Parade’s End

The Olympics and Paralympics are over and suddenly we are in a bike boom extraordinaire. (Now where have I heard that B word before? And watch out for matters of definition.)

Still, I liked the bit where the Olympic flame came through Waltham Forest and the exuberant crowds poured out into the A503 outside the Town Hall. It was like a Critical Mass for pedestrians as people forced oncoming traffic to a halt and walked against the motor vehicle flow. And one or two cyclists joined in too.

However, once the euphoria wears off, reality returns.

These next two photographs show the Bell corner in Walthamstow, where two very busy A roads cross. This junction has been the scene of numerous crashes and the occasional fatality. When the Olympic flame procession passed through local residents poured out to cheer it on, and wandered out into the road. Car-free, this atrocious junction suddenly felt safe and enjoyable.

 


But then the parade went by and within an hour everyday car-centricity was restored.

And now all that’s left for local cyclists is the Olympic heritage, like the million-pound-plus refurbishment of Ruckholt Road in Leyton (below), which cleverly fuses pinch points, lorries, vans, speeding drivers, and a beautifully refreshed cycle lane. This is part of the London Cycle Network and with cycling infrastructure like this who can doubt that cycling is really set to boom?

While I was taking this photograph a teenage cyclist went past – on the pavement. Just what is it that's wrong with the youth of today that they don't seem to like cycling infrastructure designed by highly qualified professionals?

In the Olympic Stadium no one can hear you scream

I was quite enjoying myself in the stadium yesterday until they announced who’d be presenting flowers to the Paralympic medal winners.

Yes, a man who is no friend at all to wheelchair users.

I dread to think how many photographs of our great leader handing out flowers will appear in the next edition of the council’s crap newspaper.

They wouldn’t let me ride my bike beside the Olympic Park

I cycled to the Olympic Park to pick up some tickets for the Paralympics.

I thought I’d try the Eton Manor box office as the queues there would be shorter than at Stratford.

Eton Manor is the Olympic Park entrance which notoriously was supposed to attract 40,000 pedestrians a day.

It wasn’t easy to find (the official Olympic site map shows the box office on the south side of Eastway when in fact it’s on the north). There are naturally no signs designed to help cyclists find it. And if you are walking from Leyton tube I think you'd end up wishing you'd gone to Stratford instead.

After going too far I turned back and eventually located the visitor entrance.

The ticket office was at the far side of this vast expanse of empty space (below). It has a scrap of blue on the roof and is just visible to the right of the pole in the foreground.

The security guards emphasized that this is a no cycling area and I would have to walk. I suppose this is a health and safety issue. If I’d cycled I could so easily have collided with something. 

The ticket office turned out to be entirely deserted, with no queue at all. Funny that. Why, it’s almost as if no one was bothering to walk or cycle to the Olympic Park!

I collected my tickets and then walked back. By now a solitary pedestrian had appeared and obviously I would have posed a severe hazard if I'd cycled past her in this narrow space.

After my invigorating stroll I finally regained the cycling-friendly Eastway.  I then pedalled off northward in a spirit of self-punishment to see if the two Olympic Greenways marked in red on the map below had been built across the Wanstead Flats sections which are marked in green.

They hadn’t.

Add all this to the inventory of failure.

The Paralympics start here!

Scenes from the A4 (between Knightsbridge and South Kensington) yesterday.

As elsewhere in central London, many of the pedestrian crossings have been closed along the A4, so that “Games vehicles” won’t be delayed. Pedestrians are left to fend for themselves as they try and cross a four-lane speedway, like this woman (above) who has heroically made it across to the other side and is now searching for a way round the temporary barriers.

Yes, getting around London during the Paralympics will not just be extra difficult for the able-bodied pedestrian and cyclist but much, much more difficult for wheelchair users and others with a mobility handicap.






Vehicles are also prevented by temporary barriers from turning right from Fulham Road into Brompton Road. Naturally there is no dispensation for cyclists, but this cyclist (below) has managed to get to the other side of left-turning traffic and has reached the central island, where he waits for a gap in the traffic. Making simple journeys as difficult as possible for cyclists ensures they develop their own individual “permeability skills”.

It was mid-day but only one bike had been hired from this row beside Brompton Oratory.

