Minister for cycling says he feels safe riding on London roads - but understands why others don't

Just near my house is the junction between Royal College Street and Kentish Town Road, London, NW1

This morning I made several back and forth trips on foot through this area, between 8.30am and 9.30am

This junction sees a huge amount of traffic (its the one next to cash converters) and I am sad to say I witnessed way too many cyclists breezing straight through the red lights coming south down Kentish Town Road.

Saw several of these RLJ's forced to brake hard to a stop after motor traffic going north up R.C.S. started moving across this junction after the R.C.S. lights turned green.

Seemed to be an equal mix of lycra clad (road bikes) and casually clothed cyclists (dutch bikes / urban singlespeed) doing this red light jumping

Did not see a single motorist jumping this junction this morning, as its well covered with CCTV and yellow no stop grid in the middle.

I'm a life long cyclist like many on here and I had the opportunity to ride London roads for the first time in January 2011 whilst attending a bikeability instructors course held at the Liverpool Grove church in the Walworth area.

I found that although many motorists were pretty good the ones who weren't were exceptionally hostile. Courier white vans and general privately owned cars were driven with excessive speed and seemingly engaged in a Santa Pod type exercise of racing away from lights just to stop further down the road in time to do it all again.

An abundant display of mobiles pressed to the 'hidden' side of faces or balanced on the shoulder held by a leaning head also. Did I feel safe?

Not really.

Would I have felt comfortable taking inexperienced children out onto the roads?

I feel it would have been irresponsible to do so other than on the very quietest of roads with good visibility to give you enough time to spot the next speeding BMW coming your way.

Of course this is a common issue on the majority of roads, I didn't personally feel that London roads were any better or any worse than other busy cities or towns I've ridden in...and that is not a positive comment.

In summary...London roads are like the majority of others in that traffic is too fast and many motorists are engaged in anything but focusing on the immediate task at hand. Much more work to be done then.

I disagree with some on here. I think the message was positive. People thinking that they'll get an HGV ban straight off the bat are being a bit optimistic. I agree with a ban on HGVs but under no illusions that this will take a heck of push and long while to implement.

And yes it is all about the money. Everything is. I would rather have a lot of cheap(er) but effective infrastructure implemented quickly and widely than a little bit of more expensive gold plated infrastructure in a few places when they get round to it.

So yes a few more armadillos and flower pots that work and bit less bright blue paint and hoo haa about cycle superhighways that don't.

I once worked on a road safety project at an accident black spot where several people had died and loads of other crashes and injuries. We had some quite expensive suggestions and amendments to roads mooted to improve the sight line. However, the best solution came when they looked at when the accidents happened. During the day and in the summer. The cause was that this was when the vegetation obscured the view. At night people could see lights of oncoming vehicles. In the winter the vegetation wasn't there. The simple answer was cutting the vegetation right back and about 3m of hard standing to prevent its encroachment. Cost was minimal. No more black spot.

Sometimes simple cheap solutions work better and you can have more of them.

Is there a map of his route anywhere?
Was Upper Thames Street or Blackfriars Bridge on it?
How about a trip down the Mall into the mess of the roundabout at the end and then along Fleet Street?

I can think of some really well used, but utterly shit parts of London's cycling infrastructure that thousands of cyclists have to endure every day. It's not all about the junctions, but the general conditions between them as well.

In my experience, those wearing lycra tend to know what they're doing on a bike more than those not in lycra!

regarding the 20mph speed limit for London its already been adopted by 2 boroughs including LB Camden, which installed a borough wide 20mph speed limit in the Summer.

However, the local Police commander admitted in an interview in the Camden Journal newspaper, that they do not have the resources to effectively Police this speed limit across the Borough

its great making rules but then not enforcing!

it just makes a mockery of all the hard political work done by cycle campaigners and road safety campaigners for this 20mph speed limit (this apparently is critical for survivability of RTC for pedestrians as well as cyclists).

He says:

"What we need to do is transplant the best I have seen into some of the areas where I have also seen the worst."

I think he means the best bits of London, but the best London has to offer is waaay behind the state of the art.

