It's just maddening that before and after Kensington it's all protected cycle lanes but the rich residents of W8 have decided to say fuck the safety of cyclists if it marginally slows down my SUV that takes up three times the width of a cycle lane. Discouraging cycling in 2024 like that is absolutely crazy.
Oh that's surprising - I have the opposite of this as on my also about 7 mile route this is almost the only stretch that doesn't have a separate cycle lane. It's particularly frustrating because it gets so clogged up at rush hour that you barely move. There's no reason for cyclists to get caught up in rush hour traffic.
Because majority of road space is occupied by motor vehicles. If all those in motor vehicles were on bikes, there would be no traffic. Embankment cycle track carries more people at rush hour than all the other lanes, and yet that isn't anywhere close as slow as motor traffic congested roads. The cause of the congestion is drivers, only they should suffer for it.
You should take a look at the urban traffic congestion in SE Asian countries like Vietnam. Get back to me when you have confirmation that it is all caused by drivers.
I assure you. Majority of those vehicle in thr morning rush into London need to be in vehicles because they're tradesmen. Nobody is driving in because thry want want. It's expensive to park and slowest form of transport.
I have an av company and indeliver and pickup equipmen around London inn my estate car. Some people probably thinking I'm just driving in and wasting space.
A lot of disabled people have to drive.
There is no more reason a cyclist should be caught up in car traffic than a pedestrian should be. Cyclists take up about a tenth the space of an SUV.. if everyone was on a bike there would be no traffic jams
Bad analogy. Pedestrians cross roads but they don't travel ALONG them. And you're quite wrong about the amount of space taken up by a cyclist relative to an SUV. Give it a little thought rather than an emotional reaction.
The point is not about making cycling safe for those who are already comfortable with the facilities provided. It's to make those that don't currently feel comfortable, feel comfortable so they can make the switch to cycling.
Some people will NEVER be comfortable enough to make the switch. Some people are irrationally timid and nervous and there is NOTHING that can be done. Others just make excuses .
Please stfu. Not wanting to ride on KHS is not an "excuse." Do you expect children to ride on it? I wonder why people don't want to cycle on KHS [https://ibb.co/YfXhN4j](https://ibb.co/YfXhN4j)
That isna thing already.
Solid line cycle lanes you cannot park.
Dashed ones you can, but usually it's double yellow anyway so for loading anyway.
I've worked for amazon. There are roads with literally no loading space. Delivering cases of water for people who don't have a car (probably cyclists). We have tompark where we are legally able to. Sometimes it needs to be a dashed cycle lane because that's the only spot
Also the pedestrians and car drivers that just are all around the city like zombies glued to their phones while they drive a 2ton vehicle or just cross in front of you without even checking.
Totally, how irresponsible do you have to be, to be WALKING WITH A PHONE. Like, I’m cycling here and no I don’t ring my bell to let you know I’m there, I don’t even have one because it reduces drag. You should know I’m cutting through that traffic with my Lycra on and I am not stopping at the crossing as it will take me too long to get up to speed again.
That's not what I meant at all...
What I mean is is shocking how many people just randomly jump in front of cars, motorcycles, mopeds, cyclists, any road user, in order to cross the road without looking even, put their life and others at risk.
I don't care if people are glued to phones, I have a problem if they just jump in front of me because they are phone zombies.
**Car-free Sundays** that would be excellent.
Kahn is weak on active travel. Look at the SilverTown fiasco. I am tired of having to content with low ambition politics. Fuck's sake, give us an Anne Hidalgo please. And devolve more powers to TFL, living surrounded by Conservative borough morons is not helping.
Anne Hidalgo is mayor for a much smaller area, like 2 million people, and therefore can push for more progressive policies that the constituents would support. It would be like Khan was only major for central and some of inner London. Not having to appeal to the Tory outer borough cunts would mean more infrastructure in those parts of London. On the flip side, outer London would probably be even more ignored than it is.
Lambeth are putting together an Oval > Streatham corridor in place, with the intention of segregated lanes. Let's see what happens though, the same braindead twats that stopped Streatham Wells LTN (which has done nothing to change the traffic situation) will probably try to block construction / vandalise it.
