The SUSTRANS ‘Tarkovsky trail’ for sci-fi cyclists & psychogeographers

Rejoice! For the London Borough of Waltham Forest Local Implementation Plan (or LIP) has at last crawled forth into daylight. As yet the council does not seem to have made it available online. But not to worry. You could always try one of the local libraries. Like this Walthamstow blogger:

I asked if I could see “the definitive map and statement for the boroughs public rights of way” (“please”). Both ‘points’ consulted the online oracle and were equally puzzled as to what and where this document is. The librarians suggested I come back and ask some other librarians.

Much more about the LIP shortly. Crack teams of experts here at the Krapp Institute are subjecting the LIP’s stated aim of ‘encouraging cycling’ to rigorous critical scrutiny, and our report will be out in a day or so. Before that we shall expose a Town Hall car dependency scandal. But for today, as a small musical prelude to a thunderous symphony, let us consider section 3.4.7, entitled ‘Greenways and new cycle schemes’.

Waltham Forest’s LIP was developed in consultation with, among other organisations, SUSTRANS. Basically, the Sustrans ‘Olympic Greenways’, which were quietly shelved a couple of years ago, have once again been brought out into daylight, dusted down and reinvented for the LIP.

LIP funding has been obtained for ‘High quality cycle networks’ including ‘Greenways’, offering ‘convenient, predictable and reliable access to local destinations’ (p. 57)

This blog post will deal with one such ‘Greenway’ identified in the LIP, which is to be ‘developed and upgraded’ and which will ‘expand and enhance cycle infrastructure’ in Waltham Forest. And this particular one leads to the Lea Valley, wherein is to be found that distant, legendary Shangri-La known as ‘the Upper Lea Valley Opportunity area’.

But enough talk. Let us begin our epic journey down this Greenway, which is marked on the map on page 58 of the LIP.

In the east, this LIP Greenway begins at the idyllic Crooked Billet underpass (where the North Circular Road meets the A112 and the B179). What local cyclists think of this much-celebrated facility is indicated by the annual cycle counts for the period 2006-2010, which, over the period 7 am-7 pm, on a July day, are 309, 324, 294, 223 and 228. This indicates a trend. Which is a shame as there is so much to see and enjoy at the Crooked Billet. Take this intriguing structure, for example (below). A solitary running shoe amid the detritus in the foreground hints at an untold story. And what lies inside the darkness of those slightly open doors? The entrance to the magical land of Narnia? Or simply a decomposing corpse?





























But now it’s time to set off down the Greenway. The first part of the Greenway runs south of Billet Road on a new cycle path which has previously been celebrated on this blog. (Since that post it's been slightly extended, by the ingenious device of painting a white line down the middle of the relatively narrow pavement.)

Follow it to the end, cross Billet Road – do remember your Green Cross Code as the drivers are going much faster than 30 mph! – and go to the end of the cul de sac to the right of the new Academy (i.e. what used to be known as The McEntee School). You will be greeted by that essential design feature of every exemplar SUSTRANS route – a barrier. But there's access in the mud at the side for cyclists, so not to worry.































Here the route really comes into its own. The suburbs fade and rural life takes over, rich with glimpses of overgrown, derelict buildings, strange motionless horses, and a supermarket cart mysteriously enclosed on all sides by metal fencing. This simply reinforces the general theory that

Tarkovsky’s Stalker seems to be a parable about the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is set in a wilderness area full of decay, where the normal laws of physics no longer apply.


































At the end of the path you meet another one, entirely lacking in direction signs. But as local psychogeographer and artist Julian Beere observes, this is not all that unusual in the London Borough of Waltham Forest:

Some of the paths appear unsigned, nameless; nowhere between somewhere or other - liminal passages.

In fact you need to turn left here, if you are following the Greenway route, which runs behind the Academy playing fields. As you can see, the width of the path here makes it highly suitable for two-way family leisure cycling shared with dog walkers. Who can doubt that this will become a veritable 'Camel Trail' for North East London?



































Before long you will encounter the delightful entrance to another public footpath, this one leading off south back to Billet Road. Naturally it’s unsigned. If you plan on leaving the Greenway here please note that experience in wading through toilet seats is an advantage.






























And this (below) is where this Greenway route eventually terminates, where it meets the aptly named Folly Lane.

More flytipping (the CCTV stalk nearby has the camera missing) and the entrance is coated in hundreds of tiny pieces of broken glass. This route has been identified by a top man at the London Cycling Campaign as ‘a hidden treasure’, proving once again that the LCC has a shrewd understanding of how to get more people cycling.
