Surely people aren’t deterred from cycling on the A4?

Sadly, with its cramped footways and narrow carriageway (in places only four lanes wide separated by a generous strip of dashed white lines) the A4 is just too narrow for Dutch segregated cycle tracks.

Just off the A4 are some wonderful quiet back street routes for novices. Yes “permeability” is the name of the game round here. Just follow the line of the Boris bikes and head for Ennismore Street and...

- Doh!

The Olympic cycling legacy: it's crap

 (Above) Exciting new infrastructure in the Lea Valley close to the Olympic Park.




 In a nutshell, this is what the Olympics amounted to as far as ordinary cycling is concerned.


 1. The pre-Olympics cycling pledges were broken and the Greenways were never built

 

(Above) The map shows three proposed Olympic Greenways in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. One already existed in the form of the Lea Valley towpath, which was of course subsequently closed to cyclists and pedestrians at the point where it reached the Olympic Park. The other two, which also incorporated some existing routes, were not built.

(Below) The start of one section of a proposed Olympic Greenway which was never constructed, linking the Green Man roundabout with Snaresbrook Road.

2. The opening night of the Olympics saw the greatest mass arrest of cyclists in British history by a police force which is institutionally anti-cyclist and which has long incubated petrolhead police. 
 

Copyright The Press Association




3. With symbolism at its most bleak and brutal a young London commuter cyclist was crushed to death beside the Olympic Park on the sixth day of the Olympics, killed by an official Games vehicle transporting corporate journalists 

This appears to have been a classic instance of a left-turning heavy vehicle colliding with a cyclist who was going straight ahead. The fatality occurred at a site which the London Cycling Campaign over an eight year period had been warning was dangerous for cyclists.

What’s more
 
I have established that “advance stop lines” – the cyclists’ only boxes at traffic lights – were removed from the junction at the intersection of Eastway, Ruckholt Road and the A12 west-bound slip road to give priority to Olympics VIP buses and cars 10 days before the fatal crash.

 

4. Some sports cyclists won medals, including individuals who have no ethical objections to being sponsored by BP or BMW. And another sports cyclist famously shared his thoughts on cycling safety. 

(One cycling blogger asked their local council for a breakdown of expenditure on infrastructure for everyday cycling and expenditure on sports cycling; the answer is interesting.)

5. The Mayor of London announced RideLondon: 

Capitalising on the popularity of Britain's two-wheel Olympic triumphs, an annual festival of cycling is to be held in London – including a mass road race to rival the marathon. 

Hugh Brasher, race director for the London marathon and part of the team organising RideLondon, said he believed it would become as big a fixture as the running equivalent, and could continue to inspire cycling after the Olympics. He said he hoped it would "encourage people to get fit, cycle and start commuting into London by bike".

Well it might do. But we know that once you have “encouraged” people to try cycling a phenomenon called “churn” occurs. The majority do not enjoy the experience and give up.

 although many people have taken up cycling in the past decade, a similar number have stopped cycling. 

Sometimes even hardened and experienced vehicular cyclists give up:

Sad to say I have all but given up commuting into London now. It can hardly be described as a pleasant experience and there is no meaningful support from the police. 

But not everyone feels like this.

Trott said she felt safe cycling in London, but added that more cycle lanes should be created. 

Yeah, right. This brilliant cycle lane in Leyton, which runs close to the eastern perimeter of the Olympic Park, is just the thing to get the masses cycling, no?

And all you cheery optimists who cling to the fervent hope that Boris will one day implement his ‘Go Dutch’ commitment, do please pay close attention to this remark:

Johnson said that substantial sums were being spent to make the streets safer for cyclists but said he did not want to "bully" motorists by changing roads, and that there had to be compromises made. 

I was going to say more about RideLondon but the Vole has already said it



(Below) Recommended cycling route to the Olympics, along National Cycle Network route 1, at a point where you can see the Olympic Park. Photographed two days ago.

Olympic sprint and hurdles events for everyone

As the Olympics draw to a close please remember that Olympic sprint and hurdles events are occurring all over London and participation remains open to all. If you fancy your skills at jumping, then just go for a stroll and try out one of these.

Once you have mastered the art of jumping over an obstacle, the next thing is to attempt sprinting. Central London contains numerous combined hurdling and sprint tracks which are free for the public to use.