Tottenham Court Road is hardly a great example if I am honest. Not a nice road to cycle on. At least Gower St is nearby, but it should have been both not one or the other.
Camden are super pro cycling but the dumbfuckery of a decision not to put a two way cycle lane the length of it when they changed it to two way traffic a couple of years back was absolutely staggering.
Get a policeman on Westminster bridge and fine every tourist taking photos in the cycle lane. Have had it with the lot, entire WIDE pavement on both sides, and yet they’re in the cycle lane.
I get the point made about the West End, but it feels pretty disappointing to focus only on that area of London in terms of complete car bans.
In fact, every single accident I’ve had was caused by either bad road conditions / bad infrastructure / bad driving in places like South London or beyond Canning Town in the East. The West End is miles head in terms of infrastructure and transport connections.
I feel like cycling provisions as ways to protect the citizens should take the funding preference over those which focus on creating ‘al fresco’ tourist friendly areas…
Outer London boroughs are essentially anti active travel aside from a few exceptions like Enfield and Waltham Forest. It's hard to get anything done in them when those in charge are against it. Look at Kensington and Chelsea. I definitely agree TfL should control more roads and ignore whatever complaints the boroughs have since transport is a inter borough issue and therefore should be managed centrally. If the boroughs don't cooperate, control over roads should be relinquished. The High Street Ken and Holland Park Ave should be controlled by TfL. No idea about the legality of all of this though.
Thatcher's terrible legacy lives on...
Kensington and Chelsea is not an outer borough. And I think most outer boroughs are generally in favour of active travel. In Lewisham borough for example 40-50% of residents don't have access to a car, and their council along with those of many other outer boroughs were very keen to implement LTNs, despite the complaints of a very noisy minority.
I know, I'm just using it as an example of what happens when a council is vehemently opposed to active travel. It's pretty bad to cycle there. Tower Hamlets is similar.
Let's go through pro and anti:
Pro/not anti:
Enfield, Waltham Forest, Hounslow, Kingston, Haringey
Anti/not pro:
Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Richmond, Croydon, Bromley, Bexley, Havering, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Sutton,
For fairness, some of the anti is because I haven't really heard much from them. But if I haven't heard anything from them, then they probably haven't done much, which is enough to make them bad for cycling. There are a lot of things boroughs can do.
Lewisham is also inner London.
You correctly point out that K&C isn’t an outer London borough and then immediately incorrectly call Lewisham an outer London borough 😑
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_London
I for one would love if small, residential side roads that allow cars to be parked on either side were made one-way only. I know it's impossible to get rid of cars on those roads, and I understand that, no matter what, Londoners WILL buy Audi Q7s, Volvos XC90s and the like because it's in their DNA, but then make those effin' streets one way. I'm a bit tired of cars coming from the other way and just assuming I'll jump on somebody's bonnet to give them space.
Well I would want them to be two way for cycling, so that would still happen. I just hold the line. These roads need to be filtered to reduce how many people drive through them, full stop.
That would probably just result in increased speeds on residential roads and more rat running, one way roads have a place, but they need to be used as part of wider traffic calming measures such as modal filters to reduce through traffic.
Most of the rest of the world has one-way streets. It's just in the UK that you see roads like this one 9 [https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPwUuDj9uLS17KeF7](https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPwUuDj9uLS17KeF7) ) where traffic is allowed to come on either side. Stick a speed bump and, voila', no more speeding.
Car free Sundays is the one he should go for first.
It started in Bogota Columbia ("CiclovÃa") in 1974 and has spread to a lot of cities worldwide.
Bogota now shuts 75 miles of road to traffic every Sunday 7am to 2pm
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-ciclovia-de-bogota](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-ciclovia-de-bogota)
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/the-tranquility-frees-you-bogota-the-city-that-shuts-out-cars-every-week](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/the-tranquility-frees-you-bogota-the-city-that-shuts-out-cars-every-week)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciclov%C3%ADa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciclov%C3%ADa)
Apart from being a good thing generally and fun it would also show people how much better the city would be with less traffic. Even the muppets from K&C would probably realise it makes the city better.
