Here's one for your lefty wets - Jeremy Clarkson on Cycle Lanes in Holland Park Ave

RandallFlagg

Legionreturns

Trying so hard to be relevant but failing. 

TheMarlin

He’s right!

bluechargeboy

Stuck in the past. Now let's go back to talking about 1954 Strats.

Emp_Fab

What a complete cock that man is.  All he knows is how to moan about everything he finds personally inconvenient and usually blames the political left for it.

Clarkson isn't much better either.

p90fool

The fantastic thing about a Clarkson video on cycling is that there's no need to actually watch it. 

crunchman

He's talking rubbish in a lot of it.   Most of the trees that are going are not the mature trees on Holland Park Avenue, but are mainly young fir trees on the central reservation at Notting Hill Gate.  I think there are two plane trees that are planned to go at a junction.  Holland Park Ave wouldn't lose its appearance.

What he was saying about the cycle lane in Hyde Park was ridiculous as well.  I used to use the one that runs parallel to get to work.  It was a total nightmare.  Far too  narrow, and pedestrians in it all the time.  With increase in cycling in London, it just didn't have enough capacity.

It's also interesting what he's not saying.   The alternative route suggested by Kensington and Chelsea council is an utter joke.

I have mixed feelings on bike lanes.  The one on the Embankment is done well, but London's Roads are too narrow for bike lanes everywhere.  People are going to have to get used to cycling on roads.  The big problem is driver behaviour.  They pass far too close, and cut you up.  Some are just outright aggressive towards cyclists.  In the short term, they need to go after bad drivers.  That would make far more difference.  Put plain clothes plods on bikes with cameras.  They would pay for themselves many times over just from the fines for people using mobile phones.

The other thing with these segregated lanes is value for money.  Cycling along a straight road is very safe.  The problems are at junctions.  They could spend their money redesigning junctions and get a much bigger improvement in safety.

The other problem is that the groups like the London Cycling Campaign really aren't helping matters a lot of the time.  They are in the press bleating on about how dangerous the roads are, and saying how we need segregated lanes, and they put people off cycling.  That actually makes it less safe.  The more cyclists you have, the safer it gets because it changes driver behaviour.  As it is, cycling is actually pretty safe.  Per mile travelled, you are more likely to be killed as a pedestrian than as a cyclist - google it if you don't believe it.  That's a national figure.  It's safer still in London.

When driverless cars come along, the roads will change massively.  They will respect cyclists, and the aggressive behaviour of drivers will be a thing of the past.  I'm not sure of the wisdom of starting projects now that will be rendered redundant by massive changes on the roads within 10 or 12 years.  Once driverless cars are here, the uptake will be quick in London.  There are already a lot of people who don't bother owning their own car, and just get an Uber a couple of times a week.  When the Uber is half the price because you don't have to pay a driver, that will become the norm.  My car costs me around £35 per week before I drive it anywhere.   If Ubers are half the price, owning a car gets uneconomic very quickly.

Having said all that, the cycle lanes are not aimed at me.  They are aimed at people who don't currently cycle.  They are basically a very expensive marketing exercise to try to get more people cycling, as people have been given this misguided perception that cycling is dangerous.

There is a lot of controversy about a lane they want to build local to me.  It hasn't helped that they have not chosen the best route, but what they are proposing won't "destroy the High Road" as some of the local nimbies are claiming.  It probably won't be a lot of benefit to me personally, but at the same time, it would be good for my 11 year old daughter.  She's not ready to cycle on a busy road yet.  The benefit of these lanes is that 11 year olds can use them, and old ladies can use them at 6mph without clogging up traffic.

There is no easy solution.  The wide range of cyclists makes it very difficult.  Designing something that suits the old lady pootling along at 6mph, and a fast commuter cyclist who is doing more than triple that speed is almost impossible.

The other thing they haven't got right yet is how to get on and off these lanes.  The Hyde Park one, and the Embankment one are good when you are on them, but the junctions to get onto them are awful.

