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Car on Cycle Superhighway (source Alec James on Twitter).JPGCyclist tailgated by car - on London Cycle Superhighway
A London cyclist has tweeted a picture of a car that tailgated him on the North-South Cycle Superhighway in Southwark, despite the route, which is physically separated from the main carriageway, being clearly marked as only for bicycles.
Alec James, who recently left Sustrans to join the press office of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, posted the picture to Twitter yesterday evening. It was taken across the road from the Blackfriars Road headquarters of Transport for London (TfL).
Tailgated by more clowns driving in the segregated superhighway this evening. Where do these people come from?? pic.twitter.com/acNXkWcL3l
— Alec James (@AEWJ) January 17, 2016
Asked by cycling author Carlton Reid, executive editor of BikeBiz, whether he believed it was on purpose or a mistake, he said the person was “certainly driving like they knew it,” adding that you “can do pretty much what you like on the roads on Sunday evening.”
When the separated bike lane on Vauxhall Bridge opened late last year, attention from media outlets such as LBC was on cyclists who choose to ride (quite legally) on the main carriageway instead.
But there has been little about the danger posed to bike riders by motorists taking illegally to the Cycle Superhighways.
In Cambridge, metal bollards were put in place to stop drivers getting onto the cycle track running alongside the city’s guided busway – although as we reported last month, the council is now removing those on safety grounds after a cyclist crashed into one.
http://road.cc/content/news/173574-cambridge-separated-cycleway-be-fully...
We have asked TfL for a comment.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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25 comments
Design standards are a double edged sword on the one side they provide a template and level of standardisation but they also hamper designers to be clever when they come up against problems which the standards doesn't cover. There are standards for road sign layout, road markings, etc are set down pretty clearly in the TSRGD but the guidence on how you use them is left vague in many places to allow the designer to take into account user behaviour, the non-standard layout of Britain's cities and roads, experimenting with new technology and highway furniture, etc. It's always a challenge to design something idiot proof especially if that idiot is the Great British motorist.
Bristol has a load of armadillo bollards kicking around which the city no longer needs. I'm sure London might like them...
never mind that...what about good old bog standard driving on the pavement?
Concerned about those pesky parking attendants? No worries...just cover your number plates up with gaffa tape! Problem solved!!
Oh but hang on....what about the parking enforcement team?
Have no fear - they're more concerned with possibly being done for 'damaging a vehicle' from taking that tape off than they are with keeping pavements safe for partially sighted people or children and soforth. They won't come near it.
But what about the police then?
The police...? hmmm, "well, you need to have video evidence of the vehicle actually being driven onto the pavement".
But the car is parked on the footway you know...what children use to walk to school on, since cycling is too risky due to rat running vehicles, refuse lorries, skip trucks etc.
"Yes but there has to be evidence. The car owner could have pushed it"
But it's PARKED on the pavement...!!
Sorry sir that's a job for the council. Nothing to do with us.
DSCN0404.jpg
Could be reported to the Fuzz for not displaying a numberplate though (the pavement is part of the adopted highway). Parking attendants could remove the covering over the plate and drop it on the ground in front of the car claiming it had fallen off and they hadn't touched it and the owner couldn't prove otherwise. There is always more than one way to skin a cat or in this case an arsehole motorist.
Seems like a car driver is the only one who wants to use this stupid cycle lane at the bottom of Kingsdown, outside Bath. Bath highways engineers say it's met necessary approvals??
IMG_1228.jpg
this is actually at the bottom of Bathford Hill in Bath,there's a little more behind this accident,it was not that the driver tried using the bike lane, it was high speed and tan arrest involved, this could've been worse,
The cycle path is also a very stupid and dangerous poorly thought out idea of our local council,it was a waste of time and money,and is extremely dangerous for cyclist,we do not use it,it is currently coned off and hopefully some other arrangement will come from it,
There isnt actually a very good cycling network in Bath,BANES have these ideas and draw them up,and it is as if they were submitting drunken doodles.if they spoke to actual cyclists in Bath, then safe sensible ideas may appear
I think this is becoming more commonplace.
This was my ride home last night on the Newly improved Tavistock Place cycle lane
CZBbh4ZWsAED7fi.jpg
I saw a video last night of a similar problem on the east-west superhighway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCPIKOKN3Rc
I don't think it was a mistake, just though they could take a shortcut.
