Cycle Lanes in London -what is this Bullshit ?

Grumpyrocker

Dominic said:

Grumpyrocker said:

Dominic said:

Had to drive around London a lot this week .WTF are these stupid Cycle Lanes .....with all the Bollards , markers etc.
Got to be the most wilfully stupid thing I've ever seen.......really busy dual lane roads that were always terribly busy and slow-moving now just a permanent gridlock .It's just crazy........almost as if you couldn't think of a better way to increase congestion and pollution.
 In any event,why can't cyclists just use the road ..don't want to get in the way of them riding straight through red lights or up and down pavements ( as moped deliveroos etc are now doing ) .....
Must be something to do with that vile little Imp of a Mayor ( Mr " my dad was a bus driver ".........so what ? We've all got our problems ! )
 This even beats the ingenious death trap known as the Smart Motorway ......there's an Oxymoron ,nothing Smart about killing people and endangering life non-stop 24 hours a day .Problem is the arseholes want to cover it up because they have committed too much money and contractual obligation to do a U turn .
As my East European colleagues  say " Vot is this Bullshit ?"

Mainly so cyclists aren't killed by angry ranting loons like this. 

Let me guess ........You can't afford a car ? and you think smart motorways are smart ?

We own two cars. And I don't know about motorways, but I can tell something isn't smart. 

crunchman

Sassafras said:

Use the Tube.
Apart from cabbies no-one really needs to drive round London.

Tube is slow.

The last 4 offices I have worked in have all been significantly quicker to get to by bike.

Even without the pandemic issues, I get a lot less cold/flu type things since I started cycling to work and stopped sharing a carriage with 100 or more people every day - some of whom will have cold/flu viruses that they are sputtering into the air.

The Tube is very expensive as well.  It's a lot cheaper to cycle.

Danny1969

Here in Portsmouth they are doing the same thing, plus we now have an electric  scooter rental thing going. Motorists hate the bike lanes and the scooters but I like it. These are proper steps in the right direction. Hopefully in the future they will ban all petrol and diesel cars form major cities, that will get people either onto bikes, on to public transport or into electric cars. 

scrumhalf

Sassafras said:

Use the Tube.
Apart from cabbies no-one really needs to drive round London.

What about people going to/from places where there's no tube for miles?

People will need to drive, although I'm not so sure they need to drive what they are driving now. Smaller cars could surely be good enough for most journeys, and they take up less parking space, so you could fit more of them in a given space. 

earwighoney

crunchman said:

Sassafras said:

Use the Tube.
Apart from cabbies no-one really needs to drive round London.

Tube is slow.

The last 4 offices I have worked in have all been significantly quicker to get to by bike.

Even without the pandemic issues, I get a lot less cold/flu type things since I started cycling to work and stopped sharing a carriage with 100 or more people every day - some of whom will have cold/flu viruses that they are sputtering into the air.

The Tube is very expensive as well.  It's a lot cheaper to cycle.

The Tube in the middle of winter (pre pandemic) is like a giant paddling pool of germs. 

stimpsonslostson

AlexO said:

As a keen road cyclist from a leisure POV but someone who drives as a main form of transport, Cycle lanes are more hassle than they are worth .

They always feel like they've been designed by someone who's never ridden a bike since they was a kid. Not to mention they are normally covered in glass and anything else designed to slash your tyres.

I travel to Copenhagen quite often and it blows my mind how we can't look at how they Danes have made it part of the infastructure of their major cities and use that as a guide for our own.

I agree. 
They've introduced them in Edinburgh too.
They actually make the roads feel LESS safe for me as a cyclist (I got rid of my car 4 years ago and commute across the city daily and use a bike to get to meeting. I average 15 miles daily)-

There are times when I'd prefer to take "primary position" rather then be fenced in. 
The bollards are large and intrusive, making overtaking someone pootling along on a "boris bike" much more tricky. 
There has been no effort to improve the roads, so the lanes are potholed, contain gutters and are generally the worst part of the road. 

I had a cabbie give me abuse for not using the lane leading to my home, so I pointed out the terrible road surface and glass that had accumulated near the curb. He conceded that it'd shred my tires. 
Having not had a puncture in 4 years of daily commuting I've now had 3 since the lanes were introduced. 

