A cyclist and his ‘improvement works’

Photo: Martin Dalton

Surfing the interweb I came across this delightful photograph of Councillor Clyde Loakes, the local 'environment' supremo and the man who more than anyone is responsible for inspiring this blog. It’s the only photograph of Clyde on a bike I’ve ever come across. To be honest it looks a bit small for Clyde and suspiciously like one of those made-in-China bikes you can pick up in Halfords for £90. But a mountain bike is a sensible choice for the terrain of Waltham Forest, and those chunky tyres are just the thing for the local glass-strewn cycle lanes.

Many of the improvement works mentioned in this article have already been covered by this blog. Clyde’s idea of improving things for cycling is putting in parking bays alongside cycle lanes and moving the lane closer to overtaking motor vehicles. The Forest Road ‘improvements’ included putting in a pinch point while simultaneously raising the speed limit to 40 mph. But then that was a collaboration with TfL, which explains it.

I recognise the location of the photo. It’s close to Leytonstone tube. Well done Clyde for being able to pose in the cycle lane, as normally it’s blocked by a line of minicabs!

In the background can be seen that marvellous farcility known as Leytonstone bike shed.

Ironically, the spot where Clyde is posing is now also due for Olympic refurbishment. The road closure with cycle access is going to be opened up to motor traffic and the area outside the tube station is going to become ‘shared space’. The local minicab drivers will undoubtedly assist in making this a great success!.

Cycle Superficialhighway news

This gleaming new Cycle Superhighway does look super, does it not?

These lanes cost about £10m each and if you haven't seen them they involve blue smoother surfaces and more branding and signage.

Funding is also aimed at businesses on the routes to encourage cycling.

Cop this:

Ten minutes later the pair came ambling back, one carrying a shopping bag from Tesco Express and appearing to check his receipt. The other appeared to be on hand to guard their dinner provisions. The footage was taken on Tuesday at 6.40pm on the northbound lane of Kennington Park Road, showing the patrol car in breach of signed rules stating drivers must not stop between 7am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday.

Met Commissioner Stephenson announces new lorry/cyclist initiative

(A112. Yesterday)

In an exciting new Metropolitan Police road safety initiative, cyclists will be invited to sit in the cab of an HGV parked on double-yellow lines at a road junction in order to see how much more convenient it is for lorry drivers to flout parking restrictions and also what a really great view you get of the cycle lane you are parked on.

Having announced the new scheme, Commissioner Stephenson then left in his chauffeur-driven limo, explaining he had an important meeting in a bar where the editor of The Sun was buying him drinks.

Street furniture news

Coming soon to a footway near you...

A Government Minister has clashed with BT over thousands of 5ft-high metal broadband cabinets cropping up in outlandish positions in the middle of residential streets.

Paul Burstow accused the telecom giant of behaving ‘outrageously’ after an elderly constituent woke to find one of the green broadband boxes blocking the view from her front window.

Which is somewhat hypocritical since it was a Conservative government which allowed the siting of such objects outside the remit of local councils.

In a civilised society local councils should have been given the power to determine the location of these artefacts. A civilised society would also insist that they be located in the carriageway, on a chicane, to provide additional motor vehicle calming and to provide local residents with some form of compensation for these ugly objects.

The cabinets, appearing across Britain at the rate of 200 to 300 a week, allow a fibre-optic connection to be made between the local telephone exchange and homes and businesses in the area.

Their dimensions vary, but most are 66in high, 47in wide and 17in deep.

BT does not need planning permission, except in conservation areas, to install the boxes.

BT Outreach are also good at obstructing cycling access, like here on Buxton Road, Walthamstow, the other day. Look closely and you’ll see that the van is displaying a blue badge. I think it’s marvellous that people with a severe disability can find employment driving vans, going up ladders and fixing telephone wires, don’t you? Well done BT!

Signs should always be sited where they least inconvenience drivers

Holland Street SE1

‘Bike week’ and crap cycling in Barnet, Oxford and York

Bike Week begins tomorrow, which means we’ll be getting lots of Team Green Britain tosh.

Hey, let’s get in the mood by celebrating cycling in the London Borough of Barnet and two of Britain’s leading cycling cities, Oxford and York.

Barnet

Barnet Council has created a Bikeless Borough. There is virtually nothing for cyclists in Barnet except cycling on the traffic-choked, boy-racer filled main roads and residential rat-runs. No cycle lanes, paths, parks, home-zones, nothing like that. In Brian Coleman's Barnet, there is no room for the bike. Bikes, as he said so clearly in his email to Camden Cycling Campaign, just get in the way. It will get even worse when the TfL/Barnet Council changes to the North Circularl/A41 junction at Henlys corner get built.


