Sixty seconds of cycling in London

Waltham Forest council and the London Cycling Campaign are both very fond of triumphantly quoting statistics about the lengths of cycle lane locally. The London Borough of Waltham Forest has twenty miles of on-road cycle lane. These photographs show the conditions to be experienced in a short stretch (200 metres at the most) this morning. The A503, heading west, leading up to the junction with the A112.

(Below) The first obstacle. A car parked in the cycle lane.










































(Below) 'No waiting at any time'. Unless you are white van man, for whom rules don't apply.























(Below) An RAC van parked partly in the 'buses only' bay. I wondered if the driver had parked here to go to the shops, but beyond was a broken down car, which I didn't bother to photograph.




















(Below) At the junction with the A112 an estate car signalling left is occupying the Advanced Stop Line and also intruding into the cycle lane. Look carefully and on the right of this photograph you can see a cyclist taking advantage of the pedestrian green phase to jump the lights. As the left-turn lane on the far side of the junction is currently blocked by roadworks, and as the ASL is invariably occupied by vehicles, this is a sensible survival strategy.