Signs should always be sited where they least inconvenience drivers

Holland Street SE1

In A Lonely Place (Bike Week Day 2)

Bike week day two. The perfect setting for a leisurely jaunt along the Lea Valley. I was coming south from Ponders End via the traffic-free road that runs beside the Edmonton Incinerator (sorry, new name: London Waste Eco Park) when I linked up with the towpath at Cook's Ferry. Here, by Advent Way, I spotted another top class piece of cycling infrastructure for anyone joining the towpath from the path that runs beside the North Circular.

(Below) Continue on under the North Circular. The dimensions of the cycle path and the adjacent footway are almost Dutch. The absence of illumination and the inadequate drainage aren't.

(Below) Emerging from the underpass and meeting the towpath: more high quality signing, well maintained.

(Below) A new sign, perfect for Bike Week. Towpath closed 16 May - 22 July. A map shows the very lengthy diversion around Banbury Reservoir. However, no diversion signs are installed anywhere on the route, so it's easy to get lost (as I did on the first bit). The towpath at this point accumulated a number of cyclists and ramblers, who'd suddenly found their planned day out disrupted.

(Below) The one-hundred-metres-long blocked-off section of towpath, photographed through a gap. Quite why it could not be left open on Saturdays and Sundays isn't clear, as there is no plant on site and the route is no more dangerous than it usually is. I feel sure that in the Netherlands they would maintain access for cyclists and pedestrians.

(Below) Let's go on the diversion. The cycle path on Argon Road leads to every cyclist's favourite sign. From here all you have to do is negotiate a roundabout with very fast traffic coming off the North Circular, pedal along Harbet Road, passing another bleak slice of industrial estate, then take the right turn at the roundabout by Folly Lane.

(Below) At last, back to the open road and traffic-free Folly Lane, a popular cycling leisure route maintained to the standard you'd expect in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Bournemouth twinned with Waltham Forest

Though to be fair to Bournemouth, Waltham Forest has nothing as fabulous as this.

The closure of cycling access on a Grove Road chicane

Grove Road E17 is a popular rat run between the A104 and the A112. This rat run slices through a residential area. Grove Road is supposed to have a 20 mph speed limit but drivers ignore it with impunity. There is some inadequate traffic calming, mostly in the form of small rubber speed cushions which are ineffectual at reducing vehicle speeds and also encourage drivers to swerve into the opposite carriageway in an attempt to pass over them without touching them with their wheels. This is unnerving when you are on a bicycle and an approaching driver does this - and it happens a lot.

In a borough which was serious about reducing car dependency (which Waltham Forest Council most emphatically isn’t) Grove Road would be closed off at strategic points and this entire residential area would be made impermeable except to someone going to or from a destination inside it. You know, like the Dutch do it. Rat running would terminated. But of course that would funnel drivers back on to main roads and cause them inconvenience and might even create that ultimate horror, congestion.

There are three chicanes on Grove Road, which oblige drivers to give way to oncoming traffic. These chicanes all have cycle cut-throughs so that cyclists don’t have to wait for oncoming traffic.

So why is this chicane between Eden Road and Beulah Road currently blocked off to cyclists? I deduce that it’s because a speeding driver has ‘lost control’ and demolished the sign on the chicane telling drivers to give way to oncoming traffic. I’ve come across spectacular evidence of this in the past at this particular chicane.

The Council’s favoured contractors, JS Riney, have chosen to deal with this situation by putting up a temporary sign and blocking off the cycle access.




























The closure of the cycle access was clearly quite unnecessary but then Riney are slovenly car-centric contractors who patently have no code of conduct regarding cyclists and pedestrians and who are clearly under no executive control at all by the Council.

Riney workers thoughtlessly obstruct the footway with signs for drivers and leave their plastic fencing scattered around all over the borough, including leaving it stuffed behind cycle stands.

(Below) Leaving just half a metre for pedestrians on St James's Street, E17


























(Below) corner of Walthamstow High Street and Pretoria Avenue

Cycle lane obstructed by ‘cycle lane closed’ sign

London is still in the dark ages as far as cycling is concerned. Today, cycling west on the A503, on a section of road where drivers blatantly flout the 30 mph limit, I came across this.

The National Grid (gas) have dug up the centre of the carriageway, forcing larger vehicles into the cycle lane. So what would be appropriate for this situation, bearing in mind that the cycle lane itself is unaffected? Signs reading ROAD NARROWS – SLOW - GIVE WAY TO CYCLISTS and SLOW – CYCLISTS HAVE PRIORITY. Something along those lines.

