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Broad Walk (via StreetView).jpgRoyal Parks reveals plans to put speed bumps on cycle route in Hyde Park
In a bid to reduce cycling speeds to 10mph, Royal Parks has revealed plans to build speed bumps on Broad Walk in Hyde Park. Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine has been among those to criticise similar measures employed in Kensington Gardens, describing the cobblestones used as being “so big it’s ridiculous.”
The London Evening Standard reports that the plan is to fit 28 rows of raised granite setts – or "rumble strips" – between Speakers Corner and Hyde Park Corner. New signage will also be put up, reminding cyclists of the presence of pedestrians.
Simon Richards, who leads The Royal Parks’ Cycling Board, said: “Everyone has to recognise that when they come into a park they’re entering a very different environment; for everyone’s sake we want to encourage cyclists to adjust their behaviour when moving from busy roads to peaceful paths, and similarly pedestrians need to be aware there are a whole variety of other users they have to watch out for.
“Our parks welcome a range of visitors, all of whom come to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. While we welcome cyclists and offer 68 miles of cycle routes, pathways and horse tracks, it is important we do all we can to ensure everyone can enjoy our parks in safety.”
The Royal Parks wants cyclists to ride at a “considerate cycling speed” of 8-12mph – although this is not legally enforceable.
Royal Parks statistics showed 1,200 cyclists used cycle paths through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park during rush hour. 6.6 per cent were clocked riding at over 20mph, 29.5 per cent at 16-20mph, 43.1 per cent at 12-16mph, 13 per cent at 10-12mph and 7.7 per cent at 10mph or below.
One cyclist was clocked riding at 32mph.
There were no reported collisions between cyclists and pedestrians but two “near misses” a week were spotted.
A Royal Parks spokesman said: “If we have cyclists racing up and down a pathway at speed with pedestrians trying to cross that really doesn’t make for a pleasant visit, especially when we also have cases of pedestrians being shouted at for walking on pathways in the way of cyclists.”
Cobblestones were introduced last year on Mount Walk in Kensington Gardens and cyclists are reported to be either going round them onto the grass or speeding up to minimise the discomfort when going over them.
Royal Parks is such an odd organisation. Even if some of the old guard hate bikes, is defacing the park like this really better? pic.twitter.com/SL8FPyMDCW
— Andrew Gilligan (@mragilligan) March 10, 2017
Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine – who was stopped for speeding in Hyde Park in 2014 (and was subsequently told that “there is no legal speed limit for cyclists in Hyde Park”) – said that he was a daily user of the Kensington path on his way to the BBC.
On Twitter, he said of the speed humps: "They are so big it's ridiculous." He added that a policeman had told him that they hadn't worked and were being removed.
London Cycling Campaign (LCC) said that the measure could hit the users most in need of cycling through the park hardest and would fail to address the real dangers.
“The Royal Parks have installed cycle speed bumps with cobbles in elsewhere in the parks and these have been a disaster. They are steep, uneven and hazardous to ride over. They are widely avoided by road bike riders with skinny tyres – with visible worn grass patches on either side of wherever they are installed.
“Worse, however, for those unable to avoid them – on adapted cycles, in wheelchairs etc – they represent a real barrier. The Royal Parks say these ones are a softer, gentler design - but we haven't seen their new design. And the previous designs don't give us confidence that the Parks fully understand the issues.”
LCC adds that Royal Parks has failed to take action regarding the dangers presented by motor vehicles in several parks.
“The Regent's Park has more collisions than the surrounding areas, vehicles doing high speeds and there is a scheme on the table to close key gates to get rid of through traffic – if The Royal Parks is intent on reducing danger in its park, removing through motor vehicle traffic from them should be a far higher priority than this excessive response to the issue of cycling speeds.”