Oxford

Whilst Oxford has a useful network of off-road cycle routes, and some other examples of good practice, overall the conditions for cycling compare unfavourably with European ‘cycling cities’. Cycle routes lack continuity, there is a lack of cycle parking, facilities are often poorly designed and the most direct routes along the main roads are intimidating for all but the most experienced and determined.

Oxford City Centre is already difficult to cross by bicycle. The existing restrictions on cycling along Cornmarket Street and Queen Street during the daytime sever the main North-South and East-West desire lines. As always in such circumstances (with cyclists or pedestrians) the rules are not well respected.

The alternative North-South route via New Inn Hall Street – part of National Cycle Network route 5 – is poorly designed for cycling and would need considerable work to make it a feasible route for journeys through the city centre for transport (as opposed to leisure) purposes.

York

York is one of the country's premier cycling cities, with traffic-free routes, quiet country roads and on-road cycle lanes. York provides the ideal setting for a leisurely family day out

Many of these fabulous on-road cycle lanes are protected by double-yellow line ‘no waiting at any time’ parking restrictions, so get your kids on their bikes and get stuck into family friendly cycling.

Cycling-friendly Gillygate (below) has a one-metre cycle lane. Perfect for a leisurely family cycle ride to the centre of town.

(Below) Let’s imagine you’ve turned into Bootham out of Gillygate with your partner and kids. The first thing you meet is the start of the cycle lane...

And in the space of a couple of minutes cycling you meet this and this:

(Below) If you are heading back into the centre of York along cycling-friendly Bootham you'll have lots of opportunities to tell your kids how to spell 'articulated lorry'.

And if you are just a mere slip of a girl who doesn’t fit the demographic of rugged, courageous, helmet-wearing luminous-yellow vehicular cycling bloke aged 25-45, and you think York is a car-sick city crammed with useless, dangerous, unenforced cycle lanes…. then there’s always the pavement!

Finally, the reality that most British cycling campaigners and cycle campaign organisations and groups, as well as all UK transport planners including the ones in York, still doggedly refuse to acknowledge:

Q: To get more people on their bikes, what are the ‘must-haves’ in terms of cycling infrastructure?

A: No city in Europe or North America has achieved a high level of cycling without an extensive network of well-integrated bike lanes and paths that provide separation from motor vehicle traffic. Bikeways are the trademark of bike-oriented cities in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. Bike paths and lanes must be combined with intersection modifications such as advance stop lines, special lane markings, extra turning lanes, and advance green lights for cyclists. Physical separation from motor vehicle traffic is crucial for enabling risk-averse and/or vulnerable groups to cycle. Virtually all surveys report that separate cycling facilities are needed to encourage non-cyclists to cycle, especially for women, seniors, and children. Those traffic-sensitive groups have high rates of cycling in countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, with their extensive separate cycling facilities, but low rates in countries where most cycling is on roads with heavy traffic and no separation for cyclists. Separate cycling facilities are a crucial first step toward increasing cycling and making it socially inclusive.

Got that? A crucial first step. Not just another item to add to a long list of aspirations in the traditional UK cycle campaign pepper-potting way.

Down memory lane: the London Cycle Network Design Manual

The development of the London Cycle Network is an important step towards an integrated transport policy for London. A modal share of 10% of trips by cycle is London’s target by 2012, in line with the National Cycling Strategy of quadrupling cycle use by then.This should greatly assist with the problems of pollution and road congestion that presently exist.

However

In designing specific cycle schemes the needs of other road users should always be considered

In other words, failure was embedded in the scheme from the very beginning, because there was a tacit acknowledgement that nothing must be done that would in any way challenge the hegemony of private car use.

And remember, this was a vehicular cycling project. It failed to recognise the concept of ‘subjective safety’, displayed no interest in acknowledging why cycling is a deeply unpopular travel mode in London, and showed no interest whatsoever in learning from successful cycling cultures in cities outside the UK. But even at the level of vehicular cycling it was doomed to fail through the simple absurdity of putting car parking before convenient cycling.

(Below) The London Cycle Network, with unlimited free car parking in the cycle lane. Leyton Green Road (B159)

Bournemouth twinned with Waltham Forest

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

Cyclists and the Costa sustainability

Cycling east along Selborne Road E17 yesterday I encountered an obstruction in the form of YJ58 UOH. As the driver was in his cab I preferred to use one of his 'blind spots' to take a pic from the rear (many lorry drivers are camera shy and some shout very rude words).

The company this driver is working for is passionate about equity, sustainability and the environment (their coffee comes from sustainably grown beans sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms). Such a shame these values don’t extend to the Costa vehicle fleet. The signing here is clear enough: a double-yellow line ‘no waiting at any time’ parking restriction, apart from it being a bus lane with a continuous white line and the only other permitted users being taxis and cyclists. The driver had parked on the footway (another offence) and was also blocking the dropped kerb which allows cycling access to the Town Square. Clearly a driver in need of serious re-education.

