I spotted this magnificent new installation while pedalling out of Tottenham yesterday along the ‘shared use’ section of Ferry Lane. Close to the border with Waltham Forest. The perfect symbol of highway engineering culture, is it not?
This major route in and out of London is controlled by Transport for London, which has a deep-seated and long running tradition of hostility to walking and cycling. TfL is obsessed with motor vehicle flow and management, which takes priority over such trifles as walking, cycling, pollution and the environment.
This site shown here is not far from one of the planned Cycling Superhighways, from Tottenham into the City. At present cyclists heading south on the A10 who want to turn right on to Stoke Newington Church Street are required to go on a massive loop and then get themselves into the right-hand lane of fast moving traffic. TfL, characteristically, has resisted all attempts to provide a convenient and safe cycling alternative:
A particularly controversial planned Superhighway is the A10 corridor between Tottenham and the City, planned for 2011 - a potential cycle route that has been the subject of a campaign by Hackney cyclists for years but one that has met with a total lack of 'barrier-busting' from Transport for London, the body responsible for the implementation of Superhighways. Only last year TfL refused to sanction a cycle-friendly scheme for the infamous Stoke Newington gyratory - exactly the kind of thing needed to make Superhighways work.