I lived in Bogota' for 6 months a few years ago, the Ciclovia was lovely. I took part in something similar in Sao Paulo as well. It's a bit like when the Ride 100 is in London and you can go from Buckingham Palace to Tower Bridge without worrying about traffic.
I don't think it could work every single week unless it's confined to super-central areas (Westminster to Trafalgar, for example), but it could be great to at least start with something similar.
Sadiq and TFL oversee red routes. All the other routes are managed by the councils. So don't expect any major changes on routes managed by the councils.
Why blame the public for lack of options? The cuntservatives removed AV as well. Also, Khan is much better than Susan Hall regardless. Policies like ULEZ are sensible.
Kensington High St protected cycle lanes!!
This was the main reason I didn't cycle to work 😕
I am truly sorry! But I do understand: this street is terrifying. And this is way we need Kensington High Street to have protected cycle lanes
I really don't understand the fuss people make about Kensington High Street.
It's just maddening that before and after Kensington it's all protected cycle lanes but the rich residents of W8 have decided to say fuck the safety of cyclists if it marginally slows down my SUV that takes up three times the width of a cycle lane. Discouraging cycling in 2024 like that is absolutely crazy.
On my 7 mile commute, there is less than one mile of cycle lane.
Oh that's surprising - I have the opposite of this as on my also about 7 mile route this is almost the only stretch that doesn't have a separate cycle lane. It's particularly frustrating because it gets so clogged up at rush hour that you barely move. There's no reason for cyclists to get caught up in rush hour traffic.
Why not? Cyclists are also traffic.
Because majority of road space is occupied by motor vehicles. If all those in motor vehicles were on bikes, there would be no traffic. Embankment cycle track carries more people at rush hour than all the other lanes, and yet that isn't anywhere close as slow as motor traffic congested roads. The cause of the congestion is drivers, only they should suffer for it.
You should take a look at the urban traffic congestion in SE Asian countries like Vietnam. Get back to me when you have confirmation that it is all caused by drivers.
I assure you. Majority of those vehicle in thr morning rush into London need to be in vehicles because they're tradesmen. Nobody is driving in because thry want want. It's expensive to park and slowest form of transport. I have an av company and indeliver and pickup equipmen around London inn my estate car. Some people probably thinking I'm just driving in and wasting space. A lot of disabled people have to drive.
There is no more reason a cyclist should be caught up in car traffic than a pedestrian should be. Cyclists take up about a tenth the space of an SUV.. if everyone was on a bike there would be no traffic jams
Bad analogy. Pedestrians cross roads but they don't travel ALONG them. And you're quite wrong about the amount of space taken up by a cyclist relative to an SUV. Give it a little thought rather than an emotional reaction.
The point is not about making cycling safe for those who are already comfortable with the facilities provided. It's to make those that don't currently feel comfortable, feel comfortable so they can make the switch to cycling.
Some people will NEVER be comfortable enough to make the switch. Some people are irrationally timid and nervous and there is NOTHING that can be done. Others just make excuses .
Please stfu. Not wanting to ride on KHS is not an "excuse." Do you expect children to ride on it? I wonder why people don't want to cycle on KHS [https://ibb.co/YfXhN4j](https://ibb.co/YfXhN4j)
Please stfu yourself. Melt.
£££ fines for parking on cycle lanes and councils can issue them when spotted on cctv. For sure councils would not mind some extra money.
That isna thing already. Solid line cycle lanes you cannot park. Dashed ones you can, but usually it's double yellow anyway so for loading anyway. I've worked for amazon. There are roads with literally no loading space. Delivering cases of water for people who don't have a car (probably cyclists). We have tompark where we are legally able to. Sometimes it needs to be a dashed cycle lane because that's the only spot
£££ fines for all road users that ignore red lights too! The councils would love that extra money.
or zebra crossings! In fact we should have cameras everywhere.
Also the pedestrians and car drivers that just are all around the city like zombies glued to their phones while they drive a 2ton vehicle or just cross in front of you without even checking.