If you don’t fancy returning along the Greenway route there’s an alternative. Overgrown crumbling steps reminiscent of a lost Mayan temple lead mysteriously upward…






























You emerge on to a lush green plateau containing this enigmatic artefact (below). Is it an extra-terrestrial taking a nap or simply her space module?

All I know is that next moment there was a blinding flash and I woke up several hours later to find myself back at the Crooked Billet, with my bike computer mysteriously frozen at the time I left ‘the Tarkovsky trail’.

How an integrationist became a segregationist

When I started this blog I was an integrationist. I was against the idea that cyclists need infrastructure separate from drivers. But not any more. Basically I'd rather cycle in conditions of the sort found in Assen (second pic) than Leyton (first pic). [Assen pic by David Hembrow] I imagine any sane person would, too. And if you really want to get masses of Londoners cycling, you aren't going to succeed if they have to face the kinds of traffic to be experienced in Leyton or anywhere else in the capital.

A central argument against segregation is that it reinforces the idea that cyclists aren’t traffic and don’t belong on the road. Removing cyclists from the roads is exactly what the road lobby wants. The most prominent American advocate of so-called ‘vehicular cycling’ is John Forester. For an English variation there’s this, from Bill Chidley:

I fear that the push for cycle lanes will result in cyclists being pushed off the road altogether. Those of you who might dismiss such a view as paranoia brought on by galloping monoxide poisoning would do well to remember the words of Edmund King, of the Automobile Association: "I think separating out cyclists [from other traffic] can only be good for everyone." In other words, get off the road - you know it makes sense. If one of the main obstacles to getting more bums on bikes is lack of confidence, then surely it would be better to spend the money on training so that potential cyclists will know how to handle their bikes and to recognise and negotiate hazards. This will instil confidence. And a confident cyclist is a safe cyclist.

This is also the philosophy of the Cyclists’ Touring Club. We have a national cycle network that connects everywhere to everywhere else - the routes are called "roads". Cycling is not in decline but growing, and the more people who can be persuaded to cycle the safer and more attractive cycling will become. The London Cycling Campaign has a similar philosophy, though it is not in principle opposed to segregation, and it is in favour of ‘cycling friendly streets’, which seems to mean on-road cycle lanes and Advanced Stop Lines.

Put like that, who would want to defend segregation? It is perfectly true that British-style segregation is crap. British cycling infrastructure in almost every aspect is subordinated to the primacy of motor vehicles, both driven and parked. British highway engineers like nothing more than splashing some paint on a pavement, sticking up a sign with a bike next to a pedestrian, and calling it ‘shared use’. Even when a separate off-road cycle path is built it is often a hideous parody of what you’d find on the continent.

Cycling ideologues who heap praises on British segregated cycling infrastructure often seem wholly detached from reality. Thus the Waltham Forest Cycle Campaign asserts that

Probably the best single cycle facility in the borough, though, is the underpass under the notorious Billet roundabout on the North Circular Road. It has cyclepaths connecting to all of the roads entering the roundabout on an intermediate level above the North Circular Road.

The most recent high profile cycle route was provided on the new Orient Way which links West Leyton with Stratford along the Lea Valley. This has very wide and smooth segregated cycletracks and it won the LCC Best Cycle Route Award in 2001.

Yet “the best single cycle facility in the borough” is unpopular with cyclists. The Council’s own figures show that in the eight years between 1998 and 2007 cycling numbers actually decreased at the Crooked Billet underpass.

The following 7am to 7pm cycle counts undertaken along the North Circular Road screenline.

Crooked Billet underpass:

1998: 335

2002: 312

2006: 309

2007: 324

While cycling on selected main roads in Waltham Forest has generally risen, cycling numbers fell at the Crooked Billet underpass over a nine year period. This underpass system is actually suppressing cycling. Curiously the figures for 1985-1996 have been removed from the record of cycle counts given on p. 21 of the Council’s Waltham Forest Cycle Action Plan, which is plainly another attempt to mask failure, rather than acknowledge it and seek a solution.

No counts are taken on the Orient Way cycle path, and I think I can guess why. It’s little-used by cyclists, largely because it is not a strategic route but also because it is broken up by side roads where the cyclist has to give way, has one section which is lonely and out of sight, has signalled junctions where a cyclist has to wait up to three times at red to travel some 50 metres, and it is generally an unpleasant environment, beside fast moving traffic. The fact that crap like this was felt worthy of a prize by the London Cycling Campaign shows how bizarrely remote from any notion of attractive and convenient cycling that organisation is.

