Cycling around the Elephant & Castle 1 of 2

by Graham Neale on 19 April, 2011

Transport for London have just spent lots of our money demolishing a roundabout, and installing traffic lights.
Some people like it, some prefer the old scheme. I live there – I wonder if the designers have ever visited it.
They have totally failed to accommodate cyclists in any meaningful way. The left turn into the Walworth Road from The Elephant and Castle:
Where cyclists are most vulnerable, at the junction. There is no cycle lane – the lane starts about 5 yards along The Walworth Road.

no lane

The cyclist is forced to contest road space with motorised traffic           –            despite there being acres of pavement for a cycle-path.
The CCTV posts means providing cycle provision will be very expensive – even by TfL’s standards – but it could save lives!

Most casualties are from lorries turning left and crushing cyclists – this junction fails to address this problem at all.

   4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. James says:

    Is the pavement supposed to be shared use prior to the start of the bike lane? I thought that was the plan and it would explain the lowered curb. Proper signage would help. Perhaps it will go up when the work is finished.

  2. Mike says:

    Unbelieveable!! Why has it been necessary to narrow the road so significantly here – I understand the idea of pedestrian safety but that has to weighed against the greater confusion of the traffic approaching that left turn onto the Walworth Road. That the cyclists are competing for space here with the motorized traffic also only adds to a growing sense of frustration with the poorly thought out designs of the road planners.

  3. jamesup says:

    Really very bizarre decision making here – I think almost everyone hates shared spaced, so why put one in with such clear conflicts when there is so much room for alternatives…

  4. elliot says:

    I wrote a blog post about this too, and recorded a little youtube clip: http://www.se17.eu/cycling/reducing-road-deaths-why-tfl-needs-to-think-about-cyclists/

    The cycle lane starts at the wrong place, and is too short. It’s ridiculous, but in line with their policy of “smoothing traffic flow” – ie, with no regard for cyclists.

Leave a Reply to jamesup

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>