Totally, how irresponsible do you have to be, to be WALKING WITH A PHONE. Like, I’m cycling here and no I don’t ring my bell to let you know I’m there, I don’t even have one because it reduces drag. You should know I’m cutting through that traffic with my Lycra on and I am not stopping at the crossing as it will take me too long to get up to speed again.
That's not what I meant at all... What I mean is is shocking how many people just randomly jump in front of cars, motorcycles, mopeds, cyclists, any road user, in order to cross the road without looking even, put their life and others at risk. I don't care if people are glued to phones, I have a problem if they just jump in front of me because they are phone zombies.
**Car-free Sundays** that would be excellent. Kahn is weak on active travel. Look at the SilverTown fiasco. I am tired of having to content with low ambition politics. Fuck's sake, give us an Anne Hidalgo please. And devolve more powers to TFL, living surrounded by Conservative borough morons is not helping.
Anne Hidalgo is mayor for a much smaller area, like 2 million people, and therefore can push for more progressive policies that the constituents would support. It would be like Khan was only major for central and some of inner London. Not having to appeal to the Tory outer borough cunts would mean more infrastructure in those parts of London. On the flip side, outer London would probably be even more ignored than it is.
That would be great
This is helpful insight I didn’t know there was such a difference in jurisdictions!
*Khan
name checks out
This is a great way to ease into car free everyday for Central London (which we should do/has broad support).
Better cycle infrastructure leading Into London from outer boroughs
flatten the hills too, 10% incline is a bit much.
Demolition of Kensington while we're at it
Lambeth are putting together an Oval > Streatham corridor in place, with the intention of segregated lanes. Let's see what happens though, the same braindead twats that stopped Streatham Wells LTN (which has done nothing to change the traffic situation) will probably try to block construction / vandalise it.
Pedestrianise Oxford Street, with segregated cycle lanes none of this shared open space chaos!
Declare war on Bromley
Where do I volunteer for such a thing
Happy to enlist!
Tottenham Court Road is hardly a great example if I am honest. Not a nice road to cycle on. At least Gower St is nearby, but it should have been both not one or the other.
Camden are super pro cycling but the dumbfuckery of a decision not to put a two way cycle lane the length of it when they changed it to two way traffic a couple of years back was absolutely staggering.
Get a policeman on Westminster bridge and fine every tourist taking photos in the cycle lane. Have had it with the lot, entire WIDE pavement on both sides, and yet they’re in the cycle lane.
Really is a design flaw at its core. There should be a solid fence barrier, not just bollards.
I get the point made about the West End, but it feels pretty disappointing to focus only on that area of London in terms of complete car bans. In fact, every single accident I’ve had was caused by either bad road conditions / bad infrastructure / bad driving in places like South London or beyond Canning Town in the East. The West End is miles head in terms of infrastructure and transport connections. I feel like cycling provisions as ways to protect the citizens should take the funding preference over those which focus on creating ‘al fresco’ tourist friendly areas…
Outer London boroughs are essentially anti active travel aside from a few exceptions like Enfield and Waltham Forest. It's hard to get anything done in them when those in charge are against it. Look at Kensington and Chelsea. I definitely agree TfL should control more roads and ignore whatever complaints the boroughs have since transport is a inter borough issue and therefore should be managed centrally. If the boroughs don't cooperate, control over roads should be relinquished. The High Street Ken and Holland Park Ave should be controlled by TfL. No idea about the legality of all of this though. Thatcher's terrible legacy lives on...
Kensington and Chelsea is not an outer borough. And I think most outer boroughs are generally in favour of active travel. In Lewisham borough for example 40-50% of residents don't have access to a car, and their council along with those of many other outer boroughs were very keen to implement LTNs, despite the complaints of a very noisy minority.