A little reminder of why people cycle along the eastern edge of Hyde Park. pic.twitter.com/YvCitum4W1
— Bikebot (@bicyclebot) March 8, 2017
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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32 comments
https://www.strava.com/segments/7618313
KOM 55.5kph to a Mr. Ash Mealor, please send him nice messages if you feel it appropriate.
The current culture has been created due to the existing conditions.
Stick people in a climate where they have to battle for their lives, no wonder some respond with aggression.
Others are just cocks though.
The British just can't get their cycle commuting right, can they?
The Danes and the Dutch have sensible commuting bikes, with sensible people riding them, and who ride at sensible speeds. London is full of young men on their silly single-speed devices whizzing around and a causing hazard for pedestrians in a number of well-used locations, and not just Hyde Park.
Time for a culture change ...
not while people have to cycle on roads for most of their journeys. Cycling slowly on the roads is the least safe way, the current infrastructure trains those cyclists able to survice it to push hard all the time. No surprise it is not so easy to switch that off on shared use paths.
What's the culture change you're referring to?
As wycombewheeler says, the 'survival of the fittest/most aggressive/most assertive' mentality won't change among a significant section of the cycling public *until* the culture changes.
I think you're probably only too aware of the differences between London and Denmark and the Netherlands. Cyclists in London get to contend with mental junctions and left-hooking, unroadworthy HGVs. Cyclists in Denmark and the Netherlands get proper infrastructure and strict liability.
If proper infrastructure were to drop out of the sky tomorrow you would still get young male cyclists riding around like a bunch of crazies . The 'young male cyclist on a single-speed' is a British cultural phenomenon. Young men who get about on bikes on the Continent are just not as stupid as a good many of their British equivalents.
My neighbourhood is plagued by boy-racers tear-arsing around the streets in their souped-up cars creating danger for other road users. This not disimilar cultural phenomenon has nothing to do with 'infrastructure'.
Come on: that isn't unique to Britain. Even in Europe you get lads doing that on Vespas in the Med countries and Britain certainly isn't the source, nor has the monopoly on, hot-rodding cars. If you're after a culture where men don't want to take risks and can control their testosterone, and that no longer translates to being too fast and too aggressive in/on whatever contraption, your solution is widespread chemical castration.
But in cars, there are controls, as imperfect as they are. Razzing around is seen as antisocial and can land you in bother with the law and your insurance.
The thing with cycling is, in my view, it's not always completely unacceptable to ride like a twat in cities, because there is the defence that you have to be aggressive to avoid being squashed by something more aggressive, or more stupid, and certainly bigger and more dangerous.
Fix *that* culture, and you remove the defence, the excuses, for antisocial riding, and you can tackle that more consistently (assuming we have any cops left by then).
.
I riden that route for 10 years, one accident and that was caused by the Royal Parks, not cyclists or even myself.
If anyone has a big printer their signs abut this farce are left out 24 hours if someone wanted to replace their posters alongside the path?
I dont really get some people/cyclists
I live near Kingston. Richmond Park trail around the edge (not the road), all the river banks in the area are inundated with with some really rubbish people. It makes me sad.
Why do people feel the need to cycle in Parks on trails full of padestrians, family's, kids dogs etc at break-neck speed? I hate it.
I think this is what is really giving us cyclists a bad name. When I am walking down the river bank to Kingston with kids (toddlers) with a dog I dont expect to me almost mown down every few minutes by people 'out training'. If you want to ride fast get out on the bloody road! If you want to ride off-road fast get on a train out to the hills and go for it
Eventually cyclists will be banned from these parks.
I don't think most of these chumps are what you'd refer to as 'real cyclists' they just happen to be people riding bikes without consideration for others.
I've heard about clubs which meet up in the park to train but they're bright enough to have their training sessions at 5-6 on a weekend morning!