I was inspired by this experience to check out the world of Rainforest advocacy. It led me to this.

Linda has a passionate interest in electric cars and all things environmental... Every time I turn the key in the ignition, I experience the thrill of “riding the rays” while avoiding the corner gas station. One of our recent utility bills indicated that we owed $1.95 for two months of powering our 3,000 square- foot home and sending the electric vehicle down the freeway at ticket-inducing speeds. It really doesn’t get any better than that

Bless.

The continuing degradation of the walking and cycling environment in Waltham Forest

(Above) Typical Waltham Forest joke cycle lane

One of the central themes of this blog is that for cycling and walking things are getting worse, not better. Well, they are in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Here are some photographs of two streets where footway parking used to be banned. Now, in the name of ‘regeneration’ and ‘smoother traffic flow’ see the results.

The photo above and the two below show Wood Street, Walthamstow. In the name of ‘regeneration’ the footway has been seized for car parking. Naturally once you allow footway parking, some drivers park in the areas they aren’t supposed to. Instead of re-arranging street space to benefit cyclists and pedestrians, Waltham Forest council is doing exactly the reverse – promoting increased car ownership and use at their expense.


































(Below) Wingfield Road E17. Parking on the footway used to be banned. But as car ownership grew and filled both sides of the street this created problems for larger vehicles. Instead of solving this at the expense of the parked vehicles, the Council decided that pedestrians would have to pay the price. A dashed white lane was painted just beyond the kerb. You can see how well this has worked out.

Three examples of cycle access at road closures

Here in the London Borough of Redbridge, Hermitage Walk E18 is signed as a dead-end road. The sign should have an indication that there is access for cyclists but naturally doesn’t. Well after all, this is only a ‘Biking Borough’.

Cleverly, the width of the cycle access is 73 cm. That’s one in the eye for those eccentric people who tow trailers or buy one of those funny foreign contraptions (the width of cargo bikes varies, but here’s a fairly average one that is 90cm wide).






























Hats off to the London Borough of Hackney for putting up a lovely blue sign on Hillstowe Street E5 (below) indicating that this is a dedicated cycling route. In fact this a major permeability route for anyone cycling west on Lea Bridge Road (A104) and heading for the Mare Street part of town.


























Just go down blocked-off Hillstowe Street, across the park (cycle path provided) and up Powerscroft Road. And haven’t Hackney done well? A single bike logo on the road surface is all that is needed to ensure that the cycle access is kept clear at all times by considerate drivers.






























Planning to cycle to the Olympics from the London Borough of Waltham Forest? The Leyton Greenway starts on Marsh Lane. To access it and avoid the hellish A1006 why not thread your way through the quiet back streets, emerging by Marsh Lane on Radlix Road E10.

The cycle access here is… Oh, no, sorry. There just isn’t the space. Cycle access here would get in the way of the car parking at this junction, especially on the A1006. And anyway, cyclists don’t need infrastructure. All they need is encouragement and cycle training.

How Waltham Forest Council and Ascham Homes sponsor footway obstruction by lawless lorry drivers

A recent Housing Needs Survey found that 24.2% of households in the London Borough of Waltham Forest included a member with a disability. Furthermore, 44.1% of these with a disability suffered from mobility difficulties with 6.2% containing a member who is a wheelchair user.

You might think, therefore, that the Council would be keen to ensure that its pavements were kept free of obstruction. Not a bit of it. When I asked how many shopkeepers had been prosecuted in the past year for obstructing the footway with advertising boards, back came the answer: none.

Worse still, Ascham Homes, which is the council’s privatised housing department, contracts work out to scaffolding firms which have no standards at all when it comes to blatant obstruction of the footway and displays of total indifference to pedestrians with a mobility difficulty (which can be anything from being blind, pushing a double buggy, using a wheelchair, or being on crutches).

Today I encountered this Griffin scaffolding lorry (above) parked completely across the pavement on Addison Road by the junction with Beulah Road. Scaffolding is going up on the block of flats here, which I’m pretty sure is local authority housing under the control of Ascham Homes.

This is quite a lethal bend as drivers come round it fast, making the complacent assumption that the unseen road ahead will always be clear. This lorry is also parked right by a nursery, and there are a lot of parents/carers pushing buggies or walking with toddlers.

Griffin claim to be particularly concerned for the safety of pedestrians ‘walking by’ sites where their scaffolding is erected:

it’s an area we take really seriously.

We operate a tight health and safety policy.

