Boris's cycle superhighway

[fatchap]

And all the other ill conceived plans to try and turn London the 5th most congested city in the world into Cambridge.

 

Boris and his think tank have not thought this through. I have been looking at the 7 years of proposed road chaos he plans for london and its shocking. Its all about making life easier for the cyclist.

 

I deliver in SW London everyday and have to use the A13, Limehouse link, highway and embankment to get in. I leave the yard in Romford at 7am everyday and arrive at my first call John Islip street in SW1 at around 10am, thats 3 hours to do 19 miles. You can get from Romford to Coventry quicker.

 

Work has started on his treasured EAST-WEST cycle route and its causing gridlock. His plan is two lanes for cars into London and just one out. Absolute stupidity!!!!! I have looked at the plans and there is no contingency for vehicle breakdowns or accidents.

 

Have a google for "cycle superhighway" and read about it,

 

I have read on here that a fair few of you are keen cyclist, so I would like to make it clear I have nothing against cyclist at all its just I feel london is no place for bikes.

 

Instead of blowing 7 billion on this scheme, some basic training for people who insist on riding a bike round our capitol would have been a lot cheaper most people I see on bikes running red lights and failing to stop at a crossing, I wonder if they will make it their intended destination or St Thomas's hospital or the morgue.

[tx4cabbie]

I drive a black cab round London at night, partly because the daytime people are too serious and no fun, but also because the traffic during the day is murderous, and the cyclists are apparently an absolute nightmare - as op,I've nothing against cycling and cyclists, but some are clearly tired of life. I often, at night, see a darkly dressed cyclist, on a dark bike, with earphones in,and no lights, storm through a red light, across a busy junction, not all do this but certainly enough for it to be a common thing

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Dangerous cyclists are the "new" donors!

[rodp]

And all the other ill conceived plans to try and turn London the 5th most congested city in the world into Cambridge.

 

Boris and his think tank have not thought this through. I have been looking at the 7 years of proposed road chaos he plans for london and its shocking. Its all about making life easier for the cyclist.

 

I deliver in SW London everyday and have to use the A13, Limehouse link, highway and embankment to get in. I leave the yard in Romford at 7am everyday and arrive at my first call John Islip street in SW1 at around 10am, thats 3 hours to do 19 miles. You can get from Romford to Coventry quicker.

 

Work has started on his treasured EAST-WEST cycle route and its causing gridlock. His plan is two lanes for cars into London and just one out. Absolute stupidity!!!!! I have looked at the plans and there is no contingency for vehicle breakdowns or accidents.

 

Have a google for "cycle superhighway" and read about it,

 

I have read on here that a fair few of you are keen cyclist, so I would like to make it clear I have nothing against cyclist at all its just I feel london is no place for bikes.

 

Instead of blowing 7 billion on this scheme, some basic training for people who insist on riding a bike round our capitol would have been a lot cheaper most people I see on bikes running red lights and failing to stop at a crossing, I wonder if they will make it their intended destination or St Thomas's hospital or the morgue.

REALLY !!! I'm so glad I hate London with a passion and never go there. We even turn any job inside the M25 down unless they come to us.

[Penelope]

As a cyclist myself, I do wonder at the antics of a lot I see riding around London.

[keg]

I live in Leeds and we have had the same problem with bus and cycle lanes for years.

 

People say traffic is getting more congested in Leeds but what we have done as a city is narrowed every single main road into the centre by adding bus and cycle lanes but not increasing capacity anywhere else.

[nobbyathome]

I am not anti cyclists and work for a courier company in central London that has about 30 pushbike riders on our fleet but the things that pushbikes get away with down here is unbelievable if they had numberplates on them so the cameras could catch them it would be different boris has gone to far to help them own the London streets my belief is everyone of them should be insured to use our roads and be accountable for the way they break the driving laws

 

[Fisherman Mike]

Bring back Trams

[kdubya]

Might just help stop a little of the carnage inflicted every year on cyclists, by inconsiderate, impatient and downright careless drivers, just how many cyclists have died in London so far this year? thanks to drivers who simply drove over them whilst turning left.

 

KW

[keg]

Agree up to a point KW but there are cyclists out there who put their own life in danger.

[tx4cabbie]

See your point kW, but similarly, if you're cycling up to a junction and the vehicle in front is indicating left, a sensible road user waits til they've turned before hooning up the inside - this however seems to be outdated thinking in town - lost count of the amount of bikes which ignore turn signals, then wonder why they nearly get squished when the car/lorry does what it said it would.

Had a brief chat with one lad, who gave the standard "don't want to slow down cos it's a pain getting up to speed again ", had to ask what was so much more important about his journey than everyone else's, and more important than his safety. He thought I was getting nasty, and gave me a mouthful of invective, to which I replied no, I wasn't getting in his face, but he was a young man, about 20 ish, good looking boy,good shape, probably gets plenty. He smiled and said yes, he does ok. OK say I, so as a sack of blood with no security apart from half a pound of foam helmet, how much action you going to get when your mum has to wipe your rear cos you've got brain damage too severe to do it yourself?

I'm a big lad, about 3feet wide with bike jacket and fluorescent vest on, and sat on a brightly painted ped, with headlights on, I'm invisible. How are people supposed to see a skinny little chap, with no lights on, weaving in and out of moving traffic, unless you help them? Sort of stunned him a bit, but we parted friends.

Edited May 15, 2015 by tx4cabbie

[JimLondon]

I too drive around London a lot and I'm amazed more cyclists aren't injury or killed,they really do take unnecessary risks. And I got into an exchange of words with the all in black rider tx4 refered to, he was quite upset I'd pulled out on him one night. He got even more hissed off when I asked him if he was delivery boxes of "milk tray"

 

My personal gripe about driving in London is the Anderson Lee mini cab firm but that's another topic for another day.