We do have to get cars off of London's roads though because of air pollution.  50% of the particulates in the air are from tyre and brake dust, so going electric won't fix it either.  They will be better, especially as regen braking will reduce brake dust, but they won't completely fix it.

On wider environmental issues, electric cars are still bad for the environment.  It takes a lot more energy to move a tonne and half of car than 12kg of bike.  Something like two thirds of car journeys are under 5 miles.  We do need to change the culture on our roads, and make cycling the norm for those kind of journeys.  These lanes are an attempt to do that.  They aren't the best use of money, but on balance they will be slightly better than what we have at the moment.

munckee

I'm a cyclist and a driver and just putting everything down to the driver is only half the story.  Bikes undertaking in traffic when they should overtake, not indicating, jumping lights and cutting across pavements etc all add to the dangerous conditions.

crunchman

munckee said:

I'm a cyclist and a driver and just putting everything down to the driver is only half the story.  Bikes undertaking in traffic when they should overtake, not indicating, jumping lights and cutting across pavements etc all add to the dangerous conditions.

You left out pedestrians.  They are a total menace.  They walk out into the road without looking on a regular basis.  I've done more than 30,000 miles cycling in London and my only trip to A&E was caused by a pedestrian.

Being serious, a lot of cyclists do put themselves in bad positions.  There was an Evening Standard article last week about then inquest of a cyclist who was killed last year.  She was doored and knocked into the path of a taxi.  You shouldn't cycle within a door's width of parked cars.  I would have been doored (again) a couple of years ago if I hadn't gotten out of the habit of cycling close to parked cars.

A lot of the cyclists killed in London are by lorries turning left.  As a cyclist, you shouldn't be putting yourself in that position.  Going up the inside of a large vehicle near a junction is madness.  Having said that, redesigning lorry cabs for better visibility would also make a big difference.  It's very rarely a single thing that causes a bad accident.  There are normally a combination of factors.

VimFuego

a lot of the accidents in London especially, could be avoided by reducing the number of people. Yet when I put this proposal to the Mayor, he called the police!!!

breezytele

Dooring could also be reduced by creating more back streets with one way flow for cars, and cyclists being allowed to ride contra flow.

 There’s a few like that around Kensington, Hammersmith too I think 

robgilmo

I have to admit I sometimes like Clarkson, for instance, when he isnt saying something, or when he is asleep. Most other times I cant stand the twat.

ewal

He is a total cock. Not even worth the 5 seconds it took me to post this, let alone the length of any video clip he appears in. Life's too short to be listening to total cocks.

Sassafras

I have a recurring dream where I'm driving a big lorry and I see Clarkson and Piers Morgan on a tandem and I accelerate and crush both of them under my wheels, sometimes I have to reverse back over them to make sure.

Philly_Q

p90fool said:

The fantastic thing about a Clarkson video on cycling is that there's no need to actually watch it. 

Exactly what I was thinking as I saw the picture at the top of the thread.  I can spend a minute posting this and that's still 4 minutes, 40 seconds I haven't wasted.

Sassafras

His first sentence "I can't hear myself think over the sound of public transport".
Unfortunately it's not loud enough, I could still hear him. 
Never watched past that bit. Not in the least bit interested in him.

robgilmo

Isnt it strange though how politics seem to creep into everyday things, like a cock with a big mouth trying to remain popular by being unpopular? If this is the height of political debate in this country we are all well and truely fucked.

fields5069

A lot of my "friends" like his Top Gear bullshit. I've never been able to stand him, I can't understand how anyone could.

LastMantra

Sassafras said:

I have a recurring dream where I'm driving a big lorry and I see Clarkson and Piers Morgan on a tandem and I accelerate and crush both of them under my wheels, sometimes I have to reverse back over them to make sure.

As long as you don't throw acid at them you'll probably be alright. 

NorthernGooner

'and on that bombshell,  ............. Goodnight! '       

beed84

What's funny is not a single person stopped to listen to what he had to say. Literally no one.