Tuesday 16 February 2010

Cycle signing which is altogether too diverting
























If you follow the signed route to Highams Park for cyclists from the Crooked Billet, you pedal along a cycle path alongside the derelict greyhound stadium and a section of the River Ching, emerging on to Cavendish Road E4. A sign (above) tells you to turn left.

(Below) Approaching the junction with Nelson Road, the signed cycling route to Highams Park tells the cyclist to turn right and go along Selwyn Avenue.























These cycle route signs send you to a NO ENTRY (below), forcing cyclists to turn right, back on to Cavendish Road, which is the road you started on. In other words, an entirely pointless diversion. Naturally no one has ever noticed this absurdity. It has arisen, of course, because when most of Selwyn Avenue was converted to one-way no one ever noticed it formed part of a recommended cycle route. Or if they did, they didn't care. And this grotesque situation is hardly unique in Waltham Forest.
























(Below) The old cycle route on Selwyn Avenue, now obliterated in order to accommodate car parking and motor vehicle flow. In reality this road is no narrower than many where cyclists are permitted to cycle against the flow (e.g.Glenthorne Road E17).
























(Below) Towards the end of Selwyn Avenue, on the left hand side, against the one-way flow, a remnant of the old signing lingers on, indicating this as a former cycle route.