But if crap British segregated infrastructure is deterring cycling, so, too, is on-road unsegregated cycling. Consider Hale End Road E17. The cycle counts (for a period of 12 hours) are

1998: 64

2002: 82

2006: 101

2007: 61

Now take a look at the road conditions. Speeding vehicles which come perilously close.























It would be perfectly feasible to build a segregated cycle lane here, but as fading scraps of white paint on the pavement reveal, the footway is one where you are free to park a car, even though every household has off-street parking. Footway parking allows a resident to accumulate a third car in addition to the two in the front garden.

I am now an enthusiastic convert to the possibility of segregated cycling. The reason is quite simple and can be summed up in two words: David Hembrow. Hembrow’s blog lucidly demonstrates how segregated cycling infrastructure on the Dutch model is the secret of mass cycling. And I see that in being impressed by the world of possibility which David Hembrow's blog opens up I am not alone.

The Netherlands is the leading cycling nation in the world and it’s all down to segregated infrastructure. But it's not on the road lobby's terms, rather the reverse. Even within the Netherlands the variations in modal share are rooted in infrastructure. Cycling is suppressed where cyclists have little infrastructure and have to share the road with large volumes of traffic, and cycling’s modal share rockets once you put the bicycle before the car and provide direct, safe, convenient segregated infrastructure. Now, everywhere I cycle, I see the potential which London has, if only cycling campaigners would embrace the Dutch template.

But many won’t. Britain is too hilly! There just isn’t room on London’s narrow streets! Where would all the parked cars go? The excuses pile up, reminding me of the excuses people give as to why they really, really need to travel short distances by car.

And hardcore cyclists think if they can do it, everyone else can. People who are afraid to cycle, quite reasonably in my view, are lectured with road casualty statistics and told how rare it is to be killed or injured. There’s safety in numbers! But as a hardcore cyclist myself I have grown increasingly disenchanted with on-road cycling in London. The sheer volume of traffic, both in motion and parked, makes for very uncomfortable cycling, and the large number of aggressive and reckless drivers take away the joy of cycling. What ought to be an exhilarating way of getting around is all too often stressful, unpleasant or frustratingly inconvenient. The reason why so many cyclists ride on pavements, go through red lights and go down one-way streets the 'wrong' way is that the existing transport infrastructure thwarts them at every turn. Perceived 'bad behaviour' by cyclists is simply a classic Darwinian survival strategy in a hostile environment. Cyclists usually want to get to their destinations on fast, safe routes, and if the transport infrastructure only puts up barriers to that aspiration, they adapt accordingly. I always cycle down Lloyd Baker Street WC1 (see photo below) the 'wrong' way and I see no reason not to.

Parking is certainly an issue in transforming London. Getting rid of car parking was the challenge for both Groningen and Copenhagen. The proliferation of parked cars in London has been achieved at the expense of pedestrians and cyclists. There is no reason why this tide should not be reversed. But it has to begin with cycling campaigners having a vision of what is possible. Here I am not optimistic. Cycling campaigners seem to me to be all too often either defeatist (masked as gritty realism about the limits of the possible) or collaborationist (accepting with gratitude the scraps offered them).

The other day, on London Cyclist, someone commented

Anything that tends to get more people onto cycles more often is likely to be mostly good. Then an increasing number of people will find that, without any particular magic (or clothing), they are “cyclists” too. And then they may think about that when driving or walking around London. And then they may start thinking “hmmm, it would be better if there was better cycling infrastructure in London; perhaps I should contact my council”. And then things might snowball.

They might. But I don’t think for a moment that they will. Not unless cycling campaigners are very clear what they want, and what they are no longer prepared to put up with. Me, I want infrastructure on the Dutch model. I’m sick of all this other crap.

(Below) Space which could be used for a wide, segregated cycle lane is instead devoted to free car parking on the pavement. Chingford Road E17, where drivers speed.



























(Below) The perfect site for a wide segregated cycle lane - currently devoted to free parking for 4X4 owners, despite off-street parking nearby. Shernhall Street E17.





















(Below) Lloyd Baker Street WC1. This absurdly wide street is one-way, even though it is on a direct line for cyclists heading into the West End, and wholly given over to car parking, not cycling.























