Friday, February 25, 2011

Cycle Superhighway 8 - Progress

An update on part of CSH#8.

This is Macduff Road, Wandsworth, near Battersea Park:


As you can see, no continuous blue lane here. Just the blue "elephant's footprints". Is this likely to improve conditions for cycling? It's really the bare minimum they could do: I suppose it might make motorists a little more aware of the presence of cyclists. They could have made the road access-only for motors and blocked off the junctions you can see on either side. Currently, there's danger from cars emerging from these side roads, and danger from overtaking motors (although to be fair this is a fairly quiet road).

Above, at the end of Macduff Road, you need to make a right-turn onto Prince of Wales Drive. They could change the priority of the junction so that the Cycle Superhighway has priority over vehicles on Prince of Wales Drive, but they haven't done. So it remains a dangerous junction, especially bearing in mind that cars can turn right into Macduff Road.

Above, once you're on Prince of Wales Drive, there are these speed cushions. Speed cushions do a poor job of traffic calming, distract both drivers and cyclists and encourage both drivers and cyclists to take an incorrect or unsafe line. As a cyclist, you're likely to get squeezed into the 'dooring zone' by an overtaking vehicle. Will TfL/Wandsworth be replacing these or lowering the speed limit? Call me cynical but I suspect not.

Above - Prince of Wales Drive. Again, TfL have elected for the blue CSH logos, rather than put in a proper lane. They could have made the road one-way for motors and given the other lane to the CSH. Oh well. Bear in mind that traffic is generally a problem in morning commute time - you'll usually see a long line of eastbound traffic, so cyclists will be forced either to filter to the left of the traffic (in the 'dooring zone') or on the right, into oncoming traffic. Hardly confidence-inspiring for the novice cyclist, and not safe.

To sum up, hopefully TfL aren't done yet and will remedy all the safety defects on this part of the CSH#8 route...but if CSH#7 is the benchmark, I somehow think they aren't going to bother.

3 comments:

  1. TfL have an implementation schedule at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/roadusers/Cycling/cs8-implementation-schedule.pdf which lists this section as complete :(

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  2. PoW Drive looks very wide for an unclassified residential back street (I've only ever used the short classified section on my way from the bridge to the common, though). Looks easily wide enough for *proper* infrastructure...

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  3. How did Red Routes come into existence and why can't a similar process be used to clear the CSH routes of obstructions?

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