Sad that he has translated what he is confident in doing onto other people, just like Boris did with his "if you keep your wits about you " comments on Aldgate giratory.

We need infrastructure you'd be happy sending your mum or your 8 yr old down.

The lycra thing is a non-issue. i wear lycra to commute because it is comfortable, and convenient. If it rains i dont mind, if i have a flat and get dirty hands, i don't mind, if my chain comes off and i get greasy hands, i don't mind. It means that my work clothes arrive clean, dry and looking presentable. I arrive looking however i look, until i shower and get clean fresh clothes on. It doesn't matter what bike (hybrid or roadie) I'm on, i dress for that reason. If i wore a suit to cycle it would be f**ked within a few weeks.

The most telling thing for me is that ''When we came out of Kings Cross, we got on to some quite good segregated routes, some quiet routes I didn't even know existed" That would be the area he cycles routinely and regularly but isn't aware of the infrastructure.

I want to see less people wearing highly inappropriate trainers with their suits on their way to work, what can be done about that? Style wise it's a disaster, I can't see how the rest of the world can begin to take us seriously when they see how incompetently dressed we are as a nation.

My suggestion that the pollution argument is a red herring is not because I don't believe there is a problem but because it's not an excuse.

You can save your time copy pasting stuff from the net. Off course any solutions would need to be balanced against secondary effects.

I will however leave those to the experts whom will hopefully avoiding using google facts to develop them.

Now it's about getting commercial vehicle operators to take responsibility for killing and seriously injuring people which they will today, tommorow and the day after.

There's a reason people wear Lycra, It helps you move more fluidly on the bike, Suits are normally tight fitting and restrict movement and can get ripped easily while riding.
If you don't have mudguards like my bike, You can get spray all over your back like you've just shit sprayed everywhere.
Who wants to get to work with massive sweaty arse and pits in a suit.

Think it through Son.

Mr. Goodwill says: “I didn't feel in danger at any time,” he reflected afterwards. “I do cycle in London but I think if I was a London cycling virgin I would have been a little bit nervous, possibly.”

Doesn't that say it all? If cycling is too scary for those who aren't already having a go then there there is something badly wrong. Cycling is the sort of activity one should feel confident in letting children do. But no-one in their right mind would allow a child to cycle on most of London's road because it is perceived as too dangerous for adults let alone children. The war for safe cycling infrastructure will not be won until everyone feels safe getting on a bike.

As an aside I am not a London cycling virgin but, after forty years cycling in this city, I am still scared every time I have to fight it out with juggernauts, buses and the rest on my bike. If ever I lose that fear, and cycling infrastructure has not improved, I expect that is the day I die.

I live on Royal College Street and have been using this street for commuting on my bike every day in both directions for some years (well over 12 years)

Its funny how the minister seems to highlight this street during his trip, because in my opinion its become more dangerous since the rebuild

The old layout involved a north/south dual-lane cycle path running up the northbound side of R.C.S. which is a 1-way street. This had a solid concrete dividing strip to physically seperate the motor traffic from cyclists; this actually won awards.

Yes, there were a number of RTC and near collisions between cyclists and motorists at the several right-angle junctions which intersected this setup:-

Motorists would be looking to their right for one-way traffic and would not see south-bound cyclists, or would park their vehicle beyond the hard 'stop' line with their bonnet in the northbound cycle lane, or just ignore any cycle traffic in either direction...

When it was announced the cycle lane was being rebuilt with north bound on left side, and south bound on right side, we had hope it would get sorted out properly. We had months of disruption with the closure of the cycle lane, alternative routes and very little evidence of any work being done on the closed cycle lane.

However, we soon saw strange rubber 'armadillo' , intermittent paint strips and 2 metre long metal plant pots being installed along the road.

The problem from actually using this new design is that the northbound lane does not offer cyclists any more protection from motorists driving across the right hand junction in R.C.S., and numerous instances of motorists parking vehicles in the cycle lane where the armadillos (oversized cat eyes) or gaps in paint / plant pots allow easy vehicle parking

its not uncommon to see a courier vehicle parked after the bus stop where the paint lines stops. In the past 2 weeks, I have seen two of the metal plant pots smashed and pushed into the cycle lane from vehicle collisions, presenting an obstruction and hazard to cyclists.