The scaffolding industry strikes me as being completely out of control as far as its attitude to health and safety for cyclists and pedestrians is concerned. Indeed, even quite rudimentary matters are neglected. For example, I spotted this Mattison Scaffolding lorry (below) in Walthamstow High Street on Saturday. A green lorry working for an ostensibly ‘Green’ firm (they are still working on their spelling).

This lorry has no rear numberplate. And its load appeared to be unsecured.































A firm which seems to get a lot of business from Waltham Forest Council, via its proxy Ascham Homes, is AJ Scaffolding. This firm boasts that

Due to the importance of Health & Safety all our scaffolding operatives receive ongoing training and have passed their health & safety test. All operatives are trained to current statutory legislation.

And this, below, was the scene on Westbury Road E17 on the afternoon of February 21st. Scaffolding was dumped across the footway, and a lorry was parked across the footway all afternoon, forcing pedestrians out into the middle of the road. These scaffolders were working on Hatherley House, which is very definitely under the care of Ascham Homes.



























I emailed Ascham Homes that very afternoon with a copy to Chris Robbins, Leader of Waltham Forest council. I complained about the situation on Westbury Road and asked

Perhaps you could enlighten me as to what standards Ascham Homes requires of contractors who work for it, and if they cover such matters as respecting the rights and safety of pedestrians and obeying traffic laws designed to protect them.

Neither Ascham Homes nor Cllr Robbins have since troubled to reply, but then I note that even a member of the Ascham Homes board grumbles that Currently there is a lot of indifference to residents’ views and complaints.

No surprise, then, that nothing has changed. Here they are again today – AJ Scaffolding, working for Ascham Homes, with a lorry parked quite unnecessarily across the footway on St Stephens Close E17. This footway provides a useful short cut for pedestrians through to Grove Road.


























(Below) Parked both across the cycle lane and on the footway on a double yellow line ‘no waiting at any time’ restriction. Today. POSH Scaffolding, who seem to be based in Essex. Ah, well, an Essex driver – that would explain it.



























And look what's the other side of the road! Walthamstow Police Station. But as we know, anti-social behaviour and lawlessness involving a driver isn't really of any interest to London's finest.




























Lastly (below), here’s J&A Scaffolding in action on a property off Pretoria Avenue.

A large proportion of our current work is for local Councils and our reputation has been built on trust and reliability. We take Health and Safety as a priority. Yeah, right…

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.

The view from the cycle lane

A typical Waltham Forest cycle lane of the sort which is going to generate 3,000 extra cycling trips in the borough every day this year, and then 3,000 more the year after, and every year after that until 2026, when the Mayor’s target of a 5 per cent modal share for cycling will have been achieved across Greater London. Won’t it?

How cycling permeability works

Gaps are provided at road closures, ensuring easy access for cyclists and helping to deter car use. Like here on Edinburgh Road E17, yesterday.

Lorry driver does a quick shop

This parked lorry is transporting quality goods for Britain’s number one shop. But not even this fabulous commercial outlet can supply everything you need. So we must not begrudge the driver for stopping and popping off to a local shop which sells goods that cost more than a quid.

It’s not easy parking a vehicle this size, but luckily here on Hoe Street, Walthamstow, there are special parking bays called ‘bus stops’ which are strictly available only to the larger class of vehicle.

And by parking in the cycle lane the driver has also valuably helped to ensure that there is no danger of London’s most dangerous and anarchic road users ‘undertaking’ here. Well done! I think it’s such a shame when innocent lorry drivers have to endure harassment by bloggers.

Cycling during an exciting time for cycling

Spot the bike logo in the cycle lane


This is an exciting time for cycling. It is at the heart of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) and some London boroughs are already leading the way by improving conditions for cycling and promoting its benefits.

There is growing public enthusiasm for cycling in Outer London. More people are seeing the bike as a viable and attractive alternative to the car. In a recent survey, 58 per cent of Outer Londoners said they are considering cycling more over the coming year.

Clearly outer London will not be like the rest of Britain, where recent research by the Department for Transport indicated that For every three respondents who had tried cycling to work, two had reverted back to using their car.

It’s a mystery why some novices lose their enthusiasm for cycling. The full version of Delivering the benefits of cycling in Outer London is packed with photographs of happy cyclists (although many of them evidently feel the need to wear helmets, which is odd when you consider that cycling in motor traffic is very, very safe). And let’s face it, what could be more relevant to cycling in an Outer London borough like Waltham Forest than pics of people cycling on a sunny day through Hyde Park?

I have been out on my bike today and, yes, as you can see, this is an exciting time for cycling.

(below) one-metre wide cycle lane with left-turning bus. Selborne Road E17.































(below) Walthamstow High Street cycle stand