Have fun finding out if you can get to the other side of the road without being run down by an Olympic BMW in the Games Lane.

For added fun, bring along a suitcase. Here we see two visitors to London who are attempting the gruelling Parliament Square “crossing the road” track (CAUTION: suitable only for athletes in the peak of condition). They have successfully made it to a traffic island, but already their chances of a gold are fading rapidly as, hopelessly confused, they look in completely the wrong direction!

Here they have corrected their error. But what they haven’t spotted is that there is a surprise hurdle directly ahead of them just as they think they’ve finally managed to cross the road!

These foreign visitors (below) make the same discovery. Watch as they run shrieking from multiple lanes of approaching motor vehicles, in the final round of the gruelling and highly dangerous “safety in numbers” event.

From the Bow Roundabout comes this particularly impressive piece of film of a gold medal winner:

note that not only are there no pedestrian lights, but on this crossing there isn't even a dropped kerb, so she has to lift up the buggy whilst sprinting across 3 lanes of traffic with no signalling and a small child in tow. 

Finally, let’s give credit where credit is due and thank Ben Plowden for making all this possible.

As he modestly puts it, Prior to working at TfL, Ben was one of the country’s leading environmental campaigners. 

Ben was ahead of his time, arguing as long as 2000 that To see why walking and cycling are central to solving Britain's transport crisis, we should look to the Netherlands.

Yes, until he wheedled his way into TfL our Ben would gush about iconic cities which set an example:

Safe and direct pedestrian crossings at every junction make walking quick and easy for people in a hurry. For those with time to spare, benches, street cafes and pocket parks provide places for reflection and relaxation. The traffic is slow and light. The pavements are wide and clean. There is not a guard railing to be seen. No wonder the smart money is pouring into Portland. 

Interesting that Ben was interested in smart money, as his annual salary at TfL is reported to be £170,000.

Yes,

Ben Plowden is TfL's "Director of Better Routes and Places". His previous title at TfL was "Director of Integrated Programme Delivery", which job involved "bringing together key projects including walking and cycling, road safety and smarter travel". 

People in public life often make political transitions, for example, MPs who "cross the floor" of the House of Commons. But few can have made such a discreditable transition as Ben Plowden. For he was the first Director of the Pedestrians Association (now Living Streets), heading that organisation from 1997 to 2002. In 2001 he said "We are trying to make streets places people can enjoy." Presumably by "people" he did not mean "motorists who want to drive at speed". Carlton Reid has highlighted some of the other things Plowden said when he was in that job. 

It’s no surprise at all that Ben Plowden now devotes his time to spin and blather.

A View from the Games Lane

I admit it. I broke the law. I cycled in an official games lane, meriting a fine of £130. But as there was no one around to enforce the law I escaped punishment.

Another shocking example of a lawless cyclist, and another reason why cyclists should pay vehicle excise duty, be registered and be forced to display number plates, have compulsory insurance, and be made to wear helmets?

No.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it was the infrastructure that was to blame.

The games lane in question is on the westbound A106. This provides a direct route between Leyton and Hackney Wick. It’s basically a three-lane motorway and only hardcore commuter cyclists use this route. It is not a route for leisure or utility cycling. Where it isn’t the equivalent of an urban motorway, it’s a hellish gyratory (the gyratory component is formed of Alexandra Road and Ruckholt Road in Leyton, where cyclists can enjoy classic Waltham Forest crap door zone cycle lanes) and then further west Ruckholt Road morphs into Eastway. This is what happens when you cycle down Eastway towards Hackney. At first you are on a three lane urban freeway:

Then the slow lane turns into a left turn only lane. If you are continuing west towards Hackney you need to get into the middle lane. But the middle lane is an official Games Lane:

You are therefore expected to get into the fast lane. Which is a bit tricky when you are being overtaken by vehicles travelling at high speeds. Even the driver of the car in front of me found themself trapped in the Games Lane:

However, at the next junction, if the lights are at red, the ASL allows the cyclist to pull over into the fast lane. You can then “take the road” and obstruct a long line of motor vehicles by cycling ahead of them. The infrastructure requires you to do this as far as the junction with the A12 in the distance, where the latest London cycling fatality occurred. But not to worry, since London drivers are famously tolerant of being stuck behind a cyclist.

