Cognitive dissonance and London vehicle congestion

South-west London is one of the most congested places in Europe, a new report reveals.

London's busiest roads are congested for up to 92 hours a week, making the capital Europe's fourth worst-affected city.

“London journey times are slow as traffic in the centre moves at around one mile per hour.

“For many drivers, traffic congestion has become inevitable. It's time to challenge conventional thinking with a working solution to reduce the problem now on a huge scale.”

[Needless to say this does not involve cycling.]

Europe's most congested city is Brussels. Second is Warsaw and third Wroclaw, both in Poland. The second most congested city in the UK after London was Edinburgh.

But now The Hammond Organ has released another booming piece of car supremacist bigotry:

The M4 bus lane, which runs from Heathrow to the capital, is to be scrapped.

Next week Transport Secretary Philip Hammond will announce that the lane will be suspended.

In his speech to the Conservative Party conference, Mr Hammond will say: “Nothing is more symbolic of Labour's war on the motorist than the M4 bus lane.

But as Cycalogical points out

Closing the M4 bus lane doesn't fix the eastward bottleneck, which is the 2-lane Brentford Flyover. In fact, closing it will likely make congestion worse

Horsebox in the cycle lane

Another delightful section of the High Road Leytonstone cycle lane, last Thursday.

And let’s see who it is… Ah, right. Not a removals lorry but a horsebox. It’s the notorious ‘working for a safer London’ gang. No sign of any horses, cops or droppings. Maybe the driver had just popped into the adjacent pub for lunch. It’s a mystery.

Waltham Forest is a paradise for blue badge fraudsters

Number of blue badge fraudsters caught by the Council in Waltham Forest in 2009: nil.

Number of blue badge fraudsters caught by PCSOs and police in Waltham Forest in 2009: nil.

Even though blue badge misuse is plainly at epidemic levels locally, none of the authorities which could crack down on this abuse is at all interested. Not that the problem is exclusively local:

More than half of disabled parking badges are being used fraudulently in some parts of the country, officials have warned.

Thousands of motorists are abusing the blue badges to dodge parking fees and get bays close to the entrance of supermarkets, shopping centres and stations.

The National Fraud Authority estimates the abuse costs taxpayers £14.7 million per year but this is likely to be an underestimate as detection and prosecution rates are low.

The numbers of badges being issued has soared in recent years.

Not all London councils are as useless as Waltham Forest however:

Since we have been targeting those drivers who abuse blue badges, in Wandsworth alone we have successfully prosecuted 360 motorists for 1,388 offences.’

This has brought just under £428,000 in fines and costs into the public purse.

And Hampshire County Council

is proposing to charge for blue badge spaces at country parks from February 2011 onwards

I fail to see why anyone who can afford to run a car should be exempt from any charge, and it’s laughable that people in CPZs are allowed to park free if they display a blue badge. Many of the vehicles displaying such badges are expensive 4X4s.

But don’t expect to see a crap council like Waltham Forest to address this problem.

Cyclists ‘more dangerous’ than cars

Cllr Lawrence (‘Larry’) Abraham on cyclists:

"They're more dangerous than any car I've ever seen. They should be paying road tax and have insurance."

Mr Abraham's safety concerns were mirrored by councillor Alison Cook.

She said: "Unfortunately, a lot of cyclists, as soon as they set off, see themselves as king of the road. And a small child hit by a bicycle could have a nasty experience.

Hat tip to The Grumpy Cyclist.

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.

Cyclists assaulted in Hackney

TWO men have been arrested in relation to a spate of assaults and muggings of cyclists on a leafy stretch of De Beauvoir Road.

The muggings came to light after an internet blogger recounted being brutally assaulted earlier this month as he rode home on the junction between De Beauvoir Rd and Northchurch Rd, in the early hours of the morning.

Another cyclist, Peter Kimpton, was attacked by two masked robbers in exactly the same spot in August 2008.

Mr Kimpton, who had to undergo plastic surgery on his face as a result of being repeatedly struck with the D-lock of his bike during the assault, said: “I never go that route these days, but I’m exasperated to hear that it is still happening and nothing has been done to warn cyclists.”

A police spokeswoman would not disclose how many incidents had occurred in the vicinity of De Beauvoir Square.

Driver 'loses control' in Vallentin Road

A WOMAN was injured when the car she was in crashed in Walthamstow earlier today.

It happened in Vallentin Road at around 12 noon.

No other vehicles were thought to have been involved.

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane:

My photos above and below were taken yesterday, standing on the corner of Vallentin Road and Wood Street E17, looking north. They show a section of the London Cycle Network