Instead of which we get the usual stupidity. A ‘Cycle lane closed’ sign dumped thoughtlessly in the cycle lane, forcing cyclists out into the path of speeding drivers.

a demonstration of Waltham Forest cyclecraft

Cycling in the London Borough of Waltham Forest requires special skills which are not available in conventional cycling guides.

Here in six easy-to-understand stages are the special skills which anyone can learn to cycle in Waltham Forest.

1. Cycle round bend and suddenly spot ‘Riney’ plastic fencing across cycle lane


























2. Spot sign saying CYCLE LANE CLOSED and dismount.




























3. Spot gap in plastic fencing and attempt to get through it with bicycle.


























4. Discover gap is not wide enough and start wrestling with plastic fencing.


























5. Continue to attempt to get bike through gap.






























6. Having successfully pushed fencing aside, pass through gap.































You may now continue your journey along the footway in a traffic-free environment and proceed safely to your destination. And remember. When pedestrians jump out of your way and shout ‘Sorry!’ a friendly smile and a wave of acknowledgement is always appreciated.

This blog post has been specially sponsored by JH Riney as part of its ongoing Bringing Red Plastic Fencing to Waltham Forest Cyclists project.

An Apology

Here on Wood Street E17 the council’s enlightened policy of gradually converting cycle lanes and pavements into parking bays has resulted in some unsightly plastic fencing in the roadway which is forcing some drivers to slow down to as little as 30 mph.

This inconvenience has quite naturally required the contractors to put up a sign apologising to motorists, which I must say I think is beautifully angled.

Visually impaired people tell me that when it comes to objects placed obstructively in the footway black and grey are their favourite colours!

Autumn comes to the Chingford Road cycle lane

Autumn leaves and a collapsed ‘roadworks ahead’ sign strewn along the generously wide cycle lane.

The A112, northbound.

Discrimination against those with a disability

One in 10 Londoners cannot access large sections of the public transport network in London because of mobility issues, a report has warned.

The London Assembly study found step-free access to stations falls far short of demand.

Val Shawcross AM, chairwoman of the transport committee, called the situation "simply unacceptable".

But for Transport for London and Waltham Forest Council to convert a cycle lane into parking bays, that is quite acceptable. And at £10,000 per free unlimited parking bay this is excellent value for money, leading to an enhanced footway situation for wheelchair users. Forest Road E17.

Brookscroft Road E17? It’s a gas, gas, gas

Construction multinational SKANSKA is passionate about Green thinking. Which sadly does not extend to maintaining free access for pedestrians and cyclists when they come to Waltham Forest and dig up two footways and a cycle cut-through at the road closure on Brookscroft Road E17 on behalf of the National Grid (gas). But then why should they bother? Parliament has always been very careful not to provide pedestrians with statutory minimum footway width protection (instead we get ‘codes’ and ‘advice’) and streets have been deliberately excluded from disability rights legislation. Well, we wouldn’t want to affect the profits of contractors and multinationals, would we?

A local resident was happy to display her skill at getting through the cycle access. The other cut-through remains open but the fencing makes it challenging for anyone with a motorized wheelchair, mobility scooter or double buggy.

Another JB Riney classic

A pedestrian is forced to step out into the road. Yes, it’s J.B. Riney, Waltham Forest Council’s approved road contractors again. Where better to put a WAIT HERE UNTIL GREEN LIGHT SHOWS sign for drivers then right across the footway? The sign could have been put in the road but that might have inconvenienced drivers.

There’s a primary school behind those roadworks.

(Below) More pedestrians approach. Mission Grove E17, Friday.

Waltham Forest council’s ‘approved contractor’ obstructs more bike stands

Spot the cycle stand.

The roadworks firm JB Riney has previously come to the attention of this blog as a result of its dynamic engagement with cycling infrastructure which allows cyclists to test their skills.

JB Riney has been made the council’s official roads contractor, which is a very lucrative arrangement (such a shame it isn’t a local business). What the borough gets out of the arrangement isn’t clear, though together with legendary Kier and something called the Good Impressions design consultancy (a ‘graphic design consultancy’ based in Canary Wharf – another non-local business) Riney assist in the sponsorship of the council’s awesome Love Your Borough awards.