Using their own statistics and applying accepted wisdom for setting speed limits (http://www.lsp.org/pdf/troopc85thSpeed.pdf) will lead to a limit well above 10mph. From those numbers I'd guesstimate around 18mph - coincidentally the same speed the Dept of Transport suggests as the maximum a cyclist should use a shared-use path at (http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/archive/2004/ltnwc/annexdcodeofconductnoticefor1688)
To be fair, some people do cycle a bit recklessly on the path that runs alongside Park Lane. But a nice notice asking for people to be considerate would be a better first step than sticking in obstacles.
Trouble is, the minority who are inconsiderate don't give a toss about anyone else and aren't going to pay any attention.
They should spend the money on PCs to hand out ASBOs to anyone acting irresponsibly. I don't see that the speed itself is the problem, it's fast speeds too close to pedestrians that causes the issues. There's nothing wrong with going 20mph on a track with good visibility as you can scrub off the speed within a second or two if you need to.
Imagine if the same logic was applied to speeding motorists...
To be fair, it is. The number of massive, bumper scraping speedbumps around the residential streets of London is horrific. Skip lorries take the one outside my place at full tilt. The noise at 6:30am is astounding.
Can we have signs put up that remind pedestrians of the presence of cyclists?
The number who step out in to cycle lanes around me without looking or walk in them while having headphones on our looking at their Black Mirror is astonishing.
Can we have signs put up that remind Cylists of the presence of Tipper Lorries?
ALWAYS use this rule in order not to make yourself sound like a proper tit willow.
'Give the right of way to the most vulnerable'
" 13 per cent at 10-12mph"
So basically they want to completely p*ss off 87% of cyclists and actually make their paths more dangerous because realistically they are a complete bunch of cyclist haters and they don't care what cyclists want or whether there are actually any accidents.
And this isn't about pedestrians because if they gave a **** about pedestrians then they would get rid of the big high speed road that goes through the middle of the park.
They have also mooted the idea of putting down gravel paths, putting down gravel where cyclists are going to cycle is as stupid as suggesting that oxford street should be gravel. They say there are about 2 near-misses per week, well if they put down gravel then some of those near misses will be accidents instead.
Parks a great places to teach kids to ride bikes. Now think what it is like to be a young kid, on small diameter wheels, riding over those speedbumps.
It is totally irresponsible, as it is these vulnerable cyclists who will suffer most.
Surely introducing fines would work better than things that potentially make it harder for wheelchair users to use the park? Also maybe those speed signs that show you how fast you're going? I bet most don't know what sorted they're traveling at
You'd have to be a weapons grade dickhead to be riding through a park at those speeds.
Unfortunately there is currently no legislation against dickhead riding like dickheads.
Phrase of the week, Sir.
Reading the description in the article I couldn't believe how much worse it looked in the picture. I really don't understand what kind of salad came up with this idea - literally no forethought whatsoever on the impact to cyclists, let alone poor wheelchair users. Bonkers.
Even if there were no one about?
Even if there was a huge wide path like the one pictured at the top of this article?
Even if you reduced your speed when near other users?
LOL at London. What a sh*t place to live and ride.
Having lived and ridden here for several years, I'd say just the opposite, at least in inner London.
It's mostly great, usually the best way to travel, and to learn the city and get a good sense of the vast wealth of history and architecture. And much preferable to places where traffic moves faster , there's less provision for cycling, and where no-one's expecting to see a cyclist on the roads.
You're probably right...all that lovely poluted air, overpriced everything, uninteresting roads, traffic lights every 200 meters, those eipc rides round Regents Park and striking out to the lung bursting heights of Col d'Box Hill with its leg breaking mile and a half at 5%. Yip mate you're living the dream.
Approximately 10m people seem to disagree with you enough to actually live here. All these separate cycle highways as well - how awful for cyclists!
I really do envy all those 10million people crammed into such a pollution filled hole, I hate having to live just 20 minutes ride from the nearest Beach and within an hour I'm at the top of HayTor breathing in some of the countries cleanest air with not a soul or car to see for miles...my lifestyle choice sucks.
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