots yeah? so if they fail, let's make a great big fuss and see if we can stop another 100 million quid or more being pissed up (or painted on) our roads. how much would it cost to have secure bike parking in london? at least that would be a tangible gain.

bike lanes and more complex road infrastructure will fail. they point to cable street as an exemplar but the narrow lanes make it one of the most dangerous places I've ever ridden. simpler roads and less HGVs are what it takes to make the whole environment safer. ever-more complex structures, signage, rules does f*ck all.

i think the cable street cycle lane is ok, bumpy as f*ck and you have to watch out for oncoming nodders and cars turning down side streets, but it sure beats trying to cycle the highway. this blue shit is pretty much a disgrace

On the contrary - they'll have the status of "you shouldn't be on the road, stay in your blue lane".

That too. However, to be precise, you're talking about the carriageway, not the road, of which the carriageway is a part (the other part is usually footways). The blue paint is (mostly) in the carriageway. So it's not such a case of 'gerroff the road' but 'get out of the way of car drivers'.

i think the cable street cycle lane is ok, bumpy as f*ck and you have to watch out for oncoming nodders and cars turning down side streets, but it sure beats trying to cycle the highway.
5 major fails of Cable Street:

1. Incredibly narrow. The slightest error/ moment of inattention risks putting you in the path of an oncoming bike, or they into you. people pulling unlikely overtaking moves also add some extra danger to the mix.
   
2. Loads of sideroads mean uncertainty about priority. You have priority when on the road but on the cycle way many cars coming from the side assume they have priority.
   
3. Swapping over the sides of the road, two-thirds of the way through. I mean, wtf?
   
4. Massive drains along the path aligned to eat your wheel.
   
5. Bumpy as fuck, making the road far more pleasant to ride on.
   
   

If I wanted to ride at 5-10mph on a mountain bike then it is OK, as long as I kept my wits about me. But to me that's pootling not cycling. I have to ride 8 miles each way. Fortunately this fail-way is no longer on my route to work. (But it looks as though there's some blue paint heading my way soon.)

Cable Street needs that stupid track ripped out, a proper streetscene restored, and filtered permeability put in, i.e. it needs to be segmented into three to stop the rat-running but still allow bikes through all the way along.

If I wanted to ride at 5-10mph on a mountain bike then it is OK, as long as I kept my wits about me. But to me that's pootling not cycling. I have to ride 8 miles each way. Fortunately this fail-way is no longer on my route to work. (But it looks as though there's some blue paint heading my way soon.)

The best experiment on this type of facility was done by John Forester, who was once invited by an advocate of such a track to ride along it. Forester did, at the speed at which he would normally ride on the street, past concealed entrances, side streets, etc. At the end, the advocate was reportedly white as a sheet.

5 major fails of Cable Street:

1. Incredibly narrow. The slightest error/ moment of inattention risks putting you in the path of an oncoming bike, or they into you. people pulling unlikely overtaking moves also add some extra danger to the mix.
   
2. Loads of sideroads mean uncertainty about priority. You have priority when on the road but on the cycle way many cars coming from the side assume they have priority.
   
3. Swapping over the sides of the road, two-thirds of the way through. I mean, wtf?
   
4. Massive drains along the path aligned to eat your wheel.
   
5. Bumpy as fuck, making the road far more pleasant to ride on.
   
   

If I wanted to ride at 5-10mph on a mountain bike then it is OK, as long as I kept my wits about me. But to me that's pootling not cycling. I have to ride 8 miles each way. Fortunately this fail-way is no longer on my route to work. (But it looks as though there's some blue paint heading my way soon.)

I agree with all that, but if you need to get from the city to E14 it's the least worse option. yeah i have no idea why it swaps sides, then just disappears after cable street studios. It wook me a while to work out that i was supposed to go through that crummy park

i think the cable street cycle lane is ok, bumpy as f*ck and you have to watch out for oncoming nodders and cars turning down side streets, but it sure beats trying to cycle the highway. this blue shit is pretty much a disgrace

You're joking! The amount of ignorance towards the shifting give way lines both from motorists and cyclists is legendary down this way. I think I prefer the road. Even members of public esp children wondering into the cycle lane is truly scary.

Those give-way lines are a disaster, but then, the whole track is.

I agree with all that, but if you need to get from the city to E14 it's the least worse option. yeah i have no idea why it swaps sides, then just disappears after cable street studios. It wook me a while to work out that i was supposed to go through that crummy park

The A13 is much safer imo... it's easier to work out what's happening and peds are less likely to stray in your way as there's cars

When I lived in the Isle of Dogs, I always took The Highway.

The highway is far worse East bound that West bound. In fact, west bound is quite fun cutting between the 2 rows of traffic.

There seem to be a few spots where cars/trucks can get up a lot of speed going east, and there is that horrible section with the concrete wall.

I'm sure that the distinction is uppermost in the minds of your average car driver.

tongueincheeksmilie

It is great fun to explain this sort of thing to people. They tend to wish they hadn't raised the subject. Mind you, this is only rarely possible, e.g. when you're both stopped at traffic lights. I think I've only managed to have a longer conversation two or three times.

When I lived in the Isle of Dogs, I always took The Highway.

did you go through the limehouse link? i did once by mistake............

did you go through the limehouse link? i did once by mistake............

I'm pretty sure I went down there a couple of times--I've never done the whole route out to/from Aspen Way, though, only from Westferry Road. To be honest--I can't remember. It's so long ago that I lived there. Narrow Street is by far the preferable option, anyway.

Most expensive road in Britain per mile. An absolutely stupid waste of money.

From the ES (in article about Muhammad “Haris” Ahmed's who died in an accident with a lorry on 9 March 2010)

*The Mayor has also come under fire for his decision to designate as cycling super-highways roads on which eight cyclists died and 84 were seriously injured in 2008. Green Assembly member *Jenny Jones* said: “Many of us feel a mix of sadness and anger at these latest deaths of cyclists in London.*

This summer the Mayor is encouraging thousands of inexperienced riders to use the cycling super-highways and share the roads with some of the main lorry routes through the capital.

The most obvious action for him is to ban lorries from these cycling commuter routes at peak times. The least he can do is to re-engineer these routes to give cyclists priority.

London's success in halving the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads in the last decade has been based on high levels of investment and tough decisions.

All this is now under threat unless the Mayor restores the budget. The cut in traffic police, cameras and road safety schemes may cost lives."

Choose your costume weapon of choice.

Joeslain can be the one with the stick . Who else are the others? Clefty's got the chef's hat? I'll be sleepy smurf.

baggsie being the one with Butterfly top right, natureboy smurf.

Bottom right FTFW!

you mean doughboy smurf?

When I first heard of these 'superhighways' a couple of years ago, I'm sure all the pictures were like this:
http://www.velo-city.ca/images/velo-city-interior-don.jpg

strickly one- way, looks great. we can dream, life is even better with dreams and magic.

What the fuck? I rode on one of those blue thing, and they're *slipperly** even on the dry.

*a small section of it though.

Bottom right FTFW!

The sleep walking one is third down, second on the left.

They're called Schtroumpf by the way, Smurf is a stupid name.