Cycle Superhighway

They started painting the cycle superhighway last night on Southwark Bridge road.

I thought I'd post a picture - it seems that the blue paint attracts great big lorries.

Yes, I noticed it poped up over night where it was crossing Grt Suffolk St.

Looks as rubbish as I expected, sadly. The lack of an actual lane makes it pretty useless. Perhaps the ensuing chaos will prompt our next major to do it properly.

Seems to be more use on the already segregated section in E1, where the wobbly surface was always the problem - this blue stuff is nice and smooth for the most part.

Cycle Super Lorry Park

Good photos, they really show the problem.

Further south they had to put in a dividing kerb to stop the buses from parking on it when they turn round at E&C which happened all the time before. Does anyone know whether there were any conditions put on the shop about loading/unloading times? The double yellows seem to say none is permitted at any time but that seems to be ignored.

The excellent bikeshow website lists June's Mayoral questions courtesy of Jenny Jones http://thebikeshow.net/cycling-questions-june/


Spefically this says "Barclays Cycle Superhighways are not due to launch until 19 July and construction is continuing until this time. " so perhaps no enforcement even though this was a proper cycle lane before the blue tarmac?

A few specific extracts from the Mayor's answers here, though nothing on enforcement:

"The development of the Barclays Cycle Superhighways is not a matter of replacing green tarmac with blue tarmac. The pilot routes will deliver 24 miles of new and upgraded cycle lanes, with advanced stop lines at every junction, over 5,000 new cycle parking spaces and 26,000 hours of commuter cycle training."

"More space will be created for cyclists on the roads. The new blue surfacing and bespoke logos will help raise the profile of cyclists with other road users as well as provide a clear “end to end” route, distinguishable from the green London Cycle Network. Only by addressing all the barriers to cycling will we enable more Londoners to cycle to work, bringing about a Cycle Revolution across the capital. "

"When the routes open numerous safety measures will be in place such as advanced stop lines at traffic signals, changes to junction layouts to reduce potential conflict points, and 24 miles of new and upgraded cycle lanes. Working with the boroughs and local businesses, TfL will provide a range of services to support the Barclays Cycle Superhighways - including 26,000 hours of Commuter Cycle Training, which gives new cyclists the skills and confidence they need to navigate London's roads safely."

I cycle past this spot every morning at 8:45 and I often notice a police car or van parked there. Maybe a policeman lives in those blocks and uses the cycle lane as his personal parking space.
It is only a cosmetic change, painting it blue does not make it new. Not real significant change to the existing route so far.

The marking on these new lanes is, I suspect, ambiguous for most, if not all, road users.

IIRC, there are two types of "normal" cycle lanes: the ones which have a broken white line as a border (which, I think, one can drive over in a motor vehicle, if there are no cyclists in it), and the ones bordered by a solid white line (which you can't drive in at any time). I don't know about the rules for parking in a cycle lane (shoot me now), but I suspect that in the absence of a nearby sign I'd look to see what sort of lines there were on the kerb-side of the lane, and act accordingly.

The new, blue, lanes don't appear to have any sort of border to them, and when I crossed Sthk Bridge Rd today and yesterday I couldn't see any sort of guidance as to whether they're "shared" lanes or cycle-only ones. In fact, if I'd not read about them on this site, I wouldn't have a clue what they were.

agree with Ivanhoe, seen them , had no idea what they were for.
see traffic everyday ignoring cycle lanes and driving, in, through and over them
it small wonder we dont read about more accidents happening.

Just had a look at this:

Highway Code 140

Cycle lanes. These are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation. Do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable. You MUST NOT park in any cycle lane whilst waiting restrictions apply.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070308

You are right Ivanhoe, the blue lanes have no border - so where fit we don't know. Maybe a border will be added?

Regardless of the cycle lane, this stretch of road is either double yellow line, or single yellow. The photo's were taken during restricted hours.

You can't see very well from the photo at the top, but the large white van is parked in the box for the bus stop.

The lorry driver in the second photo was sat with his engine running to pretend he had jsut stopped for a moment and wasn't parked up for 30 mins.
This is normally what the lorry drivers do at this section of the road - and they are very loud.

The lorrys that pull up to deliver to the shop have become more considerate recently, and turn off their engines when making deliveries - and they generally don't park at the bus stop.


Certainly part of the problem is that as Southwark Bridge Road is a much quieter road the Borough High Street lorry drivers approach it as a side road where it is ok to pull up, even though the parking restrictions are identical to BHS. Ironically, the fact it is a quieter road is why it, rather than BHS, is on the cycle superhighway.

Yes, the CSH are not legally enforceable, accept where they replace previous separated cycle lanes (Southwark Bridge itself, for example which has excellent curbed lanes).

Sadly it is going to take more accidents before the errors of these half-baked paint jobs are corrected...

jamesup wrote:

Yes, the CSH are not legally enforceable, accept where they replace previous separated cycle lanes

That's crazy. If that's the best London can do, with a "cycle-friendly" mayor, that's very poor, imho.