Friday 23 April 2010

Cycle lights still hooded after 8 months


























It really is astonishing that the dedicated cycle lights on the special crossing facility for cyclists which runs from St Mary Road E17 across Hoe Street to Selborne Road are STILL HOODED AFTER EIGHT MONTHS. These orange hoods over the cycle lights went up in September 2009.

The responsibility for this apparently lies with Transport for London. TfL’s contempt for cycling could hardly be more evident. But this ongoing saga also underlines the inertia of the local cycling group, the Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign. It claims to have 200 members, so why isn’t it organising a protest?

Cyclists are left to guess when the lights are at red for drivers and then have to pedal across a junction, watching out for three lanes of traffic approaching from the right, another lane approaching head-on from Selborne Road, another lane approaching from the left along Hoe Street, and another lane which turns into Selborne Road.

On the plus side, this helps to give cyclists experience in crossing a major junction with no green light, helping to build up the daredevil confidence required to jump red lights. Thanks for that, Transport for London!