Iamnobody

scrumhalf said:

Sassafras said:

Use the Tube.
Apart from cabbies no-one really needs to drive round London.

What about people going to/from places where there's no tube for miles?

People will need to drive, although I'm not so sure they need to drive what they are driving now. Smaller cars could surely be good enough for most journeys, and they take up less parking space, so you could fit more of them in a given space. 

It’d be great if cars just became very plain and boring; simply providing their primary function of getting from A-B safely, instead of being used as status symbols and penis extensions. 

Small, medium and large depending on need/circumstances, option of lease/ownership for daily users and car clubs for infrequent users. Autonomy will be the game changer with car ownership, perhaps not for a while though...

Funkfingers

Most of the London Underground is Norf of da river. Not much help to a good many people.

earwighoney

Funkfingers said:

Most of the London Underground is Norf of da river. Not much help to a good many people.

There's pretty much nothing in South East London too.

Axe_meister

The problem with London is the roads are historically quite narrow. Whereas in Europe the were always build very wide so slipping in a cycle lane did not make much of a difference, although Paris has the same issue as London. 
I would cycle to work (in summer) the the idea of traversing the roads around Camberwell up through Vauxhall and over the bridge fills me with dread (also dog kennel hill is bloody long and steep)

PC_Dave

AlexC said:

darthed1981 said:

Cars will be banned from central London full stop in 20 years, you don't actually NEED one to get around, pretty much everything you have heard of is within a 30 minute walk of everything else.

It would be so much nicer with no cars, as long as the cyclists behave, but in most European cities which have made this move, they do.

Bicycles don’t have emissions. That’s a fact not an opinion.

Mine does. Well, I suppose that’s the rider, not the bike, as such. 

scrumhalf

Funkfingers said:

Most of the London Underground is Norf of da river. Not much help to a good many people.

That's because the clay north of the river is easier to tunnel through.

earwighoney said:

The Tube in the middle of winter (pre pandemic) is like a giant paddling pool of germs. 

I'd rather be in the Tube in winter than freezing my arse off getting soaked on a freezing cold day on a bike going up the hills of North London.

Jalapeno

Paris (La Defense aside) is radically different to London - People still live in the centre of the city.

Copenhagen has massive wide boulevards (unlike London), and most importantly NO HILLS

The planning of cycle lanes around Euston Station, UCH and London University if a joke - Camden council and the Mayor competing for stupidity.

ESBlonde

Amsterdam has narrow roads and dedicated cycle lanes too.

euan

Hills are a red herring, ebikes are becoming more and more popular.

Back prewar five times the people rode bikes in GB than had access to a car. The idea that people won't ride a bike because of hills is preposterous. They won't ride bikes because the risk of entitled and distracted operators of 2 ton missiles.

WiresDreamDisasters

drofluf said:

Oh the poor important car drivers being delayed on their important journeys.

There’s already too many cars coming into central London (and other cities) on trips that could be done using public or sustainable transportation. But I agree with you using a car on an unnecessary journey is the best way to increase pollution and congestion. 

hahahahahahahaha bus wanker!

jonnyburgo

Hills in London, you having a bubble bath or what? bleedin namby pambys

MattBanshee

Dominic said:

Sassafras said:

Use the Tube.
Apart from cabbies no-one really needs to drive round London.

I ain 't getting on Public transport or a cab during Corona thanks v much ......a good friend died from that !

And I know people who have been killed whilst cycling by cunts in cars and lorries in central London. What's your point?

Axe_meister

Hills on their own not an issue, trying to climb a hill whilst trying to maintain a perfectly straight line because cars only give you the minimum of space is a different matter.

thermionic

AlexO said:

As a keen road cyclist from a leisure POV but someone who drives as a main form of transport, Cycle lanes are more hassle than they are worth .

They always feel like they've been designed by someone who's never ridden a bike since they was a kid. Not to mention they are normally covered in glass and anything else designed to slash your tyres.

If you’re talking about the waste of red paint that has until very recently passed for cycle lanes, I agree 100% However, now what we’re seeing is lanes properly segregated from motorised traffic and from what I’ve seen and ridden on in Cardiff and they’re a big improvement. Still a long way to go in terms of connecting up short sections into really useful longer routes, but it a decent start at last.