 

Jim

[keg]

It's when you have a cyclist coming up the inside and the outside of you in traffic, what the hell am i supposed to do?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I am not anti cyclists and work for a courier company in central London that has about 30 pushbike riders on our fleet but the things that pushbikes get away with down here is unbelievable if they had numberplates on them so the cameras could catch them it would be different boris has gone to far to help them own the London streets my belief is everyone of them should be insured to use our roads and be accountable for the way they break the driving laws

 

 

Amen to that!

[LondonLuke]

Where to even begin, as someone who drives a van around central London every day and as someone who has a team that does the same, all I can say is that they are the most reliable gripe with every one of us.

[kdubya]

watch the vid and tell me if lorries are safe in inner city streets?

 

KW

 

http://www.lbc.co.uk/watch-shocking-video-shows-hgvs-cyclist-blind-spot-81671

[fern01]

Where I live the cyclists have taken over the footpaths to such an extent that I almost cheer when I see one actually on the road in the marked cycle lanes.

 

They have no consideration for pedestrians at all.

[Vince Green]

Cheaper to ban bikes from the streets of London, there, fixed it! Next problem please?

 

How difficult was that?

[pimpkiller]

Why on earth do bikes undertake on the left? I know thats ok for them to do but its so stupid why not on the right?

[rodp]

watch the vid and tell me if lorries are safe in inner city streets?

 

KW

 

http://www.lbc.co.uk/watch-shocking-video-shows-hgvs-cyclist-blind-spot-81671

So what's the problem in the vid ? I can see about 12 cyclists that have obviously ridden up the inside of a truck CLEARLY indicating left, if they want to top themselves so be it.

There's no way the truck would have come up on the outside of the cyclists then turn left over them, and to think it would is just being plain stupid.

The sooner all vehicles have camera's the better, that will put a stop to this culture of cyclists always being innocent.

 

Trucks are BIG, they need room, so give it to them. Remember the bike you ride came on a truck, there wasn't a nice little Chinaman riding it all the way from the factory to you.

[LondonLuke]

watch the vid and tell me if lorries are safe in inner city streets?

 

KW

 

http://www.lbc.co.uk/watch-shocking-video-shows-hgvs-cyclist-blind-spot-81671

 

Classic LBC, always wanting to wind people up.

 

Lets be honest, the only way the truck could have got into that position would have been from it being parallel with the cyclists initially at which point he would have seen them.

[kdubya]

 

Classic LBC, always wanting to wind people up.

 

Lets be honest, the only way the truck could have got into that position would have been from it being parallel with the cyclists initially at which point he would have seen them.

plenty in fact MANY have been killed when a lorry has set off and just simply ran over a cyclist IN FRONT of them, or turned left when overtaking a cyclist, and putting the back wheels over them, still only cyclists eh!

 

KW

[rodp]

plenty in fact MANY have been killed when a lorry has set off and just simply ran over a cyclist IN FRONT of them, or turned left when overtaking a cyclist, and putting the back wheels over them, still only cyclists eh!

 

KW

So you're saying a truck pulls up behind a cyclist then sets off and drives over them ? Are you REALLY saying that ? You also say a truck overtakes a cyclist then turns left and drives over him ?

 

Or have you forgotten to say the cyclist put himself out of sight in front of the truck ? And in the case of the left turn perhaps the cyclist put himself in a dangerous situation ?

 

Trucks are big, they need room. I don't really care that cyclists seem to think they have a God given right to rule the road and everyone else must operate around them. If that's the way they want to think then go argue with 44 tons of steel and rubber, that soon sorts out the clever ones from the di** heads.

I know they get right up my nose by sneaking up the inside and blocking my way across the lights. I drive 15 feet and then need to overtake the arrogant wassock that couldn't wait in the queue with everyone else.

[kdubya]

So you're saying a truck pulls up behind a cyclist then sets off and drives over them ? Are you REALLY saying that ? You also say a truck overtakes a cyclist then turns left and drives over him ?

 

Or have you forgotten to say the cyclist put himself out of sight in front of the truck ? And in the case of the left turn perhaps the cyclist put himself in a dangerous situation ?

 

Trucks are big, they need room. I don't really care that cyclists seem to think they have a God given right to rule the road and everyone else must operate around them. If that's the way they want to think then go argue with 44 tons of steel and rubber, that soon sorts out the clever ones from the di** heads.

I know they get right up my nose by sneaking up the inside and blocking my way across the lights. I drive 15 feet and then need to overtake the arrogant wassock that couldn't wait in the queue with everyone else.

 

I know one cyclist who was stood waiting, a lorry pulled up behind him them when the lights changed he set off forgetting (as he could not now see him) he was there.

 

https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/cyclist-fatalities-due-to-left-turning-lorries/

[rodp]

 

I know one cyclist who was stood waiting, a lorry pulled up behind him them when the lights changed he set off forgetting (as he could not now see him) he was there.

 

https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/cyclist-fatalities-due-to-left-turning-lorries/

That's one accident out of how many ? Yes it's one too many but there's no way of stopping genuine accidents.

 

Regarding the left turn, this is an extract from the article you linked. It seems to back up what I said about cyclists putting themselves in danger. It's as if cyclists just assume they can do what they want and other road users will allow for them ! This isn't going to happen, ever, no matter how much you legislate. Cyclists must be made aware they have to comply with both road regulations AND COMMON SENSE, neither of which they seem to have at the moment.

 

But carry on regardless for all I care, 44 tons WILL sting.

 

A problem is that the current layout of cycle lanes and ASLs (Advance Stop Lines) actively encourage cyclists to put themselves in the most dangerous positions possible around unsighted HGV drivers