Videos: Boris's legacy - Londoners takes to Cycle Superhighways in droves

Mungecrundle wrote:

Really great to see this happening in our capital and hopefully will lead to a more open minded approach to similar schemes in other towns and cities throughout the UK especially where public transport alternatives are not so good.

Just to throw 1 turd into the pool of happiness:

How many of these cyclists are using bikes instead of;

A. Their car

B. Public transport

Because if the answer is mostly B then all that has really happened (happy commuters getting some exercise aside) is that revenue has been lost from public transport and the number of car journeys is still the same.

In London it'll be largely B, since very few people drive to work in the central area. But with population growing at 100,000 a year, freeing up some space on trains, Tubes and buses is no bad thing. Happiness and health are also important.

I rode over last night for the first time since it opened - fabulous. Just fabulous.

I expect that the official opening date for E-W has been set to tomorrow morning (if that's correct) as it's after the end of Purdah for the mayoral election, but before the new mayor is announced, giving Boris one last (and, in this case, deserved) hurrah.

Mungecrundle wrote:

How many of these cyclists are using bikes instead of:

A. Their car

B. Public transport

Because if the answer is mostly B then all that has really happened (happy commuters getting some exercise aside) is that revenue has been lost from public transport and the number of car journeys is still the same.

Mostly B for sure, but in London in the morning peak, the vast majority of tube lines are running well over their maximum capacity, as are many bus routes; the more people who can use a different form of transport the better for the network as a whole.

The number of cyclists using CS7 from Kennington to Elephant a couple of years ago was equivalent to two fully loaded tube trains per hour on the northern line in the morning peak (which would be the alternative for the majority of those cyclists). There isn't any way of adding capacity to the northern line - well, Crossrail 2 might help, in 10+ years time and at a cost of £15bn+ - and there certainly isn't space for that many extra people on the existing service.

With the population of London growing rapidly, people cycling frees up public transport space for others who can't / don't want to cycle.

For London, the real problem is "how do we get the absolute maximum number of people from their A to their B", not "how do we get people onto public transport".

zanf wrote:

Can we just get something straight otherwise this will never get resolved: These segregated cycleways are not Johnsons legacy!

For the first 5 years while he was mayor, he would laugh in peoples faces that dare to suggest that we needed to 'Go Dutch' and build segregated cycle paths. He only paid lip service and signed up the Londoners On Bikes and LCC's campaign prior to his re-election.

It was only after 6 cyclists were killed within a fortnight, with public outcry, the renewed and increased pressure from cycling and pedestrian groups, he realised his legacy would be that of the mayor who killed cyclists, that he was was jumpstarted into action.

He has continually avoided doing anything about pollution or about the vast number of collisions that buses have with pedestrians and cyclists.

These cycle lanes are the legacy of those people who have campaigned long and hard for them.

You're right that those who fought for them should certainly get the credit - but they needed a political champion. Unlike many other aspects of his mayoralty, Boris delivered.

Many political legacies (good and bad) didn't start out as the ideas of the politician they're attached to - it's just how it goes. 

ibike wrote:

Absolutely brilliant!

I attended the Blackfriars protest ride in 2011 and never thought I'd see chnage happening so quickly.

Now we need to do this all over the UK!

Me too! And I cycled on the Blackfriars Bridge path from south to north just a couple of weeks ago before it was fully open. What a difference it makes!

congokid wrote:

ibike wrote:

Absolutely brilliant!

I attended the Blackfriars protest ride in 2011 and never thought I'd see chnage happening so quickly.

Now we need to do this all over the UK!

 

Me too! And I cycled on the Blackfriars Bridge path from south to north just a couple of weeks ago before it was fully open. What a difference it makes!

Yeah, amazing to think how far things have come. I don't normally travel that way, but I had business in town that meant I used the E-W portion along The Embankment. It's excellent, was being used by loads of people, but the numbers coming North over Blackfriars to get to work took my breath away. SO. MANY. CYCLISTS!

Duncann wrote:

I've changed my commuting route just to take advantage of these. They are rather good.

Me too! So much more pleasent than negoitiating Waterloo bridge daily. So happy this has opened.

unconstituted wrote:

Boring rubbish.

We booby trap ours in Edinburgh to make the ride more interesting. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAVD4EXb8_M

You can come down and do that in Croydon if you feel like it.

I don't need to travel into town much at the moment, and finding myself at a loose end for a few hours on the bank holiday morning, I went for a very touristy spin whilst London was near deserted.  Apart from the mad EW speed bumps, it really has turned out to be proper infrastructure.

They're important strategic routes, but it's still a small area.  In my area of outer London I sttruggle to name anything that's improved in the last ten years.

bikebot wrote:

They're important strategic routes, but it's still a small area.  In my area of outer London I sttruggle to name anything that's improved in the last ten years.

Yes but what happens in London tends to spread outwards. Eventually. Most areas of the UK are 10-15 years behind London in terms of cycle infrastructure.

I'm fron London originally and I remember my days of commuting up to Waterloo (way before hire bikes, cycle lanes etc) and it being a regular jousting match with buses and taxis, regular gridlocked traffic even back then.

Last time I was in London a few weeks ago I had a free weekday so I deliberately got up early, got the bus up to Oval (nearest hire bike docking station) and then rode the newly opened Oval - Vauxhall cycle route. It was amazing. Really wonderful experience. LOADS of people on bikes. All obeying the lights and traffic signs, all just regular people in regular clothes travelling around by bike. No "lycra louts" or other derogatory media terms.

Build proper infrastructure and people will ride bikes. They'll do it sensibly and they won't jump lights because you know what, there's no need to! They're not trying to escape from a truck blind spot or a taxi in the ASL, they've got their own little space. Long may it continue!

crazy-legs wrote:

Yes but what happens in London tends to spread outwards. Eventually. Most areas of the UK are 10-15 years behind London in terms of cycle infrastructure.

 

I'm fron London originally and I remember my days of commuting up to Waterloo (way before hire bikes, cycle lanes etc) and it being a regular jousting match with buses and taxis, regular gridlocked traffic even back then.

Yeah, just emphasising the point that we really haven't won yet, and some are talking as if we have. We've won battles in central London, but in outer London we're still regularly losing. As examples, I'd point to the Norbury Avenue and Loughborough Junction trials which both failed and were both hugely damaging. It's really difficult to argue for filtered roads now, councils are scared of the bikelash.

A lot of hope is being pinned on the minihollands, but so far I think only one might be a success. I'm next to Kingston, which has been woeful, and my instinct is still that the council will bottle it as soon as there's any significant opposition.

BTW, if I head to Waterloo, most of my route is still LCN3. Old infrastructure, though bits are getting upgraded now.

Jem PT wrote:

Wow, and I thought Hyde Park got busy at times.

(but doesn't the person filming go through a red light at a ped crossing on the top video?)

Erm... no. I just watched it 3 times because of this comment.

pakennedy wrote:

Jem PT wrote:

Wow, and I thought Hyde Park got busy at times.

(but doesn't the person filming go through a red light at a ped crossing on the top video?)

 

Erm... no. I just watched it 3 times because of this comment.

Yes, sorry, my mistake. At 28 secs the cyclists coming the other way stop (don't know why) but it is still green for our guy going the opposite way.

I had the pleasure of this route across Parlliament Square this morning.