You’d think a council would set certain standards for its approved contractor, such as for example requiring its work force not to wilfully obstruct cycle stands or leave contractor's clutter littering the streets weeks after a job has been completed. But then again this is Waltham Forest Council, so obviously not. Indeed, so great are our local traditions that they have given birth to a completely new verb, a dazzling gift to the English language: to Walthamize.

These photographs were all taken yesterday. The one above shows a cycle stand on Mission Grove E17, and below is the one next to it. The final pic was taken in The Town Square by the children’s playground. There was no work going on around these cycle stands. To JB Riney’s not very bright workers, cycle stands are simply convenient places to store plastic fencing and other equipment.

Obstructed cycle lane update

I reported the road-work signs littered around Central Walthamstow, most jauntily thrown into the cycle lanes by the contractors repairing the road. I sent this on the 29th September.

I received an automatic email from Waltham Forest on the 29th, thanking me for my complaint.

That was last Wednesday. And on Friday, the complainant, The Grumpy Cyclist, reported

I cycled past the roadsigns this evening to find that they haven't been moved an inch.

I cycled past the ones on Selborne Road today. They still haven’t been moved. In fact the situation is worse than it was before, with even more crap in the one metre wide cycle lane by the bus station.

But then that’s why I set up this blog. I got tired of reporting stuff that was never dealt with. I thought I’d embarrass the council instead. Silly me. This crap council is beyond embarrassment.

Barriers to cycling: yesterday’s crop

The barriers to cycling are sometimes quite literal, as these photographs, all taken yesterday, illustrate. The sign above, which is mysteriously blank, has been placed in the cycle lane on Selborne Road E17.

It’s bad enough that the entire London cycling establishment is committed to the failed strategy of vehicular cycling (by ‘cycling establishment’ I refer to the London Cycling Campaign, Sustrans, London Councils and Transport for London), a policy fully supported by London’s leading Green Party transport campaigner Jenny Jones who asserts:

There is a culture of cycling which says that people should get on their bikes, take to the road and be treated with the same respect as any other vehicle. Taking this simple step is therefore a symbol of cyclists reclaiming their place on the roads.

Sadly, Jenny is breezily indifferent to the reality that this ‘culture’ is of no interest to the 98 per cent of Londoners who would rather choose to make their journeys by anything except riding a bicycle, for the simple reason that London’s roads are too cluttered by motor vehicles to make cycling remotely attractive except to a tiny minority. No amount of fiddling with the vehicular cycling infrastructure and making ‘improvements’ is ever going to change that.

And in the real world, even where the car-choked streets of London have had their margins ‘reclaimed’ for vehicular cycling infrastructure, the result is a farce. London’s cycling establishment and campaign groups are incapable of even defending and protecting the crap vehicular cycling infrastructure that currently exists. Crap cycle lanes are obstructed by thick contractors and cycle stands continue to be treated as rubbish collection points. That’s why I can’t bear this kind of institutional fantasy.

(Below) Another sign placed in the one-metre wide cycle lane on Selborne Road E17.




























(Below) 'Roadworks ahead' sign placed in the cycle lane on Hoe Street E17 (A112). And note the death trap railings.

























(Below) This roadworks sign has been attached to the cycle stand outside 243 Wood Street by contractors working for the London Borough of Waltham Forest.






























(Below) Who are the crap contractors who obstruct cycle stands like this? Look closely and you will see that on the sign is the word Kenson.




























(Below) Rubbish piled for collection by the cycle stand outside 565 High Road Leytonstone.































(Below) More rubbish sacks piled for collection by the cycle stand outside 745 High Road Leytonstone.

































(Below) Cycle lane on High Road Leytonstone, close to the junction with Cathall Road.




























(Below) Note how the cash machine sign, which is illegally displayed on the footway, protrudes over the kerb into the cycle lane.





























(Below) Another rubbish collection point. A112, corner of Downsell Road E15.

Test your cycling skills in Waltham Forest

Piling temporary fencing at the entrance/exit to a two-way cycle path and then leaving it there for weeks is an awfully clever idea, is it not? St Mary Road E17.

(Below) This woman prefers the cycle path to the steps, as do almost all pedestrians at this badly designed piece of infrastructure. And as you can see the footway is obstructed by a traffic cone and one of the council's 'quality environment' litter bins.



























(Below) Who is responsible for this lamentable state of affairs? It says on the sign 'RINEY - working with Waltham Forest in a coalition of crap'. Or something like that...