You can see the replacement plant pots because they don't have the reflective tape that had to be applied to the first installation of the pots when it was realised their black paint made them a hazard to cyclists using the northbound lane at night...

On the new southbound cycle lane its not uncommon to have people from cars and couriers with packages from delivery vehicles stepping out in the cycle lane without looking, straight into the path of oncoming cyclists!

I tried raising these issues with LB Camden and also Camden Cycling and LB Camden Cycling officials at cycling events and there is no interest in examining these new problems because the officials responsible for this new scheme are too busy patting each other on the back for the success of their 'Go Dutch" scheme for R.C.S. in Camden

These people need to wake up and realise this is not Holland but London; we have an aggressive motoring culture, a lack of Policing and a number of uneducated or arrogant cyclists which means the motorised community will do whatever they can get away with when the road layout presents that opportunity!

The new scheme in Royal College Street is not a good example of cycle-safe road design as the minister and LB Camden might have you believe, but merely an example of doing the redesign on the 'cheap' whilst still having serious safety implications for cyclists:(

Try using R.C.S. every day and report back!

6 killed in 2 weeks and they reckon it costs the economy £1.5 MILLION per death - how much mor for the seriously injured to boot? Yep that's 9 million quid never mind the incalculable human suffering of someone losing a parent, sibling, offspring. An average of 14-16 a year in London alone and that's already a much larger figure than that promised for cycling infrastructure for the UK at the moment.

I gather that the initial cost of the "superhighways" was of the order of £400m. For that money, how much education could you buy (TV, newspaper spots etc.)? We know that a substantial proportion of motorists think cyclists should be in the gutter/have no rights to be there/it's their fault if they get hit. Fix that mindset. We also know that some cyclists are nervous and don't follow the rules of being: visible, predictable, assertive and courteous.

Everybody (particularly those in multi-tonne metal vehicles) needs to be aware of how to behave and needs to play nice and share.

Apparently John Lewis spent £7m on their Christmas ad that's all over the media. Londoners spent £400m on some blue paint.

Neil -

You keep popping up in these threads defending commercial vehicle operators. Do you have a vested intrest?

Most of the vehicles involved in incidents with vulnerable road users are not delivering life saving goods for little old ladies.

There pay per load construction industry vehicles poorly maintained with stressed drivers. The benefits of their cut cost operation goes into the coffers of property developers and if it cost a bit more to do the job safely so be it.

There may well be economic implications for other operators as well but the costs in the entire chain are insignificant when compared to safety and quality of life for everyone else.

The pollution thing is also a red herring, you've either been reading too many trade papers or as suggested earlier have have no intrest in cycling and pedestrians and actually have stronger allegiances to an industry which is struggling to turn a buck at the moment and doesn't want more costs.

On the 'soft segregation' done on Royal College Street, I actually think this is a very good solution. They've taken out a full lane for cars, make the road two-way for cyclists, and it's done without spending loads of cash on kerbs etc.

Not quite perfect (a few squeeze points) but much better than 95%* of other cycling infrastructure.

*Yeah, I guesstimated that...

Would I let my 8yr old ride in the Netherlands alone to a friends? Probably. In the UK? Not a chance. Even on the few times I've ridden on quiet roads with him, I've been constantly on edge awaiting that next car. Says it all really.

Thanks for appearing so concerned, helpful and caring?
Now put your money where your mouth is!!!!!

I'm sick of seeing quotes about lycra like it's some sort of cycling requirement. If anything, it just highlights how little the speaker knows of the topic. It's a nice, tidy catch-all insult to reduce cyclists to being a group of TdF wannabes.

You also see it portrayed in sitcoms. Watch any programme where one of the characters takes up cycling. I guarantee, they will be made to look ridiculous in a lycra skinsuit and aero helmet while riding a hybrid.