I didn’t see any other cyclists on my white knuckle ride down Eastway. This is a shame, since TfL’s new cycle promotion poster brilliantly captures the bucolic idyll of cycling in London. And it’s quite truthful, too, since the fast lane of the Eastway does indeed allow drivers to “Catch up with the bicycle”. Strangely, the cheery greetings of drivers behind you all begin with  the letter "f" yet the word they articulate isn't freedom.

OLYMPIC CYCLIST SPONSOR’S CAR KILLS TWO CHILD PEDESTRIANS

This is not a headline you are likely to read in any British newspaper today.

BMW makes killing machines designed for speedophiles.

And yesterday, while cyclist Laura Trott was winning another gold medal, her sponsor BMW’s prime commodity was at the same time killing two small children waiting to cross the road.

If you look at the Google photo of the crash site (below), you see a classic piece of British transport planning, a junction designed entirely around prioritising the speed and convenience of drivers, at the expense of safe cycling and safe, direct, convenient walking. Incredibly, comments boxes on blogs and in newspapers continue to fill up with cyclists asserting that British streets are just “too narrow” for cycle tracks compared with the Netherlands.

The CCTV footage of the crash also shows in the foreground a white van parked on the footway on double yellow lines by a bend, in itself a symptom of the comprehensive accommodation by British policing and local authorities of everyday lawless, dangerous and anti-social behaviour by drivers.

This killing of two small children occurred in Leicester, where with perfect timing and as a perfect example of the British tradition of soft measures comes this.

BMW drivers have a deservedly poor reputation, based on the fact that they regularly ”lose control” and kill pedestrians as well as killing cyclists (as described here and here), as well as killing other car drivers

Gosh it’s a pity we can’t all learn to share the road and learn some mutual respect innit.

This BMW driver believes that Critical Mass participants are gay (crikey!).

The BBC frequently ignores cycling fatalities but luckily has the resources to report on horrifying incidents involving BMW drivers like this.

The nice thing about being a BMW driver is that you can drive like a madman, crash at an incredibly high speed, and still not kill yourself.

If you had any doubts about the safety of the BMW M5, you can rest assured as this horrific accident attests to the benefits of German engineering. 

According to M5 Post, a 60-year old driver was travelling at approximately 300 km/h (186 mph) when he lost control while swerving to avoid another motorist. 


Footnote

BMW produces killing machines like this - every model is guaranteed to go at least 50 mph faster than the maximum permitted UK speed limit.

Olympic cyclists and other athletes who enjoy BMW sponsorship can be found listed here.

The curious case of the Olympic PR picture

This is the latest PR pic of ye bucolic ‘Olympic Village’, released to the press by the authority’s Mad Men (I’ve borrowed it from today’s Evening Standard).

I’ve noticed that all these pretty pics always avoid giving you the full picture. The north-west corner of the Olympic site is always either missing because the picture has been cropped, or,  in its earlier incarnations, vanishes into a strange green mist. (In the  projection above the north-west corner is at the bottom right - or would be if it wasn't missing.)

What is curiously missing or obscured is (i) the massive multi-storey car park which occupies the north-west sector of the site (ii) the roads inside the perimeter of the site (iii) the A12 running alongside the site.

Why, it’s almost as if the organisers wanted to play down the massive role that cars will play in the Olympics!

As for us lucky local cyclists, here’s an exciting update.

The Marsh Lane/ Lea Bridge Road option brings you out by the Olympic car park. As far as I can tell the Greenway will involve crossing a Zill lane, which suggests to me that the Olympic Greenway will be closed by the A12 and cyclists will be told to divert to the towpath. Hilarious, if this is the case. Woops! - just remembered. The Met is is hinting strongly that the towpath may need to be closed for 'security reasons'. So your best option is to get a job with BMW, BP or Coca-Cola and go there by limo.

it’s the new Olympic cycling signs!

I pedalled off to the Olympic site on Sunday to see how the Olympic Greenway from Waltham Forest was getting along. Among many impressive developments were these new signs. One year to go!