(Below) Farringdon Street EC4. The carriageway is seven lanes wide, two reserved for taxi parking, none devoted exclusively to cycling.

























(Below) Bayley Street WC1. Ample room for segregated cyle lanes, if you got rid of those taxi stands. It is surrealistic that a handful of parked vehicles are the priority on this street, not safe segregated cycling.

Transport for London’s crap contractors

TfL’s indifference to cycling and walking is eloquently expressed by the organisation’s attitude to the maintenance of the Crooked Billet underpass, on the border of Walthamstow and Chingford. This was the situation last June. And it was no different last week (above) with the cycle lane blocked by a mountain of pruned vegetation, and the contractors yet again having driven as close as possible to the site and showing the typical contractor’s indifference to free access for cyclists and walkers.

And that sign in the background is pointing in precisely the wrong direction. No suprise there. Signing for cyclists in the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a total farce, with no one ever bothering to check on them (the Council claims that signs are checked every four weeks but that's a lie of stupefying proportions). Ironically this site is not all that far from where the Councillor most responsible for this dismal state of affairs lives, i.e. Bob Belam. Bob needs to get out more and spend some quality time at his local labyrinth.

























The problem with contractors is that they tend to be Sun-reading car dependent males with no awareness of access issues, working for firms who get away with obstructing the footway, or for that matter cycle lanes, simply because no government has ever bothered to introduce appropriate legislation, and complacent organisations like TfL set no standards to which firms have to adhere.

The very next day I spotted this on the corner of Comely Bank Road E17 and Brunswick Street. The problem for a wheelchair user isn't the flytipped TV or the badly-sited telephone pole, it's the contractor's sign left propped against the pole. And it occurs to me that there's a strange law of physics whereby street furniture (including cycle stands) acts as a magnetic attraction for other objects, of the variety which we of the scientific community term crap.

Poor maintenance at the Crooked Billet underpass

(Above) Pedestrians on the left, cyclists on the right. The cycle lane leading down from the south-west side of the Crooked Billet underpass system (Billet Road south side).

See the improvement since last year.

Yes, that’s right. A lot more leaves but no dead rat and no graffiti. What a British cycling campaigner would call a scientific 63 per cent improvement.

(Below) The cycle lane leading down from the Chingford 'quiet route' (Grove Park Avenue)






















(Below) The cycle lane leading south under the Crooked Billet roundabout.





















(Below) The cycle lane leading east out of the underpass, towards Roberts Road E17.

TfL's cycling-unfriendly contractors

Yesterday morning. The off-road cycle lane at the Crooked Billet, blocked by a van. And not just any van. These contractors (whose indifference to cyclists is only matched by their contempt for pedestrians) are working for Transport for London, via London Streets, as incarnated by AMEY. Amey are yet another of those crap contractors whose website drips with Greenwash gibberish:

We therefore aim to provide world class services that provide benefit to all our stakeholders, whilst operating within environmental limits; limiting our impact where possible; working to the highest level of integrity; maximising the benefits and minimising costs. Specifically, Amey will be an exemplar in sustainability, adding value by taking action over and above minimum compliance, whilst ensuring that our own competitive interests, the interests of our customers, of wider society and the environment are given equal consideration under the principles of sustainable development.

Unfortunately finding a van in the cycle lane was just the start. If, having read this post, you feel like emailing Jenny Jones, the Green Party's transport spokeswoman on the London Assembly, you can do so at this address: jenny.jones@london.gov.uk
To complain to Boris or TfL the details can be found here. What I want to know, apart from why TfL is employing contractors which display zero awareness of cycling safety, is why this work isn't being done by a cycle-based firm. You do not need to drive a van down a cycle lane in order to carry two strimmers and dispose of some vegetation. A bicycle based firm could do this stuff. Why isn't TfL encouraging Green bike-based business? Why isn't Boris?

(Below) As I approached the cycle lane exit on to the northbound A112, I encountered more Amey morons. I couldn't believe where these clowns had chosen to park. Right in front of the cycle exit, forcing cyclists out into the middle of the carriageway at a lethal location. Unbelievable. These characters were not doing work on the carriageway but in the underpass, evidently pruning the vegetation. The white van shown above had no one in it.






















(Below) Greenwash.























(Below) Probably not driving at less than 30 mph. High speed traffic leaves the North Circular and joins the northbound A112.























(Below) Looking back in the other direction. High speed traffic comes racing round off the North Circular. Drivers are given no warning that cyclists will suddenly appear in the road from behind a wall. Cyclists are given no physical protection from oncoming traffic and have to rely on drivers keeping off the dashed white lines.

