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Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9555		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10667623

Good idea but the problem is that cars and other vehicles used them as well so it really becomes pointless. Having cycled that route in the morning in the past it could help, all that are needed now are cameras to keep vehicles out of the lane.
Author:  big_D [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
If they have to share them with normal road traffic, then they are doomed to fail from the get-go. If it is a cycle lane, then it should be a cycle lane, not an any traffic lane, with a cycle painted on it! Either block it off, so that normal vehicles can't get on it, or fine people for using it with a powered vehicle, otherwise it is a waste of paint...

Oh, and painting the roads is generally a bad idea, because the paint can be very slippery, especially when it rains and it is covered with the remains of exhaust fumes! :evil: That is the first less you learn as a motorcyclist, NEVER EVER ride over / along any bit of road that is painted!
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
big_D wrote:
If they have to share them with normal road traffic, then they are doomed to fail from the get-go. If it is a cycle lane, then it should be a cycle lane, not an any traffic lane, with a cycle painted on it! Either block it off, so that normal vehicles can't get on it, or fine people for using it with a powered vehicle, otherwise it is a waste of paint...

Oh, and painting the roads is generally a bad idea, because the paint can be very slippery, especially when it rains and it is covered with the remains of exhaust fumes! :evil: That is the first less you learn as a motorcyclist, NEVER EVER ride over / along any bit of road that is painted!

I have to agree on both points. It looks like a good idea but badly implemented. Since it rains a lot in the english winters this could be a way of making if fail over the winter.
Author:  Nick [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
When I did my driving lessons I was taught that cycle lanes are to be treated as just bog standard regular bits of road, unless there is a cyclist in them, or they are marked with a solid line.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Nick wrote:
When I did my driving lessons I was taught that cycle lanes are to be treated as just bog standard regular bits of road, unless there is a cyclist in them, or they are marked with a solid line.

Not good when they are stopped in the lane blocking it.
Author:  Fogmeister [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
England vs Demark.

My Dad used to live/work in Copenhagen, Denmark and the cycle lanes there put us to shame...

England... (note that there is a central island behind the truck)
Image

... vs Denmark...
Image

I know where I'd rather cycle.
Author:  belchingmatt [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Fogmeister wrote:
England vs Demark.

My Dad used to live/work in Copenhagen, Denmark and the cycle lanes there put us to shame...

I know where I'd rather cycle.


I'm sure I could easily come up with some examples that show the opposite. However on a whole Denmark is better than the UK. I think councils should do more to spearate the types of traffic, and if that means reducing parking and/or lanes then so be it. Parking is a hell of a waste of road.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Holland have similar schemes to denmark. They are very bike friendly. Unlike here, where even the 60' wide Hove seafront is banned to bicycles.
Author:  Linux_User [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Also, to be fair, in a lot of places around England (and Wales) they've started putting cycle lanes on pavements, rather than the road.
Author:  Nick [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
There are cycle lanes on the pavement in lots of places around Bournemouth and Portsmouth too.

As for parking wasting roads, what else can be done?
Author:  belchingmatt [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Nick wrote:
As for parking wasting roads, what else can be done?


Not much without causing an issue unfortunately.
Author:  JJW009 [ Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Nick wrote:
There are cycle lanes on the pavement in lots of places around Bournemouth and Portsmouth too.

. . . and Oxford and most towns in the Netherlands.

I imagine the locals are used to it, but since I'm not I don't usually realise there's a cycle lane until I get run over. Pedestrians don't usually have to look for road markings except when crossing the road.
Author:  big_D [ Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Amnesia10 wrote:
Holland have similar schemes to denmark. They are very bike friendly. Unlike here, where even the 60' wide Hove seafront is banned to bicycles.

Germany is very biker friendly as well. My girlfriend was horrified, when she came to England last year. We were driving down country lanes and she couldn't understand a) why the trees were so close to the road, b) why there were no footpaths and c) why there weren't cycle paths (or at least wide foot-/cyclepaths).
Author:  belchingmatt [ Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
My gf was also horrified when she experienced her first proper country lane, narrow and overgrown it was more like a tunnel.
Author:  snowyweston [ Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
Fogmeister wrote:
Image

I know where I'd rather cycle.

That looks like MK. 8-) Oh how I laugh at people who laugh at MK.
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