Yes, the wraps will soon be coming off this sign (above) on the main ‘Olympic Greenway’ which runs past the stadium and Boris Johnson’s Olympian erection. If you are not sure what the sign says, I’ll give you a clue.

British Cycling has said the true measure of success of the London 2012 Olympic Games will be in inspiring people to ditch the sofa in favour of saddling up.

Partnering with Sky, British Cycling has pledged to get one million people cycling regularly by 2013. The organisation said excellent progress has already been made

Let me assure you, dear reader, that no one in their right mind will be taking up cycling in the Olympic borough of Newham, with its terrifying motorway-style gyratory, its virtual absence of cycling infrastructure, and its traffic-choked streets crammed with drivers who overtake you with inches to spare. Yes, Newham is so incredibly unpleasant for cycling in that I always sob with gratitude when I cross the border back into crap Waltham Forest.

Meanwhile back at the Olympic site and the Lea Valley, the new cycling signs complement the more traditional ‘cycling heritage’ signing which has always existed on this popular off-road route:

(Below) Sadly, not all cyclists are getting into the Olympic spirit. They persist in cycling even when the Olympic authorities tell them not to. Where's the respect?

the latest exciting ‘Green Olympics’ news

One moment it’s fabulous cycling infrastructure, the next it’s sustainable fine cuisine.

Enjoy.

it’s an Olympic rip-off!

Eastway Users Group spent two years with the Olympic Delivery Authority drawing up the current approved plans for the high speed competitive cycle circuit, which crosses the River Lea to the east of the velodrome. But the body which was created in 2009 to oversee the park’s longterm development - the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) - submitted revised plans in March.

[So much for the consultation process.]

They want to move the cycle track eastwards, keeping it on the north side of the river, creating a park in Hackney’s northwest parklands on the other side of the river with unrestricted views across to the velodrome and access to the river.

Housing intended for Newham will then be squeezed out, but the ODLC wants to submit a planning application within 15 years to build mock-Georgian housing in the Hackney parkland, in the style of central London’s Regent’s and Hyde Parks.

Because after all mock-Georgian houses in the style of luxury residences in Hyde Park are so very Hackney, are they not?

And you can bet that these houses will require an access road and car parking for all the Audis, Mercs and 4X4s…

The car-centric legacy of the ‘Green’ Olympics

Millions of pounds have poured into the five Olympic boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Greenwich and Waltham Forest. New transport links have been built; old ones have been upgraded.

For many local people, the park is a cause for rejoicing. "Everyone's excited," said Samira, 15. "It's kind of bringing communities together."

That is one view. It is not Iain Sinclair's. The writer and present-day Cassandra from Hackney has declared war on the Olympics and all it – in its modern incarnation – stands for.

Dismayed by the temporary removal of beloved parts of the community – allotments, for instance, and football pitches – and repelled by the vision of a Westfield shopping centre springing up next to the stadium, he feels nothing but despair. "The Olympics have just been a huge engine for pushing through the corporate developments and the remaking, the rebranding of the whole area; it's been the thing that's made that happen faster," he says, adding: "Basically it's a conjuring trick to generate financing for a perpetual state of building and enclosure and an alphabet soup of crazy quangos that are telling you how wonderful everything is and talking up a spurious legacy which is in reality just a huge Australian shopping mall."

A disgruntled Waltham Forest resident adds in the Comments (it’s worth quoting in full):

Millions of pounds have poured into the five Olympic boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Greenwich and Waltham Forest.

Well, maybe the first four, but certainly not Waltham Forest, one of London's worst-run and sleaziest boroughs. The area of Hackney Marsh football pitches in the borough has been taken for a coach park, a much-used recreation ground has been handed over to the Olympics for portacabins, leaving schools without play space, and will probably be built on afterwards. The already-congested Leyton High rd is to be narrowed, to offer wider pavements to Olympic visitors, but nothing is being said about restitution afterwards. Leyton is a dangerously congested station, but nothing will be done to remedy this, and locals fear an Ibrox event. Whatever the outcome of the shenanigans over the stadium, we will almost certainly lose our local football team, to whose requirements the Council has been strangely generous in allowing residential development at the ground. The pitch will probably be housing in a few years time. £1 million is being spent to tidy a Potemkin walkway from the tube to the stadium, and we have just been given a list of the roads we shall not be able to use during the games. The Olympics feels more like an occupying army than an exciting cultural event, plundering what little we have here, and sending us the bill into the bargain. Its only merit is to make it absolutely clear that our rulers do not have our interests at heart.
It's depressing but not surprising to see the Guardian recycling Olympic PR as journalism, when consultation of our local paper could give the real picture.