Easter in Walthamstow

(Above) Easter is here, and the urban hedgerows are a riot of colour. This fugitive Sainsbury's trolley can be found on the public footpath leading off Blackhorse Mews E17.

(Below) Children have fun pushing abandoned Sainsbury's trolleys down the cycle lane at the Crooked Billet underpass.



















(Below) At this very special time of year a valuable reminder to passing drivers - quench that thirst with a can of Fosters. The perfect message for Forest Road with its speeding drivers and history of fatal collisions.

'Stroll your way to happiness'

Apart from utilising obstructive and ugly advertising panels which are placed across pavements, the ‘Think Feet First’ publicity campaign enlarges on the benefits of walking, with the invitation 'stroll your way to happiness'.

Not only can walking help you lose weight and get into shape, but it can also make you feel happier. Exercise reduces your stress, depression and anxiety levels.

How true! So why not stroll around beautiful Waltham Forest’s dedicated walking facilities and feel the stress, depression and anxiety just melt away! Here are some pics of the local walking environment, taken in the past 2 days.


































(Below) Tired from all that walking? Relax on this attractive bench at the nearby Crooked Billet underpass.




















Or why not relax and enjoy the countryside on this beautiful River Lea walk:







































But as you stroll your way to happiness, make sure you don't cut yourself on all the broken glass...

THINK FEET FIRST

What's this obstructive and ugly pavement obstruction? It's an advertising panel urging us all to walk! (Willow Walk, E17) It seems to depict two children wearing helmets and running for their lives - crossing a local road, I suppose.




















To launch Think Feet First we are running a London wide poster campaign. Each of the adverts uses an often overlooked truth to show how walking can benefit us all. It isn't rocket science but they are little reminders of the benefits of going by foot that prompt us to ask, can I walk it?

This crap is sponsored by The Mayor (that's right, the same Mayor who is hostile to pedestrianisation, and who has slashed pedestrian crossing times), TfL (which has signally failed to make London a walking-friendly city) and the NHS (which at the local flagship hospital promotes car dependency at the expense of cyclists and pedestrians).

In reality the walking environment is all too often decayed, unswept, obstructed, or with a neglected infrastructure. Prepare to make your descent into this grisly underworld (below) on Stirling Road E17.





















(Below) One of numerous signs at the Crooked Billet underpass which are pointing in exactly the opposite direction to what the sign says. The crap council hasn't sent anyone along to correct the signs during the 18 months I've been blogging about this problem.




















(Below) Brandon Road E17. The pavement is repeatedly blocked at this spot by someone who dumps sacks and a bin across the footway by this tree on a regular weekly basis. It's been going on for over a year and I've blogged about it before. Needless to say the crap council hasn't lifted a finger to put a stop to this anti-social behaviour.






















Incidentally, I followed the Think Feet First website link which supplies information on low-air-pollution walking routes. I chose Leyton to Walthamstow. It directed me along two streets: from High Road Leyton along Hoe Street. In other words, two of the busiest roads in the area, where air pollution is at its highest. Another sign that this ‘campaign’ is in the hands of car drivers, who don’t know the area.

Footnote

This poster crap is part of a national campaign, which includes a section devoted to the glories of walking in Bristol. It seems to be a different Bristol to the one shown here and here.

Yet more Crooked Billet crap

(Above and below) This crap council is too bone idle even to send someone down to the Crooked Billet Underpass to reposition all the signs which are pointing in the wrong direction. To get to Chingford Road (South) or Walthamstow you need to turn left here, not right. That sign is pointing to Chingford, in entirely the wrong direction. These misdirections have gone on for months. I keep pointing this out but nobody gives a toss.



















(Below) As usual there is broken glass all over the cycle lane.




















The leaves that were here the last time I came this way are still there, except now they have turned to a greasy sludge. Conclusive proof that the cycle lanes have not been swept once over the past 14 days at probably the best single cycling facility in Waltham Forest!

Autumn comes to the Crooked Billet underpass

Yes, autumn has arrived at “Probably the best single cycle facility in the borough”

There are lots of slimy, slippery leaves to add an extra bit of fun to those inclines and sharp turns. And talented local artists have enhanced that stylish tiled wall.






































(Below) And what's that in the cycle lane, just to the left of this couple pushing their baby?




















(Below) Yes, it's the Year of the Rat!