Video: Head-on collision between two cyclists on CS3

I used to commute from Islington to East India Dock

CS3 opened just after I started cycling to work - so I tried it thinking it was going to be a revalation and make my commute so much easier. As others have noted CS3 is a pile of fetid arse. 

As flathunt suggested, it's better to avoid it completely and just go down Commercial Road with its big fat 3m wide bus lanes and few buses (where, incidentally, there would be plenty of room to put a segragated bike lane on both sides). 

Bikebot - as I understand it, the owners of East Inda Dock office complex wouldn't allow the CS to be properly routed through there as it's private land so you end up with that mess between Naval Row and the A13 at the flyover.

As a supposed flagship project, CS3 is an utter embarassment.

I rode CS3 once, at 9am on a Sunday morning and decided that the CS stood for Committing Suicide.

I ride this part of CS3 most days (I ride from Romford going through Barking and joining CS3 at Canning town) there is a section or two that need to be addressed particularly the part through the park but otherwise think it’s OK. I would use Commercial Road (A13)  but the bit leading up to the Backwall Tunnel can be a bit hair raising and the bit leading up to the Rotherhithe Tunnel is always clogged by traffic.

"oops sorry"

so darned british

Most cycle paths and not just those in the UK, are mostly useless;

a) too narrow for 2 way cycling

b) too much crap on them = punctures

c) they often drop you cold when it gets difficult (roundabouts, etc.)

I'd rather take my chances on the road thanks.

The uploader was NOT going down the CS3 - let that be be clear - he was entering it via another feeder cycle lane.

thats nearly happened to me a couple times (me being the victim) coming the other way so I always double check that bit.

fair play to the uploader for admitting responsibility etc

Found it...   the quality of CS3 was definitely quite varied.

That is a confusing piece of infrastructure indeed. It's weird how the blue paint goes down the middle of the side turning too. I always have more respect for people who are quick to apologise if they were in the wrong.

an old one (but a good one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjI-FXDemDg

clever clog bombing down on the wrong cycle lane. Can't blame the infrastructure or the bus there.

I commute on CS3 most days  in both directions and see many cyclists going too fast on what is a narrow, shared dual lane cycle path with a busy one-way road next to it. 

You regularly see people going through the red traffic light at the junction with Cannon Street; just before Christmas I saw one guy riding west, have a nasty side on collision with a coach turning right into Cannon Street after he ignored the red light on the cycle lane.

I've seen a number of collisions involving cyclists overtaking when not appropriate and going head on into other cyclists. 

we really don't do ourselves (cyclists) any favours with our behaviour towards each other by cycling sensibly, or as below, towards pedestrians trying to use the pavement

I forgot about the bit on Horseferry Road where they changed the direction of the one way road, put in a blue lane, covered it in loose blue gravel and routed it around a very narrow, off-camber 90 degree corner via the gift of a large kerbed island (subsequently removed within 2 months). I suspect the local councillor is an Aussie.

I live on the other side of London, but I rode the length of CS3 once last year.  My impressions.

• Very narrow
• No consistancy with  side roads.
• After Cable St, it sort of gives up through Docklands and turns into "just blue paint"
• Some very confusing contraflow bit (can't quite remember where).
• Getting from Naval Row to the A13....  did the designers even turn up?
• There was a large pig blocking the way.

One of those has since been resolved.

CS3 is a dog, it was part of my daily commute, very narrow, quite fast, crosses lots of junctions, each with variable priority and the traffic lights very often skip the cycle phase. Getting on to it at the Tower Hill end is a lottery, you'll often have to carry on along Royal Mint Street with an angry van revving along behind you because the stream of traffic coming the other way means you can't cross.

To anyone still putting up with it, take a detour along Commercial Road, the bus lane there is a mile wide along it's entire length, it's like a country ride, albeit in dismal urban squalor.

I can't work out what goes through the idea of road planners. Would anyone suggest that road layout for cars?  There are five lanes going in two separate directions interleaved into the same space, with a turn across them for three out of the  five lanes!

It's a very unclear bit of infrastructure (http://is.gd/nCdZCT), although it's probably reasonable to anticipate the oncoming cyclist to continue on that (Cycle Superhighway) route and to prepare to give way accordingly. 

Fair play to him for 'fessing up publicly. The route marking needs improved though.