Or indeed a local blogger. Because this is one of the car-sick gateways to the Green Olympics, an event which is doing nothing for conditions for cycling in Stratford. But then who would really want to cycle to the Olympics on fantasy Greenway cycle paths. Stratford's soon-to-be-opened Westfield shopping centre will have parking for 5,000 cars.

Meanwhile Charlie Holland brings exciting news of the Jubilee Greenway south of the river.

By the way, at the base of that stylish Olympic Greenway sign at the start of this post can be found graffiti, an empty cider can, and lots of little green bags containing shit. Which seems symbolic.

The Green Olympics reach Walthamstow!

This delightful advert for 'advanced fuels' has just appeared above the cycling-suppressing substandard advisory cycle lane on the lorry-sodden A503. It features a champion cyclist whizzing round an underground car park filled with BMWs. All in aid of fossil fuel dependency on behalf of a criminal corporation which is desperately trying to rebrand itself as Green.

And no one could deny that the arrival of the Olympics in this part of North East London is being keenly anticipated.

Waltham Forest council turns a blind eye to drivers obstructing Leyton Bike Shed

Last October I blogged about Leyton Bike Shed, comparing its provision with that found in the Netherlands. My post carried a photograph showing minicabs parked in the ‘no waiting at any time’ area, which includes the entrance to the shed.

When I went to the shed last week I was not unduly surprised to see the same two vehicles parked where they shouldn’t be (above). And the door, which is supposed to be closed, was wide open yet again.

And the automatic door is broken. The word ‘automatic’ has been crossed out and replaced by a handwritten sign which reads: UNLOCK + PUSH DOOR – PLEAS [sic] CLOSE AFTER.

And there you have it. A shoddy, substandard, poorly maintained facility, grossly inadequate in its provision, access to which is protected by parking restrictions which are daily flouted by the same vehicles. Very British-cycling, wouldn't you say?

It occurs to me that the Leyton Bike Shed may well turn out to be the closest mass cycle parking facility to the Olympic site. And who wouldn’t want to leave their Brompton here and trudge off to the Olympic ‘Village’?

And talking of the Olympics, CycaLogical has spotted an aspect of the orbital Jubilee Greenway which I’d missed:

The other miraculous thing about this world-class cycling route is you won't have noticed any roadworks going on during its construction. That's because they haven't built anything. In the words of Jim Walker, director of the Jubilee Walkway Trust, "We have worked out there is already a route you can follow - it's not something we have had to build." Awesome.

more Olympic Greenways fantasy cycling

Today’s Evening Standard brings news of an £8 million, 37-mile Jubilee Greenway network that will guide spectators wishing to cycle between venues during the 2012 Games.

The map is deeply misleading. There is no continuous cycling route in the north east section. The Greenway route heading west from Becton terminates at the High Street, Stratford. It does not continue to the Olympic site but is closed until late 2014 by work on Crossrail. Cyclists wanting to access the Olympic Park will have to dismount and cross the road. However, one lane has been designated as a special Olympics lane which you enter on pain of a £200 fine. It is not clear how cyclists will cross to the other side. If they are somehow permitted to cross the multiple lane High Street, cyclists will then be expected to push their bikes along the footway for 400 metres to Pudding Mill Lane and follow a diversion to the Olympic site. At present parts of this diversion include the sign CYCLISTS DISMOUNT. However, when you get there you will apparently not be allowed to take your bike inside the site for ‘security reasons’. So you then cycle on to Victoria Park in Hackney, lock your bike, and walk back to the Olympic site.

In other words, don’t waste your time cycling to the Olympics. Go by jet pack.

(Below) The Greenway used to go in a straight line to the Olympic site. You can see the Olympic stadium in the distance. But now the route terminates at Stratford High Street and will not re-open until late 2014.

(Below) Welcome to the Stratford High Street urban motorway. If you enjoy cycling among lorries, this is the place to come.