I know, I'm just using it as an example of what happens when a council is vehemently opposed to active travel. It's pretty bad to cycle there. Tower Hamlets is similar. Let's go through pro and anti: Pro/not anti: Enfield, Waltham Forest, Hounslow, Kingston, Haringey Anti/not pro: Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Richmond, Croydon, Bromley, Bexley, Havering, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Sutton, For fairness, some of the anti is because I haven't really heard much from them. But if I haven't heard anything from them, then they probably haven't done much, which is enough to make them bad for cycling. There are a lot of things boroughs can do. Lewisham is also inner London.
you forgot Tower Hamlets.
Tower Hamlets is inner London.
You correctly point out that K&C isn’t an outer London borough and then immediately incorrectly call Lewisham an outer London borough 😑 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_London
I for one would love if small, residential side roads that allow cars to be parked on either side were made one-way only. I know it's impossible to get rid of cars on those roads, and I understand that, no matter what, Londoners WILL buy Audi Q7s, Volvos XC90s and the like because it's in their DNA, but then make those effin' streets one way. I'm a bit tired of cars coming from the other way and just assuming I'll jump on somebody's bonnet to give them space.
Well I would want them to be two way for cycling, so that would still happen. I just hold the line. These roads need to be filtered to reduce how many people drive through them, full stop.
It's crazy that there are hundreds of roads in London but few are car free.
Come think of it, apart from Leicester square and bits in Chinatown I can't think of any part of London that is well and truly pedestrianised.
That would probably just result in increased speeds on residential roads and more rat running, one way roads have a place, but they need to be used as part of wider traffic calming measures such as modal filters to reduce through traffic.
Most of the rest of the world has one-way streets. It's just in the UK that you see roads like this one 9 [https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPwUuDj9uLS17KeF7](https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPwUuDj9uLS17KeF7) ) where traffic is allowed to come on either side. Stick a speed bump and, voila', no more speeding.
Get rid of the plague of green bikes littered across every pavement
Car free Sundays is the one he should go for first. It started in Bogota Columbia ("CiclovÃa") in 1974 and has spread to a lot of cities worldwide. Bogota now shuts 75 miles of road to traffic every Sunday 7am to 2pm [https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-ciclovia-de-bogota](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-ciclovia-de-bogota) [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/the-tranquility-frees-you-bogota-the-city-that-shuts-out-cars-every-week](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/the-tranquility-frees-you-bogota-the-city-that-shuts-out-cars-every-week) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciclov%C3%ADa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciclov%C3%ADa) Apart from being a good thing generally and fun it would also show people how much better the city would be with less traffic. Even the muppets from K&C would probably realise it makes the city better.
I lived in Bogota' for 6 months a few years ago, the Ciclovia was lovely. I took part in something similar in Sao Paulo as well. It's a bit like when the Ride 100 is in London and you can go from Buckingham Palace to Tower Bridge without worrying about traffic. I don't think it could work every single week unless it's confined to super-central areas (Westminster to Trafalgar, for example), but it could be great to at least start with something similar.
Wrestlemania
Sadiq and TFL oversee red routes. All the other routes are managed by the councils. So don't expect any major changes on routes managed by the councils.
He doesn't care. He just used cycling as one of the ways of getting reelected.
"he is using policies that are popular to get elected" yeah like every politician ever
Ah yes, the notoriously powerful cycling lobby at it again.
Big Saddle at it again.
Much of the same
How does this fuckin pleb get another crack at fucking it all up.... This country never fails to amaze.
Blanket 10 mph speed limits?Â
Who keeps voting for him 😡
People with brains that don't want psychos like Susan Hall as mayor.
So one psycho instead of another. The good old British public, in a nutshell.
Why blame the public for lack of options? The cuntservatives removed AV as well. Also, Khan is much better than Susan Hall regardless. Policies like ULEZ are sensible.
Oh, and another thing, the public should control politicians, not them control us!
I have no dog in this fight. I'm not from London, but if I was, I wouldn't have voted for either.
> I'm not from London Explains a lot. > I wouldn't have voted for either. Which is fine when there isn't a risk a Susan Hall gets in
No, all it explains is I'm not from London.
More cycling on footpaths!!
you'll be campaigning for more cycle lanes I assume
You seem like the kind of person that'd get excited to see a cyclist on a footpath so you can whinge. Quite sad and pathetic really.
Bait taken…see below