CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Junction safety call for London cyclists"
(20 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
-
I hope you don't mind a Londoner coming on the EDI board to comment on this. I am in Edinburgh quite a lot these days (4x a year) so hope you'll forgive me...
I'm one of the people behind the Tour Du Danger junction ride tomorrow.
London's cyclists are getting more and more angry with our Mayor. I've posted some relevant links from this week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15664952
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24008684-mass-bike-ride-highlights-londons-deadliest-roads.do
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/11/metropolitan-lines-cyclists-safety-in-londonAs residents of Scotland's capital city, I'd be really interested to know if these levels of frustration are being felt in Edinburgh as well or if it's just down south?
Danny
cyclistsinthecity.blogspot.com
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think there are significant differences between London and Edinburgh - not least the actual numbers of people being killed needlessly.
I watched the Boris Johnson question time thing where he rambled on about grieving for TFL and so on - very very far from impressed. But hey, there's some blue paint going down on the roads so it'll all be fine...
I've only cycled once down in London, very much city based during the day, then a very late night out to the hills, winding up at Alexandra Palace, then down for bagels in Brick Lane at 3am. Loved almost every minute, though I did find myself in a minority stopping for lights... ;)
Frustrations, certainly, most of it at the moment along the lines of not taking cyclists into account with road changes; slightly different to London, a lot of which appears to be wanting changes to current set-ups. Here, with tram works and so on, roads change, but no account at all is taken of cyclists when they do.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Danny, I think you will find similar thoughts here.
Dont want to speak for others, but I am sick of being abused, put in danger, etc by other road users - then taken to task by newspapers etc who presume we all ride with no lights etc.
I can be pretty assertive on the bike, and am frankly also happy to give abuse back if necessary - but a recent story about an edinburgh cyclist chased down and knocked over by a clio driver really shocked me.
Its gone bonkers if people deliberately aim a ton of metal at another person.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"hope you'll forgive me"
Nothing to forgive. We have people from all over.
We just expect you/them to be interesting/entertaining.
I think the 'frustrations' up here are to do with the Council proclaiming it wants a 'World Class Cycling City' and then not doing nearly enough...
This isn't (generally) related to 'safety' in quite the same way as some of the issues in London.
A real problem (not unique to Edinburgh) is driver attitudes - just the fact that you are cycling on the road. Anecdotally this is getting worse. Obviously is a minority of drivers (I hope!)
The Council could do simple things like make sure the ASLs - white lines and red surfacing are in good condition to remind drivers.
I think the Police are getting ready to have an education programme on this - we'll see if it makes any difference.
I'm in London 2 or 3 times a year and generally find it good for cycling.
I was at the Blackfriars demo in July. The Police seemed quite surportive.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Thanks for the feedback. I think many things sound quite similar. Our Mayor proclaims his love of cycling and how much he's supporting. Then does virtually nothing.
We held our 'Tour Du Danger' today and it seems to have hit a real nerve
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15708426I think our challenge now is how the heck we keep this pressure up given we all have day jobs.
The police here have been amazing and given us full support, quietly but tactfully done in fact.
We are planning a major ride in March to the Olympics along the killer mile featured in this BBC clip (the official route for cycling unbelievably)
Shattered today but happy we're starting to get noticed
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
-
"Everywhere you look across London, you see the same theme cropping up again and again, namely that TfL is more concerned about safe and smooth streets for motor vehicles than about safe and smooth streets for pedestrians and cyclists. It is a policy that kills people for reasons that are utterly avoidable."
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/10/tfl-admits-there-is-priority-on-londons.html
I have heard Boris a lot this year talking about 'the importance of traffic flow'.
For someone who actually rides a bike, it's time he 'understood' wider arguments than 'traffic = commerce = good'.
In the week of remembering the people who died in "the war to end all wars" - and all the other ones, it might be a good time to think about some of the "casualties" of the many "accidents" (not just those involving bicycles - or pedestrians) happening on a daily basis around the world.
These weren't people "defending their country" or even "the free world".
Just random accidents in the modern world where freedom is all about the easy movement of wheeled boxes.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
-
I'm angry about the design of Edinburgh's roads and junctions, certainly.
As I've aged (I'm 48 as of last month) I've become less and less excited by the need to cycle like a warrior on our car-dominated roads, doing battle with the traffic every day.
It's not exhilerating any more. I just want a quiet, calm ride to work.
I've also become more and more angry with the state of things here as I've learned more and more about how much better things *could* be, from campaign blogs such as David Hembrow's and the GB Cycling Embassy.
Frankly the combination of the bad cycling conditions and the knowledge of how hugely better it could be has got me sick of the whole thing; I recently stopped cycling. I can't take the anger and the danger any more.
Good luck to you in London. I hope you achieve a lot - not least because I suspect that a successful example from London is (for some reason) worth a thousand of them from the Netherlands.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"I recently stopped cycling."
As a commuter or completely?
Posted 12 years ago # -
"I've learned more and more about how much better things *could* be, from campaign blogs such as David Hembrow's"
http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2011/11/just-in-case-you-think-youre-safe-in.html
Posted 12 years ago # -
A few years ago I heard Jan Gehl retell this story -
“My wife and I, in our early seventies, we did our twenty kilometres through the city, through all of the nice places in the city — on our bikes, in leisurely tempo and a good style, on safe bicycle lanes — and had a wonderful dinner at an outdoor café. Which was one of 7,000 outdoor seats. And all the bicycle lanes and all the outdoor eating has happened while we were married. We could not have done that forty-five years ago.”
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.05-environment-the-new-grand-tour/3
He was in Edinburgh (partly) to (try to) persuade the Scottish Government (and LAs) to be 'more like Copenhagen'.
He did persuade CEC to 'look at' pedestrianising Princes Street, but...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've never cycled in London but my experience of motorcycling was that drivers were generally more tolerant there than in Edinburgh.
My overall experience of cycling in Edinburgh is that I very rarely seem to have any conflicts with other road users. I probably see more bad cycling on an average commute than I do bad driving.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
@christianwolmarMy reasoning behind call for rethink of cycling superhighways
http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2011/11/superhighway-scheme-needs-rethinking
"Extract -
"
I don’t want to turn this into a political debate but Boris does not ‘get’ cycling. He is indeed a cyclist but he does not understand that given the growth in cycling over the past decade or so in London, the streets, especially in the centre, have to start being reorganised around their needs, rather than refusing ever to ‘disrupt the traffic flow’ in order to make life easier for them. Ken did not really ‘get’ cycling either, frankly, but that’s another issue."
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
cyclestreets:National embarrassment: TfL builds cycle lane to Olympics. Two people killed already. Tells cyclists not to use it. http://t.co/lvZwZXE2
Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/cyclestreets/status/136907796980568064
"
Posted 12 years ago # -
Currently on the train back from the big smoke after a trip down for work. As usual I hired a Boris Bike to get back to King's Cross, so came past the junction that was the original subject of this post. The interesting thing was that just before the junction there were three bicycle mounted police supervising the removal of an illegally parked car.
So, to keep traffic flowing you have to use police officers on bikes!
Posted 11 years ago # -
P.S. Still waiting for the delivery of my Brompton, so all I could do was admire everyone else's and (rather fruitlessly, if I'm honest) race them on my Boris bike...
Posted 11 years ago # -
In London this week observed the usual mad cycling through junctions, mad driving and mad pedestrians. But also some very good behaviour from cyclists, which was nice.
Posted 11 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