Maybe the new sughways need a divider at gaps where cars join.
This is an example of why we need decent national standards for design. If the cycle lane was always red tarmac it would help. At the mo its blue, red, green or normal tarmac color depending on the mood of the designer at the time.
Look closely at the picture... is that another car behind the tailgater? Notice the shadow?
Bloody cyclists, use the bike lane!
Good spot. I think I see 3 sets of wheels and two wing mirrors. So clearly a car behind the first car.
I've seen it happen on the new (and still incomplete) North-South superhighway near Blackfriars too, although the drivers there have been able to rejoin the main carriageway after a short distance. Hopefully anyone else doing that will likewise realise their mistake, try to put it right asap, and be more careful in future. I doubt that will apply to pizza delivery scooters though!
nothing new...its happening all the time across London on segregated and physically seperated lanes
This could so easily be solved by adding double yellow down the side of the bike lanes.
Double yellows are not needed, as it's marked with a solid white line indicating it's a mandatory cycle lane. The Highway Code says in rule 140:
Cycle Lanes: ... You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid line during its times of operation.
The only way this vehicle is parked legally is if there is a sign indicating that the cycle lane is not 24hr, and that the photo was taken outside of its hours of operation. Unlikely.
The difference is that, if it's marked with double yellows then a parking officer can issue a penalty as its a decriminalised offence (ie, can be prosecuted by someone other than a police officer). As there isn't it would need to be dealt with by police as a matter of obstruction, which isn't a de-crim'd offence.
This point is why people only really obey yellow lines (sometimes). The police will very rarely be called to and, if they are, deal with obstruction. Parking attendants are much more visible and issue PCN's a lot more regularly, so over the years motorists eyes are only tuned into yellow markings. The fact that many drivers haven't even picked up a highway code in the past 30 years is to blame also...!
So to play devil's advocate, this is a stretch of road a short distance away. It's typical of the London Cycle Network.
Cycle track is on the right, road is on the left. Cycle track is painted green, road is normal tarmac and has bike symbols painted on it as a route marking.
The new stetches of cycle superhighway are also normal tarmac with bike symbols painted on them. What could possibly go wrong!
Can anyone clarify for me what exactly the bike symbol painted on a normal road actually means? It can't mean that bikes are permitted because that's a given on everything except where metal signage indicates otherwise. It doesn't mean that it's a recognised cycle route (or does it?). I hope it doesn't mean "beware, cyclists use this road" - I'm at a loss.
Unless ... it's the road equivalent of fighter pilots marking their kills by drawing pictures of downed enemy aircraft onto their own planes.
My take on it is that it is showing the correct position of the bike in this road. Eg, that cyclists should take a central position in the road as it is too narrow for cars to overtake. It is showing motorists that is where cyclists should be
Agreed. A road that narrow it should be obvious to anyone with a brain it is to narrow to overtake. But I guess there ae some drivers who need telling.
Fergus, the cycle lane on the right is a contra-flow lane by the looks of it, for cyclists coming towards the camera car. The cycle markings on the road are to remind motorists that they have to share the road with cyclists going in the same direct as them because the path is for cyclists going in the opposite direction only. It's supposed to stop moronic motorists bellowing at cyclists for not using the cycle lane though I can see why people would find that confusing.
I've put a bold emphasis on the key word, because the exact answer is no, no one can tell you exactly what the bike symbol means. It has no exact meaning, there is no definition of its correct use, and having spoken to a few traffic engineers I've heard several different explanations for how they use it.
As mentioned in an earlier reply, it's symtomatic of a failure of design standards.
It's an ongoing problem.
"Like a gloooooove"
If the glove doesn't fit you must acquit.
People's stupidity with motor vehicles knows no bounds really, does it?
I hope the case in the article, the cyclist got the registration plate of the goon.
I've had it suggested to me by a relative that letting motor insurers see evidence of appalling driving might have an impact on the offenders' premiums, but I'm not sure what a good mechanism for this might be. The idea was that all the insurers talk to each other about risk factors, so you'd only have to tell one for them to get hit in the pocket. Not sure they'd be that interested really.